Curved edge display with controlled distortion

• US 10,223,952 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2016
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Powell, Karlton David, Zheng, Ying
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Jennifer T
• Application Number:
  US15/335,336
• Publication Number:
  US 20180114474A1
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• Field of Search: 345 13, 345169, 345690, 345 87
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13336 Combining plural substrates to produce large-area displays, e.g. tiled displays
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133526 Lenses, e.g. microlenses or Fresnel lenses
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/026 Video wall, i.e. juxtaposition of a plurality of screens to create a display screen of bigger dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0232 Special driving of display border areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0233 Improving the luminance or brightness uniformity across the screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/02 Flexible displays
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/02 by tracing or scanning a light beam on a screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3208 organic, e.g. using organic light-emitting diodes [OLED]

Abstract

An electronic display comprises a display matrix and an image-correcting layer. The display matrix includes a flat face portion, a curved corner portion, a light-releasing surface, and a series of pixels extending across the flat face portion and around the curved corner portion. Coupled to the light-releasing surface of the display matrix, the image-correcting layer is configured to transmit light released from the flat face portion of the display matrix and to reorient light released from the curved corner portion of the display matrix such that the transmitted light and the reoriented light exit the image-correcting layer substantially in parallel, forming an apparent plane image of the series of pixels.

Claims

1. An electronic display comprising:

a display matrix including a light-releasing surface and a series of pixels extending across a flat face portion and around a curved corner portion of the display matrix; and

an image-correcting lens coupled to the light-releasing surface of the display matrix, the image-correcting lens having substantially constant thickness in a region arranged over the flat face portion and continuously varied thickness in a region arranged over the curved corner portion,

the image-correcting lens being configured to transmit light released from the flat face portion and to reorient light released from the curved corner portion such that the transmitted light and the reoriented light exit the image-correcting layer substantially in parallel, forming an apparent plane image of the series of pixels.

2. The electronic display of claim 1 further comprising a luminance-correcting layer arranged between the display matrix and the image-correcting layer and configured to deflect the light released from the curved corner portion into an acceptance of the image-correcting layer.

3. The electronic display of claim 1 wherein the display matrix includes a flexible organic light-emitting diode matrix.

4. The electronic display of claim 1 wherein the image-correcting layer includes one or more prismatic and/or holographic films.

5. The electronic display of claim 1 wherein the image-correcting layer includes a refractive optic.

6. The electronic display of claim 1 wherein each of a thickness and a refractive index of the image-correcting layer, as functions of distance along the light-releasing surface, are controlled such that the transmitted light and the reoriented light exit the image-correcting layer substantially in parallel, forming the apparent plane image of the series of pixels.

7. The electronic display of claim 1 wherein the apparent plane image is substantially parallel to the flat face portion of the display matrix.

8. The electronic display of claim 1 wherein a spacing Δ

S between the pixels in the image is functionally related to a spacing Δ

A of the pixels in the series, wherein Δ

S=c×

Δ

A, and wherein c is a function of distance along the light-releasing surface.

9. The electronic display of claim 8 wherein the spacing between the pixels in the image is equal to the spacing between the pixels of the series.

10. The electronic display of claim 1 wherein the curved corner portion admits of a cylindrical curvature, and wherein a radius of the cylindrical curvature is one to five millimeters.

11. The electronic display of claim 1 wherein the image-correcting layer is comprised of hardened glass.

12. The electronic display of claim 1 further comprising a second flat face portion, wherein the curved corner portion is between the flat face portion and the second flat face portion, and wherein the series of pixels is viewable through both the flat face portion and the second flat face portion.

13. A display comprising:

a light-releasing display surface including first and second flat face portions and a curved corner portion between the first and second flat face portions; and

an image-correcting transparent polymer lens coupled to the light-releasing display surface and extending over the first flat face portion and around the curved corner portion, the image-correcting transparent polymer layer having a substantially constant thickness in a region arranged over the first flat face portion and a continuously varied thickness in a region arranged over the curved corner portion,

the image-correcting transparent polymer layer being configured to transmit light released from the first flat face portion and to reorient light released from the curved corner portion such that the transmitted light and the reoriented light exit the image-correcting transparent polymer layer substantially in parallel, forming an apparent plane image of the first flat face portion and the curved corner portion,

wherein the series of pixels is viewable through the first flat face portion and through the second flat face portion.

14. The display of claim 13 further comprising a luminance-correcting layer arranged between the light-releasing display surface and the image-correcting transparent polymer layer, wherein the luminance-correcting layer is configured to deflect the light released from the curved corner portion into an acceptance of the image-correcting transparent polymer layer.

15. The display of claim 14 wherein the luminance-correcting layer includes a prismatic layer.

16. The display of claim 14 wherein the luminance-correcting layer includes a holographic layer.

17. An electronic display system comprising:

a borderless display module comprising;

a display matrix including a light-releasing surface and a series of pixels extending across a flat face portion and around a curved corner portion of the display matrix; and

an image-correcting lens coupled to the light-releasing surface of the display matrix, the image-correcting lens having substantially constant thickness in a region arranged over the flat face portion and continuously varied thickness in a region arranged over the curved corner portion,

the image-correcting lens being configured to transmit light released from the flat face portion and to reorient light released from the curved corner portion such that the transmitted light and the reoriented light exit the image-correcting layer substantially in parallel, forming an apparent plane image of the series of pixels; and

a computer operatively coupled to the borderless display module.

18. The electronic display system of claim 17 wherein the borderless display module is one of a plurality of abutting borderless display modules, and wherein the computer is configured to provide image data to each of the abutting borderless display modules, to present a continuous, unbroken display image extending across the plurality of borderless display modules.