Tapered Fiber Bundle Overlay for Seamless Display Tiles
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Large wall displays are prohibitively expensive due to the exponential rise in manufacturing costs of monolithic displays, and existing tiling solutions, such as display lensing, blended projection, and LED tiles, suffer from noticeable seams, image distortion, or low resolution.
Innovation Solution
The use of tapered fused fiber bundle overlays over display tiles to create a seamless multi-panel display by concealing the bezel with curved fibers and interconnecting optics, which includes micro-lenses and cross-talk trenches to reduce optical cross-talk and enhance image quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If display tiles are tiled together to form large multi-panel displays, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but visible bezels and seams appear between panels
Solution Approach 1:
A fused fiber bundle overlay is introduced as an intermediary component between adjacent display tiles. This overlay contains tapered optical fibers that optically connect the display panels by guiding light across the bezel region, making the seams invisible while maintaining the cost benefits of tiled construction
Solution Approach 2:
The fused fiber bundle overlay is implemented as a thin, flexible optical film that can be applied to the surface of display tiles. This thin-film approach allows the overlay to conform to the display surface while providing seamless optical connection without adding significant thickness or complexity
2Device complexity
If display lensing is used to create borderless images, then seams are concealed, but viewing angle is narrow and image distortion occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The mechanical display lensing system is replaced with an optical fiber-based solution. Instead of using physical lenses to bend light, the patent uses optical fibers to guide light from one panel to another, eliminating the viewing angle restrictions and image distortion associated with lensing while maintaining seamless appearance
3Device complexity
If LED tiles are used to achieve invisible seams, then seam visibility is reduced, but resolution decreases due to large pixel pitches
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using large LED pixels, the patent uses optical fibers to copy and transfer the high-resolution image data from one display tile to adjacent tiles. The optical fibers act as information carriers that replicate the pixel pattern across panel boundaries, maintaining the original high resolution while achieving invisible seams
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 achieves a seamless and high-resolution multi-panel display by concealing bezels and reducing optical cross-talk, providing improved visual experience and cost-effectiveness compared to traditional tiling methods.
Implementation Method 1
tapered fused fiber bundle overlays
Implementation Method 2
interconnecting optics, which includes micro-lenses
Data Source
AI summary
A display tile includes a display panel and a fused fiber bundle overlay. The display panel includes display pixels and a bezel surrounding the display pixels. The fused fiber bundle overlay includes an input side mounted adjacent to the display panel and optically aligned with the display pixels to receive image light, an emission side opposite the input side to emit the image light, and an array of fused fibers each extending from the input side to the emission side and each including an input end and an emission end. At least a portion of the fused fibers are tapered.