阅读说明：本技术 全息投影 (Holographic projection ) 是由 M.温吉罗 于 2020-04-30 设计创作，主要内容包括：一种全息投影仪包括布置在其中的图像处理引擎、全息图引擎和显示引擎。图像处理引擎被布置成接收用于投影的源图像。源图像包括第一颜色分量和第二颜色分量。图像处理引擎还被布置成通过根据第一棋盘图案使第一颜色分量的交替像素值无效来从第一颜色分量形成第一颜色次级图像。图像处理引擎还被布置成通过根据第二棋盘图案使第二颜色分量的交替像素值无效来从第二颜色分量形成第二颜色次级图像。第一棋盘图案与第二棋盘图案相反。全息图引擎被布置成确定与第一颜色次级图像相对应的第一颜色全息图和与第二颜色次级图像相对应的第二颜色全息图。显示引擎被布置成从第一颜色全息图形成第一颜色全息重建并从第二颜色全息图形成第二颜色全息重建。(A holographic projector includes an image processing engine, a hologram engine, and a display engine disposed therein. The image processing engine is arranged to receive a source image for projection. The source image includes a first color component and a second color component. The image processing engine is further arranged to form a first color secondary image from the first color component by invalidating alternating pixel values of the first color component according to a first chessboard pattern. The image processing engine is further arranged to form a second color sub-image from the second color component by invalidating alternating pixel values of the second color component according to a second chessboard pattern. The first chessboard pattern is inverted from the second chessboard pattern. The hologram engine is arranged to determine a first color hologram corresponding to the first color secondary image and a second color hologram corresponding to the second color secondary image. The display engine is arranged to form a first color holographic reconstruction from the first color hologram and a second color holographic reconstruction from the second color hologram.)

1. A holographic projector, comprising:

an image processing engine arranged to:

receiving a source image for projection, wherein the source image comprises a first color component and a second color component;

forming a first color secondary image from the first color components by invalidating alternating pixel values of the first color components according to a first chessboard pattern, and forming a second color secondary image from the second color components by invalidating alternating pixel values of the second color components according to a second chessboard pattern, wherein the first chessboard pattern is opposite to the second chessboard pattern;

a hologram engine arranged to determine a first color hologram corresponding to the first color secondary image and a second color hologram corresponding to the second color secondary image; and

a display engine arranged to form a first color holographic reconstruction from the first color hologram and a second color holographic reconstruction from the second color hologram.

2. The holographic projector of claim 1, wherein the first color holographic reconstruction and the second color holographic reconstruction are formed substantially simultaneously.

3. The holographic projector of any of the previous claims, wherein:

the image processing engine is arranged to form further first color secondary images from the first color components according to the second chess board pattern, and to form further second color secondary images from the second color components according to the first chess board pattern;

the hologram engine is arranged to determine a further first color hologram corresponding to the further first color secondary image and a further second color hologram corresponding to the further second color secondary image; and

the display engine is arranged to form a further first color holographic reconstruction from the further first color hologram and a further second color holographic reconstruction from the further second color hologram.

4. The holographic projector of any of the previous claims, wherein the further first color holographic reconstruction and the further second color holographic reconstruction are formed substantially simultaneously after the first color holographic reconstruction and the second color holographic reconstruction.

5. The holographic projector of claim 4, wherein the first color holographic reconstruction, the second color holographic reconstruction, the additional first color holographic reconstruction, and the additional second color holographic reconstruction are formed within an integration time of the human eye.

6. The holographic projector of any preceding claim, wherein the image processing engine is further arranged to increase the number of pixels of the source image prior to forming each secondary image so as to vary the number of first colour image points and the number of second colour image points in the holographic replay field.

7. The holographic projector of any preceding claim, wherein the image processing engine is arranged to vary the number of first colour image points and the number of second colour image points to optimise the spacing of first colour image points and the spacing of second colour image points in the replay field.

8. The holographic projector of any of the previous claims, wherein invalidating alternate pixel values comprises setting pixel values of alternate pixels to zero.

9. The holographic projector of any of the previous claims, wherein invalidating alternating pixels according to the first checkerboard pattern comprises setting pixel values of pixels in (i) odd rows and odd columns and (ii) even rows and even columns to zero.

10. The holographic projector of any of the previous claims, wherein invalidating alternating pixels according to the second checkerboard pattern comprises setting pixel values of pixels in (i) odd rows and even columns and (ii) even rows and odd columns to zero.

11. Holographic projector according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said image processing engine is arranged to receive further source images and to swap said first and second checkerboard patterns for each new source image.

12. A head-up display comprising a holographic projector according to any of the preceding claims.

13. A holographic projection method, the method comprising:

receiving a source image for projection, wherein the source image comprises a first color component and a second color component;

forming a first color secondary image from the first color component by invalidating alternating pixel values of the first color component according to a first checkerboard pattern;

forming a second color secondary image from the second color components by invalidating alternating pixel values of the second color components according to a second chess board pattern, wherein the first chess board pattern is opposite to the second chess board pattern;

determining a first color hologram corresponding to the first color secondary image and a second color hologram corresponding to the second color secondary image;

a first color holographic reconstruction is formed from the first color hologram and a second color holographic reconstruction is formed from the second color hologram.

14. The holographic projection method of claim 13, further comprising:

further first color sub-images are formed from the first color components according to the second chess board pattern, and further second color sub-images are formed from the second color components according to the first chess board pattern.

15. The holographic projection method of claim 13 or 14, wherein invalidating alternate pixel values comprises setting pixel values of alternate pixels to zero.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to an image processor and a projector. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a holographic projector, a holographic projection system and an image processor for holographic projection of color images. The disclosure also relates to a method of holographically projecting a target image comprising at least two colors and a method of holographically projecting a video image. Some embodiments relate to head-up displays.

Background

The light scattered from the object contains amplitude and phase information. This amplitude and phase information can be captured, for example, on a photosensitive plate by well-known interference techniques to form a holographic recording or "hologram" comprising interference fringes. The hologram may be reconstructed by illumination with suitable light to form a two or three dimensional holographic reconstruction or replay image representative of the original object.

Computer generated holography can numerically simulate the interferometric process. The computer generated hologram "CGH" may be computed by a technique based on a mathematical transform such as fresnel or fourier transform. These types of holograms may be referred to as fresnel or fourier holograms. A fourier hologram may be considered as a fourier domain representation of an object or a frequency domain representation of an object. The CGH may also be calculated by coherent ray tracing or point cloud techniques, for example.

The CGH may be encoded on a spatial light modulator "SLM" arranged to modulate the amplitude and/or phase of incident light. For example, light modulation can be achieved using electrically addressable liquid crystals, optically addressable liquid crystals, or micro-mirrors.

