AUTO STEREOSCOPIC PROJECTOR SCREEN
A projector system using a screen comprised of either a plurality of miniature, reflective, and concave or convex curved surfaces that are arranged in a pattern to create a screen surface for front projection, or a plurality of miniature, transparent, and curved convex or concave lenses that are arranged in a pattern to create a screen surface for rear projection, and a projector system with the pixel capacity to control the color and brightness focused onto many different subsections of each curved surface. Each curved lens or curved mirror surface is small enough so that when viewed from the viewing area, the lit and unlit areas seen within each individual curved surface blend together so that only the average brightness and color of each curved surface can be seen by a viewer. By controlling the subsections of each curved surface with focused light from a high resolution projector, the system can control the image the viewer sees in their left eye separately from their right eye and the viewer can see stereographic images without the need to wear filtering glasses. With inclusion of an external head tracking system, the left/right images for each subsection can be switched as needed when one or multiple viewers move their head or seating position within the viewing area.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/759,409, filed Feb. 1, 2013.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe Present invention relates to front projector and rear projector screens and high resolution projectors that together allow for large-screen stereographic viewing.
Viewing of large screen stereographic imagery generated from a front or rear projector source has been accomplished previously by employing different filtering techniques in order to separate the left eye's image from the right eye's image. Active shutter glasses have been used with polarized projector sources along with timed flashes on screen to separate the images for the left and right eye. Other methods include dual passive projection, anaglyph 3D, and separation of color spectrum. All of these methods require the viewer to wear glasses to view a large-screen projected image in stereo.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention allows multiple viewers to perceive a stereo image from a flat or curved front or rear projection screen without the need for glasses and without requiring a fixed position within the designed viewing area. This is accomplished by use of a screen comprised of either a plurality of miniature reflective curved surfaces, or a plurality of curved and transparent lenses stacked in an array to make a screen. Working with this screen is a projector with a pixel resolution capable of controlling the light focused onto many subsections of each curved surface or curved lens. The invention works and relies on several critical elements. Because the screen is made of either totally reflective curved surfaces, or totally transparent lenses, there is no diffusion, so in a darkened room with a projector on the only bright section on each curved surface would be a miniature reflection of the projector's objective lens. Because of the curvature of the lens or reflective surface, this miniature objective lens image will appear to move across the surface of each curved surface as a viewer moves their eye position within the designed viewing area. If they are close enough to the screen, the distance between their eyes is great enough that the objective lens image seen by each eye is located on a spatially separated position on each curve when looked at through one eye compared to the other, and the same is true for every curved lens or curved reflective surface making the screen. By focusing different pixel information on these physically different spaces on each curve, the perceived color and brightness of each curved lens or curved reflective surface of the screen can be different for every eye for every viewer of the screen. Furthermore, despite the screen image seen by each eye being comprised entirely of controlled objective lens images, because each curved lens or curved reflective surface is as small or smaller than the smallest detail a human being can resolve from the viewing distance, the lit section of each curve seen by a viewer would average and blend with the unlit sections, so that no gaps or images of objective lenses will be seen, and instead only regular screen images.
To lower the manufacturing requirements, several methods of lowering the pixel requirements for the present invention are described as alternative embodiments. An embodiment of the invention which uses a screen comprised of a plurality of curved transparent lenses instead of a plurality of curved reflective surfaces to allow for rear-projection will also be described as an alternative embodiment.
When focused projector light from projector 8 hits concave facet 1, the light will enter as shown in
Concave facet 1 has been rotated horizontally 12.1 degrees counterclockwise from a top-down view. Concave facet 5 is identical to 1, except it has been rotated clockwise 12.1 degrees. Concave facet 2 has been rotated horizontally 6.05 degrees counterclockwise, and concave facet 4 6.05 degrees clockwise. Center concave facet 3 has not been horizontally rotated. Except for center concave facet 3, all concave facets making up this described embodiment of the invention have been rotated horizontally so that their reflected light is redirected to the center of the viewing area, and expanded. Due to this, viewers 6 and 7 are able to see one visibly lit section within each eye for each concave facet. Furthermore, due to the size of each concave facet being as small as the human eye is able to resolve, the visible and non-visible sections of each facet will blend together when viewed from the viewing area, so that the viewer does not see any gaps or areas of the screen that are unlit and instead only sees a solid screen in each eye.
