Image display panel

Abstract

To provide a picture display panel that can be used when a surface for displaying a picture is not flat.SOLUTION: In a picture display panel 1 in which a picture display element made of a plurality of pixels is arranged, a plurality of light guide elements 3 for guiding light on a pixel-by-pixel basis in relation to at least a part of the pixels are two-dimensionally attached to a surface which discharges picture light of the picture display element 2, so that picture light is emitted from an end surface 4 of the light guide element and the surface for discharging picture light is formed into a desired shape by setting the height of an end surface of the light guide element or the shape of an end surface.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a video display panel used when actively emitting light without relying on projection on a surface for displaying video in a video facility or video device. More specifically, it relates to a video display panel used when the surface for displaying video is not flat.

Background Art

[0002] When displaying videos such as videos and still images related to astronomy, the universe, the earth, such as in a planetarium, videos such as academic videos and still images, and entertainment videos such as videos and still images, attempts have been made to display them inside a dome of a dome-shaped video facility composed of a sphere or a part thereof. Also, attempts have been made to display videos on the surface of models such as the display of a three-dimensional model of terrain.

[0003] In the above-mentioned technology, when displaying video, means such as projection from the planetarium's star balls or projectors have been common (Patent Documents 1 to 3).

[0004] On the other hand, instead of the above-mentioned conventional technology, it has been proposed to actively emit light and display video by using a video display element without relying on projection on the surface for displaying video (Patent Documents 4 and 5).

[0005] The above-mentioned technology has the advantage that it is not necessary to arrange planetarium star balls or projectors inside the dome, so there are no restrictions on seat arrangement or the wiring of visitors. Also, regarding models, videos were displayed by projection mapping, and they could only be displayed in a dim room, but there is an advantage that they can be displayed in a bright room.

[0006] Regarding the above-mentioned technology, a well-known technology of tiling video display elements (Patent Document 6) has been applied, and a spherical video display device in which rectangular video display elements are tiled and laid on the surface of a sphere is known (Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2).

[0007] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-172674 [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent No. 4538352 [Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent No. 4355508 [Patent Document 4] Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-42119 [Patent Document 5] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-27666 [Patent Document 6] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-191487 [Non-Patent Document 1] Notice of Incorporation of Aurora Vision OLED for the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation "Geo-Cosmos", Internet search on July 16, 2012, URL (http: / / www.mitsubishielectric.co.jp / news / 2011 / pdf / 0601.pdf) [Non-Patent Document 2] Permanent Exhibition at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Internet on July 16, 2012 [Disclosure of the Invention] [Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

[0008] However, generally, conventional video display elements have been premised on flat displays such as liquid crystal displays, plasma displays, or LED displays, so they can only take a shape with curvature in a plane or in one direction.

[0009] Therefore, for a surface on which video is to be displayed, such as in a planetarium, having a spherical or other three-dimensional shape, display using these video display elements cannot be performed, and thus the video has to be divided into a number of small planes and displayed as an approximation.

[0010] However, for example, in order to form a spherical projection surface by dividing it into a number of small planes, it was necessary to manufacture various types of image display elements. For image display elements such as LED display elements and LCD display elements, it was necessary to form electronic circuits and the like according to their shapes, and an enormous cost was required to manufacture image display elements of various shapes.

[0011] Also, when implemented, as a countermeasure against failures, a large number of spare image display panels of various shapes had to be prepared in advance, which also caused problems in terms of maintenance.

[0012] The present invention was created in view of the above problems of the prior art, and an object thereof is to provide an image display panel to be used when the surface for displaying an image is not flat.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0013] That is, in the image display panel of the present invention, in an image display panel in which image display elements composed of a plurality of pixels are arranged, on the surface of the image display element that emits image light, a plurality of light guide elements that guide light for each pixel corresponding to all or part of each pixel are arranged and attached two-dimensionally, so that image light is emitted from the end faces of the light guide elements, and the surface that emits image light is formed into an arbitrary shape by setting the height and end face shape of the end faces of the light guide elements.

[0014] Here, the "light guide element" refers to a member having the property of guiding light incident on one end face to the other end face and emitting it from the other end face, and examples thereof include optical fibers and light guide rods made of transparent resin.

[0015] Also, the invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that in the above image display panel, the image display element is composed of a light emitting element.

[0016] Also, the invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that in the above image display panel, the image display element is composed of a liquid crystal display element irradiated with light from a light source.

[0017] Further, the invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that, in the above-described video display panel, an end face of the light guide element that emits video light is a rough surface.

[0018] Further, the invention according to claim 5 is characterized in that, in the above-described video display panel, a mask for blocking part or all of the light is attached to an end face of the light guide element that emits video light.

[0019] Further, the invention according to claim 6 is characterized in that, in the above-described video display panel, a reflective film for reflecting light is formed on an end face of the light guide element that emits video light.

[0020] Further, the invention according to claim 7 is characterized in that, in the above-described video display panel, at least a part of the light guide element is attached to be inclined with respect to the video display element.

[0021] Further, the invention according to claim 8 is characterized in that, in the above-described video display panel, the light guide element and the video display element are separable, and at least one of them is replaceable.

