Dual and multi-modulator projector display systems and techniques are disclosed. In one embodiment, a projector display system comprises a light source; a controller, a first modulator, receiving light from the light source and rendering a halftone image of said the input image; a blurring optical system that blurs said halftone image with a Point Spread Function (PSF); and a second modulator receiving the blurred halftone image and rendering a pulse width modulated image which may be projected to form the desired screen image. Systems and techniques for forming a binary halftone image from input image, correcting for misalignment between the first and second modulators and calibrating the projector system—e.g. over time—for continuous image improvement are also disclosed.

A new projector design combines one spatial light modulator that affects only the phase of the illumination, and one spatial light modulator that only affects its amplitude (intensity). The phase-only modulator curves the wavefront of light and acts as a pre-modulator for a conventional amplitude modulator. This approach works with both white light and laser illumination, generating a coarse image representation efficiently, thus enabling, within a single image frame, significantly elevated highlights as well as darker black levels while reducing the overall light source power requirements.

Projection systems and/or methods for efficient use of light by recycling a portion of the light energy for future use are disclosed. In one embodiment, a projection display system is disclosed comprising a light source; an integrating rod that receives light from said light source at a proximal end that comprise a reflective surface which may reflecting/recycle light down said integrating rod; of reflecting light down said integrating rod; a relay optical system, said relay optical system further comprising optical elements that are capable of moving the focal plane of the projector display system; and a modulator comprising at least one moveable mirror that reflects light received from the integrating rod in either a projection direction or a light recycling direction.

A control device for controlling a switching converter includes a switch controller that generates a control signal with a switching period for controlling switching of a switch of the switching converter and setting a first interval in which a current flows in the switch, a second interval in which energy is transferred onto a storage element of the switching converter, and a third, wait, interval, at the end of the second interval. The duration of the first interval is determined based on a control voltage indicating the output voltage. A pre-distortion stage receives the control voltage and generates a pre-distorted control voltage as a function of the control voltage and a relationship between one of the first and third time intervals and the switching period, wherein the switch controller is configured to control a duration of the first interval based on the pre-distorted control voltage.

A micro-electro-mechanical device, wherein a platform is formed in a top substrate and is configured to turn through a rotation angle. The platform has a slit and faces a cavity. A plurality of integrated photodetectors is formed in a bottom substrate so as to detect the light through the slit and generate signals correlated to the light through the slit. The area of the slit varies with the rotation angle of the platform and causes diffraction, more or less marked as a function of the angle. The difference between the signals of two photodetectors arranged at different positions with respect to the slit yields the angle.

The laser projection display device includes: a photo-sensor for detecting the quantity of laser light generated by the laser light source; and an image processing unit for processing a drive signal on the basis of the quantity of light of the detected laser light and supplying the processed drive signal to a driving unit for the laser light source. Right after the dimming, the image processing unit supplies the drive signal to the driving unit for the laser light source on the basis of the quantity of light of the detected laser light within a second execution cycle shorter than a first execution cycle which is the execution cycle used during the normal operation.

A projection system includes an invisible light projector, an imaging unit, an image generator, and a visible light projector. The invisible light projector projects a predetermined invisible light image onto the object via invisible light. The imaging unit captures an image of the invisible light projected from the invisible light projector. The image generator measures a shape of the object based on the image captured by the imaging unit to generate image data showing image content for projection onto the object in accordance with the measured shape. The visible light projector projects the image content shown by the image data onto the object via visible light. The invisible light projector emits pulsed invisible light to project the measurement pattern. The image generator generates the image data based on an image captured in accordance with a timing for the pulsed light emission.

A method for managing image data in an automotive lighting device includes the steps of providing an image pattern, dividing the image pattern in rows or columns of pixels, and calculating a first gradient value related to the relation between the numeric value of a first pixel and the numeric value of an adjacent pixel. Also included is checking, for each pixel, if the difference between the corresponding gradient value and the first gradient fulfills one of a first or second condition, defining linear segments, compressing the data of the linear segments and sending the compressed data to the light module. The invention also provides an automotive lighting device for performing the steps of such a method.

An image display system includes semiconductor light sources that output optical signals including modulated signal portions at timings different from each other, optical fiber cables that respectively transmit the optical signals, a light synthesizer that synthesizes the optical signals to output a synthesized optical signal, a light amount detector that detects an output light amount of the synthesized optical signal, a modulated signal detector that detects the modulated signal portions from the detected output light amount, an image modulator that modulates the synthesized optical signal according to an input image signal to output a modulated image light, and a light source controller that outputs drive control signals for respectively outputting the optical signals respectively including the modulated signal portions according to the image signal, and detects a failure of the optical fiber cables based on whether a modulated signal portion among the plurality of modulated signal portions is detected.

A parameter adjusting method is applied to a projector having an ambient light sensor, a database and a digital micromirror device. The parameter adjusting method includes analyzing a detection signal generated by the ambient light sensor to acquire an environmental light datum, comparing the environmental light datum with a lookup table of the database to compute at least one compensation parameter, and adjusting an amount of reflection light generated by the digital micromirror device in accordance with the at least one compensation parameter for controlling the projector to output a calibrated projection image in response to compensation of the environmental light datum.