CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a national stage application of PCT Application No. PCT/CN2017/081630. This Application claims priority from PCT Application No. PCT/CN2017/081630, filed Apr. 24, 2017, and CN Application No. 201610272538.7, filed Apr. 28, 2016, the contents of which are incorporated herein in the entirety by reference.

Some references, which may include patents, patent applications, and various publications, are cited and discussed in the description of the present disclosure. The citation and/or discussion of such references is provided merely to clarify the description of the present disclosure and is not an admission that any such reference is “prior art” to the invention described herein. All references cited and discussed in this specification are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties and to the same extent as if each reference was individually incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a display apparatus and a method for controlling same, in particular to a display apparatus that can dynamically adjust imaging distances and a method for controlling same.

BACKGROUND

With the development of display technologies, devices such as smart glasses have been invented. Smart glasses, also referred to as AR goggles, is a collective term of glasses that, similar to a smartphone, have an independent operating system, on which programs such as software and games provided by software service providers can be installed by users, capable of implementing, under voice or action control, functions such as schedule adding, map navigation, friends interaction, photos and videos shooting, and video calling, and can also implement wireless network access through a mobile communications network.

For a new product such as the smart glasses, a more innovative display technology needs to be developed.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides a novel display apparatus and a method for controlling same. The display apparatus can dynamically adjust imaging distances, so that a user feels that images respectively exist at different spatial distances during viewing, and distinctive visual experience is generated.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a display apparatus is provided, including:

a control circuit;

a display unit, configured to generate images; and

a first spatial light modulator, set in front of the display unit and connected to the control circuit through signals, where the first spatial light modulator is configured to change modulation patterns or contents based on electronic signals generated by the control circuit, to dynamically adjust spatial imaging distances.

Preferably, the foregoing display apparatus further includes a polarizing beam splitter set in front of the first spatial light modulator, where

one end of the polarizing beam splitter receives images modulated by the first spatial light modulator, and another end of the polarizing prism converts or filters ambient light into first linearly polarized light and projects the first linearly polarized light and the modulation images to a user after combining the first linearly polarized light and the modulation images; and

polarization directions of the first linearly polarized light and the modulation images are perpendicular.

Preferably, the foregoing display apparatus further includes a polarizer set behind the display unit, to convert or filter ambient light into the first linearly polarized light, where

the display unit and the first spatial light modulator are transparent units;

the first linearly polarized light and the modulation images are projected to a user after being combined; and

polarization directions of the first linearly polarized light and modulation images are perpendicular.

Preferably, the foregoing display apparatus further includes a second spatial light modulator set behind the display unit, where

the display unit and the first spatial light modulator are transparent display units; and

the second spatial light modulator compensates ambient light to compensate changes generated when the ambient light passes through the first spatial light modulator and the display unit, so that light-field changes generated, after the ambient light passes through the display apparatus, in two perpendicular polarization directions are the same.

Preferably, in the foregoing display apparatus, polarization directions of modulation images output by the first spatial light modulator and modulated ambient light output by the second spatial light modulator are the same.

Preferably, in the foregoing display apparatus, the spatial light modulator further simulates glasses and compensates diopter and astigmatism of eyes of wearers with diopter and astigmatism based on signals generated by the control circuit.

Preferably, in the foregoing display apparatus, the display unit is an OLED screen, or a combination of a transmissive LCoS or LCD screen and a light guide, or a combination of an LCoS, a digital micro-mirror device (DMD) or an LCD and a light source and a combiner, or a combination of an OLED screen and a combiner.

Preferably, in the foregoing display apparatus, the combiner is a combination of a BS, a PBS or a transparent light guide and a DOE/HOE film.

Preferably, in the foregoing display apparatus, the first and/or second spatial light modulator is an LCD or an LCoS spatial light modulator that does not change the polarization direction of the incident light.

Preferably, in the foregoing display apparatus, the first and/or second spatial light modulator adopts phase modulation.

Preferably, in the foregoing display apparatus, the display apparatus is wearable glasses.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method for controlling a display apparatus is provided. The display apparatus includes a control circuit, a display unit, and a spatial light modulator, the spatial light modulator is set in front of the display unit and is connected to the control circuit through signals, and the controlling method includes:

generating images by the display unit, where each frame in the image includes one or more subframes, and each subframe includes depth information thereof; and

when each subframe is displayed, setting, by the spatial light modulator, modulation parameters as a corresponding image distance based on the depth information of the subframe.

Preferably, in the foregoing controlling method, modulation data on the spatial light modulator is generated in real time based on the depth information.

Preferably, in the foregoing controlling method, modulation data on the spatial light modulator is generated in advance and stored in the control circuit, and the modulation data is selected in real time based on the depth information and output to the spatial light modulator by the control circuit.

Preferably, in the foregoing controlling method, each subframe is further divided into several bicolor or multicolor color subframes, the spatial light modulator modulates images at different distances through time-division multiplexing in color, and modulation data of each color or wavelength respectively corresponds to the modulation parameters (where the modulation data correspondingly changes for a different wavelength at the same depth).

Preferably, in the foregoing controlling method, refresh rates of the display unit and the spatial light modulator are the same, the refresh rates are N*C times the frame rate of the display unit, N is the quantity of depth subframes, C is the quantity of color subframes, N and C are both natural numbers, and the quantity of subframes of each frame in the image is N*C.

Preferably, in the foregoing controlling method, each subframe is further divided into several partial subframes, the partial subframes modulate images of colors corresponding to the partial subframes to the same image distance, modulation data of the partial subframes are different, and accumulation of errors between the modulation data of the several partial subframes and ideal modulation data is less than the error between modulation data of a single frame and the ideal modulation data.

Preferably, in the foregoing controlling method, refresh rates of the display unit and the spatial light modulator are different, the refresh rate of the display unit is N*C times a frame rate of the display unit, N is the quantity of depth subframes, C is the quantity of color subframes, the refresh rate of the spatial light modulator is M*N*C times the frame rate of the display unit, M, N and C are natural numbers, the quantity of subframes of each frame in the image is N*C, and the quantity of partial subframes is M*N*C.

It should be understood that the foregoing general descriptions and the following detailed descriptions of the present disclosure are merely exemplary and illustrative, and aim at providing further explanations for the present disclosure according to the claims.

