This application claims the benefit of the Chinese Patent Application No. 201610707435.9 filed on Aug. 23, 2016 in the State Intellectual Property Office of China, the whole disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments of The present disclosure generally relate to the field of display technologies, and particularly, to an optical grating and a 3D display device.
With continuous development of display technologies, 3D (three dimensional) display has become an important developing tendency in the display domain. 3D products become more and more popular, and 3D displays gradually go into the public family. In recent years, 3D display technologies achieve 3D display mainly by means of stereoscopic spectacles. In order to further improve viewing comfort and get rid of restraints of the stereoscopic spectacles, people have continuously attempted to view 3D images/videos through naked eyes, which has rapidly become one of current research focuses.
Currently, naked-eye 3D display technologies mainly include a light barrier type (also called as parallax barrier type) and a lenticular lens type, where lenticular lens technologies are higher in production cost due to being not compatible with existing LCD manufacturing processes and are very difficult in promotion and popularization. In the parallax barrier type naked-eye 3D technologies, a layer of optical grating barrier is added at a display side of a display panel, the optical grating comprising light shielding stripes and light transmission stripes alternately arranged. In a stereoscopic display mode, under shielding effect of the optical grating, a left eye image formed by left eye pixels enters the left eye of an observer, while a right eye image formed by right eye pixels enters the right eye of the observer. The left eye image and the right eye image are superposed and synthesized in human brain, such that the observer can obtain depth perception, thereby achieving 3D display.
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an optical grating and a 3D display device, which enable an optimal viewing region of the grating to be extended in a longitudinal direction, thereby improving viewing experience.
In an aspect of the present disclosure, an embodiment provides an optical grating, comprising a plurality of grating units arranged from a center of the optical grating towards two sides thereof, values of grating periods of a plurality of said grating units on either side of the center being non-linearly decreased progressively from the center to the side.
In an embodiment, the optical grating includes a plane grating.
In an embodiment, the grating period, Wn, of the nth grating unit starting from the center of the plane grating, is:
where WT is a total width of the plane grating; N is the number of the grating units on either side of the center of the plane grating; a1, a2, . . . , aN are user-defined coefficients for grating periods of the respective grating units on either side of the center of the plane grating and satisfy a linearly progressive decreasing relation.
In an embodiment, the optical grating includes a curved grating.
In an embodiment, the grating period, Wn, of the nth grating unit starting from the center of the curved grating, is:
where R is a curvature radius of the curved grating; θ is a central angle of the curved grating; N is the number of the grating units on either side of the center of the curved grating; a1, a2, . . . , aN are user-defined coefficients for grating periods of the respective grating units on either side of the center of the curved grating and satisfy a linearly progressive decreasing relation.
In an embodiment, 0.9≦aN/a1<1.
In an embodiment, the optical grating includes a liquid crystal grating.
In an embodiment, the liquid crystal grating comprises a first substrate and a second substrate arranged opposite to each other, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, and electrodes arranged on a side of at least one of the first substrate and the second substrate facing the liquid crystal layer, the electrodes are configured and arranged to, when being applied with a voltage, control transmission of light through the liquid crystal layer at different positions such that a liquid crystal grating is formed with a plurality of light shielding stripes and a plurality of light transmission stripes alternately arranged, and grating periods of a plurality of grating units defined by the light shielding stripes and the light transmission stripes of the liquid crystal grating are non-linearly decreased progressively from the center of the liquid crystal grating towards either side thereof.
In an embodiment, the optical grating comprises a plurality of light shielding stripes and a plurality of light transmission stripes alternately arranged, and
if the center of the optical grating is located at an interface between a light shielding stripe and a light transmission stripe adjacent thereto, the grating period of each of the grating units is equal to a sum of widths of one light shielding stripe and one light transmission stripe located adjacent to each other on a same side of the center of the optical grating;
if the center of the optical grating is located at a center of the light shielding stripe, the grating period of each of the grating units is equal to a width from a center of one light shielding stripe to a center of a next light shielding stripe located at the same side of the center of the optical grating as the one light shielding stripe; and
if the center of the optical grating is located at a center of the light transmission, the grating period of each of the grating units is equal to a width from a center of one light transmission stripe to a center of a next light transmission stripe located at the same side of the center of the optical grating as the one light transmission stripe.
In an embodiment, an aperture ratio of the optical grating is 0.3.
In an embodiment, the values of the grating units are within a range from 6 microns to 500 microns.
In another aspect of the present disclosure, an embodiment provides a 3D display device, comprising a display panel and the optical grating as described in any of embodiments of the present disclosure, the optical grating being arranged at a light exit side of the display panel.