The SLM may comprise a plurality of individually addressable pixels, which may also be referred to as cells or elements. The light modulation scheme may be binary, multilevel or continuous. Alternatively, the device may be continuous (i.e. not comprising pixels) and thus the light modulation may be continuous over the whole device. The SLM may be reflective, meaning that the modulated light is output from the SLM in reflection. The SLM may also be transmissive, meaning that the modulated light output from the SLM is transmissive.

The described techniques may be used to provide a holographic projector for imaging. For example, such projectors have been applied to head-up displays "HUDs" and head-mounted displays "HMDs", including near-eye devices.

The holographic projector projects an image onto a replay field on a replay plane. When using the described techniques, the projected image is formed by a hologram displayed on a pixel of the SLM (referred to herein as an "SLM pixel"). Thus, the SLM pixels display the pixels of the hologram, referred to herein as "hologram pixels". The projected image is formed by "image points" (also referred to herein as "image pixels"). The image pixels have a finite size and adjacent image pixels in the replay field may interfere or blur together. In particular, since light is coherent, if adjacent image pixels of the same wavelength are close enough (i.e., the spacing between adjacent image pixels is too small), interference may occur between them. This is referred to herein as pixel crosstalk or pixel interference. Problems of pixel crosstalk or pixel interference cause image quality degradation.

Furthermore, the hologram engine takes time to determine the hologram to be displayed from the source image. For example, the hologram may be a fourier hologram calculated using at least one fourier transform. Thus, the time taken to compute the hologram may limit the rate at which the hologram may be written to the SLM, and thus may limit the rate at which the sequence of source images is projected as a video stream, referred to herein as the "frame rate". Thus, it may be difficult to project images at acceptable video frame rates.

The present disclosure relates to techniques for implementing time interleaving of monochromatic components of a source image to optimize the resolution of holographic reconstruction of the source image in the replay plane. The present disclosure further relates to techniques for color mixing image points formed by two monochromatic holographic reconstructions.

An improved holographic projection system and method are disclosed.

Disclosure of Invention

Aspects of the disclosure are defined in the appended independent claims.

A holographic projector is provided that includes an image processing engine, a hologram engine, and a display engine. The image processing engine is arranged to receive a source image for projection. The source image includes a first color component and a second color component. The image processing engine is further arranged to form a first color sub-image from the first color components by invalidating alternating pixel values of the first color components according to a first chess board pattern, and to form a second color sub-image from the second color components by invalidating alternating pixel values of the second color components according to a second chess board pattern. The first chessboard pattern is inverted from the second chessboard pattern. The hologram engine is arranged to determine a first color hologram corresponding to the first color secondary image and a second color hologram corresponding to the second color secondary image. The display is arranged to form a first color holographic reconstruction from the first color hologram and a second color holographic reconstruction from the second color hologram.

The holographic projector may include a first color display channel and a second color display channel. The first colour display channel may be arranged to display a first colour hologram on the first colour display device. The first color display channel may further comprise a first color light source arranged to illuminate the first color hologram during display to form a first color holographic reconstruction corresponding to the first color hologram on the replay plane. The second colour display channel may be arranged to display a second colour hologram on the second colour display device. The second color display channel may further comprise a second color light source arranged to illuminate the second color hologram during display to form a second color holographic reconstruction corresponding to the second color hologram on the replay plane. The image points of the first holographic reconstruction are formed in the spaces between the image points of the second holographic reconstruction according to the first and second chessboard patterns. The image points of the first holographic projection and the image points of the second holographic projection are arranged in a regular array. The source image received by the image processing engine may be one of a plurality of source images processed according to the present disclosure. The plurality of source images may be a video rate sequence of image frames.

A first color hologram formed by the hologram engine is calculated from the first color component and a second color hologram formed by the hologram engine is calculated from the second color component. The first color component is a first input to the hologram engine and the first color hologram is a first output of the hologram engine. The second color component is a second input to the hologram engine and the second color hologram is a second output from the hologram engine. The first color hologram and the second color hologram may be calculated substantially simultaneously. The hologram engine may include a first color hologram engine and a second color hologram engine. Alternatively, the first color hologram and the second color hologram may be computed by the same processing engine at different times, for example: sequentially, one after the other.

The terms "first color" and "second color" are used herein to distinguish between features and components arranged to process light of a first wavelength and features and components arranged to process light of a second wavelength. For example, the first color display device is a display device for processing light of a first wavelength, such as a spatial light modulator. Likewise, the second holographic reconstruction is a holographic reconstruction formed from light of a second wavelength. The first wavelength and the second wavelength are different. In the depicted example, the first wavelength may correspond to red light (e.g., 620nm) and the second wavelength may correspond to green light (e.g., 530 nm). The described example relates to two different wavelengths by way of example only. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the teachings of the present disclosure extend to holographic projectors arranged to form full-color images using three different color channels (e.g., red, green, and blue). The array of monochromatic spots may be interpolated with respect to each other in any possible manner, including for example in a manner corresponding to a pattern of bayer filters for red, green and blue. It will be understood that the holographic projector of the present disclosure may comprise a plurality of monochromatic channels.

The term "checkerboard" is used herein to reflect setting alternate pixel values on a regular 2D pixel array to black or zero (referred to herein as "invalid") according to, for example, the black squares of the checkerboard. Invalidating alternating pixels according to the first checkerboard pattern may include setting pixel values of pixels in (i) odd rows and odd columns and (ii) even rows and even columns to zero. Invalidating alternating pixels according to the second checkerboard pattern may include setting pixel values of pixels in (i) even rows and odd columns and (ii) odd rows and even columns to zero.

It is desirable to maximize the number of pixels of an image and maximize the concentration density of pixels in the image. However, the light of each monochromatic channel according to the present disclosure is coherent, which means that if the neighboring image points of the monochromatic holographic reconstruction are close enough, they will interfere. An effective technique to reduce the image point interference is referred to herein as tessellation. The tessellation process involves invalidating every other pixel value in order to reduce interference between adjacent pixels. However, as a result of the checkering, the perceived resolution of the holographic image is significantly reduced, since the density of bright image points is halved. The inventors have found that by inserting image points of a first color into gaps between image points of a second color, the perceived quality of the color holographic reconstruction can be improved. This is achieved by invalidating the pixel values of the first and second color components according to an opposite checkerboard pattern, as described in detail below.

In some embodiments, the first color holographic reconstruction and the second color holographic reconstruction may be formed substantially simultaneously.

