Overcoming latency with motion prediction in directional autostereoscopic displays

Imaging delivering to correct retina assisted with tracking technique is a common practice for autostereoscopic displays with stereo two‐view data format. Due to various latencies produced in camera buffering, computer processing, data transmission, and illumination refreshing, delayed image delivery will give rise to a substantial degradation of the 3D display experience. This is particularly obvious for directional backlight 3D displays where significant flickering is resulted as a result of the inherent latency. This work systematically analyzes the source of latency by quantitatively measuring the exact latency value in a typical directional backlight autostereoscopic display. Based on accurate measurement, a motion prediction solution is proposed to improve the synchronization between the backlight illumination and viewer's eye location. Motion prediction helps overcome the lag between the center of illumination and viewer's eye, providing a flicker‐free viewing experience for both a stationary and a moving viewer.     

A polarization modulated directional backlight autostereoscopic display

A polarization modulated directional backlight autostereoscopic display is proposed and demonstrated. The system consists of the orthogonally polarized backlight, the Fresnel lens array, a light shaping diffuser film, and a liquid crystal display (LCD) with a microphase retardation film. The autostereoscopic image pair carried by the directional light with different polarization directions is simultaneously projected to different spatial directions. The simulation and experimental results show that the directional projection of parallax images is realized for a high-quality autostereoscopic display with large viewing angle and continuous viewing volume, hence making it suitable for practical applications.     

自由立体显示系统背光控制

介绍一种基于瞳孔跟踪的多用户自由立体显示器,利用菲涅尔透镜形成左右眼分立照明区域。本系统采用LCD作为基本显示屏幕,通过指向式LED照明背光设计,高精度瞳孔实时定位装置对人眼位置的探测,AVR单片机的系统控制,形成实时定向跟踪人眼的立体视窗。本装置可提供±25°水平视角范围内1至3人的实时无辅助立体显示。     

Novel LCDs with IR‐sensitive backlights

Abstract— In this paper, a novel multi‐touch LCD architecture with hover‐sensing capability is described. To detect multiple touch points and hover points simultaneously, a sensitive backlight, which is a backlight integrated with an IR sensor array, is introduced. The sensitive backlight uses visible light to display contents on a display screen and is also used to detect reflected IR light from objects on or near the display screen. The captured image from the sensitive backlight is used to extract touch and hover information. The proposed display architecture maintains the slim form factor of an LCD with no loss of display quality, while making it possible to sense multiple touches and hovers simultaneously.     

A directional backlight with narrow angular luminance distribution for widening the viewing angle for an LCD with a front‐surface light‐scattering film

Abstract— A directional backlight unit has been developed to widen the viewing angle of a TN‐LCD with a front‐surface light‐scattering film/layer. The novel directional backlight has a diagonal of 34 cm and is structured by light‐direction‐control optical micro‐features and an inverted prism film. The backlight has a symmetrical round luminance cone of ±9° and a uniform spatial distribution of 88%. By using this backlight unit in combination with an LCD, the narrow cone resulted in widening of the TN‐LCD's viewing angle up to 120° at full width at half‐maximum.     

Blue phase dual‐view liquid crystal display based on directional backlight system

We design a blue phase dual‐view liquid crystal display (BP DVLCD) based on a directional backlight system. Combining the patterned electrodes with the directional backlight system, the cross‐talk ratio is reduced to only 1.17%. Moreover, the resolution and brightness will be tripled by using field‐sequential color display. In the preferred viewing area, the BP DVLCD has a high contrast ratio of ~1700:1.     