Returning to
Turning now to
Five concave facets from the center vertical column have been selected from this screen and labeled 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 and each has a separate magnified top-down view showing the concave facet, and a small section of its adjacent concave facets at this position. Concave facet 27 is shown in
In
Two concave facets from the center horizontal row of the screen have been magnified and shown in their own view. Concave facet 41 is shown in
Returning to
In
Returning to
Projector 49 in
Similarly, returning to
50 uses a sensor system to track the eye positions for 44 and 43, so that as they move within the viewing area 49 will know what sections of what concave facets effect which viewer's eye, and adjusts so that the correct view is always in the correct eye.
In
To lower the pixel requirements of the screen of the present invention, a projector capable of 92160×1080 resolution can also provide large-screen stereoscopic viewing for multiple viewers. One downside to this approach though is that since the vertical resolution has been lowered, viewers would not be able to perceive stereographic imagery if they are lying down or predominantly sideways.
If further lowering of the pixel requirements is required, the property of polarization can be used to control stereoscopic views and can be incorporated into conventional projector designs such as 3 panel LCD or 3 CHIP DLP.
LCD panels 60, 61, and 62 are outputting two 1920×1080 60 hz images every second by rapidly switching between the images. Every horizontal pixel of electronic polarizers 63, 64, and 65 is synchronized with the imagers so that it can choose individually which of the 60 hz images to block and which 60 hz image to transmit. As a viewer moves their position in front of the screen of the present invention, the position where their eyes would see the image of the objective lens on each concave facet would change as well. In this alternative embodiment, 60, 61, and 62 would maintain the proper left and right eye images for the viewer as they moved since it can chose by polarization filtering which of the two images to display for every eye of every viewer of the screen so long as they remain upright.
Although this alternative embodiment reduces the pixel requirements for an embodiment of present invention, by limiting it to horizontal filtering, the system cannot compensate for a viewer watching the screen while lying sideways. Additionally, due one of the two images always being blocked by each of the vertically elongated horizontal filters of 63, 64, and 65, the brightness of this alternative embodiment is reduced 50% when viewing stereographic material.
Electronic polarization filters can also be used to employ the same techniques to DLP projectors.
An additional embodiment could also be he use of, a flat electronic polarization filter with a resolution of 92160×1 which can be fixed directly onto the screen of the present invention to allow for manufacture of larger sized pixels to do the filtering. The electronic polarization filter in this case would be the same size as the screen of the present invention and would be attached in front of the screen and in the light path of the projector.
For any of the alternative embodiments mentioned that employ electronic polarization filters, If vertically displaced viewers are needed, additional vertical resolution can be added to the electronic polarization filter(s) which can then choose between two images in vertical sections as well.
Another alternative embodiment to reduce the pixel requirements would be to use a projector of lower resolutions such as 1920×1080 with a refresh rate of 120 hz or higher capable of alternating between p-polarized and s-polarized images at least 120 times per second. By doing so, there would be no sub-pixel control of each concave facet and the screen would respond much like a conventional polarization preserving screen. This could then be combined with polarized glasses that the user could wear when viewing the screen to separate the s and p-polarized 1920×1080 images into a perceived 3D image.
In this described rear projection embodiment, transparent convex lenses are used instead of concave facets in order to provide independent left and right views for viewers of curved screen 8. Other types of lens curves might also be suitable. Each convex lens has been cut down to a square shape, but other shapes can be used depending on the requirements for viewing area.
Light leaving projector 86 is represented by lines 73, 74, 75, and they have arrows on them to show directional movement. 73, 74, 75 leave projector 86 and expand before reflecting off of parabolic mirror 76. Parabolic mirror 76 culminates the light and it then continues as culminated light before reflecting off of parabolic mirror 77. Parabolic mirror 77 de-culminates projector light by redirecting the light towards the center of the viewing area where the viewer in this embodiment is located represented by circle 78. After reflecting off of parabolic mirror 77, light beams 73, 74, and 75 hit an array of convex lens which make up a curved screen embodiment of the invention 79, and it is here that the light is focused projector light. Each convex lens in this embodiment of the invention is 0.106×0.106 centimeters and employed in this arrangement a convex lens will first focus the light that transmits through it, then as the light travels past the focal point and towards the viewing area it expands and becomes the viewing area for the light transmitted through itself. The viewing areas for the convex lenses at positions 80, 81, and 82, are shown as expanding and overlapping beams 83, 84, and 85. Each viewer's eye would see an image of the projector 86′s objective lens in a different position on each convex lens when viewed from the viewing area and because projector 86 has a resolution of 92160×51840, it is able to control the light focused onto 2304 different positions of each convex lens and therefore able to provide independent stereographic views for each viewer of the screen.
