Soft aperture correction for lenticular screens

• US 7,508,589 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2007
• Issued: 03/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: RealD Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Real D
• Inventors: Robinson, Michael G., Lipton, Lenny
• Primary Examiner(s): Mack; Ricky L
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, VIPIN
• Application Number:
  US11/880,828
• Publication Number:
  US 20080186574A1
• Time in Patent Office: 610 Days
• Field of Search: 355/17, 355/22, 355/463, 355/619, 355/419, 359/419, 359/463
• US Class Current: 359/619
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/58 Optics for apodization or superresolution; Optical synthetic aperture systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/0012 characterised by the manufacturing method
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/005 arranged along a single direction only, e.g. lenticular sheets G02B3/0043 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/0056 arranged along two different directions in a plane, e.g. honeycomb arrangement of lenses G02B3/0043 takes precedence; miniaturised objectives for electronic devices employing wafer level optics G02B13/0085
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/27 involving lenticular arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/29 characterised by the geometry of the lenticular array, e.g. slanted arrays, irregular arrays or arrays of varying shape or size
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/60 characterised by the nature of the surface

Abstract

An apparatus including an autostereoscopic image selection device having a plurality of lenticules is provided. The autostereoscopic image selection device has an opaque material applied thereto in gaps between the plurality of lenticules. The opaque material is applied to the autostereoscopic image selection device in a soft aperturing manner, the soft aperturing manner comprising applying the opaque material such that the opaque material is tapered from the gaps over the plurality of lenticules. The opaque material can be applied in accordance with a windowing function.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an autostereoscopic image selection device comprising a plurality of lenticules; and

at least one buffed portion comprising an opaque material applied to the autostereoscopic image selection device in gaps between the plurality of lenticules;

wherein the opaque material is applied to the autostereoscopic image selection device in a soft aperturing manner, said soft aperturing manner comprising applying the opaque material such that the opaque material is tapered from the gaps over the plurality of lenticules, wherein the autostereoscopic image selection device in combination with the at least one buffed portion enables the lens surface area to render aperture-corrected autostereoscopic images.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the opaque material is applied in accordance with a windowing function.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the windowing function comprises one from a group comprising cosine windowing and Hamming windowing.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the autostereoscopic image selection device is a lenticular screen.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the opaque material is applied to individual elements formed on the autostereoscopic image selection device and subsequently partially removed from the individual elements by cleaning off excess opaque material from the autostereoscopic image selection device.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the opaque material is formed from a waxy material.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the opaque material is formed from an International Ink Company (INX) pigment material.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the opaque material is applied to individual elements formed on the autostereoscopic image selection device and subsequently partially removed from the individual elements.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein partial removal comprises buffing the opaque material to enable the apparatus to render aperture-corrected autostereoscopic images.

10. A method for providing an enhanced image selection device, comprising:

applying an opaque overcoat material to an image selection device comprising a plurality of lenticules; and

removing selected portions of the opaque overcoat material from the image selection device;

wherein the applying and removing operate together with the image selection device to provide a tapered opaque coating that obscures portions of the lenticules according to a soft aperturing technique, wherein the tapered opaque coating comprises appearance of the opaque overcoat material being gradually reduced from opaque at a center of each gap between lenticules to transparent at edges of the opaque overcoat material.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the soft aperturing technique comprises a windowing technique.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the windowing technique comprises one from a group comprising cosine windowing and Hamming windowing.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein removing comprises buffing a portion of the opaque overcoat material to configure the lens surface area for rendering soft aperture-corrected autostereoscopic images.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein removing comprises applying pressure while polishing opaque overcoat material on the lenticular screen to reveal a top lenticule surface, thereby forming a reduced section of a cylinder for aperture correction.

15. A method for constructing an aperturing device usable with a display, comprising:

providing an image selection device comprising a plurality of lenses;

applying an overcoat material to the image selection device; and

removing a portion of the overcoat material from at least one lens, creating a tapered optical attenuation coated lens array;

wherein appearance of the overcoat material on the optical attenuation coated lens array is gradually reduced from opaque at a center of each gap between lenses to transparent at edges of the overcoat material.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein removing the portion of the overcoat material effectively applies a windowing function to the image selection device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the windowing function comprises one from a group comprising cosine windowing and Hamming windowing.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein removing comprises buffing a portion of the overcoat material to configure at least one lens surface area for rendering soft aperture-corrected autostereoscopic images.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the image selection device comprises a lenticular screen.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the image selection device comprises a fly eye lens.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein removing comprises buffing the overcoat material to configure surface area of at least one lens for rendering soft aperture-corrected autostereoscopic images.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein removing comprises applying pressure while buffing the lenticular screen to reveal top lens surfaces, thereby forming a reduced section of the lenticule for aperture correction.