If the first color holographic reconstruction and the second color holographic reconstruction are formed sequentially (i.e. one after the other), more time is needed to display them in the display time of the source image (i.e. the image frame time). Conversely, if the first and second color holographic reconstructions are formed at substantially the same time, more time is available for additional display events during the image frame time of the source image before the next source image is received for processing. For example, the color mixing effect described below is possible if corresponding monochromatic holographic reconstruction pairs are formed substantially simultaneously. In particular, more time is available for multiple display events that display different color image points at the same location within the image frame time of a single source image, resulting in a color blending effect.

In some embodiments, the image processing engine may be further arranged to form further first colour secondary images from the first colour components according to a second chess board pattern, and to form further second colour secondary images from the second colour components according to the first chess board pattern. The hologram engine may be further arranged to determine a further first color hologram corresponding to the further first color secondary image and a further second color hologram corresponding to the further second color secondary image. The display engine may further be arranged to form a further first color holographic reconstruction from the further first color hologram and a further second color holographic reconstruction from the further second color hologram.

Thus, the image processing engine forms a first pair of secondary images and a second pair of secondary images. Each pair of secondary images comprises a secondary image derived from the first color component and a secondary image derived from the second color component. Every other pixel of each secondary image is invalidated according to a checkerboard pattern. The two secondary images of a pair are opposite, as long as the positions of the invalid pixels are exactly opposite/complementary. For example, the first, third, fifth and seventh pixels of a row in the first secondary image of the pair may be inactive, and the second, fourth, sixth and eighth pixels of a row in the second secondary image of the pair may be inactive. Thus, the image points of one holographic reconstruction fill the gaps of the other holographic reconstruction. The first pair of secondary images and the second pair of secondary images together constitute all pixels of the first and second color components of the source image. Thus, a source image comprising a first color component and a second color component may be fully reconstructed by forming a first pair of secondary images and a second pair of secondary images (e.g., within an integration time of the human eye). The display engine may be arranged to holographically reconstruct each pair of complementary secondary images a plurality of times. It can be said that a display event occurs whenever the display engine displays a pair of complementary secondary images. Thus, there may be multiple display events for a source image. The display engine may be arranged to alternate between: (1) together forming first and second holographic reconstructions, and (2) together forming additional first and second holographic reconstructions. In practice, the positions of the first and second color spots are thus inverted a plurality of times. The positions of the first color spot and the second color spot may be inverted a plurality of times during the time of a video rate frame. Each together forming an event may be considered a sub-frame of an image frame. The position of the light spot may be inverted multiple times before receiving the next source image for processing and holographic projection, i.e. before the next frame.

In some embodiments, the further first color component and the further second color component may be formed substantially simultaneously after the first color holographic reconstruction and the second color holographic reconstruction. More display events can be performed within a frame time if the corresponding monochromatic holographic reconstruction pairs are formed at substantially the same time, rather than each monochromatic holographic reconstruction being formed at a different time (e.g., one after the other). The color mixing effect described herein may be enhanced if each source image provides more display events.

In some embodiments, the first color holographic reconstruction, the second color holographic reconstruction, the further first color holographic reconstruction and the further second color holographic reconstruction may be formed within an integration time of the human eye. Thus, a monochromatic pixel of the first color and a monochromatic pixel of the second color are formed at each pixel position in the replay field during the integration time of the human eye. Notably, the inventors have found that a human viewer perceives a bi-color image point at each monochromatic point location due to the color mixing effect. That is, even if only monochrome image content exists at each dot position, the first color and the second color content appear to exist at each dot position. The inventors have found that the process of exchanging the checkered patterns thus significantly improves the perceived image quality, in particular the perceived resolution. Thus, the advantages of tessellation, i.e. reducing interference between adjacent pixels of the same colour, can be retained without reducing the perceived resolution. It can be said that the inventors have devised a scheme in which the lost resolution is fully restored by invalidating the pixel values. This can be achieved by using an opposite and alternating checkerboard pattern to invalidate pixel values.

In some embodiments, the image processing engine is further arranged to increase the number of pixels of the source image prior to forming each secondary image so as to vary the number of first and second colour pixels in the replay field. The source image may be enlarged (i.e. increased in number of pixels) before the secondary image is formed in order to increase the number of image points that will produce a corresponding holographic reconstruction. The number of pixels of the secondary image is therefore not necessarily half of the number of pixels of the original source image, since the number of pixels of the source image may increase by, for example, 25% before the secondary image is calculated. Thus, the density of image points in each individual holographic reconstruction may be increased in order to improve the perceived image quality.

In some embodiments, the image processing engine may be arranged to vary the number of first and second colour pixels so as to optimise the spacing of the first and second colour pixels in the replay field. In particular, the magnification process may be used to ensure that the image points are as closely packed as possible without interference between adjacent image points to maximize the perceived image quality.

In some embodiments, the image processing engine is arranged to receive further source images and to swap the first checkerboard pattern and the second checkerboard pattern for each new source image. Each source image may be one of a plurality of images forming a video rate sequence of image frames for projection. In other embodiments, the checkerboard pattern may be inverted each time a new source image is received and processed, without (or also with) the possibility of subframe level inversion with respect to the same image. It can be said that the checkering scheme is reversed every frame and/or every subframe.

Disclosed herein is a head-up display including a holographic projector.

A method of holographic projection is also disclosed. The first step of the method comprises receiving a source image for projection. The source image includes a first color component and a second color component. The second step comprises forming a first color sub-image from the first color component by invalidating alternating pixel values of the first color component according to a first chessboard pattern. The third step comprises forming a second color sub-image from the second color component by invalidating alternating pixel values of the second color component according to a second chessboard pattern. The first chessboard pattern is inverted from the second chessboard pattern. The fourth step comprises determining a first color hologram corresponding to the first color secondary image and a second color hologram corresponding to the second color secondary image. A fifth step includes forming (e.g., together) a first color holographic reconstruction from the first color hologram and a second color holographic reconstruction from the second color hologram. The first to fifth steps may be performed in order.

In some embodiments, the method may further comprise the steps of: further first color sub-images are formed from the first color components according to a second chess board pattern, and further second color sub-images are formed from the second color components according to the first chess board pattern. Further first color holograms and further second color holograms may be formed from the further first color secondary images and the further second color secondary images, respectively. A further first color holographic reconstruction and a further second color holographic reconstruction may be formed from (e.g. formed together with) the further first color hologram and the further second color hologram, respectively.

Thus, the methods disclosed herein enable managing pixel interference by displaying adjacent image pixels of the same color at different times. More specifically, opposite complementary checkerboard patterns of same-colored pixels are displayed at different times.