A 23‐in. full‐panel‐resolution autostereoscopic LCD with a novel directional backlight system

Abstract— An autostereoscopic display that shows stereoscopic images with full‐panel resolution has been developed,¹ but it has a problem in terms of unit size. To resolve this problem, a new directional backlight system was developed, and it was applied to a prototype autostereoscopic LCD. The backlight system has two light sources — one for the right eye and the another for the left eye — and an elliptically shaped mirror that controls the direction of light from the light sources. The LCD uses a field‐sequential method which re‐writes an image for one eye and one for the other eye at a frame rate of 120 Hz, and the light sources alternately blink in synchronization with each frame so that the LCD shows full‐panel‐resolution stereoscopic images without flicker. In this paper, the new backlight system is described. The backlight system is effective for large screen such as 23 in. on the diagonal. By using this backlight system, the prototype LCD achieved practible unit size, brightness over the entire screen, and cross‐talk.     

Characterizing image quality of autostereoscopic displays by using the maximum luminance at each viewing position

A metric of the 3D image quality of autostereoscopic displays based on optical measurements is proposed. This metric uses each view's luminance contrast, which is defined as the ratio of maximum luminance at each viewing position to total luminance at that position. Conventional metrics of the autostereoscopic display based on crosstalk, which uses “wanted” and “unwanted” lights. However, in case of the multiple‐views‐type autostereoscopic displays, it is difficult to distinguish exactly which lights are wanted lights and which are unwanted lights. This paper assumes that the wanted light has a maximum luminance at the good stereoscopic viewing position, and the unwanted light also has a maximum luminance at the worst pseudo‐stereoscopic viewing position. By using the maximum luminance that is indexed by view number of the autostereoscopic display, the proposed method enables characterizing stereoscopic viewing conditions without using wanted/unwanted light. A 3D image quality metric called “stereo luminance contrast,” the average of both eyes' contrast, is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed metric is confirmed by the results of optical measurement analyses of different types of autostereoscopic displays, such as the two‐view, scan‐backlight, multi‐view, and integral.     

Laser‐based multi‐user 3‐D display

Abstract— The development of a multi‐user stereoscopic display that does not require the use of special glasses (autostereoscopic), and that enables a large degree of freedom of viewer movement and requires only the minimum amount of information (a stereo pair) for the displays described. The optics comprise an RGB holographic laser projector that is controlled by the output of a multi‐target head‐position head tracker, an optical assembly that converts the projector output into steerable exit pupils, and a screen assembly comprising a single liquid‐crystal display (LCD) and image multiplexing screen. A stereo image pair is produced on the LCD by simultaneously displaying left and right images on alternate rows of pixels. Novel steering optics that replace the conventional backlight are used to direct viewing regions, referred to as exit pupils, to the appropriate viewers' eyes. The results obtained from the first version of the display, where the illumination source consists of several thousand white LEDs, are given and the current status of the latest prototype being constructed on the basis of these results is described. The work indicates that a laser‐based head‐tracking display can provide the basis for the next generation of 3‐D display.     

2‐D FOCON arrays and their application in displays and planar illuminators

Abstract— Focusing cones (FOCON) have been designed for fiber‐optic communication systems as coupling devices. The main aim of these couplers is to match the spatial distribution of the light source or photodetector with the aperture configuration of light‐guiding modes of the optical fibers. In this paper, the application of a 2‐D array of FOCONs for collimating large‐sized optical beams in display devices is proposed. The design of a light‐efficient illumination unit for LCDs that can operate in the reflection mode as a backlight has been demonstrated. The approach proposed is based on the spatial separation of the light propagation in a FOCON array for reflected beams and light that comes from the backlight unit. The application of a FOCON array in backlight units and antiglare coatings has been demonstrated.     

Luminance enhancement without sacrificing the viewing angle in a direct-lit backlight by addressing the angle-dependent characteristic of the prism film

