Three dimensional display device and method of controlling parallax barrier

• US 8,817,369 B2
• Filed: 08/17/2010
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Display Company Limited (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Display Company Limited (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Daiku, Yasuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): PINKNEY, DAWAYNE
• Application Number:
  US12/858,380
• Publication Number:
  US 20110051239A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,470 Days
• Field of Search: 359/464, 359/237, 359245-246, 359248-254, 359/256, 359/279, 359/320, 359/618, 345 32- 33, 348 40- 42
• US Class Current: 359/464
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0093 with means for monitoring data relating to the user, e.g. head-tracking, eye-tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/27 involving lenticular arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/31 involving active parallax barriers involving directional light or back-light sources G02B30/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/315 the parallax barriers being time-variant
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/373 for tracking forward-backward translational head movements, i.e. longitudinal movements

Abstract

A three-dimensional display device includes a display unit that displays a left eye image and a right eye image by dividing the images thereof into a plurality of vertically elongated stripes of images and by alternately arranging the divided left eye image and the divided right eye image in a horizontal direction, a barrier formation unit that forms a parallax barrier in front of the display unit, the parallax barrier including a pattern of a plurality of slits to selectively transmit the left eye image and the right eye image towards spatially different points, respectively, that correspond to a left eye and a right eye of the viewer, and a distance measurement unit that measures a distance between the display unit and a viewer viewing the display unit, wherein the barrier formation unit changes the pattern of the slits in the parallax barrier in accordance with the distance measured by the distance measurement unit.

Claims

1. A display device comprising:

a display unit that displays a left eye image and a right eye image by dividing the images thereof into a plurality of vertically elongated stripes of images and by alternately arranging the divided left eye image and the divided right eye image in a horizontal direction;

a barrier formation unit that forms a parallax barrier in front of the display unit;

an imaging unit that captures a right image and a left image of the viewer as a subject in order to generate region information corresponding to face image data of the viewer, the region information indicating a face area of a user in the right image of the viewer and in the left image of the viewer that are respectively captured by at least a left lens and a right lens of a stereoscopic camera unit of the imaging unit;

a distance information acquisition unit that derives distance information according to the region information of the imaging unit, the region information indicating a distance between the display unit and a viewer viewing the display unit; and

a slit width control unit that controls a slit width of the parallax barrier formed by the barrier formation unit in accordance with said distance indicated by the distance information obtained by the distance information acquisition unit.

2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the slit width control unit changes the slit width of the parallax barrier formed by the barrier formation unit in accordance with the distance indicated by the distance information calculated by the distance information acquisition unit, and

wherein there exists a maximum slit width beyond which the slit width control unit does not increase the slit width of the parallax barrier, the maximum slit width corresponding to a predetermined distance.

3. The display device according to claim 2, wherein the slit width control unit decreases the slit width of the parallax barrier in accordance with the distance indicated by the distance information obtained by the distance information acquisition unit as compared with the maximum slit width when the distance indicated by the distance information obtained by the distance information acquisition unit is smaller than the predetermined distance.

4. The display device according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined distance is a design viewing distance from which an entire area of the left eye image is visible to a left eye of the viewer and an entire area of the right eye image is visible to a right eye of the viewer.

5. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the display unit is a dot matrix display unit comprising a plurality of display elements, and

wherein the display unit displays the left eye image and the right eye image by alternatively arranging the stripes of left eye image and the stripes of the right eye image using the display elements as a unit in the horizontal direction.

6. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the display unit includes adjacently disposed two display elements having a color component equal to each other, and

wherein one of the two display elements is assigned to the left eye image and the other of the two display elements is assigned to the right eye image.

7. The display device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a memory unit that stores a registered image of a preregistered user including at least a face area and correction information for the preregistered user;

an identification unit that determines whether or not the viewer is the preregistered user by performing a face recognition processing including a comparison between the face area of the viewer on the subject image taken by the imaging unit and the registered image of the preregistered user stored in the memory unit;

a readout unit that, when the identification unit determines that the view is the preregistered user, reads out from the memory unit the correction information for the viewer identified by the identification unit as the preregistered user; and

a correction unit that corrects the distance indicated by the distance information obtained by the distance information acquisition unit based on the correction information read out by the readout unit.

8. The display device according to claim 7, wherein the slit width control unit controls the slit width of the parallax barrier formed by the barrier formation unit in accordance with the distance that has been corrected by the correction unit.

9. The display device according to claim 7, further comprising:

a distance acquisition control unit that causes the distance information acquisition unit to obtain distance information indicating a distance between the display unit and the viewer at which the viewer indicates to the display device that it can view a test three-dimensional image displayed on the display unit with a designated parallax barrier in its best condition;

a correction information acquisition unit that obtains a difference between the distance indicated by the distance information obtained by the distance information acquisition unit under the control of the distance acquisition control unit and a predetermined design visible distance for the test pattern as correction information for the viewer; and

a memory control unit that stores the correction information calculated by the correction information calculation unit in the memory unit.

10. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the barrier formation unit forms the parallax barrier when a 3D display is selected and does not form the parallax barrier when a 2D display is selected.

