CPC G02B 30/52 (2020.01) [G02B 27/0101 (2013.01)] | 15 Claims |
1. An apparatus for displaying a three-dimensional image, the apparatus comprising
a light source;
an intensity modulator employed to modulate the intensity of a given light beam emanating from the light source;
a mirror device employed to receive an intensity-modulated light beam and to modulate spatially the intensity-modulated light beam at a given time instant;
a first optics employed to receive the spatially-modulated light beam and to collimate the spatially-modulated light beam;
an image waveguide comprising
an in-coupling structure employed to receive the collimated light beam, wherein the collimated light beam corresponds to a given coordinate representing a two-dimensional image information at a given time instant,
an out-coupling structure comprising out-coupling sites,
wherein the image waveguide is employed to direct the collimated light beam via total internal reflections within the image waveguide from the in-coupling structure to the out-coupling structure to form multiple reflections of the collimated light beam, and
wherein the out-coupling structure is interposed between a surface of the image waveguide and a segmented optical structure and is employed to selectively redirect the multiple reflections via the outcoupling-sites towards the segmented optical structure, the multiple reflections representing a coordinate of a two-dimensional image;
the segmented optical structure aligned with the out-coupling structure of the image waveguide, the segmented optical structure comprising segments comprising active transparent objects corresponding to the outcoupling sites of the out-coupling structure,
wherein the segments comprise at least two groups of segments:
a first group of segments comprising the active transparent objects employed to redirect at least a first part of the multiple reflections to switch a first type image point P1 of the two-dimensional image between two first focal distances d1, d1′, and
a second group of segments comprising the active transparent objects employed to redirect at least a second part of the multiple reflections to form a second type image point P2 of the two-dimensional image between two second focal distances d2, d2′.
|