Further aspects and features will become apparent from the description made herein. It should be understood that respective aspects, embodiments and /or features of the present disclosure may be implemented in combination with one or more other aspects, embodiments and/or features. It should also be understood that the description and specific embodiments described herein are merely provided for purpose of illustration and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
The drawings described herein are only used to illustrate exemplary embodiments, rather than all embodiments, of the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
Throughout the drawings, the like reference numerals refer to the like elements or features.
In order to make objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present disclosure more clear, the present disclosure will now be further described specifically with reference to the accompanying drawings. Apparently, the described embodiments are just some, rather than all, of the embodiments of the present disclosure. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments described in the present disclosure without making creative work fall within the scope of the present disclosure.
In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawing.
As shown in
As can be seen from above, 3D display is obtained in the conventional 3D by using an optical grating with grating units having grating periods which have magnitudes equal to one another. Such optical grating will form a smaller optimal viewing region in front of the screen, thus when the observer moves back and forth, he/she will easily leave the optimal viewing region and thus obtains a poor viewing effect. In embodiments of the present disclosure embodiment, an optical grating is provided such that grating periods of its grating units are non-linearly decreased progressively from the center of the optical grating to either side thereof respectively, so when such optical grating is applied for 3D display, the optimal viewing region can be extended in a longitudinal direction, thereby the viewing experience can be improved.
It is noted that in the optical grating shown in
In an exemplary embodiment, the optical grating may include a plane grating. Values of respective grating periods may be calculated based on a total width of the optical grating and non-linear coefficients corresponding to the respective grating periods.
where WT is a total width of the plane grating. The coefficients a1, a2, . . . , aN satisfy a linearly progressive decreasing relation, thus as can be seen from the equation (1) that the coefficient,
formed by these coefficients is a non-linear coefficient, which is decreased progressively from n=1 to n=N. Therefore, when the total width of the optical grating is known, magnitudes of grating periods of respective grating units of the plane grating may be obtained based on the equation (1) by assigning the coefficients a1, a2, . . . , aN with specific values.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the coefficient a1 and aN may be set such that 0.9≦aN/a1<1.
Table 1 shows the grating period W1 and the grating period WN of the optical grating for use in two different sized-3D display devices when aN: a1=0.995:1.
In another exemplary embodiment, the optical grating may includes a curved grating.
where θ is a central angle of the curved grating, and R is a curvature radius of the curved grating. The formed coefficient,
is a non-linear coefficient. Therefore, when θ and R are known, magnitudes of grating periods of respective grating units of the plane grating may be obtained by assigning the coefficients a1, a2, . . . , aN with specific values.
In an embodiment, the optical grating may include a liquid crystal grating.
In other embodiments, the optical grating may include other types of optical gratings except the liquid crystal grating, for example, an optical grating formed by engraving a number of parallel notches in a glass sheet, where the notch is formed as a light shielding stripe while a portion between two notches is formed as a light transmission stripe.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the grating periods of the optical grating may be set to match with sizes of pixels, for example, each grating period may be set in an order of magnitude from 6 microns to 500 microns.
In an example, the aperture ratio of the optical grating is about 0.3, that is, for each grating period, the width of a corresponding light transmission stripe is set to be about 30% of the grating period. With this setting for width, a better display effect may be achieved.
In an embodiment according to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is further provided a 3D display device.
In the 3D display device provided in embodiments of the present disclosure, grating periods of the grating units of the optical grating are arranged to be non-linearly decreased progressively from a center of the optical grating towards either side thereof, such that the optimal viewing region may be extended in a longitudinal direction, thereby enabling a better viewing experience.
Unless otherwise explicitly indicated in the context, a singular form of a words used in the description and the attached claims includes plural, vice versa. Thus, when a singular form is mentioned, its corresponding plural is generally included. Similarly, wordings such as “include” and “comprise” will be interpreted as inclusion rather than being exclusive. Also, words “and” and “or” shall be interpreted as inclusion, unless such interpretation is otherwise expressly excluded herein. Phrase “example” used herein, especially, used after a group of words, is only exemplary and illustrative, and should not be regarded as being exclusive or general.
The foregoing description of the embodiments is provided for purposes of explanation and illustration, and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present disclosure. Elements or features in particular embodiments are generally limited to be used in the particular embodiments, rather in suitable situations, may be interchangeable and may be used in other embodiments, even these are not particularly shown or described. Also, there are various forms of modifications, which are made without departing from spirit and scopes of the disclosure and are included within scopes of the present disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
201610707435.9 | Aug 2016 | CN | national |