Mirror Assembly With Integrated Display Device

• US 20080106705A1
• Filed: 04/28/2004
• Published: 05/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Op De Beeck, Marc J.R., Horsten, Johannes B.A.M., Bergman, Anthonie H., Cortenraad, Hubertus M.R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,562,985 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 353/98
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/005 based on electrowetting
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/283 used for beam splitting or combining
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/25 using polarisation techniques

Abstract

A mirror assembly (18) for displaying an image (15) in conjunction with the reflection (14′) of a viewer comprises a mirror (2), which is equipped with a reflective polariser (13), arranged to reflect light (3) incident on its viewing side and transmit light (4) incident on its non-viewing side, where the reflected light (3) and transmitted light (4) may be of different polarisation. The image (15) is displayed by a device (5) located on the non-viewing side and focussed by a focussing element, e.g. one or more lenses (12, 12a), onto an image plane. The image plane may be located between the mirror (2) and viewer (14), so that a perceived image (15′) appears to stand out from the mirror (2). Alternatively, the image plane may be located so that the perceived image (15′) forms a background in which the viewer'"'"'s reflection (14′) is immersed. The mirror assembly (1) may further comprise one or more detectors (19) for obtaining a silhouette (21) of the viewer (14). The silhouette (21) can be subtracted from an image (15) to produce a modified image (24) for display by device (5), thereby avoiding competition between the perceived image (15′) and viewer reflection (14).

Claims

1. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) comprising:

an element (2) with a viewing and a non-viewing side, configured to reflect light (3) Incident on the viewing side and to pass light (4) incident on the non-viewing side to the viewing side; and

a display device (5) on the non-viewing side of the element (2);

the assembly being configured so that an image (15) output by the display device (5) is focussed onto an image plane that does not coincide with the location of the display device (5).

12. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising an audio output device (16).

14. A mirror assembly (18) according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising means (19) for capturing an image (22) of a viewer (14) and transmitting said viewer image (22) to a processor (6) associated with the display device (5).

15. A mirror assembly (18) according to claim 14, wherein the processor (6) is configured to:

define a silhouette image (23) corresponding to the viewer image (22);

form a display image (24) by juxtaposing said silhouette image (23) with a second image (15); and

transmit said display image (24) to the display device (5).

16. A mirror assembly (18) according to claim 14 or 15, wherein said capturing means (19) comprises one or more cameras.

17. A mirror assembly (18) according to claim 14, 15 or 16, further comprising a movement detector.

18. A mirror assembly (18) according to any one of claims 14 to 17, wherein said processor (6) is further configured to correct said display image (24) in accordance with the position of a viewer (14) in the viewer image (22).

2. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) comprising:

a reflective element (2) arranged to reflect light (3) incident on a viewing side and to transmit light (4) incident on a non-viewing side;

a display device (5); and

a focussing element (12);

wherein the display device (5) and focussing element (12) are disposed on the non-viewing side of the reflective element (2) and the focussing element (12) is arranged to focus an image (15) output by the display device onto an image plane that does not coincide with the location of the display device (5).

3. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) according to claim 2, wherein the image plane is located between the reflective element (2) and a viewer (14).

4. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) according to claim 2, wherein the image plane is located on the non-viewing side of the reflective element (2).

5. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) according to claim 2, 3 or 4, wherein the focussing element (12) is a variable focal length lens system.

6. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein the reflective element (2) reflects light (3) of a first polarisation and transmits light (4) of a second polarisation.

7. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) according to claim 6, wherein the display device (5) emits or reflects light (4) of the second polarisation.

8. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the first and second polarisations are linear and mutually orthogonal.

9. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the first and second polarisations are opposite circular polarisations.

10. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) according to claim 6 or 7, wherein 15 the first and second polarisations are opposite elliptical polarisations

11. A mirror assembly (1, 17, 18) according to any one of claims 6 to 10, wherein the reflective element (2) is a cholesteric mirror.

13. A mirror assembly (17) according to any one of claims 2 to 12, wherein the focussing element comprises first and second lenses (12, 12a).

19. A method of displaying an image in a mirror assembly (18) comprising a reflective element (2), comprising the steps of:

capturing an image (22) of a subject (14) located at a viewing side of the reflective element (2);

superimposing a silhouette (23) corresponding to the subject image (22) with a second image (15) to form a display image (24); and

displaying said display image (24) on a display device (5) located at a non-viewing side of the reflective element (2).

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein the step of capturing a subject image (22) comprises recording images using more than one camera (19).

21. A method according to claim 19 or 20, further comprising detecting movement of the subject (14).

22. A method according to claim 19, 20 or 21, further comprising:

determining the position of the subject (14); and

modifying said display image (24) in accordance with the position of a subject (14) in the subject image (22).

23. A method according to any one of claims 19 to 22, wherein the display image (24) is focussed onto an image plane that does not coincide with the location of the display device (5).

24. A method according to claim 23, wherein the image plane is located on the non-viewing side of the reflective element (2), behind a second image plane associated with a reflection (14′

) of the subject (14).

25. A method according to any one of claims 19 to 24, wherein the step of displaying said display image (24) includes selecting an image plane using a variable focal length lens system.

26. A method according to any one of claims 19 to 25, wherein the image (24) is displayed by emitting or reflecting light (4) substantially of a predetermined polarisation.

27. A method according to any one of claims 19 to 26, wherein the step of displaying the display image (24) further comprises outputting audio signals associated with the second image (15).

32. A mirror assembly (18) according to any one of claims 25 to 28, further comprising a focussing element (12), the focussing element (12) being arranged to focus the display image (24) onto an image plane that does not coincide with the location of the display device (5).

33. A mirror assembly according to claim 32, wherein the image plane is located behind the non-viewing side of the reflective element (2), behind a second image plane associated with a reflection (14′

) of the subject (14).

34. A mirror assembly (18) according to claim 32 or 33, wherein the focussing element (12) is a variable focal length lens system.

28. A mirror assembly (18) comprising:

a reflective element (2) arranged to reflect light (3) incident at a viewing side and to transmit light (4) incident on a non-viewing side;

a display device 5 located at a non-viewing side of the reflective element (2); and

means (19) for capturing an image (22) of a subject (14) and transmitting said subject image (22) to a processor (6) associated with the display device (5);

wherein the processor (6) is configured to superimpose a silhouette (23) corresponding to the subject image (22) with a second image (15) to form a display image (24) and to display said display image (24) on the display device (5).

29. A mirror assembly (18) according to claim 28, wherein the capturing means (19) comprises one or more cameras.

30. A mirror assembly (18) according to claim 28 or 29, further comprising a movement detector.

31. A mirror assembly (18) according to any one of claims 28 to 30, wherein the processor (6) is further configured to:

determine the position of the subject (14); and

modify said display image (24) in accordance with the position of a subject (14) in the subject image (22).

35. A mirror assembly (18) according to any one of claims 28 to 34, wherein the display device (5) emits or reflects light (4) substantially of a predetermined polarisation.

36. A mirror assembly (18) according to any one of claims 28 to 35, further comprising an audio output device (16).