The opposite complementary checkerboard patterns of differently colored pixels may be displayed substantially simultaneously. For example, a first holographic reconstruction corresponding to a first color secondary image may comprise a first set of image pixels of a first color in a first chess board pattern, and a second holographic reconstruction corresponding to a second color secondary image may fill the gaps of the first chess board pattern by substantially simultaneously displaying a second set of image pixels of a second color in an opposite second chess board pattern. By inserting pixels of a first color into the gaps between pixels of a second color and flipping each source image pair over at least once for tessellation, it was found that the loss of resolution due to tessellation is mitigated.

The methods disclosed herein enable more display events to be performed for each source image (i.e., during the image frame time). As described herein, this provides greater flexibility in the selection of display events to improve resolution (e.g., hologram tiling) and/or color mixing.

In the present disclosure, a new approach may be implemented by increasing the number of pixels of the source image before obtaining the respective plurality of monochromatic secondary images. Thus, the desired resolution of the interleaved holographic reconstruction formed by displaying pairs of complementary holograms can be achieved by "magnifying" the target image to form the source image. Any known technique for magnifying an image is suitable.

The disclosed method is suitable for real-time (i.e., video rate) processing. In particular, the hologram may be determined and displayed within a frame time of the video.

These and other advantages of the novel methods disclosed herein will be further appreciated from the following detailed description.

The term "target image" is used herein to refer to the input to the holographic system described herein. That is, the target image is the image that the holographic system needs to project onto the holographic replay plane. The target image may be one image of a sequence of images, such as a video rate sequence of images.

The term "source image" is used herein to refer to an image derived from a target image. The source image may be the same as the target image or the source image may be an enlarged version of the target image. That is, the source image may include more pixels than the target image. Any amplification technique may be employed. In some embodiments, the enlarging includes repeating pixel values of the target image, as described in the detailed description. In these embodiments, the compute engine may use a simple mapping scheme to represent the repetitions.

The term "secondary image" is used herein to refer to one of a plurality of images derived from a source image of a monochromatic component. Each secondary image is formed by invalidating alternating pixel values of the monochrome component of the source image. A monochrome hologram corresponding to each secondary image is calculated.

The term "hologram" is used to refer to a recording that contains amplitude information or phase information, or some combination thereof, about an object. The term "holographic reconstruction" is used to refer to the optical reconstruction of an object formed by illuminating a hologram. The term "replay plane" is used herein to refer to a plane in space where the holographic reconstruction is fully formed. The term "replay field" is used herein to refer to a sub-region of the replay plane that may receive spatially modulated light from the spatial light modulator. The terms "image", "replay image" and "image region" refer to the region of the replay field illuminated by the light forming the holographic reconstruction. In embodiments, an "image" may comprise discrete blobs, which may be referred to as "image pixels.

The terms "encoding", "writing" or "addressing" are used to describe the process of providing a plurality of pixels of the SLM with a respective plurality of control values that respectively determine the modulation level of each pixel. It can be said that the pixels of the SLM are configured to "display" the light modulation profile in response to receiving a plurality of control values. Thus, the SLM can be said to "display" the hologram.

It has been found that a holographic reconstruction of acceptable quality can be formed from a "hologram" containing only phase information relating to the original object. Such holographic recordings may be referred to as phase-only holograms. The embodiments relate to pure phase holograms, but the disclosure is equally applicable to pure amplitude holograms.

The present disclosure is equally applicable to forming a holographic reconstruction using amplitude and phase information relating to the original object. In some embodiments this is achieved by complex modulation using so-called full complex holograms, which contain both amplitude and phase information about the original object. Such holograms may be referred to as full-composite holograms because the value (grey level) assigned to each pixel of the hologram has both amplitude and phase components. The value (gray level) assigned to each pixel can be represented as a complex number with amplitude and phase components. In some embodiments, a fully-compounded computer-generated hologram is computed.

Reference may be made to phase values, phase components, phase information, or simply to the phase (abbreviated as "phase delay") of a pixel of a computer generated hologram or spatial light modulator. That is, any phase value described is actually a number (e.g., in the range of 0 to 2 π) representing the amount of phase retardation provided by the pixel. For example, a pixel described as a spatial light modulator with a phase value of π/2 will change the phase of the received light by π/2 radians. In some embodiments, each pixel of the spatial light modulator may operate in one of a plurality of possible modulation values (e.g., phase delay values). The term "gray scale level" may be used to refer to a plurality of available modulation levels. For example, the term "gray scale level" may be used for convenience to refer to a plurality of available phase levels in a pure phase modulator, even if different phase levels do not provide different shades of gray. For convenience, the term "gray scale" may also be used to refer to a plurality of available complex modulation levels in a complex modulator.

Although different examples and embodiments may be disclosed in the following detailed description, respectively, any feature of any example or embodiment may be combined with any other feature or combination of features of any example or embodiment. That is, all possible combinations and permutations of the features disclosed in this disclosure are contemplated.

Drawings

Specific embodiments are described by way of example only with reference to the following drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a reflective SLM producing a holographic reconstruction on a screen;

FIG. 2A shows a first iteration of an example Gerchberg-Saxton type algorithm;

FIG. 2B illustrates a second and subsequent iterations of an example Gerchberg-Saxton type algorithm;

FIG. 2C shows a second and subsequent iterations of an alternative example Gerchberg-Saxton type algorithm;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a reflective LCOS SLM;

FIG. 4A illustrates an example technique for determining a pair of monochrome holograms from respective secondary images, each derived from one of a plurality of monochrome components of a source image for projection by a holographic projector, in accordance with embodiments;

FIG. 4B illustrates a further example technique for determining a pair of monochrome holograms, each derived from one of a plurality of monochrome components of a source image for projection by a holographic projector, in accordance with embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates a combined holographic reconstruction and an individual holographic reconstruction produced by displaying a pair of holograms determined according to the example technique of FIG. 4, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates individual and combined holographic reconstructions produced by displaying a pair of additional holograms determined in accordance with a modification of the example technique of FIG. 4, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a holographic projection system including first and second color channels according to an embodiment; and

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a display engine of the holographic system of FIG. 7, according to an embodiment.

The same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

Detailed Description

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below, but extends to the full scope of the appended claims. That is, the present invention may be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the described embodiments, which have been set forth for the purpose of illustration.

Unless otherwise indicated, terms in the singular may include the plural.

Structures described as being formed on/under another structure or on/under another structure should be interpreted to include a case where the structures are in contact with each other, and further include a case where a third structure is disposed therebetween.

In describing temporal relationships, for example, when a temporal sequence of events is described as "after," "subsequent," "next," "before," and the like, the disclosure should be considered to include continuous and discontinuous events unless otherwise noted. For example, unless the language "immediately," "immediately," or "directly" is used, the description is to be understood to include instances where it is not continuous.

