High speed binary compressive light field projection system

Number: 11503274
Published: 2022-11-15
Filed: 2019-05-02
Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Inventors: Smithwick; Quinn Yorklun Jen
CPC: G03B21/2053; G02B30/56; H04N13/398; G02B5/0252; H04N9/3126; G03B21/625; G03B21/008; G02B30/50; H04N13/133; G02B5/0215; H04N13/363; H04N13/302; H04N9/3105; G03B35/22; H04N13/365; H04N13/351; H04N9/312; H04N13/322
Verdict: Medium Hardware
Source: Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline

The keeper's note

High-speed compressive light-field projection display hardware (Smithwick).

Abstract

Implementations of a compressive light field projection system are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the compressive light field projection system utilizes a pair of light modulators, such as digital micromirror devices (DMDs), that interact to produce a light field. The light field is then projected via a projection lens onto a screen, which may be an angle expanding projection screen that includes a Fresnel lens for straightening the views of the light field and either a double lenticular array of Keplerian lens pairs or a single lenticular, for increasing the field of view. In addition, compression techniques are disclosed for generating patterns to place on the pair of light modulators so as to reduce the number of frames needed to recreate a light field.

Background

BACKGROUND Field (1) The present disclosure relates generally to light field projection, and more specifically to a compressive light field projection system. Description of the Related Art (2) Many use cases exist for displays that allow viewers to freely view three-dimensional (3D) scenes without the need to wear 3D glasses. However, traditional light field projection techniques for creating 3D scenes, such as techniques that rely on liquid crystal display (LCD) devices, suffer from severe limitations, including the inability to scale to large sizes or fields of view, low frame rates, dimness, limited numbers of views, and limited depths. SUMMARY (3) One embodiment of this disclosure provides a light field projector. The light field projector generally includes a light source configured to emit light. The light field projector further includes an optical arrangement comprising: a first light modulator, the first light modulator being controlled to reflect light incident on the first light modulator based, at least in part, on a first pattern, and a second light modulator, the second light modulator being controlled to reflect light that has been reflected by the first light modulator and is incident on the second light modulator based, at least in part, on a second pattern. (4) Another embodiment of this disclosure provides a computer-implemented method for generating a light field. The method generally includes receiving data indicating the light field to be generated. The

Claims

1. A light field projector, comprising: a light source configured to emit light; and an optical arrangement comprising: a first digital micromirror device (DMD), the first DMD being controlled to reflect light incident on the first DMD based, at least in part, on a first pattern, a second DMD, the second DMD being controlled to reflect light that has been reflected by the first DMD and is incident on the second DMD based, at least in part, on a second pattern, a field lens, and a diffuser disposed between the first and the second DMDs and comprising a microlens array including either cylindrical lenses or full spherical lenses, wherein the field lens is arranged to deflect light produced by sides of the microlens array inward, wherein, when diffusing the light, reflected light from each pixel in a row of the first DMD passes through the microlens array and the field lens to be horizontally diffused and distributed to every pixel in a corresponding row of the second DMD. || 9. A light field projector, comprising: a light source configured to emit light; and an optical arrangement comprising: a first digital micromirror device (DMD), the first DMD being controlled to reflect light incident on the first DMD based, at least in part, on a first pattern, a second DMD, the second DMD being controlled to reflect light that has been reflected by the first DMD and is incident on the second DMD based, at least in part, on a second pattern, and a diffuser disposed between the first and the second DMDs, wherein, when diffusing the light, reflected light from each pixel in a row of the first DMD passes through the diffuser to be diffused and distributed to every pixel in a corresponding row of the second DMD. || 17. An apparatus, comprising: a first digital micromirror device (DMD), the first DMD being controlled to reflect light incident on the first DMD based, at least in part, on a first pattern, a second DMD, the second DMD being controlled to reflect light that has been reflected by the first DMD and is incident on the second DMD based, at least in part, on a second pattern, and a diffuser disposed between the first and the second DMDs, wherein, when diffusing the light, reflected light from each pixel in a row of the first DMD passes through the diffuser to be diffused and distributed to every pixel in a corresponding row of the second DMD.