Angled Display Panels with Light Guide Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for large-sized direct-viewing type display devices, such as LCDs and PDPs, face challenges in producing seamless images due to visible joints when tiling multiple panels, and the use of optical fiber face plates becomes costly and difficult to produce as panel sizes increase.
Innovation Solution
A direct-viewing type display device design where multiple display panels are angled relative to each other, with light guide elements on their peripheral regions, and a functional film covers the outgoing faces of these elements to obscure frame regions, reducing production costs and joint visibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If multiple display panels are tiled to increase screen size, then the display area is increased, but visible joints appear between panels
Solution Approach 1:
The harmful frame regions are extracted and relocated to non-display areas. The light guide elements guide light from the display region to the frame region, effectively removing the visual impact of frame regions from the display area while maintaining the tiling structure for large screen sizes.
Solution Approach 2:
Light guide elements serve as intermediaries to transfer light from the display region to the frame region. This mediator mechanism allows light to be redirected in a way that obscures the frame regions and eliminates visible joints between tiled panels.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If optical fiber face plates are used to cover the entire display panel to achieve jointless displaying, then joint visibility is reduced, but production cost and difficulty increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of applying optical compensation uniformly across the entire display panel, the invention applies light guide elements only in specific peripheral regions where frame regions adjoin display regions. This localized approach achieves jointless displaying without the complexity and cost of full-panel optical fiber face plates.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces expensive optical fiber face plates with simpler, cheaper light guide elements that can be easily manufactured and integrated. These light guide elements provide the necessary optical function at a fraction of the cost and complexity of conventional optical fiber solutions.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If light guide elements are added to guide light from display region to frame region, then joint visibility is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The light guide elements are implemented as thin film structures that can be integrated into the existing display panel architecture. This flexible implementation minimizes the increase in device complexity while achieving the desired light guiding function to obscure frame regions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution allows for the production of large-sized display devices with reduced costs and minimized joint visibility, providing a seamless viewing experience by effectively guiding light from the display regions to the frame regions.
Implementation Method 1
a light guide element 20a, 20b... having an incident face 21a, 21b, an outgoing face 22a, 22b, and a plurality of light guiding portions formed between the incident face and the outgoing face
Implementation Method 2
the plurality of light guiding portions formed between the incident face and the outgoing face... allowing light which is emitted from a display region to be guided to a non-display region
Data Source
AI summary
A plurality of display panels include a display region and a frame region. The plurality of display panels include first and second display panels adjoining each other; the frame region of the first display panel is overlapped by a side face of the second display panel so that an angle defined by viewer-side surfaces is more than 0° but less than 180°; first and second light guide elements are disposed on the viewer's side of peripheral display regions; the light guide elements have incident and outgoing faces and a plurality of light guiding portions; the distance between the incident and outgoing faces increases away from the peripheral display region toward the frame region; the volume of the first light guide element is larger than that of the second light guide element; and the outgoing faces of the first and second light guide elements are covered by a functional film.