Although the terms "first," "second," etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

Features of different embodiments may be partially or fully coupled or combined with each other and may interoperate differently from each other. Some embodiments may be performed independently of each other or may be performed together in an interdependent relationship.

Optical arrangement

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which a computer generated hologram is encoded on a single spatial light modulator. The computer generated hologram is a fourier transform of the object used for reconstruction. Thus, the hologram can be said to be a fourier domain or frequency domain or spectral domain representation of the object. In this embodiment, the spatial light modulator is a reflective liquid crystal on silicon "LCOS" device. The hologram is encoded on a spatial light modulator and the holographic reconstruction is formed on a replay field, e.g. on a light receiving surface like a screen or a diffuser.

A light source 110, such as a laser or laser diode, is arranged to illuminate the SLM 140 through a collimating lens 111. The collimating lens causes a generally planar wavefront of light to be incident on the SLM. In fig. 1, the direction of the wavefront is off normal (e.g. two to three degrees off true normal to the plane of the transparent layer). However, in other embodiments, the generally planar wavefront is provided at normal incidence and a beam splitter arrangement is used to separate the input and output optical paths. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the arrangement is such that light from the light source is reflected from the mirrored back surface of the SLM and interacts with the light modulation layer to form an emergent wavefront 112. The emergent wavefront 112 is applied to optics comprising a fourier transform lens 120, which is focused on a screen 125. More specifically, Fourier transform lens 120 receives the modulated beam from SLM 140 and performs a frequency-space transform to produce a holographic reconstruction on screen 125.

It is worth noting that in such holography, each pixel of the hologram contributes to the entire reconstruction. There is no one-to-one correlation between a particular point (or image pixel) and a particular light modulation element (or holographic pixel) on the replay field. In other words, the modulated light leaving the light modulation layer is distributed over the entire playback field.

In these embodiments, the location of the holographic reconstruction in space is determined by the dioptric (focusing) power of the fourier transform lens. In the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the fourier transform lens is a physical lens. That is, the fourier transform lens is an optical fourier transform lens, and fourier transform is optically performed. Any lens can act as a fourier transform lens, but the performance of the lens can limit the accuracy with which it can perform a fourier transform. Those skilled in the art understand how to perform an optical fourier transform using a lens.

Hologram calculation

In some embodiments, the computer-generated hologram is a fourier transform hologram, or simply a fourier hologram or fourier-based hologram, wherein the image is reconstructed in the far field by exploiting the fourier transform properties of the positive lens. The fourier hologram is calculated by fourier transforming the desired light field in the replay plane back into the lens plane. The computer-generated fourier hologram may be computed using a fourier transform.

The Fourier transform hologram may be computed using an algorithm such as the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm. Furthermore, the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm can be used to compute holograms in the Fourier domain (i.e., Fourier transform holograms) from pure amplitude information in the spatial domain (e.g., photographs). Phase information associated with the object is effectively "retrieved" from the pure amplitude information in the spatial domain. In some embodiments, holograms are computer generated from pure amplitude information using the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm or a variant thereof.

The Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm considers the luminance cross-section I of the beam in plane A and plane B, respectively_A(x, y) and I_B(x, y) are known and I_A(x, y) and I_B(x, y) is the case of correlation by a single fourier transform. For a given luminance section, the phase distribution Ψ in plane A and plane B, respectively, is found_A(x, y) and Ψ_B(x, y) approximate values. The Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm finds a solution to this problem by following an iterative process. More specifically, the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm iteratively applies spatial and spectral constraints while repeatedly transmitting the representative I between the spatial and Fourier (spectral or frequency) domains_A(x, y) and I_BData set (amplitude and phase) of (x, y). A corresponding computer-generated hologram in the spectral domain is obtained by at least one iteration of the algorithm. The algorithm is convergent and arranged to produce a representation of the input imageThe hologram of (1). The hologram may be a pure amplitude hologram, a pure phase hologram or a fully multiplexed hologram.

In some embodiments, the phase-only hologram is calculated using an algorithm based on the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm, such as the algorithms described in british patent 2,498,170 or 2,501,112, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. However, the embodiments disclosed herein describe calculating a phase-only hologram by way of example only. In these embodiments, the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm retrieves the Fourier transformed phase information Ψ [ u, v ] of the data set, which yields the known amplitude information T [ x, y ], where the amplitude information T [ x, y ] represents the target image (e.g., photograph). Since the amplitude and phase are inherently combined in the fourier transform, the transformed amplitude and phase contain useful information about the accuracy of the computed data set. Thus, the algorithm can be used iteratively, with feedback of both amplitude and phase information. However, in these embodiments, only the phase information Ψ [ u, v ] is used as a hologram to form a hologram representing the target image on the image plane. A hologram is a data set (e.g. a 2D array) of phase values.

In other embodiments, an algorithm based on the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm is used to compute the full composite hologram. A full composite hologram is a hologram having an amplitude component and a phase component. A hologram is a data set (e.g. a 2D array) comprising an array of complex data values, wherein each complex data value comprises an amplitude component and a phase component.

In some embodiments, the algorithm processes complex data and the fourier transform is a complex fourier transform. The complex data may be considered to include (i) real and imaginary components, or (ii) amplitude and phase components. In some embodiments, the two components of the composite data are processed differently at different stages of the algorithm.

FIG. 2A illustrates a first iteration of an algorithm for computing phase-only holograms according to some embodiments. The input to the algorithm is an input image 210 comprising a 2D array of pixels or data values, where each pixel or data value is an amplitude value or amplitude value. That is, each pixel or data value of the input image 210 has no phase component. Thus, the input image 210 may be considered to be a pure amplitude or a pure brightness distribution. An example of such an input image 210 is a photograph or a video frame comprising a time sequence of frames. The first iteration of the algorithm begins with a data formation step 202A, which includes assigning a random phase value to each pixel of the input image using a random phase distribution (or random phase seed) 230 to form a starting composite data set, where each data element of the set includes an amplitude and a phase. The starting composite data set may be said to represent the input image in the spatial domain.

The first processing block 250 receives the starting composite data set and performs a composite fourier transform to form a fourier transformed composite data set. The second processing block 253 receives the fourier transformed composite data set and outputs a hologram 280A. In some embodiments, hologram 280A is a phase-only hologram. In these embodiments, second processing block 253 quantizes each phase value and sets each amplitude value to 1 to form hologram 280A. Each phase value is quantized according to a phase level that can be represented on the pixels of the spatial light modulator that will be used to "display" a phase-only hologram. For example, if each pixel of the spatial light modulator provides 256 different phase levels, each phase value of the hologram is quantized to one of the 256 possible phase levels. Hologram 280A is a phase-only fourier hologram representing the input image. In other embodiments, hologram 280A is a fully-compounded hologram comprising an array of compounded data values (each comprising an amplitude component and a phase component) derived from a received fourier-transformed compounded data set. In some embodiments, second processing block 253 constrains each composite data value to one of a plurality of allowed composite modulation levels to form hologram 280A. The constraining step may include setting each composite data value to the closest allowable composite modulation level in the composite plane. The hologram 280A may be said to represent an input image in the spectral domain or fourier domain or frequency domain. In some embodiments, the algorithm stops at this point.

