Spatial light modulator and method for displaying computer generated hologram using the same

Abstract

A spatial light modulator and a method for displaying a computer generated hologram are disclosed. The spatial light modulator includes a plurality of MEMS units arranged in an array, each of the MEMS units corresponds to a pixel of a computer generated hologram and includes a sensing device, a light shielding portion and a driving device. The sensing device is configured for receiving position information that is obtained through Roman encoding a pixel corresponding to an MEMS unit including the sensing device and the position information is transmitted to the driving device by the sensing device. The driving device is configured for controlling the light shielding portion to move to a position corresponding to the position information in response to the received position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed.

Claims

1. A spatial light modulator, comprising a plurality of micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) units arranged in an array, wherein each of the MEMS units corresponds to a pixel of a computer generated hologram and comprises a sensing device, a light shielding portion and a driving device; wherein the sensing device is configured for receiving present position information that is obtained through using a Roman encoding approach to encode a pixel corresponding to an MEMS unit comprising the sensing device by a computer, the Roman encoding approach encodes phase information of a light wave into a position of the light shielding portion, and the present position information is position information of the light shielding portion when a present frame is displayed; wherein the sensing device comprises a comparing unit, and the comparing unit is configured for: comparing the present position information of the light shielding portion with previous position information of the light shielding portion at a previous moment; and if the present position information of the light shielding portion is different from the previous position information of the light shielding portion, transmitting the present position information to the driving device; and wherein the driving device is configured for controlling the light shielding portion to move to a position corresponding to the present position information, in response to receiving the present position information from the sensing device.

2. The spatial light modulator of claim 1, wherein the sensing device comprises a receiving unit; the receiving unit is configured for receiving the present position information which is obtained through using the Roman encoding approach to encode the pixel corresponding to the MEMS unit comprising the sensing device by the computer; and the comparing unit is configured for not transmitting the present position information of the light shielding portion to the driving device in condition that the present position information of the light shielding portion is not different from the previous position information of the light shielding portion.

3. The spatial light modulator of claim 1, wherein the driving device comprises a pulling hinge.

4. The spatial light modulator of claim 1, wherein the driving device comprises at least one first pulling hinge configured for controlling the light shielding portion to move along a horizontal direction and at least one second pulling hinge configured for controlling the light shielding portion to move along a vertical direction.

5. The spatial light modulator of claim 4, wherein the light shielding portion has a shape of a rectangle.

6. A method for displaying a computer generated hologram by using the spatial light modulator of claim 1, comprising: receiving, by each sensing device comprised in a respective MEMS unit, present position information which is obtained through using a Roman encoding approach to encode a pixel corresponding to the respective MEMS unit by a computer, wherein the Roman encoding approach encodes phase information of a light wave into a position of the light shielding portion, and the present position information is position information of the light shielding portion of the MEMS unit when a present frame is displayed; transmitting, by the sensing device, the present position information to the driving device; and controlling, by the driving device, the light shielding portion to move to a position corresponding to the present position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed in response to receiving the present position information from the sensing device.

7. The method of claim 6, before transmitting the present position information to the driving device by the sensing device, further comprising: comparing, by the sensing device, the present position information of the light shielding portion with previous position information of the light shielding portion at a previous moment to obtain a comparison result, and determining whether to transmit the present position information to the driving device or not according to the comparison result.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein comparing the present position information of the light shielding portion with the previous position information of the light shielding portion comprises: comparing a coordinate value along a horizontal direction of a central position of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed to a coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion at the previous moment; and comparing a coordinate value along a vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed to a coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion at the previous moment.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining whether to transmit the present position information to the driving device or not according to the comparison result comprises: transmitting, by the sensing device, the present position information to the driving device in condition that the present position information of the light shielding portion is different from the previous position information of the light shielding portion; and otherwise, not transmitting the present position information to the driving device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein controlling the light shielding portion to move to the position corresponding to the position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed comprises: controlling, by the driving device, the light shielding portion to move along the horizontal direction to the position corresponding to the present position information; or controlling, by the driving device, the light shielding portion to move along the vertical direction to the position corresponding to the present position information; or controlling, by the driving device, the light shielding portion to move along the horizontal direction and the vertical direction respectively corresponding to the present position information.

11. The spatial light modulator of claim 1, wherein the Roman encoding approach further encodes amplitude information of the light wave into a size of the light shielding portion.

12. The spatial light modulator of claim 11, wherein the light shielding portion has a fixed width, and the Roman encoding approach encodes the amplitude information of the light wave into a height of the light shielding portion.

13. The spatial light modulator of claim 1, wherein the Roman encoding approach further encodes amplitude information of the light wave into transmissivity of the light shielding portion.

