Patents Assigned to SeeReal Technologies S.A.
  • Patent number: 10146180
    Abstract: A projection device is provided for displaying at least one of a two-dimensional and three-dimensional scene or of content. The projection device comprises an illumination device, at least two spatial light modulator devices and an optical system. The illumination device comprises at least one light source for generating a holographic illumination. One of said spatial light modulator devices is designed as spatial light modulator device modulating at least the phase of the light for the holographical generation of illumination patterns. This spatial light modulator device as first spatial light modulator device is followed by a second spatial light modulator device. The optical system is disposed to illuminate the second spatial light modulator device with a predefinable light distribution generated by the first spatial light modulator device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2018
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventors: Norbert Leister, Gerald Fuetterer, Bo Kroll, Hagen Stolle
  • Patent number: 10102814
    Abstract: A controllable device for phase modulation of coherent light comprises a modulator matrix having a plurality of liquid crystal modulator cells each being adapted to modulate a phase value of light passing through a liquid crystal modulator cell depending on a voltage, which is applied to the liquid crystal modulator cell; at least one polarity area of said modulator matrix including at least one liquid crystal modulator cell; at least one storage unit for storing at least one pair of voltage values of which one has a positive and the other has a negative polarity for the liquid crystal modulator cells, whereby the pair of voltage values corresponds to a predetermined phase value; and a control unit for selectively applying one pair of voltage values to one liquid crystal modulator cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2018
    Assignees: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A., SHARP CORPORATION
    Inventors: Robert Missbach, Stephan Reichelt, Norbert Leister, Ralf Haussler, Naru Usukura, Hiromi Katoh, Yuichi Kanbayashi
  • Patent number: 9946224
    Abstract: Disclosed is a holographic display including a spatial light modulator (SLM) with pixels, the SLM pixels being on a substrate, the SLM including circuitry which is on the same substrate as the SLM pixels, the circuitry operable to perform calculations which provide an encoding of the SLM.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventors: Bo Kroll, Robert Missbach, Alexander Schwerdtner
  • Patent number: 9927571
    Abstract: An illumination device for illuminating at least one spatial light modulator device. At least one light source device with at least one light source illuminates the at least one spatial light modulator device; a light guiding element through which light emanating from the light source propagates; and at least one light decoupling element arranged on top or inside of the light guiding element. The at least one light decoupling element decouples of a wave field of the light which propagating in the light guiding element into the direction of the spatial light modulator device. The light guiding element has a refractive index which is lower than or at least equal to the refractive index of the at least one light decoupling element. The entrance angle of the wave field entering the light decoupling element is determined by the difference between the refractive indices according to a particular equation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2018
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventor: Gerald Futterer
  • Patent number: 9860943
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a backplane device for a light source matrix. A light source is preferably a LED or an OLED. A pixel circuitry of the backplane device is assigned to a light source of the light source matrix for controlling the light source. One light source and one pixel circuitry constitute a pixel. The pixels of the light source matrix are classified according to a pixel characteristic. The order of switching the light sources on and/or off depends on the pixel characteristic and not necessarily on the location of the pixel on the backplane device. A current being applied to the light sources is controlled by at least one driver. The at least one driver is electrically connectable to at least one pixel. The at least one driver is not belonging to the pixel circuitry of the pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2018
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventor: Robert Missbach
  • Patent number: 9829860
    Abstract: A holographic display device for computing a video hologram of a scene is disclosed. The scene comprises a multitude of object points. The holographic display device comprises at least one light modulator means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventor: Alexander Schwerdtner
  • Patent number: 9810948
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a controllable diffraction device for a light modulator device. The controllable diffraction device comprises at least two substrates, at least one electrode on each of said substrates facing each other, and liquid crystals forming at least one liquid crystal layer arranged between said electrodes on said substrates. The orientation of the liquid crystals is controllable by a voltage supplied to the electrodes. The liquid crystal layer is provided on at least one alignment layer arranged on at least one electrode on said substrates. The liquid crystals close to the alignment layer are pre-oriented by at least one pre-tilt angle relative to the alignment layer such that the resulting light diffraction in opposite spatial directions is approximately equal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignees: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA, SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventors: Naru Usukura, Hiromi Katoh, Yuichi Kanbayashi, Norbert Leister, Ralf Haussler