However, in other embodiments, the algorithm continues as indicated by the dashed arrow in FIG. 2A. In other words, the steps following the dashed arrows in FIG. 2A are optional (i.e., not necessary for all embodiments).

Third processing block 256 receives the modified composite data set from second processing block 253 and performs an inverse fourier transform to form an inverse fourier transformed composite data set. The inverse fourier transformed composite data set can be said to represent the input image in the spatial domain.

Fourth processing block 259 receives the inverse fourier transformed composite data set and extracts distribution of amplitude values 211A and distribution of phase values 213A. Optionally, fourth processing block 259 evaluates the distribution of amplitude values 211A. In particular, the fourth processing block 259 may compare the distribution of amplitude values 211A of the inverse fourier transformed composite data set with the input image 510, the input image 510 itself of course being a distribution of amplitude values. If the difference between the distribution of amplitude values 211A and the input image 210 is sufficiently small, the fourth processing block 259 may determine that the hologram 280A is acceptable. That is, if the difference between the distribution of amplitude values 211A and the input image 210 is small enough, the fourth processing block 259 may determine that the hologram 280A represents the input image 210 with sufficient accuracy. In some embodiments, phase value distribution 213A of the inverse fourier transformed composite data set is ignored for purposes of comparison. It should be understood that any number of different methods may be employed to compare amplitude value distribution 211A and input image 210, and the present disclosure is not limited to any particular method. In some embodiments, the mean square error is calculated, and if the mean square error is less than a threshold, the hologram 280A is considered acceptable. If fourth processing block 259 determines that hologram 280A is not acceptable, further iterations of the algorithm may be performed. However, this comparison step is not required, and in other embodiments, the number of iterations of the algorithm performed is predetermined or preset or user defined.

Fig. 2B represents a second iteration of the algorithm and any further iterations of the algorithm. The phase value distribution 213A of the previous iteration is fed back through the processing block of the algorithm. The amplitude value distribution 211A is not considered first, and the amplitude value distribution of the input image 210 is prioritized. In a first iteration, the data forming step 202A forms a first composite data set by combining the distribution of amplitude values of the input image 210 with the random phase distribution 230. However, in the second and subsequent iterations, the data forming step 202B includes forming a composite data set by combining (i) the distribution of phase values 213A from the previous iteration of the algorithm with (ii) the distribution of amplitude values of the input image 210.

The composite data set formed by the data forming step 202B in FIG. 2B is then processed in the same manner as described with reference to FIG. 2A to form a second iteration hologram 280B. Therefore, an explanation of the process will not be repeated here. The algorithm may stop when the second iteration hologram 280B has been calculated. However, any number of further iterations of the algorithm may be performed. It will be appreciated that the third processing block 256 is only required when the fourth processing block 259 is required or further iterations are required. Output hologram 280B generally becomes better with each iteration. However, in practice a point is usually reached at which no measurable improvement is observed, or the positive benefit of performing further iterations is offset by the negative effect of additional processing time. Thus, the algorithm is described as iterative and convergent.

Fig. 2C shows an alternative embodiment for the second and subsequent iterations. The phase value distribution 213A of the previous iteration is fed back through the processing block of the algorithm. The amplitude value distribution 211A is not considered first, and the alternative distribution of amplitude values is prioritized. In this alternative embodiment, an alternative distribution of amplitude values is derived from the distribution of amplitude values 211 of the previous iteration. In particular, the processing block 258 subtracts the distribution of amplitude values of the input image 210 from the distribution of amplitude values 211 of the previous iteration, scales the difference by the gain factor α, and subtracts the scaled difference from the input image 210. This is mathematically represented by the following equation, where subscripted text and numbers represent the number of iterations:

R_n+1[x,y]＝F'{exp(iψ_n[u,v])}

ψ_n[u,v]＝∠F{h·exp(i∠R_n[x,y])}

h＝T[x,y]-α(|R_n[x,y]|-T[x,y])

wherein:

f' is the inverse Fourier transform;

f is a forward Fourier transform;

r [ x, y ] is the composite data set output by the third processing block 256;

t [ x, y ] is the input or target image;

the angle is a phase component;

Ψ is a phase-only hologram 280B;

η is new amplitude value distribution 211B; and

alpha is the gain factor.

The gain factor a may be fixed or variable. In some embodiments, the gain factor α is determined based on the size and rate of incoming target image data. In some embodiments, the gain factor α depends on the number of iterations. In some embodiments, the gain factor α is only a function of the number of iterations.

The embodiment of fig. 2C is identical to the embodiment of fig. 2A and 2B in all other respects. It can be said that the phase-only hologram Ψ (u, v) comprises a phase distribution in the frequency domain or the fourier domain.

In some embodiments, the fourier transform is computationally performed by including the lens data in the hologram data. That is, the hologram includes data representing a lens and data representing an object. In these embodiments, the physical fourier transform lens 120 of fig. 1 may be omitted. In the field of computer generated holograms, it is known how to calculate holographic data representing a lens. The holographic data representing the lens may be referred to as a software lens. For example, a phase-only lens may be formed by calculating the phase delay caused by each point of the lens due to its refractive index and spatially varying optical path length. For example, the optical path length at the center of a convex lens is longer than the optical path length at the edge of the lens. The pure amplitude lens may be formed of a fresnel zone plate. In the field of computer generated holograms, it is known how to combine holographic data representing a lens with holographic data representing an object such that a fourier transform can be performed without the need for a physical fourier lens. In some embodiments, the lens data is combined with the hologram by simple addition, such as simple vector addition. In some embodiments, a physical lens is used in conjunction with a software lens to perform a fourier transform. Alternatively, in other embodiments, the fourier transform lens is omitted entirely so that the holographic reconstruction occurs in the far field. In a further embodiment, the hologram may comprise grating data, i.e. data arranged to perform a grating function (e.g. beam steering). Also, it is known in the art of computer generated holograms how to calculate such holographic data and how to combine it with holographic data representing an object. For example, a phase-only holographic grating may be formed by modeling the phase delay induced by each point on a blazed grating surface. A pure amplitude holographic grating may simply be superimposed with a pure amplitude hologram representing the object to provide angular manipulation of the pure amplitude hologram.