Advantages of the Invention

[0022] Since the requirement to display an image in a spherical shape or other shapes is mainly required for large-scale video facilities, the individual pixels constituting the image are often several millimeters.

[0023] Therefore, in the video display panel of the present invention, a light guide rod made of a transparent resin or the like can be used instead of a fine optical fiber or the like, and the surface can be processed with general cutting and polishing tools.

[0024] Therefore, even during maintenance, instead of preparing a spare video display panel with a pre-determined shape, a video display panel with a generally applicable shape should be prepared, and the shape can be processed as needed for maintenance. Of course, since malfunctions in the video display panel mostly occur in the video display elements, if the video display panel is configured such that only the video display elements can be replaced, then only the malfunctioning video display element needs to be replaced.

[0025] Furthermore, since video display elements used for large-scale video displays are often standardized, using them in the video display elements of the present invention can constitute a more inexpensive video display panel.

[0026] Of course, for example, in a high-definition video display panel using a large liquid crystal display as a video display element, by using an optical fiber as a light guiding element, a video display panel with a high-definition and complex-shaped video display surface can be realized. Thereby, for example, in the display of a three-dimensional model of terrain, constructing the model itself according to the present invention and switching its display to a map or an image or displaying seasonal changes on the ground surface can be carried out in the same bright room as other displays. Such displays could only be realized by projection mapping until now and had to be carried out in a dim room.

Brief Description of the Drawings

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Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[0028] Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the video display panel of the present invention will be described based on the accompanying drawings. The video display panel of the present invention is used when actively emitting light without projection on the surface for displaying video in a video facility or a video device, and a plurality of them are tiled and laid on the surface of the screen of the video facility or the surface of the video device for use.

[0029] FIG. 10 shows an example in which the video display panel 1 of the present invention is laid on the inner side of the dome surface in the video facility D, and FIG. 11 shows an example in which the video display panel 1 of the present invention is laid on the outside of the video device M.

[0030] FIG. 1 shows the basic shape of the video display panel 1 according to the present invention. In the video display panel 1, a plurality of light guide elements 3 for guiding light for each pixel are two-dimensionally arranged and attached to the surface for emitting the video light of the video display element 2 composed of a plurality of pixels, corresponding to all or part of each pixel.

[0031] With the above configuration, the light beam emitted from the video displayed on the video display element 2 becomes a video display surface that is output from the other end face 4 of the element by the light guide element 3 and functions as if the end face were a video display element.

[0032] The above-mentioned light guide element 3 refers to a member having the property of guiding the light incident on one end face to the other end face and emitting it from the other end face, and examples thereof include an optical fiber and a light guide rod made of a transparent resin.

[0033] In addition, the video display element 2 is composed of a light-emitting element such as an LED display element or an LCD display element, or may be composed of a liquid crystal display element irradiated with light from a light source.

[0034] The surface that emits the video light of the video display panel 1 is formed into an arbitrary shape by setting the height and end face shape of the end face 4 of the light guide element 3. Here, an example is shown in which the height of the light guide element 3 at the central portion is made lower than that of the light guide elements 3 at the periphery, and the shape of the end face 4 of the light guide element is inclined toward the central portion to form a concave surface, but a convex surface or a surface shape with corners may also be used.

[0035] In addition, in order to prevent crosstalk of light for each pixel constituting the video, it is effective to sandwich a light-shielding member between the video display element and the light guide element or between the light guide elements.

[0036] It is better to fix the shape of the light guide elements 3 as an assembly in advance by adhesion or the like and then couple them with the video display element 2. However, for reasons such as increasing the optical coupling efficiency with the video display element, the video display panel according to the present invention may be formed by directly adhering individual light guide elements to the video display element.

[0037] The video display panel of the present invention is an active self-luminous type video display panel. However, as is the case with many self-luminous type video display panels, usually, the viewing angle of the video must be sufficiently wide. For this reason, unless there is a particular need, the video display surface of the light guide element is processed into a rough surface so that light is scattered in all directions. Of course, it may also be realized by attaching a material for scattering to the video display surface of the light guide element.

[0038] On the other hand, depending on the video to be displayed, for the purpose of deliberately restricting the viewing angle of the video, the end face of the light guide element may not be made into a rough surface, or the individual end faces may be processed obliquely to emit a light beam in a specific direction to function as an optical barrier.

[0039] Also, when the synthesis of the displayed image and the projected image by a projector or the like is required, as shown in Fig. 2, the gap between the light guide elements 3 may be filled with a material 5 that diffusely reflects, forming a portion that efficiently reflects the projected image. Alternatively, a member 6 having a diffusing surface may be attached to the surface of the image display panel to form an image display panel that efficiently diffusely reflects the projected image.

[0040] Of course, a similar effect can be obtained by forming a half-mirror-like curtain on the end face of the light guide element with a thin metal film or the like. The reflectance and the like in these cases should be determined in view of the luminous flux amount of the image display element and the luminous flux amount of the projected image.