11. A display device comprising:

a display unit displaying a left eye image and a right eye image by dividing the images thereof into a plurality of vertically elongated stripes of images and by alternately arranging the divided left eye image and the divided right eye image in a horizontal direction;

a barrier formation unit forming a parallax barrier in front of the display unit;

a memory unit that stores a registered image of a preregistered user including at least a face area and correction information for the preregistered user;

an imaging unit that captures a right image and a left image of a viewer as a subject in order to generate region information corresponding to face image data of the viewer, the region information indicating a face area of a user in the right image of the viewer and in the left image of the viewer that are respectively captured by at least a left lens and a right lens of a stereoscopic camera unit of the imaging unit;

an identification unit that identifies whether or not the viewer is the preregistered user by performing a face recognition processing including a comparison between the face area of the viewer on the subject image taken by the imaging unit and the registered image stored in the memory unit;

a readout unit that reads out from the memory unit the correction information for the viewer identified by the identification unit as the preregistered user; and

a slit width control unit that controls a slit width of the parallax barrier formed by the barrier formation unit in accordance with the correction information read out by the readout unit.

12. A display device comprising:

a display unit displaying a left eye image and a right eye image by dividing the images thereof into a plurality of vertically elongated stripes of images and by alternately arranging the divided left eye image and the divided right eye image in a horizontal direction;

a barrier formation unit forming a parallax barrier in front of the display unit;

an imaging unit that captures a right image and a left image of a viewer as a subject in order to generate region information corresponding to face image data of the viewer, the region information indicating a face area of a user in the right image of the viewer and in the left image of the viewer that are respectively captured by at least a left lens and a right lens of a stereoscopic camera unit of the imaging unit;

a distance information acquisition unit obtaining distance information according to the region information of the imaging unit, the region information indicating a distance between the display unit and a viewer viewing the display unit; and

a barrier pattern control unit controlling a barrier pattern of the parallax barrier formed by the barrier formation unit to be at a designated barrier pattern having the slit width corresponding to the distance indicated by the distance information obtained by the distance information acquisition unit.

13. A display device comprising:

a display unit displaying a left eye image and a right eye image by dividing the images thereof into a plurality of vertically elongated stripes of images and by alternately arranging the divided left eye image and the divided right eye image in a horizontal direction;

a barrier formation unit that forms a parallax barrier in front of the display unit;

a distance information acquisition unit that obtains distance information according to the region information of an imaging unit including a stereoscopic camera unit having at least a left lens and a right lens, the distance information indicating a distance between the display unit and a viewer viewing the display unit, the region information indicating a face area of a user in a right image of the viewer and in a left image of the viewer that are respectively captured by the left lens and the right lens of a stereoscopic camera unit; and

a barrier width control unit that controls a barrier width of the parallax barrier formed by the barrier formation unit to be at the barrier width for the distance indicated by the distance information obtained by the distance information acquisition unit.

14. A method for controlling a parallax barrier for a three dimensional display, comprising:

obtaining distance information indicating a distance between a display unit that displays a left eye image and a right eye image by dividing the images thereof into a plurality of vertically elongated stripes and by alternately arranging the divided left eye image and the divided right eye image in a horizontal direction, and a viewer viewing the display unit; and

controlling a slit width of a parallax barrier formed in front of the display unit according to the distance indicated by the distance information,

wherein the distance information is derived according to region information corresponding to face image data of the viewer, the region information indicating a face area of a user in a right image of the viewer and in a left image of the viewer that are respectively captured by at least a left lens and a right lens of a stereoscopic camera unit.

15. A three-dimensional display device comprising:

a display unit that displays a left eye image and a right eye image by dividing the images thereof into a plurality of vertically elongated stripes of images and by alternately arranging the divided left eye image and the divided right eye image in a horizontal direction;

a barrier formation unit that forms a parallax barrier in front of the display unit, the parallax barrier including a pattern of a plurality of slits to selectively transmit the left eye image and the right eye image towards spatially different points, respectively, that correspond to a left eye and a right eye of a viewer viewing the display unit;

an imaging unit that captures a right image and a left image of the viewer as a subject in order to generate region information corresponding to face image data of the viewer, the region information indicating a face area of a user in the right image of the viewer and in the left image of the viewer that are respectively captured by at least a left lens and a right lens of a stereoscopic camera unit of the imaging unit; and

a distance measurement unit that measures a distance between the display unit and the viewer according to the region information of the imaging unit,

wherein the barrier formation unit adjusts the pattern of the slits in the parallax barrier in accordance with the distance measured by the distance measurement unit.

16. The three-dimensional display device according to claim 15, wherein the distance measurement unit continuously monitors the distance between the display unit and a viewer viewing the display unit, and

wherein the barrier formation unit adjusts the pattern of the slits in the parallax barrier in accordance with the continuously monitored distance in substantially real time.

17. A three-dimensional display device comprising:

a display unit that displays a left eye image and a right eye image by dividing the images thereof into a plurality of vertically elongated stripes of images and by alternately arranging the divided left eye image and the divided right eye image in a horizontal direction;

a barrier formation unit that forms a parallax barrier in front of the display unit, the parallax barrier including a pattern of a plurality of slits to selectively transmit the left eye image and the right eye image towards spatially different points, respectively, that correspond to a left eye and a right eye of a viewer viewing the display unit;

an imaging unit that captures a right image and a left image of the viewer as a subject in order to generate region information corresponding to face image data of the viewer, the region information indicating a face area of a user in the right image of the viewer and in the left image of the viewer that are respectively captured by at least a left lens and a right lens of a stereoscopic camera unit of the imaging unit; and

a distance measurement unit that measures a distance between the display unit and the viewer according to the region information of the imaging unit,

wherein at least one of a distance between the barrier formation unit and the display unit and the pattern of the slits in the parallax barrier is adjusted in accordance with the distance to the viewer measured by the distance measurement unit.