Optical: systems and elements – Stereoscopic – With right and left channel discriminator
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-09
2001-04-10
Chang, Audrey (Department: 2872)
Optical: systems and elements
Stereoscopic
With right and left channel discriminator
C359S462000, C348S055000, C348S054000, C348S056000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06215590
ABSTRACT:
FILED OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the viewer following style of stereoscopic image display apparatus, more particularly to the stereoscopic image display apparatus capable of presenting a stereoscopic image based on a parallax of the eyes of the viewers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 10
is a schematic diagram for explaining a conventional stereoscopic image display apparatus as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application; Tokkai-Hei 5-244643.
The stereoscopic image display apparatus is provided with a display unit
101
of the movable video projector having two optical systems for projecting the parallax image, and the large-diameter convex lens
102
for focusing the projected image on each right and left eyes of the viewer.
In this apparatus, by provided with the convex lens
102
between the display unit
101
providing a pair of the movable projector which is able to project the stereoscopic image and the viewer
103
, it distributes the stereoscopic image to both eyes of the viewer. Then, the optical sensor (not shown) provided near the display unit
101
captures the position of the viewer
103
, so that the display unit
101
moves mechanically to focus the image on the eyes of the viewer
103
.
However, in the conventional stereoscopic image display apparatus there is a drawback explained below. Though the stereoscopic image display apparatus moves in accordance with the movement of the viewer, the stereoscopic image is not captured by both eyes of the viewer
103
when viewer's is head is not horizontal, so that when he/she tilts his/her head to the screen he/she can not observe the image.
FIG. 11
is a conceptual diagram showing another conventional stereoscopic image display apparatus as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application, Tokkai-Hei 7-13105. The stereoscopic image display apparatus comprises a screen
112
comprised of a diffuse transmission layer and two lenticular lenses sandwiching the layer, and a movable stereoscopic image projector
111
comprised of a right image projector
111
R and a left image projector
111
L.
The apparatus is provided with the stereoscopic instrumentation unit
114
, which determines the perspective and the positions of both eyes of the viewer
113
, and making the projector
111
track the movement of the viewer
113
. Thus the viewer
113
circumvents constraints of his/her position. Further, since the right and left image projectors
111
R,
111
L are each independently movable, it enhances the degree of flexibility of the posture of the viewer.
When the viewer tilts his/her head, the conventional stereoscopic image display apparatus as described above tracks the tilt by shifting the right and left image projectors
111
R,
111
L in the vertical direction. However, in general the stereoscopic image contains only information of parallax between views of the left and right eyes. So that, the more the viewer tilts his/her head, the more the fusion of the stereoscopic image and the stereoscopic view will become difficult.
As described above, in the conventional stereoscopic image display apparatus, the projector moves in tracking movements of a viewer so that the right image is always captured by his/her right eye, and the left image is always captured by his/her left eye. However, the conventional stereoscopic image display apparatus can not track the tilting of the viewer's head. Provided if it could track the tilting, not only it actually fails to provide the viewer with any stereoscopic views, but also it fails to correctly fuse right images and left images with each other, thus viewers observe a double image.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is addressed to overcome the problems as described above. Thus it is an object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic image display apparatus which is capable of changing the display mode between a stereoscopic image display and a normal plane image display when it is hard to present a stereoscopic view of images to viewer due to their postures. Another object of the present invention is to provide a stereoscopic image display apparatus which is capable of simultaneously presenting a stereoscopic image display for one viewer and a normal plane image display for another viewer.
In order to achieve the above object, a stereoscopic image display apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes a light source defined a light-cells for providing plural pairs of right and left lights, a spatial modulator for spatially modulating the right and left lights from the light source so as to focus the right and left lights on eyes of a plurality of viewers, and a display mode changer for changing a display mode between a stereoscopic image display mode an a normal plane image display mode in accordance with location of the viewers.
A stereoscopic image display apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention includes a light source defined a light-cells for providing plural pairs of right and left lights, a spatial modulator for spatially modulating the right and left lights from the light source so as to focus the right and left lights on eyes of a plurality of viewers, a display mode changer for changing a display mode between a stereoscopic image display mode and a normal plane image display mode in accordance with locations the viewers, and a lighting controller for controlling the right and left light-cells to alternately light with each other in synchronism with the alternating lighting of the right and left lights when the display mode changer selects the stereoscopic image display mode and to simultaneously light with each other for displaying either one of the right and left images when the display mode changer selects the normal plane image display.
A stereoscopic image display apparatus according to still another aspect of the present invention includes a light source defined as light-cells for providing plural pairs of right and left lights, a first spatial modulator for spatially modulating the right light from the light source so as to focus the right light on right eyes of a plurality of viewers and a second spatial modulator for spatially modulating the left light from the light source so as to focus the left light on left eyes of a plurality of viewers, a display mode changer for changing a display mode between a stereoscopic image display mode and a normal plane image display mode in accordance with locations the viewers, and a lighting controller for designating to light the right and left light-cells so as to address lights spatially modulated by the first spatial modulator to the right eyes of the viewers and the other lights spatially modulated by the second spatial modulator to the left eyes of the viewers when the display mode changer selects the stereoscopic image display mode and to address the lights spatially modulated by either of the first and second spatial modulators to both the right and left eyes of the viewers when the display mode changers selects the normal plane image display mode.
Addition objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to persons skilled in the art from a study of the following description and the accompanying drawings, which are hereby incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5036385 (1991-07-01), Eichenlaub
patent: 5132839 (1992-07-01), Travis
patent: 5311220 (1994-05-01), Eichenlaub
patent: 5465175 (1995-11-01), Woodgate et al.
patent: 5-244643 (1993-09-01), None
patent: 7013105 (1995-01-01), None
Chang Audrey
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Pillsbury Madison & Sutro LLP
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