[0041] A large image display device that exceeds the size of the image display element 2 can be realized by combining a large number of image display panels. However, depending on the shape of the surface to be displayed, there are many cases where it cannot be realized only with rectangular image display panels. In this case, as shown in Fig. 4, a structure may be used in which only a part of the image of the image display element 2 is guided by the light guide element and no light guide element is provided at the remaining 2A pixel locations, or a structure in which the light guide element 3 is arranged obliquely with respect to the image surface of the image element 2 to form a three-dimensional surface shape.

[0042] As a typical example, Fig. 5 shows an example of dividing the image display panel of the portion 10 that becomes the pole when forming a spherical surface.

[0043] Here, for the image display panel marked with symbol A, a panel of shape AA is used, for the image display panel marked with symbol B, a panel of shape BB is used, and for the panel marked with symbol C, a panel of shape CC is used. In all cases, the image display element 2 is the same, and the shape and length of the light guide element 3 part are different.

[0044] Similarly, for other three-dimensional image surfaces, the image display surface can be constructed by an image display panel using a single image display element.

[0045] Also, when it has a hemispherical video display surface like a planetarium, or when all four sides are video display surfaces like in the CAVE (Cave automatic virtual environment) of an immersive virtual reality experience device, if all the surfaces to be configured are made into dense video display surfaces, the reverberation of sound will be large and it will not be preferable for the acoustic effect. In such a case, a projection screen with a small opening provided in the projection surface to suppress the reverberation of sound is generally used. Such an opening may also be configured in the video display panel of the present invention by leaving the gaps between the light guide elements as they are as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and preparing display elements with holes for video display elements such as LEDs, or alternatively, as shown in FIG. 7, by adopting a structure in which a sound-absorbing material 7 is attached to the hole portion. Further, when the suppression of sound reverberation is not sufficient, a part of the light guide element or the video display element may be removed to form a structure with more openings.

[0046] Note that, although examples of video display panels with pixels arranged in rows and columns have been shown so far, as shown in FIG. 7, the pixels may be arranged in a staggered pattern to increase the pixel density, and as shown in FIGS. 7, 8, and 9, the shape of the light guide element may be polygonal.

[0047] On the other hand, in recent years, there are also large video monitors using liquid crystal display elements and the like. By using this as a video display element, a high-resolution video display panel with a high pixel density can be configured. When the video display element is large, the light guide element block will also be large and it will be difficult to manufacture. In such a case, it is advisable to divide this into a plurality of light guide element blocks for manufacturing. Also, when having a complex video display surface, the processing may be difficult in some cases, so in such a case, the processing may be carried out in the same way.

[0048] In the present invention, the resolution per unit length of the video to be displayed depends on the dimensions of light-emitting elements or the like that form the pixels of the video display element. However, in light-emitting elements such as LEDs, the dimensions of the light-emitting portion are smaller than the element dimensions. Therefore, on the video display element side, light guide elements having a diameter smaller than the light-emitting element dimensions and approximately the same as that of the light-emitting portion are arranged with an interval between pixel dimensions, and a video display panel in which the light guide elements on the side with an arbitrary surface shape are in close contact is formed, thereby constituting a video display panel having a resolution (number of pixels per unit length) higher than that of the video display element. Of course, it is also possible to form a video display panel with a reduced resolution in the same way, and a video display panel with a high degree of freedom can be provided.

[0049] Also, if a light guide element thinner than the pixel pitch of the video display element is used in advance, even when a higher-resolution video display is required, it is only necessary to replace it with a high-resolution video display element, and it is not necessary to redesign and manufacture all of the various video display elements as before, and the equipment can be updated at a lower cost.

Explanation of Reference Numerals

[0050] 1 Video display panel 2 Video display element 2A Pixel 3 Light guide element 4 End face of the light guide element 5 Material that diffusely reflects the gap 6 Member having a diffusing surface 7 Sound-absorbing material D Video facility M Video device

Claims

1. In a video display panel having a video display element composed of a plurality of pixels, on the surface that emits the video light of the video display element, a plurality of light guide elements each composed of an optical fiber or a light guide rod made of a transparent resin that guides light for each pixel corresponding to all or part of the individual pixels are arranged and attached two-dimensionally, so that the video light is emitted from the end face of the light guide element, and in a video display panel in which the surface that emits the video light is formed into an arbitrary shape by setting the height and the end face shape of the end face of the light guide element, in order to prevent crosstalk of light for each pixel constituting the video, a light shielding member is sandwiched between the light guide elements. A video display panel characterized by this.

2. The video display panel according to claim 1, wherein the video display element is composed of a light emitting element or a liquid crystal display element irradiated with light from a light source.

3. The video display panel according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the end face of the light guide element that emits the video light is a rough surface.

4. The video display panel according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a reflective film that reflects light is formed on the end face of the light guide element that emits the video light.

5. The video display panel according to claim 3, wherein a reflective film that reflects light is formed on the end face of the light guide element that emits the video light.

6. The video display panel according to claim 1 or 2, wherein at least a part of the light guide element is attached to be inclined with respect to the video display element.

7. The video display panel according to claim 3, wherein at least a part of the light guide element is attached to be inclined with respect to the video display element.

8. The video display panel according to claim 4, wherein at least a part of the light guide element is attached to be inclined with respect to the video display element.

Images