Systems and methods for electronically controlling the viewing angle of a display

• Main Author: Gere, David S
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 25.12.2018
• Subjects: DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS, THE OPTICAL OPERATION OF WHICH ISMODIFIED BY CHANGING THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIUM OF THEDEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF THE INTENSITY,COLOUR, PHASE, POLARISATION OR DIRECTION OF LIGHT, e.g.SWITCHING, GATING, MODULATING OR DEMODULATING; FREQUENCY-CHANGING; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; TECHNIQUES OR PROCEDURES FOR THE OPERATION THEREOF

Systems and methods for electronically controlling the viewing angle of a display using liquid crystal optical elements are provided. Each liquid crystal optical element may be associated with a respective scattering module and may selectively steer a device generated light beam to one of two or more scattering regions of its associated scattering module. When a scattering region receives a steered light beam, the steered light beam may be scattered into a viewing cone having at least one viewing angle defined by a characteristic of that scatter region. Each liquid crystal optical element may be made from one or more suitable liquid crystal materials that can be controlled electronically to vary the effective index of refraction of one or more different regions of the liquid crystal optical element, thereby steering incoming light towards a particular one of two or more scattering regions of an associated scattering module.