Display apparatus

• US 8,246,170 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2008
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Kakuya, Kasazumi, Kenichi, Itoh, Tatsuo, Kurozuka, Akira, Sugiyama, Keiji
• Primary Examiner(s): Dowling, William C
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOWARD, RYAN D
• Application Number:
  US12/523,784
• Publication Number:
  US 20100097580A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,369 Days
• Field of Search: 345/7, 345/8, 345/9, 359/630, 359/631, 359/632, 359/633, 359/13, 359/14, 349/11, 349/13, 349/14, 434/373
• US Class Current: 353/28
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/011 comprising device for correcting geometrical aberrations, distortion
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/014 comprising information/image processing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0187 slaved to motion of at least a part of the body of the user, e.g. head, eye
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/10 Scanning systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/101 with both horizontal and vertical deflecting means, e.g. raster or XY scanners colour television using laser beams scanning a display screen H04N9/3129
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0172 characterised by optical features

Abstract

A display apparatus that displays an image on a retina of a user, the display apparatus comprising: an image output unit (100) which includes a light source (101, 110), a wavefront shape change unit (102, 109), and a scan unit (103, 108) and is configured to output display light for displaying the image; and a deflection unit (104, 107) configured to deflect, toward an eye of the user, the display light outputted by the image output unit (100). The deflection unit (104, 107) has a deflection characteristic of suppressing image distortion caused by a change in relative position of the deflection unit (104, 107) with respect to a pupil of the user.

Claims

1. A display apparatus that displays an image on a retina of a user, said display apparatus comprising:

an image output unit including a light source which emits a beam for drawing each of pixels constituting the image, and a scan unit configured to two-dimensionally scan the beam emitted from said light source; and

a deflection unit configured to deflect, toward an eye of the user, the beam emitted from said light source,

wherein said deflection unit has a deflection characteristic of deflecting the beam scanned by said scan unit such that the beam passes through different positions on the user'"'"'s pupil depending on an incidence angle at which the beam enters the user'"'"'s pupil to suppress image distortion caused by a change in relative position of said deflection unit with respect to a pupil of the user.

2. The display apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said deflection unit has a deflection characteristic of deflecting the beam such that:

a beam scanned on a left deflection area, which is on the left of a virtual line, passes through an area of the user'"'"'s pupil on the left of a pupil center; and

a beam scanned on a right deflection area, which is on the right of the virtual line, passes through an area of the user'"'"'s pupil on the right of the pupil center, the virtual line extending through the pupil center and being perpendicular to said deflection unit.

3. The display apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein said deflection unit has a deflection characteristic of deflecting the beam such that the beam scanned on the left deflection area and the beam scanned on the right deflection area are bilaterally asymmetric with respect to the virtual line in incidence angle at which the beam enters the user'"'"'s pupil and distance between the pupil center and an incidence position at which the beam enters the user'"'"'s pupil.

4. The display apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein said deflection unit includes a left-eye deflection unit configured to deflect, toward the user'"'"'s left eye, the beam scanned by said scan unit, and a right-eye deflection unit configured to deflect, toward the user'"'"'s right eye, the beam scanned by said scan unit,

said left-eye deflection unit has a deflection characteristic of deflecting the beam such that:

an incidence angle at which the beam scanned on the left deflection area enters the user'"'"'s pupil is smaller than an incidence angle at which the beam scanned on the right deflection area enters the user'"'"'s pupil; and

a distance between the pupil center and an incidence position at which the beam scanned on the left deflection area enters the user'"'"'s pupil is longer than a distance between the pupil center and an incidence position at which the beam scanned on the right deflection area enters the user'"'"'s pupil, and

said right-eye deflection unit has a deflection characteristic of deflecting the beam such that;

an incidence angle at which the beam scanned on the right deflection area enters the user'"'"'s pupil is smaller than an incidence angle at which the beam scanned on the left deflection area enters the user'"'"'s pupil; and

a distance between the pupil center and an incidence position at which the beam scanned on the right deflection area enters the user'"'"'s pupil is longer than a distance between the pupil center and an incidence position at which the beam scanned on the left deflection area enters the user'"'"'s pupil.

5. The display apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein said deflection unit has a deflection characteristic of deflecting the beam such that:

the beam scanned on an upper deflection area, which is above the virtual line, passes through an area of the user'"'"'s pupil above the pupil center; and

the beam scanned on a lower deflection area, which is below the virtual line, passes through an area of the user'"'"'s pupil below the pupil center.

6. The display apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein said deflection unit is a hologram which deflects the beam by diffraction.

7. The display apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said deflection unit includes a left-eye deflection unit configured to deflect, toward the user'"'"'s left eye, the beam scanned by said scan unit, and a right-eye deflection unit configured to deflect, toward the user'"'"'s right eye, the beam scanned by said scan unit, and

said left-eye and right-eye deflection units are provided in such a positional relationship that a pupil-to-pupil distance and a focus-to-focus distance are different from each other, the pupil-to-pupil distance being a distance between a pupil center of the user'"'"'s left eye and a pupil center of the user'"'"'s right eye, and the focus-to-focus distance being a distance between a beam focusing position on the user'"'"'s left eye and a beam focusing position on the user'"'"'s right eye.

8. The display apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising

a deflection unit position adjustment unit configured to move said left-eye and right-eye deflection units such that the pupil-to-pupil distance and the focus-to-focus distance are different from each other.

9. The display apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

a light detection unit configured to detect light reflected from the pupils of the user'"'"'s left and right eyes; and

a deflection unit position control unit configured to calculate the pupil-to-pupil distance based on the detection by said light detection unit, and to cause said deflection unit position adjustment unit to move said left-eye and right-eye deflection units such that the focus-to-focus distance is different from the pupil-to-pupil distance calculated.

10. The display apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising

a beam amount control unit configured to cause said light source to increase an amount of the beam deflected by one of said left-eye deflection unit and said right-eye deflection unit when said beam amount control unit determines based on the detection by said light detection unit that the beam deflected by the other one of said left-eye deflection unit and said right-eye deflection unit has not entered an eyeball of the user.

11. The display apparatus according to claim 10,

wherein said light detection unit is configured to detect the reflected light by separating the reflected light according to a predetermined wavelength.