In a conventional backlight, suppression of light loss caused by the prism film(s) is desired to enhance the luminance without sacrificing the viewing angle. In this paper, in a direct-lit light-emitting diode (LED) backlight, where an LED array is placed under the display panel, the transmission efficiency against the prism film(s) is investigated for incident light with different zenith and azimuth incident angles. A strong angle-dependent characteristic is found, even when the reflective recycling effect is available. To address this angle-dependent characteristic in a direct-lit LED backlight, a freeform lens is designed to deflect the light emitted from an LED into the incident angle range with high transmission efficiency. Two design examples are implemented by adopting dual- and single-layer prism film(s). The simulation results show that the freeform lens can enhance the on-axis luminance by 26% and 35%, respectively, while the viewing angle remains nearly unchanged. Furthermore, using a single layer of prism film, a 19-in. direct-lit LED backlight module is constructed for experimental verification. By fabricating the freeform lenses and adding them to the backlight module, the on-axis luminance is enhanced by 24%, and the viewing angle is decreased by no more than 2°. Finally, the influence of the diffusers, which causes the experimental results to degrade slightly compared with the simulation results, is analyzed.     

Transmission and reflection dual operational mode MEMS display device

A novel MEMS display device comprising a light separator and MEMS light shutters is introduced. This device is operable both in transmissive mode using internal light source and in reflective mode using external sun light. In transmissive mode, the light separator directs internal backlight illuminated on its incident surface into a plural of small openings (grooves) on the viewing surface. The MEMS light shutters are used to control the color and intensity of light at individual pixels. Internal light utilization efficiency of this display is the greatest compared to any other transmissive displays. The device is capable of having true black background, hence a very high contrast ratio. In reflective mode, MEMS shutters direct part of the sun light for image display. MEMS shutters have fast response time, making the new device suitable for vivid motion picture display, and operable at very low voltages, suitable for mobile device applications.     

Backlight unit with double‐surface light emission using a single micro‐structured lightguide plate

Abstract— A novel illumination system for a liquid‐crystal‐display (LCD) module used in a dual‐display cellular phone has been developed. A double‐surface light‐emitting backlight uses a single light‐guide plate to illuminate both LCDs. A single lightguide, two prism sheets, and four light‐emitting diodes (LED) were used in the new structure, compared with ten components and two sets of light sources with six LEDs in the current backlight. The thickness and power consumption of the new backlight were reduced by a factor of 0.59 and 0.67, respectively.     

A novel reflective image display using total internal reflection

We are developing a new reflective display technology, based on total internal reflection, which achieves a large difference between the maximum and minimum reflectance values. This yields a surface with greatly improved legibility under a wide range of illumination conditions. Such devices can display an image with a maximum reflectance ranging from 55% under uniform background illumination to over 85% under common non-uniform illumination conditions, even at viewing angles greater than 80° from the surface normal. This approach, which we call ‘CLEAR’ (Charged Liquid Electro-Active Response), uses polymeric microstructures to efficiently redirect incoming ambient light back toward the viewer. One advantage of this technique is the ability to achieve bright, full-color images over a wide range of viewing angles, much like ink printed on paper. The displayed image can be updated rapidly since switching from the reflective state to the absorptive state requires only about a half-micron of motion of absorbing material into the evanescent field associated with TIR. This new approach offers significant advantages in a number of reflective display applications.     

Projection‐based head‐tracking 3‐D displays

Abstract— This paper describes the construction and operation of four 3‐D displays in which each display produces two images for each eye and thus fits into the category of projection‐based binocular stereoscopic displays. The four 3‐D displays described are pico‐projector‐based, liquid‐ crystal—on—silicon (LCOS) conventional projector‐based, 120‐Hz digital‐light‐processor (DLP) projector‐ based, and the HELIUM3D system. In the first three displays, images are produced on a direct‐view LCD whose conventional backlight is replaced with a projection illumination source that is controlled by a multi‐user head tracker; novel steering optics direct the projector output to regions referred to as exit pupils located at the viewers' eyes. In the HELIUM3D display, the image information is supplied by a horizontally scanned, fast, light valve whose output is controlled by a spatial light modulator (SLM) to direct images to the appropriate viewers' eyes. The current statu s and the multimodal potential of the HELIUM3D display are described.     

Towards a polarized light‐emitting backlight: micro‐structured anisotropic layers

A backlight for liquid‐crystal‐display illumination is presented, in which s‐polarized light is preferentially coupled out by micro‐optical structures in a birefringent layer. In the experiments, contrasts higher than 15 have been obtained. A polarization dependent ray‐tracing model has been developed. Important guidelines for finding an optimal backlight configuration have been derived from the calculations.     

