The invention relates to a light modulation device for a display for representing two- and/or three-dimensional image content or image sequences. The light modulation device comprises a light modulator and a controller. The phase and/or the amplitude of a light wave field, which is substantially collimated, can be varied by means of the light modulator depending on the location of the light modulator. The light modulator can be actuated by means of the control device. According to the invention, in the direction of propagation of the light wave field, at least one diffracting unit is arranged downstream of the light modulator. The diffracting unit has a variable diffracting structure. By means of the diffracting structure, the light wave field varied by the light modulator can be diffracted in a variable and predeterminable manner. Further, the present invention relates to a display and a method for producing a light modulation device.

Techniques for modulating both amplitude and phase via a layer of liquid crystals are described. According to one aspect of the techniques, a voltage being applied or coupled across the layer of liquid crystals is controlled by gradually increasing the voltage from a low level to a high level to perform the AM in a first range and the PM in second range, where the characteristics of the liquid crystals is significant, for example, by increasing the thickness or optical birefringence of the layer of liquid crystals.

Light from an array of laser light sources are spread to cover the modulating face of a DMD or other modulator. The spread may be performed, for example, by a varying curvature array of lenslets, each laser light directed at one of the lenslets. Light from neighboring and/or nearby light sources overlap at a modulator. The lasers are energized at different energy/brightness levels causing the light illuminating the modulator to itself be modulated (locally dimmed). The modulator then further modulates the locally dimmed lights to produce a desired image. A projector according to the invention may utilize, for example, a single modulator sequentially illuminated or separate primary color modulators simultaneously illuminated.

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.

There is provided a head-up display for a vehicle having a window. The head-up display comprises a picture generating unit (410) and an optical system (420). The picture generating unit is arranged to output pictures. The optical system is arranged to receive the pictures output by the picture generating unit and project the pictures onto the window (430) of the vehicle to form a virtual image (450, 707) of each picture within a virtual image area (605). The picture generating unit is arranged to output pictures within a cropped picture area such that the virtual image area (605) has a corresponding cropped shape. FIG. 7 illustrates a perspective view of a three lanes road (501,502,503) onto which a virtual image (707) within a cropped virtual image area (605) is overlaid.

A holographic display apparatus capable of providing an expanded viewing window and a display method are provided. The holographic display apparatus includes an image processor configured to provide computer generated hologram (CGH) data to a spatial light modulator, wherein the image processor is further configured to generate a hologram data array comprising information of the holographic image to be reproduced at the first resolution or a resolution less than the first resolution, perform an off-axis phase computation on the hologram data array at the second resolution, and then, generate the CHG data at the first resolution.

The goal of computer generated holography (CGH) is to synthesize custom illumination patterns by shaping the wavefront of a coherent light beam. Existing algorithms for CGH rely on iterative optimization with a fundamental trade-off between hologram fidelity and computation speed, making them inadequate for high-speed holography applications such as optogenetic photostimulation, optical trapping, or virtual reality displays. We propose a new algorithm, DeepCGH, that relies on a convolutional neural network to eliminate iterative exploration and rapidly synthesize high resolution holograms with fixed computational complexity. DeepCGH is an unsupervised model which can be tailored for specific tasks with customizable training data sets and an explicit cost function. Results show that our method computes 3D holograms at record speeds and with better accuracy than existing techniques.

Disclosed is an apparatus for displaying a hologram including a pixel circuit array including first to n.sup.th pixel circuits, a first insulating layer provided on the pixel circuit array, first to n.sup.th pixel electrodes provided on the first insulating layer and electrically connected to the first to n.sup.th pixel circuits, respectively, a second insulating layer provided on the first insulating layer, first to n.sup.th display electrodes provided on the second insulating layer and electrically connected to the first to n.sup.th pixel electrodes, respectively, a display panel formed on the first to n.sup.th display electrodes, and a common electrode formed on the display panel. The first to n.sup.th display electrodes are clustery formed, and an area of the first to n.sup.th display electrodes is smaller than an area of the pixel circuit array.

Light from an array of laser light sources are spread to cover the modulating face of a DMD or other modulator. The spread may be performed, for example, by a varying curvature array of lenslets, each laser light directed at one of the lenslets. Light from neighboring and/or nearby light sources overlap at a modulator. The lasers are energized at different energy/brightness levels causing the light illuminating the modulator to itself be modulated (locally dimmed). The modulator then further modulates the locally dimmed lights to produce a desired image. A projector according to the invention may utilize, for example, a single modulator sequentially illuminated or separate primary color modulators simultaneously illuminated.

A holographic display device includes a backlight unit for emitting light and a spatial light modulator. The spatial light modulator includes a plurality of pixels and a color filter layer including a plurality of color filter groups. The pixels are arranged in a zigzag form and are configured to modulate at least one of the amplitude and phase of the light. Each of the color filter groups includes a first sub-group including a plurality of first color filters, a second sub-group including a plurality of second color filters, and a third sub-group including a plurality of third color filters, and each of the pixels is aligned with one of the first color filters, the second color filters, and the third color filters of the color filter layer.