Patent Application
20080310185
1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates to displays for mobile communication devices.
2. Introduction
It is desirable to change the appearance of the exterior of a mobile communication device for functional or appearance reasons. One of the key drivers for mobile communication devices is morphable interfaces that change the number or type of buttons on the exterior of a mobile device as the use case (phone, camera, music player) changes. This can be accomplished by using low resolution or segmented display technologies. These could include liquid crystal, electrophoretic, and organic LED, among others. However, these methods require electrodes and active materials to be deposited in these regions. What is needed is a lighting scheme that allows the same functionality to be achieved with a low cost structure.
An apparatus that provides lighting for a user interface in a mobile communication device is disclosed. The apparatus may include a planar lightguide, at least one light source located adjacent to the planar lightguide, a plurality of optical structures having at least a first section of optical structures disposed on the surface of the planar lightguide and a second section of optical structures disposed on the surface of the planar lightguide separate from the first section of optical structures, wherein the first section of optical structures is configured to cause a first boundary behavior of light associated with the bending of light paths, and the second section of optical structures is configured to cause a second boundary behavior of light associated with the bending of light paths.
In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the disclosure can be obtained, a more particular description of the disclosure briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the disclosure and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the disclosure will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosure. The features and advantages of the disclosure may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the disclosure as set forth herein.
Various embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
The disclosure comprises a variety of embodiments, such as a method and apparatus and other embodiments that relate to the basic concepts of the disclosure.
This disclosure concerns an addressable lighting element for a user interface in a mobile communication device. In particular, a single layer planar lightguide may be created that is addressable either by wavelength or geometry. In the wavelength addressable scheme, the outcoupling of light may be created by diffractive or holographic optical structures. By choosing the grating spacing appropriately, only selected areas will be illuminated perpendicular to the planar lightguide when a particular wavelength light source such as an LED is illuminated.
By using multiple light sources of differing input angles, an addressable lighting element may also be created. This addressing scheme is achieved by using directional outcoupling of light where parallel optical structures (diffractive, refractive, or reflective) are oriented largely perpendicular to a predominantly collimated light source. By using different orientations of the optical structures, an addressable lighting element is created.
The disclosure solves the problem of achieving a thin, inexpensive means of changing the user interface or decorative features of an electronic device. Other means of achieving this effect such may employ active display technologies such as liquid crystal, electrophoretic, electroluminescent, etc. These methods require structures such as electrodes and active materials to be incorporated in the region where the interface will be changing. A passive diffractive approach which could be embossed on a single sheet of plastic is potentially lower cost and may also provide greater design freedom. For example, the plastic sheet may be sufficiently thin so that it is flexible.
The mobile communication device 100 may be a portable MP3 player, satellite radio receiver, AM/FM radio receiver, satellite television, portable music player, portable laptop, portable computer, e-book, wireless radio, wireless telephone, portable digital video recorder, cellular telephone, mobile telephone, or personal digital assistant PDA), combinations of the above, for example.
The casing 110 may be made at any durable material synthetic or metal capable of housing components of the mobile communication device 100. User interface 290 may include one or more conventional input mechanisms that permit a user to input information, communicate with the mobile communication device 100, and/or present information to the user, such as a an electronic display, microphone, touchpad, keypad, keyboard, mouse, pen, stylus, voice recognition device, buttons, one or more speakers, etc.
Processor 220 may include at least one conventional processor or microprocessor that interprets and executes instructions. Memory 230 may be a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storage device that stores information and instructions for execution by processor 220. Memory 230 may also include a read-only memory (ROM) which may include a conventional ROM device or another type of static storage device that stores static information and instructions for processor 220.
Transceiver 250 may include one or more transmitters and receivers. The transceiver 250 may include sufficient functionality to interface with any network or communications station and may be defined by hardware or software in any manner known to one of skill in the art. The processor 220 is cooperatively operable with the transceiver 250 to support operations within the communications network. The transceiver 250 transmits and receives transmissions via one or more of the antennae 240 in a manner known to those of skill in the art.
Communication interface 260 may include any mechanism that facilitates communication via the network 110. For example, communication interface 260 may include a modem. Alternatively, communication interface 260 may include other mechanisms for assisting the transceiver 250 in communicating with other devices and/or systems via wireless connections.
The user interface 120 is described above with respect to
The mobile communication device 100 may perform such functions in response to processor 220 and lighting controller 280 by executing sequences of instructions contained in a computer-readable medium, such as, for example, memory 230. Such instructions may be read into memory 230 from another computer-readable medium, such as a storage device or from a separate device via communication interface 260.
For example, in
With regard to the grating spacing, from the conservation of momentum, the grating equation may be given by,
mλ=d{n
w.g. sin θinc+nout sin θout},
where m in an integer, λ is the wave length, d is a grating period, nw.g is refraction index of the wave guide material, nout is that of outside (e.g., air=1), θinc is the incident angle from the wave guide side and θout is the out-coupling angle. Oinc is larger than the critical angle ow lightguide: θc=sin−1(nout/nw.g)˜42°.
Even for small periodicity grating (thus limited range of m), it is possible to satisfy the above equation for the same θinc but different λ.
For example, d=500 nm, θinc=60° and nw.g=1.5 give θout=36.8°, −17.4°, 0.1° for λ=350 nm, 500 nm and 650 nm, respectively. In this case, the order is limited to m=1 for all λ (for a large d, multiple m thus multiple θout will be possible). Therefore, it is possible to extract light having different wavelength from the planar lightguide 300 by the grating having the same periodicity. Conversely, light having the same wavelength can be extracted out of the planar lightguide 300 by grating having different periodicity.
Thus, a spec based on the grating period alone gives selectivity only in the out-coupling angle θout. Out-coupling selectivity among the different wavelength will exist only at the fixed viewing angle.
Located adjacent to the planar lightguide 400 are light sources 410, 420. Light sources 410, 420 may be arranged perpendicular to each other. The optical structures 430 are positioned with different orientations to the light sources 410, 420 so that the light will be emitted parallel to some of the grating lines and perpendicular to others. The geometric orientation of the optical structures 430 illuminates different portions of the planar lightguide 400.
By way of example,
Note that one of skill in the art may appreciate that additional optical layers may be present above or below the planar lightguide 300, 400 in accordance with the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, additional layers on the top may serve help to change the appearance of the emitted light by diffusing it, changing the viewing angle, etc. Additional layers below the diffractive display may serve to absorb or reflect light from the planar lightguide 300,400, for example. Both the top and bottom layers may be directly bonded to the planar lightguide 300, 400, or have an intervening air gap, for example.
At step 5300, the process disposes a plurality of optical structures 310, 430 having at least a first section of optical structures disposed on the surface of the planar lightguide and a second section of optical structures disposed on the surface of the planar lightguide separate from the first section of optical structures. Note that more than two sections may exist on the planar lightguide within the spirit and scope of the invention.
For example, in
The first section of optical structures may be configured to cause a first boundary behavior of light associated with the bending of light paths, and the second section of optical structures may be configured to cause a second boundary behavior of light associated with the bending of light paths. The process goes to step 5400, and ends.
038 Although the above description may contain specific details, they should not be construed as limiting the claims in any way. Other configurations of the described embodiments of the disclosure are part of the scope of this disclosure. For example, the principles of the disclosure may be applied to each individual user where each user may individually deploy such a system. This enables each user to utilize the benefits of the disclosure even if any one of the large number of possible applications do not need the functionality described herein. It does not necessarily need to be one system used by all end users. Accordingly, the appended claims and their legal equivalents should only define the disclosure, rather than any specific examples given.