14. The spatial light modulator of claim 1, wherein: the position of the light shielding portion is represented by a deviation of a center of the light shielding portion from a center of the MEMS unit comprising the light shielding portion; and the deviation of the center of the light shielding portion from the center of the MEMS unit comprises: a first coordinate value that is along a first direction and deviated from the center of the MEMS unit; and a second coordinate value that is along a second direction and deviated from the center of the MEMS unit, with the first direction being perpendicular to the second direction.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) In order to clearly illustrate the technical solution of the embodiments of the disclosure, the drawings of the embodiments will be briefly described in the following; it is obvious that the described drawings are only related to some embodiments of the disclosure and thus are not limitative of the disclosure. Based on the described drawings herein, those skilled in the art can obtain other drawing(s) without any inventive work.

(2) FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a light path when a liquid crystal spatial light modulator is used to realize the reconstruction of a computer generated hologram in a conventional technology;

(3) FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a spatial light modulator in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure;

(4) FIG. 3 schematically illustrates the principle of Roman III holographic encoding;

(5) FIG. 4 schematically illustrates a block diagram of a sensing device of the spatial light modulator in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure;

(6) FIG. 5 schematically illustrates another spatial light modulator in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure; and

(7) FIG. 6 schematically illustrates a flow chart of a method for displaying a computer generated hologram using a spatial light modulator in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(8) In connection with the accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the technical solutions of the embodiments will be described in a clearly and fully understandable way in connection with the drawings related to the embodiments of the disclosure. Apparently, the described embodiments are just a part but not all of the embodiments of the disclosure. Based on the described embodiments herein, those skilled in the art can obtain other embodiment(s), without any inventive work, which should be within the scope of the disclosure.

(9) Unless otherwise defined, all the technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. The terms first, second, etc., which are used in the description and the claims of the present application for disclosure, are not intended to indicate any sequence, amount or importance, but distinguish various components. Also, the terms such as a, an, etc., are not intended to limit the amount, but indicate the existence of at least one. The terms comprises, comprising, includes, including, etc., are intended to specify that the elements or the objects stated before these terms encompass the elements or the objects and equivalents thereof listed after these terms, but do not preclude the other elements or objects. The phrases connect, connected, etc., are not intended to define a physical connection or mechanical connection, but may include an electrical connection, directly or indirectly. On, under, right, left and the like are only used to indicate relative position relationship, and when the position of the object which is described is changed, the relative position relationship may be changed accordingly.

(10) A spatial light modulator provided by an embodiment of the disclosure will be described in detail in connection with the drawings.

(11) As illustrated in FIG. 2, an embodiment of the disclosure provides a spatial light modulator comprising a plurality of MEMS units 20 arranged in an array. Each of the MEMS units 20 corresponds to a pixel of a computer generated hologram and comprises a sensing device 201, a light shielding portion 202 and a driving device 203. In a specific implementation, the spatial light modulator in the embodiment of the disclosure comprises a plurality of connecting wires (not illustrated in the drawing) arranged in the array, each row of the MEMS units 20 is connected to a computer (not illustrated in the drawing) through a horizontal connecting wire, and each column of the MEMS units 20 is connected to the computer through a vertical connecting wire.

(12) The sensing device 201 is connected to the driving device 203 to receive position information which is obtained through Roman encoding a pixel corresponding to an MEMS unit 20 comprising the sensing device 201 by a computer, the position information is position information of the light shielding portion 202 when a present frame is displayed, and the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is transmitted to the driving device 203.

(13) The driving device 203 is connected to the light shielding portion 202 to control, in response to the received position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed, the light shielding portion 202 to move to a position corresponding to the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed.

(14) As an example, the Roman encoding method applied to the pixel by the computer in the embodiment of the disclosure is a Roman III type encoding method. The Roman encoding functions to encode the information of phase and amplitude of light wave into the position and size of a light shielding portion respectively. The encoding principle of Roman III type encoding method will be briefly described as follows.