In some embodiments, the fourier transform is performed by a physical fourier transform lens and a software lens together. That is, some of the optical power that contributes to the fourier transform is provided by the software lens, while the remaining optical power that contributes to the fourier transform is provided by the one or more physical optics.

In some embodiments, a real-time engine is provided, arranged to receive the image data and to calculate the hologram in real-time using the algorithm. In some embodiments, the image data is a video comprising a sequence of image frames. In other embodiments, the hologram is pre-computed, stored in computer memory, and recalled as needed for display on the SLM. That is, in some embodiments, a repository of predetermined holograms is provided.

Embodiments relate, by way of example only, to Fourier holography and Gerchberg-Saxton type algorithms. The disclosure is equally applicable to fresnel holography and fresnel holograms, which can be computed by other techniques, such as those based on point cloud methods.

Optical modulation

The spatial light modulator may be used to display a computer generated hologram. If the hologram is a phase-only hologram, a spatial light modulator that modulates the phase is required. If the hologram is a fully multiplexed hologram, a spatial light modulator that modulates phase and amplitude may be used, or a first spatial light modulator that modulates phase and a second spatial light modulator that modulates amplitude may be used.

In some embodiments, the light modulation elements (i.e., pixels) of the spatial light modulator are a plurality of cells containing liquid crystals. That is, in some embodiments, the spatial light modulator is a liquid crystal device, wherein the optically active component is a liquid crystal. Each liquid crystal cell is configured to selectively provide a plurality of light modulation levels. That is, each liquid crystal cell is configured to operate at a selected one of a plurality of possible light modulation levels at any one time. Each liquid crystal cell can be dynamically reconfigured to a light modulation level different from the plurality of light modulation levels. In some embodiments, the spatial light modulator is a reflective Liquid Crystal On Silicon (LCOS) spatial light modulator, but the present disclosure is not limited to this type of spatial light modulator.

LCOS devices provide a dense array of light modulating elements or pixels within a small aperture (e.g., a few centimeters wide). The pixels are typically about 10 microns or less, which results in diffraction angles of a few degrees, which means that the optical system can be compact. This makes it easier to adequately illuminate the small aperture of the LCOS SLM compared to the large aperture of other liquid crystal devices. LCOS devices are typically reflective, which means that the circuitry that drives the pixels of the LCOS SLM may be buried beneath the reflective surface. This results in a higher aperture ratio. In other words, the dense arrangement of pixels means that there is little dead space between pixels. This is advantageous because it reduces optical noise in the playback field. LCOS SLMs use a silicon backplane, which has the advantage that the pixels are optically flat. This is particularly important for phase modulation devices.

A suitable LCOS SLM is described below, by way of example only, with reference to fig. 3. The single crystal silicon substrate 302 is used to form an LCOS device. It has a 2D array of square planar aluminum electrodes 301, separated by gaps 301a, arranged on the upper surface of the substrate. Each electrode 301 is addressable by a circuit 302a buried in the substrate 302. Each electrode forms a respective flat mirror. An alignment layer 303 is disposed on the electrode array, and a liquid crystal layer 304 is disposed on the alignment layer 303. The second alignment layer 305 is disposed on a planar transparent layer 306, for example of glass. A single transparent electrode 307 of, for example, ITO, is arranged between the transparent layer 306 and the second alignment layer 305.

Each square electrode 301 together with the covered field of transparent electrodes 307 and the intermediate liquid crystal material defines a controllable phase modulating element 308, commonly referred to as a pixel. The effective pixel area or fill factor is the percentage of total pixels that are optically active, taking into account the space between pixels 301 a. By controlling the voltage applied to each electrode 301 relative to the transparent electrode 307, the properties of the liquid crystal material of the respective phase modulating element can be varied, thereby providing a variable retardation for light incident thereon. The effect is to provide pure phase modulation of the wavefront, i.e. no amplitude effects occur.

The described LCOS SLM outputs reflected spatially modulated light. One advantage of a reflective LCOS SLM is that the signal lines, gate lines and transistors are located under the mirror, which results in a high fill factor (typically greater than 90%) and high resolution. An additional advantage of using a reflective LCOS spatial light modulator is that the thickness of the liquid crystal layer can be half that required when using a transmissive device. This greatly increases the switching speed of the liquid crystal (which is a key advantage of projecting moving video images). However, the teachings of the present disclosure may be implemented using a transmissive LCOS SLM as well.

Generating a plurality of monochrome holograms from a source image

The following embodiments relate to specific technologies, which may include: (1) calculating a source image from a target image; (2) determining a plurality of monochromatic secondary images from a source image; and (3) computing a hologram corresponding to each secondary image. According to these techniques, a plurality of holograms corresponding to a target image are calculated. In some embodiments (e.g., the target image has a sufficiently high resolution), the source image is the same as the target image. Step 1 may include amplification. In the described embodiment, the source image has a first color component and a second color component. In step 2, a first color secondary image is formed from first color components of the source image by deactivating alternating pixels in a first chess board pattern, and a second color secondary image is formed from second color components of the source image by deactivating alternating pixels in a second chess board pattern, the second chess board pattern being opposite to the first chess board pattern.

According to conventional techniques, a single hologram corresponding to the target image is calculated. The hologram is sent to the display engine of the spatial light modulator in the form of a data frame, which may be an HDMI frame. The size of the hologram (i.e., the number of hologram pixels) determined for the image may be smaller than the size of the spatial light modulator (i.e., the number of SLM pixels). Thus, when displayed, the hologram may occupy only a portion of the surface area of the SLM (i.e. only some SLM pixels). In this case, a tiling engine may be implemented to write holograms to pixels of the SLM according to a tiling scheme so that more SLM pixels are used. Displaying the hologram using a selected and/or a number of different tiling schemes may improve the resolution of the holographic reconstruction.

In some embodiments, the target image for projection is "zoomed in" to form a source image with an increased number of pixels. Therefore, the resolution (in terms of the number of pixels) is improved. The magnification of the image may increase the number of pixels by a power of 2, since the number of pixels is doubled in both the x and y directions. For example, the image may be magnified 4 in the x and y directions. For example, each individual pixel may be replicated in a 4 × 4 pixel array (i.e., having the same pixel values) in the enlarged image. As a result, an image comprising an n × m pixel array is "upscaled" or "oversampled" to obtain a 4n × 4m pixel array forming an oversampled or upscaled version of the image. The oversampled/magnified image may be used as a source image, as described below. More sophisticated methods of magnifying the target image may be used.

