Patent Application
20050168728
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electronic displays, and, more particularly, to a projection device employing a plurality of lasers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some optical devices require two or more lasers to be projected to a common location. For example, in a color laser projection device, three lasers may be arranged to project on a single, common location. Each of the three lasers has a unique color component and its intensity may be controlled to vary the hue of the combined light appearing at the single, common location. A relatively complex color display may be produced by scanning the light from the three lasers in a two-dimensional array while controllably energizing each of the lasers.
Typically, the three lasers are arranged optically and/or mechanically to produce three collinear beams of light prior to being delivered to an optical/mechanical scanning system. In this manner, the three beams of light are scanned in the two-dimensional array with consistent and accurate alignment therebetween.
Such systems, however, have significant shortcomings, particularly regarding mass production and accuracy over distance. That is, extremely precise alignment of the lasers is required to insure that the beams of light remain collinear over even relatively short distances. For example, when transmitting the laser light over a distance of about ten inches an angular alignment of about 0.02 degrees between each of the laser beams is required to ensure that the laser beams arrive at the single, common point. This precise alignment is difficult to achieve in mass production, and, moreover, may be subject to variations that arise after manufacture is complete. For example, the mechanical/optical alignment may vary owing to “rough” handling of the device. Alternatively, variations in environmental temperature may likewise produce undesirable variations in the mechanical/optical alignment.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing, the effects of one or more of the problems set forth above.
In one aspect of the instant invention, a method is provided. The method comprises controllably aligning at least two lasers within a display device.
The invention may be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals identify like elements, and in which:
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Illustrative embodiments of the invention are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
The following co-pending applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety: Method and Apparatus for Controllably Reducing Power Delivered by a Laser Projection Display, by Mik Stern et. al.; Method and Apparatus for Displaying Information in Automotive Applications Using a Laser Projection Display, by Narayan Nambudiri et. al.; Method and Apparatus for Providing an Interface Between a Liquid Crystal Display Controller and a Laser Projection Display, by Narayan Nambudiri et. al.; A Color Laser Projection Display by Paul Dvorkis et. al.; Method and Apparatus for Capturing Images Using A Color Laser Projection Display, by Chinh Tan et. al.; Method and Apparatus for Conserving Power in a Laser Projection Display, By Fred Wood et. al.; A Laser Projection Display, by Ron Goldman et. al.; Method and Apparatus for Controllably Compensating for Distortions in a Laser Projection Display, by Carl Wittenberg et. al.; and Method and Apparatus for Controllably Modulating a Laser in a Laser Projection Display, by Dmitriy Yavid et. al.
Turning now to the drawings, and specifically referring to
The lasers 102, 104, 106 are arranged in a common plane 114 with the beams of light 108, 110, 112 being angularly directed relatively to one another to fall on a substantially common location 116 on a first scanning device, such as a first scanning mirror 118, from where they are reflected as beams of light 120, 122, 124. In the illustrated embodiment, the first scanning mirror 118 oscillates on an axis 120 at a relatively high rate (e.g., 20-30 kHZ). Rotation or oscillation of the first scanning mirror 118 causes the beams of light 108, 110, 112 to be moved. That is, as the angular position of the first scanning mirror 118 alters, so to does the angle of reflection of the beams of light 120, 122, 124 from the first scanning mirror 118. Thus, as the mirror oscillates the reflected beams of light 120, 122, 124 are scanned to produce movement of the beams of light 120, 122, 124 along one component of the two-dimensional display.
The second component of the two-dimensional display is produced by a second scanning device, such as a mirror 126. In the illustrated embodiment, the second mirror 126 is coupled to a motor 128 at a pivot point 130 so as to produce rotational or oscillating movement about an axis that is substantially orthogonal to the axis of rotation of the first mirror 118. The beams of light 120, 122, 124 are reflected off of the second mirror 126 as beams of light 132, 134, 136 and directed to a viewing surface 138. The viewing surface may take on any of a variety of forms without departing from the spirit and scope of the instant invention.
The second mirror oscillates or rotates at a relatively slow rate, as compared to the rate of the first mirror 118 (e.g., 60 hz). Thus, it will be appreciated that, as shown in
While the instant invention is described herein in the context of an embodiment that employs separate first and second scanning mirrors 118, 126, those skilled in the art will appreciate that a similar path 140 may be produced by using a single mirror. The single mirror would be capable of being moved about two axis of rotation to provide the fast and slow oscillating movements along two orthogonal axes.
As is apparent from
Turning now to
Thus, through the operation of the controller 142, the beams of light 120, 122 are substantially collinear, but are slightly displaced in time. That is, the beams of light 120, 122 will now both be projected onto substantially the same point on the display surface 138, but at slightly different times. However, owing to the persistence of the human eye, the variation in timing is not detectable. That is, in the case of the three laser system described in
Turning now to
In block 402, the controller 142 determines the time at which each of the lasers is to be energized. The determination of the timing may be accomplished in any of a variety of conventional manners, such as via a look-up table, via a mathematical algorithm or the like. This technique can be used during a calibration after manufacture. Ordinarily, this timing may be relatively fixed. That is, the timing may be established at the end of the manufacturing process by a factory technician, and thereafter, the controller may simply use these factory determined settings.
It may be useful, however, to allow a technician or even a consumer to periodically make adjustments to the timing to account for mechanical changes in the system 100 that arise from environmental conditions, such as temperature or harsh treatment. Since the timing variations may be accomplished by storing the timing requirements in non-volatile memory, a routine may be established to allow these settings to be altered as needed. That is a software routine may be included to project preselected tuning patterns (such as a cross pattern for each color laser) on the viewing surface. A service technician or consumer may then indicate to the controller (by depressing a preselected sequence of buttons) that the tuning patterns need to be adjusted to cause them to overlap properly. The controller 142 may then use the technician or consumer supplied information to alter the timing of the lasers.
Finally, in block 403, the controller 142 uses the determined timing and intensity for each of the lasers and controllably energizes the lasers to produce the desired hue at the present location on the viewing surface. The control routine 400 is continuously repeated for numerous points along the path 140 to effectively reproduce a picture on the viewing surface.
It should be appreciated that the controller 142 may compensate for the “known” angular positions of the lasers 102, 104, 106, but also for “unknown” variations in the positions of the lasers 102, 104, 106. That is, as illustrated in
Unless specifically stated otherwise, or as is apparent from the discussion, terms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical, electronic quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system's memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various system layers, routines, or modules illustrated in the various embodiments herein may be executable control units. The control units may include a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor, a processor card (including one or more microprocessors or controllers), or other control or computing devices. The storage devices referred to in this discussion may include one or more machine-readable storage media for storing data and instructions. The storage media may include different forms of memory including semiconductor memory devices such as dynamic or static random access memories (DRAMs or SRAMs), erasable and programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable and programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs) and flash memories; magnetic disks such as fixed, floppy, removable disks; other magnetic media including tape; and optical media such as compact disks (CDs) or digital video disks (DVDs). Instructions that make up the various software layers, routines, or modules in the various systems may be stored in respective storage devices. The instructions when executed by the control units cause the corresponding system to perform programmed acts.
The particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as the invention may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings herein. Furthermore, no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. Consequently, the method, system and portions thereof and of the described method and system may be implemented in different locations, such as the wireless unit, the base station, a base station controller and/or mobile switching center. Moreover, processing circuitry required to implement and use the described system may be implemented in application specific integrated circuits, software-driven processing circuitry, firmware, programmable logic devices, hardware, discrete components or arrangements of the above components as would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art with the benefit of this disclosure. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the claims below.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60533929 | Dec 2003 | US |
