Claims
- 1. A method for creating multiple cones of light from a single light source, comprising:
integrating a light beam from a light source; splitting the integrated light beam into at least two cones of light, the cones of light having complimentary intensity distributions; and directing each cone of light onto a spatial light modulator.
- 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
reflecting the cones of light off the spatial light modulators; combining the reflected cones of light; and projecting the combined light.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the light beam is integrated using an integrator rod.
- 4. The method of claim 1 where the light beam is split into cones of light using knife edge mirror.
- 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the knife edge mirror is a beam splitter cube.
- 6. The method of claim 5 wherein the beam splitter cube has mirror portions and transparent portions distributed substantially equally.
- 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the light beam is split into cones of light using an total internal reflection prism.
- 8. The method of claim 2 wherein the cones of light are combined using a spatial beam splitter.
- 9. The method of claim 8 wherein the spatial beam splitter is a beam splitter cube.
- 10. The method of claim 8 wherein the spatial beam splitter has mirror portions and transparent portions distributed substantially equally.
- 11. The method of claim 8 wherein the spatial beam splitter has mirror portions and transparent portions distributed substantially equally in a checkerboard pattern.
- 12. The method of claim 8 wherein the spatial beam splitter has mirror portions and transparent portions distributed substantially equally in a longitudinal strip pattern.
- 13. The method of claim 8 wherein the spatial beam splitter has mirror portions and transparent portions distributed substantially equally in a concentric circular pattern.
- 14. The method of claim 2 wherein the cones of light are combined using a total internal reflection prism.
- 15. The method of claim 1 wherein the spatial light modulator is a liquid crystal array.
- 16. The method of claim 1 wherein the spatial light modulator is a deformable mirror device.
- 17. A display system, comprising:
a light source; an integrator rod receiving a light beam from the light source and producing an integrated light beam; a beam splitting device splitting the integrated light beam into at least a first cone of light and a second cone of light, the cones of light having complementary intensity distributions; and at least a first spatial light modulator and a second spatial light modulator, wherein the first spatial light modulator is capable of selectively reflecting portions of the first cone of light in an ON direction and the second spatial light modulator is capable of selectively reflecting portions of the second cone of light in an ON direction.
- 18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:
a combining device for combining the selectively reflected portions of the cones of light in the ON direction; and projection optics for projecting the combined reflected cones of light.
- 19. The system of claim 17 further comprising front end relay optics for receiving the integrated light beam and transmitting the integrated light beam to the beam splitting device.
- 20. The system of claim 17 further comprising:
a first back end relay optics for receiving the first cone of light and transmitting the first cone of light to the first spatial light modulator; and a second back end relay optics for receiving the second cone of light and transmitting the second cone of light to the second spatial light modulator.
- 21. The system of claim 19 further comprising:
a first front end relay optics for receiving the first cone of light reflected in the ON direction by the first spatial light modulator and transmitting the first cone of light reflected in the ON direction to the combining device; and a second front end relay optics for receiving the second cone of light reflected in the ON direction by the second spatial light modulator and transmitting the second cone of light reflected in the ON direction to the combining device.
- 22. The system of claim 17 wherein the beam splitting device is a knife edge mirror.
- 23. The system of claim 17 wherein the knife edge mirror is a beam splitter cube.
- 24. The system of claim 23 wherein the beam splitter cube has mirror portions and transparent portions distributed substantially equally.
- 25. The system of claim 19 wherein the beam splitting device is an total internal reflection prism.
- 26. The system of claim 19 wherein the spatial light modulators are liquid crystal arrays.
- 27. The system of claim 19 wherein the spatial light modulators are deformable mirror devices.
- 28. The system of claim 20 wherein the combining device is a spatial beam splitter.
- 29. The system of claim 28 wherein the spatial beam splitter is a beam splitter cube.
- 30. The system of claim 28 wherein the spatial beam splitter has mirror portions and transparent portions distributed substantially equally.
- 31. The system of claim 28 wherein the spatial beam splitter has mirror portions and transparent portions distributed substantially equally in a checkerboard pattern.
- 32. The system of claim 28 wherein the spatial beam splitter has mirror portions and transparent portions distributed substantially equally in a longitudinal strip pattern.
- 33. The system of claim 28 wherein the spatial beam splitter has mirror portions and transparent portions distributed substantially equally in a concentric circular pattern.
- 34. The system of claim 20 wherein the combining device is a total internal reflection prism.
Priority Claims (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
0009590.1 |
Apr 2000 |
GB |
|
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims priority to U.K. provisional application Serial No. 0009590.1, filed Apr. 18, 2000, and U.S. provisional application Serial No. 60/198,614, filed Apr. 20, 2000, which documents are incorporated herein by this reference.
PCT Information
Filing Document |
Filing Date |
Country |
Kind |
PCT/US01/12613 |
4/18/2001 |
WO |
|