(15) Before encoding the pixels using the Roman III type encoding method, it needs to sample and calculate the pixels first to get a complex amplitude distribution of discrete sampling points on the holographic plane. As illustrated in FIG. 3, each of the discrete sampling points is regarded as a pixel 30, and the width and height of the pixel 30 are u and v respectively, where u and v represent a sampling interval. A hole having a certain shape is disposed in each of the pixel 30 of the Roman III type computer generated hologram, and a rectangular hole 31 is preferably designed in practice. The area of the rectangular hole 31 is used to modulate the amplitude of wavefront; the position of the rectangular hole 31, i.e., a distance from the center of the rectangular hole 31 to the center of the pixel 30, is used to modulate the phase of wavefront. The width of the rectangular hole 31 of each of the pixels 30 is set to a fixed value. The height l.sub.mn of the rectangular hole 31 varies with the amplitude of the sampling point. p.sub.mn represents a position where the center of the rectangular hole 31 deviates from the center of the pixel 30, and determines the phase variation. Other parts of the pixel 30 except for the rectangular hole 31 are all light proof or partially light-transparent. According to the detour phase effect, the area of the rectangular hole 31 is deemed as the area of a fringe rectangular hole to modulate an absolute value of the complex amplitude, i.e., a light intensity of the complex amplitude; the position of the rectangular hole 31 is used to modulate a complex angle of the complex amplitude, i.e., the phase of the complex amplitude. Through complex computation, an encoding formula of the Roman III type encoding method for computing a hologram is obtained as follows:

(16) $l_{\mathrm{mn}}=A_{\mathrm{mn}};P_{\mathrm{mn}}=\frac{{}_{\mathrm{mn}}}{2}$
where A.sub.mn is the absolute value of the complex amplitude and .sub.mn is the complex angle of the complex amplitude.

(17) As an example, the light shielding portion 202 in the embodiment of the disclosure is a rectangular light shielding portion. In a specific implementation, the shape of the light shielding portion 202 may also be of a trapezoid, a hexagon, a triangle, etc. The specific shape of the light shielding portion is not limited in the embodiment of the disclosure. In consideration of the technical difficulty, the sizes of all the light shielding portions 202 in the embodiment of the disclosure are the same. Accordingly, the transmissivity of the light shielding portion 202 in the embodiment of the disclosure can determine the amplitude and the position of the light shielding portion 202 can determine the phase. In another embodiment, the sizes and transmissivity of all the light shielding portions 202 are the same, thus normally realizing a dynamic hologram as well as fast response.

(18) Preferably, as illustrated in FIG. 4, each of the sensing devices 201 of the MEMS units 20 comprises a receiving unit 2011 and a comparing unit 2012. The receiving unit 2011 is configured for receiving position information that is obtained through Roman encoding a pixel corresponding to an MEMS unit 20 comprising the sensing device 201 by a computer. The comparing unit 2012 is configured for comparing the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed with the position information of the light shielding portion 202 at a previous moment. The comparing unit 2012 transmits the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed to the driving device 203, in condition that the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is different from the position information of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment, and does not transmits the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed to the driving device 203, in condition that the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is not different from the position information of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment. As an example, when the present frame display is not the first frame display, the comparing unit 2012 compares the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed with position information of the light shielding portion 202 at a previous moment. The comparing unit 2012 transmits the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed to the driving device 203, in condition that the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is different from the position information of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment.

(19) In a specific implementation, the light shielding portion 202 needs to move along both a horizontal direction and a vertical direction respectively. A driving device 203 may be disposed in each of the MEMS units 20, and the driving device 203 can control the light shielding portion 202 to move along the horizontal direction and the vertical direction respectively. Alternatively, a driving device 203 may be disposed along the horizontal direction and another driving device 203 is disposed along the vertical direction. The driving device 203 disposed along the horizontal direction controls the movement of the light shielding portion 202 along the horizontal direction, and the driving device 203 disposed along the vertical direction controls the movement of the light shielding portion 202 along the vertical direction. When two driving devices are disposed in the embodiment of the disclosure, requirements on the structure characteristics of the driving devices are relatively low, and also the manufacture cost is low. However, the above configuration reduces an aperture ratio of the MEMS units 20. As an example, the driving device 203 is a pulling hinge, and the pulling hinge functions similar to a spring and can drive through such as a piezoelectric element. The specific work principle of the pulling hinge in the embodiment of the disclosure is known by those skilled in the art, and it is not elaborated here.

(20) As an example, at least one pulling hinge in the embodiment of the disclosure controls the light shielding portion to move along the horizontal direction, and at least one second pulling hinge configured for controlling the light shielding portion to move along the vertical direction.

(21) As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 5, a left side and a right side of the light shielding portion 202 of each of the MEMS units 20 are each connected to a pulling hinge 501 along the horizontal direction. In this case, the light shielding portion 202 can move to the left and to the right respectively along the horizontal direction under control of the pulling hinges 501.

(22) A top side and a bottom side of the light shielding portion 202 of each of the MEMS units 20 are each connected to a pulling hinge 501 along the vertical direction. In this case, the light shielding portion 202 can move to the top and to the bottom respectively along the vertical direction under control of the pulling hinges 501.

