Light-Blocking Shutter for Artificial Reality Display Privacy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Artificial-reality systems, such as augmented-reality and virtual-reality headsets, suffer from external light leakage, making displayed content visible to others and posing privacy and security issues, while also being visually unpleasing.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a light-blocking shutter that is driven in sync with the display element to block light during emission, maintaining transparency and enhancing image quality by using a shutter-driving subsystem to alternate between blocking and pass-through states, primarily during active and inactive display intervals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If a light-blocking shutter is incorporated to block external light during display emission, then external light leakage is minimized and privacy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The light-blocking shutter is integrated within the existing display element structure, nesting the privacy protection function inside the optical see-through display component. This allows the shutter to be embedded in the optical path without requiring a completely separate external mechanism, thereby reducing overall device complexity while still achieving light blocking functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The light-blocking shutter acts as an intermediary element between the display element and the external environment. It mediates the conflict between transparency (for see-through display) and light blocking (for privacy) by being controllable in different states, allowing the system to switch between transparent and opaque modes as needed.
2Illumination intensity
If the light-blocking shutter is driven in sync with the display element, then image brightness and visibility are enhanced, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The light-blocking shutter is driven in synchronization with the display element's emission cycles, creating a periodic action pattern. The shutter blocks light during active display intervals and allows light transmission during inactive intervals. This periodic synchronization enhances image brightness during display moments while minimizing energy consumption during non-display periods, as the shutter only consumes energy when switching states rather than maintaining a constant blocking position.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the light-blocking shutter blocks light during active display intervals, then privacy is protected, but transparency of the optical see-through display is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The light-blocking shutter implements dynamic control of light transmission rather than a static fixed state. It transitions between transparent and opaque states based on the display element's operational mode, being transparent during inactive intervals to maintain see-through functionality and blocking during active intervals to protect privacy. This dynamic behavior allows the system to adapt its transparency level according to operational requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The shutter operates periodically, alternating between transparent and blocking states in sync with the display element's active and inactive intervals. This periodic action ensures that transparency is maintained during non-display periods while privacy protection is activated during display periods, resolving the contradiction between the two requirements through time-based separation.
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
Effectively minimizes external light leakage while maintaining the transparency of optical see-through displays, enhancing the visibility and brightness of images for the user while preventing unwanted light exposure to external observers.
Implementation Method 1
block light transmission through a light-blocking shutter during the active display intervals
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed display system may include (1) a display element that is transparent and includes a first surface facing a viewing region and a second surface opposite the first surface, the second surface facing an external environment, (2) a light-blocking shutter that faces and overlaps at least a portion of the second surface of the display element, (3) a display-driving subsystem that displays images visible to a user at the viewing region via display light emitted from the first surface of the display element during active display intervals, and (4) a shutter-driving subsystem that alternately switches the state of the light-blocking shutter between a blocking state during the active display intervals and a pass-through state during inactive display intervals when the display light is not emitted from the display element. Various other systems, devices, and methods are also disclosed.