Asymmetric viewing angles for a dual view display

• US 8,253,781 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2008
• Issued: 08/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InnoLux Corporation
• Original Assignee: Chi Mei Innolux Corporation (InnoLux Corporation)
• Inventors: Louwsma, Hendrik, Lin, Ching-Wei
• Primary Examiner(s): MIRZA, ADNAN M
• Application Number:
  US12/151,795
• Publication Number:
  US 20090091613A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,573 Days
• Field of Search: 348/51
• US Class Current: 348/51
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/27 involving lenticular arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/30 involving parallax barriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/31 using parallax barriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/312 the parallax barriers being placed behind the display panel, e.g. between backlight and spatial light modulator [SLM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/324 Colour aspects

Abstract

The present invention is related to an asymmetric aligned display having asymmetric viewing angles. The present invention provides a dual-view or 3D display capable of displaying two images of unrelated or related content along different directions with asymmetric viewing angles. The asymmetric viewing angles of the display device of the present invention can be realized by the introduction of multiple sub-pixel pitches into a single display. To be more specific, the present invention provides an asymmetric aligned display by realizing the asymmetry design in the sub-pixel itself. Consequently, the angular extends of the respective viewing windows or images displayed along different directions can be different or asymmetrical. The asymmetric aligned display of the present invention is, therefore, capable of displaying images along different directions with asymmetric viewing angles and windows without affecting the outer boundaries of the viewing windows.

Claims

1. A display device having asymmetric viewing angles, comprising:

a display panel including a plurality of sub-pixels arranged in a matrix form having a plurality of rows and columns;

wherein each of said plurality of sub-pixels is of a different sub-pixel pitch relative to its immediate adjacent sub-pixel to form multiple sub-pixel pitches on said display panel to realize asymmetric viewing angles of the display device; and

a barrier having interlaced transmissive and opaque regions disposed at one side of the display panel a distance away from the sub-pixels;

wherein the sub-pixels include a set of first sub-pixels of red, green and blue colors respectively having a first sub-pixel pitch, and a set of second sub-pixels of red, green and blue colors respectively having a second sub-pixel pitch different from the first sub-pixel pitch, the first sub-pixels of the first sub-pixel pitch being alternated with the second sub-pixels of the second sub-pixel pitch along each of the rows and each of the columns, and each pair of adjacent first and second sub-pixels in each of the rows are of different colors,

wherein the first sub-pixels are configured to display a first image along a first direction, and the second sub-pixels are configured to display a second image along a second direction different from the first direction, and

wherein the sum of the first sub-pixel pitch and the second sub-pixel pitch is equal to twice the distance between the midpoints of one first sub-pixel and one second sub-pixel adjacent thereto.

2. The display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the opaque regions is reflective towards a backlight side.

3. The display device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the asymmetric viewing angles of the display device include a first viewing angle corresponding to the first sub-pixels of the first sub-pixel pitch and a second viewing angle corresponding to the second sub-pixels of the second sub-pixel pitch, a first angular extent associated with said first viewing angle is different from a second angular extent associated with said second viewing angle.

4. The display device as claimed in claim 3, wherein said first viewing angle includes an outer viewing angle corresponding to the first sub-pixel pitch and said second viewing angle includes an outer viewing angle corresponding to the second sub-pixel pitch.

5. The display device as claimed in claim 4, wherein said outer viewing angle corresponding to the first sub-pixel pitch is substantially equivalent to said outer viewing angle corresponding to the second sub-pixel pitch in magnitude.

6. The display device as claimed in claim 3, wherein said first viewing angle includes an inner viewing angle corresponding to the first sub-pixel pitch and said second viewing angle includes an inner viewing angle corresponding to the second sub-pixel pitch.

7. The display device as claimed in claim 6, wherein said inner viewing angle corresponding to the first sub-pixel pitch is substantially equivalent to said inner viewing angle corresponding to the second sub-pixel pitch in both magnitude and in sign.

8. The display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a difference between the first angular extent of the first image along the first direction and the second angular extent of the second image along the second direction correlates with a difference between the first sub-pixel pitch and the second sub-pixel pitch.

9. The display device as claimed in claim 6, wherein a greater difference between the first and second sub-pixel pitches yields a greater difference between the first and second angular extents of the first and second images.

10. The display as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display panel includes a color filter layer, and said barrier is provided near a rear side of the display panel such that light travels through the transmissive regions of the barrier before reaching the color filter layer.

11. The display as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display panel includes a color filter layer, and said barrier is provided near a front side of the display panel such that light travels to the color filter layer before passing through the transmissive regions of the barrier.

12. The display as claimed in claim 1, wherein the barrier is a straight barrier.

13. The display as claimed in claim 1, wherein the barrier is a stepped barrier.

14. The display as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display panel comprises a liquid crystal layer.

15. The display as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display panel comprises an electroluminescent layer with organic compounds.