- Number
- 11435504
- Published
- 2022-09-06
- Filed
- 2019-06-27
- Assignee
- Disney Enterprises, Inc.
- Inventors
- Smithwick; Quinn Yorklun Jen
- CPC
- G03B21/625; G03B21/602; G02B30/00; G02B27/0081; G02B3/08
- Verdict
- Medium Hardware
- Source
- Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline
The keeper's note
Angle-enhancing display-screen optics hardware (Smithwick).
Abstract
Implementations of angle-enhancing screens are disclosed herein. The angle-enhancing screens increase the field of view of an image projected thereon by a projection lens while maintaining an increased size of the projected image, by decreasing the size of picture elements making up the image while maintaining their pitch. In some embodiments, the angle-enhancing screen includes a field lens, such as a Fresnel field lens, for straightening the views of light projected thereon and a double lenslet array of matched lenslet pairs, each of the pairs including either two positive lenslets or one positive and one negative lenslet, for increasing the field of view. In another embodiment, the angle-enhancing screen may include a field lens and an array of four positive lenslet quartets. In a further embodiment, the field lens may be replaced with a Gabor superlens including two lenslet arrays of different pitches.
Background
BACKGROUND Field (1) The present disclosure relates generally to projection screens. Description of the Related Art (2) Holography is a display medium allowing the reproduction of all three-dimensional (3D) cues. Spatial light modulators (SLMs), including digital micromirror devices (DMDs) and liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS), have been used to produce dynamically programmable holograms. However, such SLMs typically have small areas of about one square inch and coarse pixel pitches of about 10 micrometers. As a result, many SLMs can only produce small holograms of about one square inch and small fields of view of about 3°. Optical demagnification can be used to increase either the size or the field of view of holographic videos produced by SLMs, but the size and field of view cannot be increased simultaneously through such demagnification. This is due to the “optical invariant,” which requires that the product of the angle and the field of view of light rays be a constant throughout space. (3) Other types of 3D displays, such as optical vortex displays, can also produce dense multiview images, but with relatively small images and small fields of view. Similar to the holograms described above, such images can be optically demagnified to trade off size or field of view, but the size and field of view cannot be increased simultaneously through demagnification (due to the optical invariant). SUMMARY (4) One embodiment of this disclosure provides an angle-enhancing screen. The ang
Claims
1. An angle-enhancing screen, comprising: a plurality of Galilean lens arrays that comprises converging and diverging lenslet arrays, wherein the converging and diverging lenslet arrays are two-dimensional (2D) arrays configured to produce an image by: increasing a field of view of a plurality of picture elements that forms the image, wherein light for the plurality of picture elements passes through a first surface of the converging lenslet array and exits a second surface of the converging lenslet array before it is focused, wherein the light then passes through a first surface, of the diverging lenslet array, that recollimates the light exiting from a second surface of the diverging lenslet array; and as the light for the plurality of picture elements passes through the converging and diverging lenslet arrays, decreasing a size of the plurality of picture elements while maintaining a pitch of the plurality of picture elements, wherein the produced image is upright in orientation relative to the image, wherein the converging and diverging lenslet arrays preserve a view order of the plurality of picture elements in the produced image; and a field lens configured to straighten views of the plurality of picture elements before or after the light for the plurality of picture elements passes through the converging and diverging lenslet arrays. ||
7. A display system, comprising: a three-dimensional (3D) display configured to generate at least one holographic image comprising a plurality of picture elements; a projection lens configured to project the at least one image onto an angle-enhancing screen; and the angle-enhancing screen, comprising: a plurality of Galilean lens arrays that includes a double lenslet array, wherein the double lenslet array comprises a double two-dimensional (2D) lenslet array that includes converging and diverging lenslet arrays configured to produce an image by: increasing a field of view of the at least one image projected onto the angle-enhancing screen, wherein light for the at least one image passes through a first surface of the converging lenslet array and exits a second surface of the converging lenslet array before it is focused, wherein the light then passes through a first surface, of the diverging lenslet array, that recollimates the light exiting from a second surface of the diverging lenslet array; and as the light for the at least one image passes through the converging and diverging lenslet arrays, decreasing a size of the plurality of picture elements while maintaining a pitch of the plurality of picture elements, wherein the produced image is upright in orientation relative to the image, wherein the converging and diverging lenslet arrays preserve a view order of the plurality of picture elements in the produced image; and a field lens configured to straighten views of the plurality of picture elements before or after the light for the plurality of picture elements passes through the converging and diverging lenslet arrays. ||
12. A display system, comprising: a three-dimensional (3D) display configured to generate at least one image comprising a plurality of picture elements; a projection lens configured to project the at least one image onto an angle-enhancing screen; the angle-enhancing screen comprising: a plurality of Galilean lens arrays comprising a double two-dimensional (2D) lenticular that includes converging and diverging lens arrays configured to produce an image by: increasing a field of view of the at least one image projected onto the angle-enhancing screen, wherein light for the plurality of picture elements passes through a first surface of the converging lenslet array and exits a second surface of the converging lenslet array before it is focused, wherein the light then passes through a first surface, of the diverging lenslet array, that recollimates the light exiting from a second surface of the diverging lenslet array; and as the light for the plurality of picture elements passes through the converging and diverging lens arrays, decreasing a size of the plurality of picture elements while maintaining a pitch of the plurality of picture elements, wherein the produced image is upright in orientation relative to the image, wherein the converging and diverging lenslet arrays preserve a view order of the plurality of picture elements in the produced image; a field lens configured to straighten views of the plurality of picture elements before or after the light for the plurality of picture elements passes through the converging and diverging lens arrays; and a vertical diffuser.