System for illuminating a viewer of a display device

Abstract

Provided is a display device comprising a display panel having an array of display pixel elements for producing a display output; a viewer detecting system rendering data representing 1) the illumination intensity of a body part of the viewer and 2) another property of the body part; at least one illumination source for providing illumination of a body part of the viewer; and a processor configured to 1) process the data representing the illumination intensity of a body part of the viewer and 2) drive the at least one illumination source dependent on said illumination data to adapt the illumination intensity of a body part of the viewer.

Claims

1. A display device comprising: a display panel having an array of display pixel elements for producing a display output; a viewer detecting system rendering data representing 1) the illumination intensity of two sides of a head or a face of the viewer and 2) the position of the head or the face; at least one illumination source for providing illumination of one side of the head or the face of the viewer; a first processor configured to process the data representing the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head or the face of the viewer; and when there is a contrast in the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head or the face, drive the at least one illumination source dependent on said illumination data to reduce the contrast by illuminating one side of the head or the face of the viewer; wherein the device comprises two opposing illumination sources at opposing ends of the display, which can be driven independently of each other.

2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the device is of a rectangular shape and comprises four illumination sources that can be driven independently of each other, wherein two illumination sources are placed on the display device, and the two illumination sources have mirrored positions with respect to the viewer.

3. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the viewer detecting system comprises at least one camera capable of recording images of two sides of the head or the face of the viewer who is present in the field of view of the display device.

4. The display device according to claim 3, wherein the viewer detecting system comprises at least one sensor capable of detecting light, in particular infrared light.

5. The display device according to claim 4, wherein the at least, one camera and/or the at least one light sensor is integrated with the illumination source, so that the recording and/or detecting, respectively, occurs from a similar angle, in particular from angles that deviate less than 10°.

6. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the illumination source is configured to illuminate infrared light and/or near-infrared light.

7. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the viewer detecting system is capable of detecting a plurality of viewers.

8. The display device according to claim 1, the display device being an autostereoscopic display device wherein the viewer detecting system renders data representing 1) the illumination intensity of two sides of the head of a viewer and 2) the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the display panel; the display device comprises an imaging arrangement which is provided over the display panel and which is designed to direct the output from different display pixel elements to different spatial positions within a field of view of the display device, such that at least two viewing areas are defined to which at least two different images can be displayed simultaneously; the first processor configured to process the illumination intensity, data representing the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head of the viewer; and when there is a contrast in the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head, drive the at least one illumination source dependent on said illumination data to reduce the contrast by illuminating one side of the head or the face of the viewer; the display device comprises a second processor configured to process the data representing the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the display panel; and drive the display panel dependent on said position data to simultaneously display the at least two different images to the at least two viewing areas.

9. The display device according to claim 8, wherein the imaging arrangement comprises an element selected from the group of a lenticular lens, a parallax barrier and directional backlight.

10. A method for improving viewer detection, wherein two sides of the head or the face of the viewer is within a field of view of the display device according to claim 1, the method comprising rendering data representing 1) the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head or the face of the viewer and 2) the position of the head or the face; then processing the data representing the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head or the face of the viewer; and then when there is a contrast in the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head or the face, driving at least one of the illumination source for providing illumination of the other side of the head or the face of the viewer dependent on said illumination data to educe the contrast.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the method is preceded by detecting the number of viewers.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the display device is an autostereoscopic display device, the method comprising rendering data representing 1) the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head of the viewer and 2) the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the autostereoscopic display device; processing the data representing the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head of the viewer; and when there is, a contrast in the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head, driving at least one of the illumination source for providing illumination of one side of the head of the viewer dependent on said illumination data to reduce the contrast; processing the data representing the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the device; driving the display panel dependent on said eye position data to simultaneously display at least two different images to at least two viewing areas of the autostereoscopic display device.

13. A computer readable medium comprising non-transitory data representing instructions to cause a processor system to perform the method according to claim 10.

14. An electronic device comprising a memory and a processor, wherein a computer program is stored in the memory, and the processor is set to run the computer program so as to execute method of claim 10.