  • Patent number: 9785114
    Abstract: The layered generation of at least one volume grating in a recording medium by way of exposure, the recording medium having at least one photosensitive layer which is sensitized for a presettable wavelength of the exposure light. Each volume grating is generated in the recording medium by at least two wave fronts of coherent light capable of generating interference, the wave fronts being superposed in the recording medium at a presettable depth, at a presettable angle and with a presettable interference contrast. The depth and the thickness of the refractive index modulation and/or transparency modulation of a volume grating in the recording medium is controlled by depth-specific control of the spatial and/or temporal degree of coherence of the interfering wave fronts in the direction of light propagation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventor: Gerald Fuetterer
  • Patent number: 9746684
    Abstract: For comfortable viewing of a 3-D scene at various viewing angles, a display having a large tracking range for a variable viewer distance is required. A controllable light-influencing element deflects light in coarse steps in a viewer range. Within said steps, the light is deflected by a further controllable light-influencing element continuously or with fine gradation. The light modulation device is suitable in holographic or autostereoscopic displays for guiding the visibility ranges of the image information to be displayed so as to follow the eyes of the viewers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventors: Bo Kroll, Gerald Futterer, Norbert Leister, Stephan Reichelt, Ralf Haussler
  • Patent number: 9671649
    Abstract: A phase modulator for polarized light, comprising a first substrate with a first surface and a second substrate with a second surface, a liquid crystal layer between the two substrates and an electrode arrangement. The phase modulator is usable as a variable deflection grating, and liquid crystal materials which are currently conventional are usable for its production. A phase modulator has an out-of-plane angle of the liquid crystal molecules next to the two surfaces whose magnitude is greater than 0 but less than or equal to 45 degrees, and an electrode arrangement controllable such that an in-plane component of the liquid crystal molecule orientation is adjustable in an angle range of up to 180 degrees, and the rotation sense of the liquid crystal molecules next to the first surface is opposite to the rotation sense of the liquid crystal molecules next to the second surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventor: Norbert Leister
  • Patent number: 9612575
    Abstract: A holographic projection apparatus and a method for magnifying a virtual visibility region, for observing a reconstructed scene with at least one light modulation device and with at least one light source having sufficiently coherent light for generating a wavefront of a scene that is coded in the light modulation device. By means of imaging the wavefront into a viewer plane, it is possible to generate the virtual visibility region for observing the reconstructed scene. The virtual visibility region has at least two virtual viewer windows. In this case, the virtual viewer windows are dimensioned such that the reconstructed scene can always be observed without tracking of the viewer windows upon movement of a viewer in the viewer plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventor: Philippe Renaud-Goud
  • Patent number: 9581965
    Abstract: An analytical method for computing a video hologram for a holographic reproduction device having at least one light modulation means is disclosed, wherein a scene split into object points is encoded as a whole hologram and can be seen as a reconstruction from a visibility region, located within a periodicity interval of the reconstruction. The visibility region, together with each object point of the scene to be reconstructed, defines a sub-hologram and the whole hologram is generated from a superposition of sub-holograms, wherein the complex hologram values of a sub-hologram are determined from the wave front of the respective object point to be reconstructed in a modulator region of the light modulation means, by calculating and evaluating the transmission or modulation functions of an imaging element formed in the modulator region. The object point to be reconstructed is located in the focal point of the imaging element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2017
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventor: Alexander Schwerdtner
  • Patent number: 9581963
    Abstract: A hologram is constructed from individual subholograms assigned to corresponding encoding regions in a light modulation device and respectively assigned to an object point of the object to be reconstructed with the hologram. With a virtual observer window, a defined viewing region is provided through which a reconstructed scene in a reconstruction space is observed by an observer. A complex value of a wavefront for each individual object point is calculated in the virtual observer window. Each individual amplitude of a complex value of a wavefront in the virtual observer window is subsequently multiplied by a correction value with which a correction of the angle selectivity of at least one volume grating arranged downstream in the beam path of the light modulation device is carried out. The corrected complex values determined in this way for all object points are summed and transformed into the hologram plane of the light modulation device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2017