Adapting softcopy color reproduction to ambient illumination

Abstract— The perceived colors of an image seen on a self‐luminous display are affected by ambient illumination. The ambient light reflected from the display faceplate is mixed with the image‐forming light emitted by the display. In addition to this direct physical effect of viewing flare, ambient illumination causes perceptual changes by affecting the adaptation state of the viewer's visual system. This paper first discusses these effects and how they can be compensated, outlining a display system able to adjust its output based on prevailing lighting conditions. The emphasis is on compensating for the perceptual effects of viewing conditions by means of color‐appearance modeling. The effects of varying the degree of chromatic adaptation parameter D and the surround compensation parameters c and N_c of the CIECAM97s color‐appearance model were studied in psychophysical experiments. In these memory‐based paired comparison experiments, the observers judged the appearance of images shown on an LCD under three different ambient‐illumination conditions. The dependence of the optimal parameter values on the level of ambient illumination was evident. The results of the final experiment, using a category scaling technique, showed the benefit of using the color‐appearance model with the optimized parameters in compensating for the perceptual changes caused by varying ambient illumination.     

Self‐calibration three‐dimensional light field display based on scalable multi‐LCDs

Approach to achieve self‐calibration three‐dimensional (3D) light field display is investigated in this paper. The proposed 3D light field display is constructed up on spliced multi‐LCDs, lens and diaphragm arrays, and directional diffuser. The light field imaging principle, hardware configuration, diffuser characteristic, and image reconstruction simulation are described and analyzed, respectively. Besides the light field imaging, a self‐calibration method is proposed to improve the imaging performance. An image sensor is deployed to capture calibration patterns projected onto and then reflected by the polymer dispersed liquid crystal film, which is attached to and shaped the diffuser. These calibration components are assembled with the display unit and can be switched between display mode and calibration mode. In the calibration mode, the imperfect imaging relations of optical components are captured and calibrated automatically. We demonstrate our design by implementing the prototype of proposed 3D light field display by using modified off‐the‐shelf products. The proposed approach successfully meets the requirement of real application on scalable configuration, fast calibration, large viewing angular range, and smooth motion parallax.     

Two‐parallax‐barriers‐based autostereoscopic liquid‐crystal display without cross‐talk

Abstract— An autostereoscopic liquid‐crystal display (LCD) consists of two parallax barriers and an LCD including a liquid‐crystal panel, and a backlight panel is proposed. Parallax barrier 1 is located between the backlight panel and the liquid‐crystal panel, and Parallax barrier 2 is located between the liquid‐crystal panel and viewers. The operation principle of the autostereoscopic display and the calculation equations for the parallax barriers are described in detail. The autostereoscopic LCD was developed and produces high‐quality stereoscopic images without cross‐talk at the optimal viewing distance and less cross‐talk than a conventional one based on one parallax barrier at other viewing distances.     

Simulations of pixel moirés in the liquid crystal display with image processing technique

The objective of this paper is to simulate the pixel moirés arising in the liquid crystal display with an image processing technique. The LCD panel and the backlight can be regarded as the micro shutter arrays and the surface illuminator, respectively. The RGB shutters have the spatial periodicity and the illumination lights condensed by a brightness enhancement film (BEF) also have the spatial periodicity depending on the prismatic structure size and orientation of a BEF. Pixel moirés become visible when the spatially aliased periods and amplitudes of illumination lights exceed certain critical values. Avoidance of pixel moirés in the liquid crystal display is a design problem related with choice of prism pitch and orientation of a BEF. In this study an image processing algorithm which can predict the pixel moirés arising in the liquid crystal display was devised, and prediction accuracy was investigated. As a design example, optimal values of prism pitch and orientation of a new BEF having relatively large pitches, 150–200 μm were tried to be found with a devised simulator, and simulation results were discussed.