15. The computer readable medium according to claim 13, wherein the method is preceded by detecting the number of viewers.

16. The computer readable medium according to claim 13, wherein the display device is an autostereoscopic display device, the method comprising rendering data representing 1) the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head of the viewer and 2) the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the autostereoscopic display device; processing the data representing the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head of the viewer; and when there is a contrast in the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head, driving at least one of the illumination source for providing illumination of one side of the head of the viewer dependent on said illumination data to reduce the contrast; processing the data representing the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the device; driving the display panel dependent on said eye position data to simultaneously display at least two different images to at least two viewing areas of the autostereoscopic display device.

17. The electronic device according to claim 14, wherein the method is preceded by detecting the number of viewers.

18. The electronic device according to claim 14, wherein the display device is an autostereoscopic display device, the method comprising rendering data representing 1) the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head of the viewer and 2) the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the autostereoscopic display device; processing the data representing the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head of the viewer; and when there is a contrast in the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head, driving at least one of the illumination source for providing illumination of one side of the head of the viewer dependent on said illumination data to reduce the contrast: processing the data representing the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the device; driving the display panel dependent on said eye position data to simultaneously display at least two different images to at least two viewing areas of the autostereoscopic display device.

19. The method according to claim 11, wherein the display device is an autostereoscopic display device, the method comprising rendering data representing 1) the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head of the viewer and 2) the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the autostereoscopic display device; processing the data representing the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head of the viewer; and when there is a contrast in the illumination intensity of the two sides of the head, driving at least one of the illumination source for providing illumination of one side of the head of the viewer dependent on said illumination data to reduce the contrast; processing the data representing the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the device; driving the display panel dependent on said eye position data to simultaneously display at least two different images to at least two viewing areas of the autostereoscopic display device.

Description

MODE FOR THE INVENTION

(1) Accordingly, the present invention relates to a display device comprising a display panel having an array of display pixel elements for producing a display output; a viewer detecting system rendering data representing 1) the illumination intensity of a body part of the viewer and 2) another property of the body part; at least one illumination source for providing illumination of a body part of the viewer; a first processor configured to process the data representing the illumination intensity of a body part of the viewer; and drive the at least one illumination source dependent on said illumination data to adapt the illumination intensity of a body part of the viewer.

(2) The viewer detecting system renders data of a body part of a viewer. These data represent at least the illumination intensity of the body part and another property of the body part. Such other property may be the position of the body part relative to the display panel, the display device, or to another body part (such as the position of the eyes), it may be an expression of the body part (such as the facial expression), it may be the shape of the body part (such as the shape of an ear or nose), it may be a condition of the body part (such as the pupil size) and it may be a gesture that is made by the body part (such as a particular move by e.g. a hand, foot or finger). The property may also concern a plurality of characteristics of the body part that together form a fingerprint of the body part, such as the relative dimensions and/or positions of a nose, ear, eye, etc., to thereby allow recognition of the body part, such as face recognition.

(3) When the position of eyes is rendered, this may concern the position of each eye, or the position of the center point between two eyes.

(4) The viewer detecting system typically comprises means for measuring light intensity, such as a sensor capable of detecting light, in particular infrared light. In particular, it comprises at least one camera capable of recording images of a body part of a viewer who is present in the field of view of the display device.

(5) The viewer detecting system is capable of detecting at least one viewer. It may also be capable of detecting a plurality of viewers, such as two viewers, three viewers and four viewers.

(6) The illumination of a body part may in principle concern any body part, such as a leg, a foot, an arm, a hand, a finger, and the head of a viewer. A body part may also concern a part of such body parts, for example a side of a face or head. This may be the case when the display device is designed such that the viewer detection system renders data on the illumination of two sides of a head or a face, and that it notices a difference in the illumination of either side of the head or face (i.e. a contrast) in case one side of the head or face is illuminated by an external light source such as the sun (and the other side is not). The illumination source may then reduce the contrast by illuminating the other side (i.e. the darker side) of the head or face.

(7) The illumination source(s) is/are typically positioned adjacent to the display device, preferably at one or more edges of the display panel (or display device). They are positioned in such manner that they provide a useful illumination of a viewer who is at a suitable viewing distance of the display device.