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventor: Norbert Leister
  • Patent number: 9529430
    Abstract: The invention relates to a display, in particular an autostereoscopic or holographic display, for representing preferably three-dimensional information, wherein the stereo views or the reconstructions of the holographically encoded objects can be tracked to the movements of the associated eyes of one or more observers in a finely stepped manner within a plurality of zones of the movement region. In this case, the zones are selected by the activation of switchable polarization gratings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventor: Norbert Leister
  • Patent number: 9529326
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a light modulator device with a spatial light modulator, a structured polarizer means, a controllable polarization means and a light wave multiplexing means. The spatial light modulator comprises discretely addressable modulator cells. Two modulator cells each are combined to form a modulation element. The modulator cells modulate light waves which are capable of generating interference of a propagating light wave field with holographic information in a spatially structured way such that a specifiable spatial distribution of object light points of a three-dimensional scene is holographically reconstructed. The modulator cells of each modulation element are adjacently arranged regarding the direction of propagation of the light wave field. The light which is modulated by adjacently arranged modulator cells is given different polarization states by the structured polarizer means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventors: Bo Kroll, Norbert Leister
  • Patent number: 9448532
    Abstract: Method for computing the code for the reconstruction of three-dimensional scenes which include objects which partly absorb light or sound. The method can be implemented in a computing unit. In order to reconstruct a three-dimensional scene as realistic as possible, the diffraction patterns are computed separately at their point of origin considering the instances of absorption in the scene. The method can be used for the representation of three-dimensional scenes in a holographic display or volumetric display. Further, it can be carried out to achieve a reconstruction of sound fields in an array of sound sources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventors: Enrico Zschau, Nils Pfeifer
  • Patent number: 9442332
    Abstract: A phase modulator for the modulation of the phase of circular polarised light which interacts with the phase modulator. The phase modulator has a first and a second substrate, an electrode arrangement and a liquid crystal layer with liquid crystal molecules. The first substrate is disposed adjacent to the second substrate. The liquid crystal layer is disposed between the two substrates. The first substrate has a first surface, and the second substrate has a second surface. The liquid crystal molecules situated next to the first surface are oriented substantially parallel to the first surface. The liquid crystal molecules situated next to the second surface are oriented substantially perpendicular to the second surface. An in-plane component of the liquid crystal molecule orientation can be set within an angular range of about 180°, e.g. between ?90° and +90° related to a specifiable central orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventors: Bo Kroll, Norbert Leister
  • Patent number: 9406166
    Abstract: The invention relates to a display device, in particular a head-mounted display or hocular, having a spatial light modulator and a controllable light-deflecting device for generating a multiple image of the spatial light modulator, which consists of segments, the multiple image being produced at least with a predefinable number of segments which determines the size of a visible area within which a 3D-scene holographically encoded in the spatial light modulator can be reconstructed for observation by an eye of an observer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventor: Gerald Futterer
  • Patent number: 9395690
    Abstract: A holographic display with an illumination device, an enlarging unit and a light modulator. The illumination device includes at least one light source and a light collimation unit, the light collimation unit collimates the light of the at least one light source and generates a light wave field of the light that is emitted by the light source with a specifiable angular spectrum of plane waves, the enlarging unit is disposed downstream of the light collimation unit, seen in the direction of light propagation, where the enlarging unit comprises includes a transmissive volume hologram realizing an anamorphic broadening of the light wave field due to a transmissive interaction of the light wave field with the volume hologram, and the light modulator is disposed upstream or downstream of the anamorphic enlarging unit, seen in the direction of light propagation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2016
    Assignee: SEEREAL TECHNOLOGIES S.A.
    Inventor: Gerald Futterer
  • Patent number: 9368052
    Abstract: Disclosed is a holographic display including a spatial light modulator with pixels, the SLM pixels being on a substrate, the SLM including circuitry which is on the same substrate as the SLM pixels, the circuitry operable to perform calculations which provide an encoding of the SLM.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2016
    Assignee: SeeReal Technologies S.A.
    Inventors: Bo Kroll, Robert Missbach, Alexander Schwerdtner