(23) In the embodiment of the disclosure, the plurality of MEMS units arranged in an array form a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS). An MEMS is a micro device or system that may integrate a sensor, a micro actuator, a micro mechanical structure, a signal processing, a control circuit, a communication or the like, and may have a size of a few millimeters or smaller and has internal structures in micron or even nanometer scale generally. MEMS devices have advantages such as small size, light weight, low energy consumption, low inertia, high resonance frequency, short response time, etc. In the embodiment of the disclosure, a response speed of the spatial light modulator based on an MEMS device is higher than that of the liquid crystal spatial light modulator, thus realizing a fast response and displaying a large area dynamic computer generated hologram.

(24) As illustrated in FIG. 6, the embodiment of the disclosure further provides a method for displaying a computer generated hologram by using the spatial light modulator. The method comprises the following operations.

(25) S601, receiving, by each sensing device, position information which is obtained through Roman encoding a pixel corresponding to an MEMS unit comprising the sensing device by a computer, wherein the position information is the position information of the light shielding portion of the MEMS unit comprising the sensing device when a present frame is displayed.

(26) S602, transmitting, by the sensing device, the position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed to the driving device.

(27) S603, controlling, by the driving device, the light shielding portion to move to a position corresponding to the position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed, in response to the received position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed.

(28) As an example, before transmitting the position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed to the driving device by the sensing device, the method may further comprise: comparing the position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed with the position information of the light shielding portion at a previous moment, and according to the comparing result determining whether transmitting the position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed to the driving device or not.

(29) Specifically, the operation of comparing the position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed to the position information of the light shielding portion at a previous moment may comprise: comparing, by the comparing unit 2012, a coordinate value along a horizontal direction of a central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed with a coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at a previous moment; and comparing a coordinate value along a vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed with a coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment. As an example, the coordinate value along a horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 may be a coordinate value along X axis of the central position of the light shielding portion 202; the coordinate value along a vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 may be a coordinate value along Y axis of the central position of the light shielding portion 202.

(30) As an example, after the comparing unit 2012 compares the coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed with the coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment and compares the coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed with the coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment, the sensing device 201 in the embodiment of the disclosure does not transmit the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed to the driving device 203, in condition that the coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is the same as the coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment and the coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is the same as the coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment.

(31) If the coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is different from the coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment and the coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is the same as the coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment, the sensing device 201 in the embodiment of the disclosure transmits the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed to the driving device 203, and the driving device 203 controls the light shielding portion 202 to move along the horizontal direction to a position corresponding to the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed.

(32) If the coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is different from the coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment and the coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is the same as the coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment, the sensing device 201 in the embodiment of the disclosure transmits the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed to the driving device 203, and the driving device 203 controls the light shielding portion 202 to move along the vertical direction to a position corresponding to the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed.

(33) If the coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is different from the coordinate value along the vertical direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment and the coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed is different from the coordinate value along the horizontal direction of the central position of the light shielding portion 202 at the previous moment, the sensing device 201 in the embodiment of the disclosure transmits the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed to the driving device 203, and the driving device 203 controls the light shielding portion 202 to move along the horizontal direction and the vertical direction respectively to a position corresponding to the position information of the light shielding portion 202 when the present frame is displayed.

(34) Furthermore, the inventors perform a simulation through the software MATLAB, and the simulation result represents that the embodiment of the disclosure can reconstruct hologram very well.

(35) In summary, the embodiment of the disclosure provides a spatial light modulator and a method for displaying a computer generated hologram using the spatial light modulator. The spatial light modulator comprises a plurality of MEMS units arranged in an array, and each of the MEMS units corresponds to a pixel of a computer generated hologram and comprises a sensing device, a light shielding portion and a driving device. The sensing device is configured for receiving position information that is obtained through Roman encoding a pixel corresponding to an MEMS unit comprising the sensing device by a computer, and the position information is position information of the light shielding portion when a present frame is displayed; the position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed is transmitted to the driving device by the sensing device; and the driving device is configured for controlling the light shielding portion to move to a position corresponding to the position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed, in response to the received position information of the light shielding portion when the present frame is displayed. The embodiment of the disclosure employs MEMS units arranged in an array, thus realizing a large area display. As the MEMS units have fast response, the sensing device in the embodiment of the disclosure can receive position information Roman encoded by the computer every time in a relatively short time period, and the driving device can control the movement of the light shielding portion in a relatively short time period, thus it is possible to display a plurality of frames in a short time period, thereby realizing the display of dynamic computer generated hologram.

(36) The above embodiments are for illustrative purposes only but not limitative to the disclosure. Other variations and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Therefore, all equivalent technical solutions are with the scope of the disclosure, which is defined by the appended claims.