(8) A display device of the invention comprises at least one illumination source. Preferably, however, it comprises a plurality of illumination sources. For example, the device comprises two opposing illumination sources at opposing ends of the display, which can be driven independently of each other. It is also possible that more than two illumination sources are provided, such as three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine or ten illumination sources. Usually, the illumination sources have mirrored positions with respect to a viewer who is centered in front of the display. For example, the display device is of a rectangular shape and comprises four illumination sources that can be driven independently of each other, wherein two illumination sources are placed on either side of the viewer (e.g. each illumination source is positioned at a corner of the display).

(9) In case a display device of the invention comprises a camera and/or a light sensor, then it is preferred that the camera and/or the light sensor is/are integrated with the illumination source, so that the recording and/or detecting, respectively, occurs from a similar angle, in particular from angles that deviate less than 10°.

(10) The illumination source may in principle be capable of emitting any type of electromagnetic radiation to provide the illumination. Preferably, however, the illumination occurs with a type of light that is selected from the group of UV-light, visible light and infrared light. More preferably, the illumination source is configured to illuminate infrared light and/or near-infrared light.

(11) The function of the first processor of the display device is to use the illumination data to determine whether or not an adaptation in the illumination intensity of a body part of the viewer is to be made, and to actuate the at least one illumination source. To this end, the processor may determine periodically whether a change in the illumination intensity is necessary by e.g. comparing a measured contrast to a predefined threshold value. If an adaptation is necessary, then it drives the at least one illumination source to realize such adaptation. A criterion for an adaptation may also be that the absolute illumination intensity of a body part is too low (e.g. a head or face is too weakly illuminated) for rendering useful data on the other property of the body part (such as the position of the eyes of the viewer).

(12) In a preferred embodiment, the display device of the invention is an autostereoscopic display device. Such device comprises an imaging arrangement which is provided over the display panel and which is designed to direct the output from different display pixel elements to different spatial positions within a field of view of the display device, such that at least two viewing areas are defined to which at least two different images can be displayed simultaneously. In such device, the other property of the viewer's body part that is rendered is the position of the viewer's eyes relative to the display panel (or display device). This position is then used to drive the pixels of the display panel, so that a left eye view and a right eye view can exactly and real-time be directed to the specific eye.

(13) To this end, a second processor is present, which is configured to process the data representing the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the display panel. The spatial direction that is required for the display of each view is calculated on the basis of the position data and the characteristics of the imaging arrangement, and the pixels under the imaging arrangement are actuated in accordance therewith. To this end, the autostereoscopic display device typically also comprises an image source for providing image content (i.e. the contents of each view). The processor uses the image content provided by the image source. Thus, the processor drives the display panel dependent on said position data to simultaneously display the at least two different images to the at least two viewing areas.

(14) In the case of an autostereoscopic display device, the imaging arrangement typically comprises an element selected from the group of a lenticular lens, a parallax barrier and directional backlight.

(15) The invention further relates to a method for improving viewer detection, wherein a body part of the viewer is within a field of view of a display device, the method comprising rendering data representing 1) the illumination intensity of the body part of the viewer and 2) another property of the body part; then processing the data representing the illumination intensity of the body part of the viewer; and then driving an illumination source for providing illumination of a body part of the viewer dependent on said illumination data to adapt the illumination intensity of the body part of the viewer.

(16) The method of the invention may in particular be related to eye-tracking for an autostereoscopic display device. To this end, the method may further comprise rendering data representing 1) the illumination intensity of the head of the viewer and 2) the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the display panel (i.e. the body part is the head and the other property of the head is the position of the eyes); then processing the data representing the position of the eyes of the viewer relative to the display panel; and then driving the display panel dependent on said position data to simultaneously display at least two different images to at least two viewing areas.

(17) The invention further relates to a computer readable medium comprising transitory or non-transitory data representing instructions to cause a processor system to perform the above method of the invention.

(18) The invention further relates to software arranged to perform the above method of the invention, when executed on a computer.