The described rear projector embodiment is for a curved section of screen that would fill 1/16th of a spherical rear projection screen.
Claims
1. A projection system where viewers can see the same holographic image from different angles comprising:
- a single projector or group of projectors that can focus pixels on a screen;
- a front projection screen, comprising a flat or curved projection surface, and that surface consisting of an array of reflective concave or convex curved mirrors, whereby each mirror on the screen surface is individually oriented to reflect projector light off of its curved surface and towards the center of the same area where viewers are best located, and when requirements for mirror rotation are more than the overall reflective shape of the screen allows, each individual mirror is rotated to meet the requirements, but it is positioned to be as close too, but not extend beyond an imaginary shape that is the same shape as the desired screen shape and the edges between mirrors are cut to be parallel with the incoming light at each edge position; a multi-user eye tracking system that provides real-time data on viewer eye position and any data read from the projector or group of projectors that may help with synchronization or alignment, to microprocessors that are operated by software that can be built inside the projector or group of projectors, to drive their device imagers, or alternatively the data can be provided to an external computer connected to and operating the device imagers of a single projector, or group of projectors, and the external computer would be operated by software;
2-3. (canceled)
4. A rear projector screen, comprising a spherically curved projection surface, with the projection surface consisting of an array of transparent convex or concave curved lenses, with each lens not significantly diffusing the focused projection light which is refracted and transmitted through it, each convex or concave lens is in a generally square, rectangular, triangular, or hexagonal shape, with each individual lens working best at a size as small as the smallest sized detail a human can resolve on the screen from the desired screen viewing area, and whereby each concave or convex lens on the screen surface is oriented to refract and transmit focused projector light towards the center of the screen viewing area, with the focal distance of the convex or concave lenses determining the size of the resultant screen viewing area, and with each lens arranged side by side on the array in both horizontal and vertical directions so that the outside edges of each convex or concave lens touch, and together cover the entirety of the projection screen surface.
5. A screen based on claim 4, with the addition of an electronic polarization filter placed either in front or behind the array of convex or concave lenses.
6. A screen based on claim 4, with the addition of electronic polarization filters placed in the light path within an accompanying LCD or DLP projector, next to the projection imagers.
7. An auto-stereoscopic projection system capable of displaying the same two-view stereo images for all viewers comprising:
- a single projector or group of projectors that can focus pixels on a screen;
- a front projection screen, comprising a flat or curved projection surface, and that surface consisting of an array of reflective concave or convex curved mirrors, whereby each mirror on the screen surface is individually oriented to reflect projector light off of its curved surface and towards the center of the same area where viewers are best located, and when requirements for mirror rotation are more than the overall reflective shape of the screen allows, each individual mirror is rotated to meet the requirements, but it is positioned to be as close too, but not extend beyond an imaginary shape that is the same shape as the desired screen shape and the edges between mirrors are cut to be parallel with the incoming light at each edge position; a multi-user eye tracking system that provides real-time data on viewer eye position and any data read from the projector or group of projectors that may help with synchronization or alignment, to microprocessors that are operated by software that can be built inside the projector or group of projectors, to drive their device imagers, or alternatively the data can be provided to an external computer connected to and operating the device imagers of a single projector, or group of projectors, and the external computer would be operated by software;
8. An autostereoscopic projection system capable of displaying the same two-view stereo images for all viewers based on claim 7 with the addition of:
- a electronic polarization filter placed near the surface of the front projection screen in front of the side which reflects light, and it can be connected to and controlled by microprocessors, run by software, inside the projector or group of projectors, or connected to microprocessors, run by software, built inside the screen frame, or connected to both locations simultaneously, or it can be connected to and controlled by an external computer, run by software, and that computer is also connected to and controlling a projector or group of projectors;
9. An autostereoscopic projection system capable of displaying the same two-view stereo images for all viewers based on claim 7 with the addition of:
- electronic polarization filters placed in the light path next to the imaging devices inside the single projector or group of projectors that can focus pixels on a screen;
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 19, 2013
Publication Date: Jun 25, 2015
Inventor: Jeremy Richard Nelson (Upper Black Eddy, PA)
Application Number: 14/133,707