Subsampling a monochromatic component of a source image using tessellation

Fig. 4A illustrates an example technique for determining a pair of first and second monochrome holograms HR and HG from respective first and second color secondary images derived from a source image according to an embodiment. FIG. 4A shows an exemplary source image 410 comprising a 4 × 8 array of image pixels (P11 through P48). Source image 410 has a first color component and a second color component. In particular, a first color component of source image 410 includes subpixels of a first color (e.g., red subpixels R11 through R48), and a second color component of source image 410 includes subpixels of a second color (e.g., green subpixels G11 through G48).

Referring to FIG. 4A, an exemplary source image 410 is processed (e.g., by an image processing engine) to generate a pair of monochromatic secondary images 420, 430 based on a "checkerboard" layout or pattern. In particular, every other image pixel of the first color of the source image (e.g., every other red sub-pixel) is used in a first checkerboard pattern and the remaining pixels are filled with "zeros" to generate a first color secondary image 420. It can be said that the first color secondary image 420 is generated from the image pixels of the first color in the source image 410 by invalidating the alternating pixel values according to the first checkerboard pattern. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the process of invalidating a pixel or pixel value means setting the pixel to black or zero. Thus, the first color secondary image 420 includes image pixels of the first color from the source image 410 in positions (1, 1), (1, 3) … (2, 2), (2, 4) … (3, 1), (3, 3) …, and (4, 2) … (4, 8). Every other second color image pixel in source image 410 (e.g., every other green subpixel) is used in a second checkerboard pattern, which is the inverse of (or complementary to) the first checkerboard pattern, and the remaining pixels are filled with "zeros", thereby generating a second color secondary image 430. The second color secondary image 430 is generated, as it were, from the second color image pixels of the source image 410 by invalidating the alternating pixel values according to a second checkerboard pattern. Thus, the second color secondary image 430 includes image pixels of the second color from the source image 410 at positions (1, 2), (1, 4) … (2, 1), (2, 3) … (3, 2), (3, 4) …, and (4, 1) … (4, 7). First color secondary image 420 is then processed (e.g., by a hologram engine) to determine a corresponding first color Hologram (HR)425, and similarly, second color secondary image 430 is processed to determine a corresponding second color Hologram (HG) 435. The hologram may be calculated using any suitable method, such as the algorithms described above.

FIG. 4B shows a method for determining a pair of further first and second color holograms H from respective first and second color secondary images derived from a source image according to an embodiment_R' and H_GAn example of. The example technique of fig. 4B may be used in conjunction with the example technique of fig. 4A. In particular, the example techniques of fig. 4A and 4B may be performed using the same source image. Displaying a pair of first and second monochrome holograms HR and HG derived from a source image using the example technique of FIG. 4A, and subsequently displaying a pair of further first and second monochrome holograms H derived from the same source image using the example technique of FIG. 4B_R' and H_G' may result in the color mixing effect described herein.

Referring to fig. 4B, a source image 410 comprising a 4 x 8 array of image pixels (P11-P48) is processed (e.g., by an image processing engine) to generate a pair of further secondary images 420', 430' based on the checkerboard pattern in fig. 4A. However, in fig. 4B, the checkerboard pattern used to derive each of the further first and second color secondary images 420', 430' is inverted. Thereby, every second image pixel of the first color of the source image (e.g. every second red sub-pixel) is used in the second checkerboard pattern and the remaining pixels are invalidated to generate a further first color secondary image 420'. Thus, the further first color secondary image 420' comprises image pixels of the first color from the source image 410 at positions (1, 2), (1, 4) … (2, 1), (2, 3) … (3, 2), (3, 4) … and (4, 1) … (4, 7). Every other second color image pixel (e.g., every other green subpixel) of source image 410 is used in a first checkerboard pattern and the remaining pixels are deactivated to generate an additional second color secondary image 430'. Thus, the further second color secondary image 430' comprises image pixels of the second color from the source image 410 at positions (1, 1), (1, 3) … … (2, 2), (2, 4) … … (3, 1), (3, 3) … and (4, 2) … (4, 8). Further first color secondary image 420 'is then processed (e.g., by a hologram engine) to determine a corresponding further first color Hologram (HR)425', and similarly, further second color secondary image 430 'is processed to determine a corresponding further second color Hologram (HG) 435'. The hologram may be calculated using any suitable method, such as the algorithms described above.

Fig. 5 illustrates a holographic reconstruction produced by displaying the first and second color holograms HR and HG determined using the example technique of fig. 4A, in accordance with an embodiment.

In particular, fig. 5 shows a subset of image points of a first color formed by a first color holographic reconstruction 510 of a first color hologram 425 corresponding to a first color secondary image 420 of a first chessboard pattern. Fig. 5 shows a subset of image points of a second color formed by a second color holographic reconstruction 520 of a second color hologram 435 corresponding to a second color secondary image 430 of a second chess board pattern, which is, as mentioned above, the inverse of the first chess board pattern. Fig. 5 also shows a combined holographic reconstruction 530 presented to a viewer by forming the first and second color holographic reconstructions 510, 520 within the integration time of the human eye.

By using the checkerboard method, the separation between image points (or "image pixels") of each individual monochromatic holographic reconstruction 510, 520 shown in FIG. 5 is increased by a factor of two by reducing the number of holographic image pixels. It can be said that the spatial resolution (density of image points in the replay field) of each holographic reconstruction is reduced by a factor of half. This is advantageous because it helps to prevent any overlap between adjacent pixels of the same colour (i.e. it reduces or prevents "pixel crosstalk" or "pixel interference"). As mentioned above, the overlapping of adjacent image points or image pixels can create interference that is particulate/noise to the viewer.

In the illustrated embodiment, the first color holographic reconstruction 510 may be formed substantially simultaneously with the second color holographic reconstruction 520. This has several advantages. In particular, if the first and second color holographic reconstructions 510, 520 are formed substantially simultaneously, the image pixels of the second color fill the gaps between the image pixels of the first color, thereby mitigating the disadvantage of reduced spatial resolution due to checkering. In addition, more time is available for additional display events before the next source image is received for processing. For example, additional display events may use different tiling schemes for the holograms to increase the resolution of the holographic reconstruction. Additionally or alternatively, the further display event may display a further first and second color holographic reconstruction 510', 520' to provide the color mixing effect described below with reference to fig. 6.

Thus, in embodiments, first and second color holograms 425, 435 may be written to and thereby displayed on the SLM sequentially or substantially simultaneously. With the first and second color holograms 425, 435 written sequentially to the SLM, the first and second color holograms are displayed at a speed that is fast enough to form corresponding holographic reconstructions 510, 520 within the human eye integration time. Thus, the viewer observes the replay field on which the holographic reconstruction is formed, seeing a single projected image formed by the first and second colors without reducing the spatial resolution due to the tessellation.

FIG. 6 illustrates additional first and second color holograms H determined by displaying using the example technique of FIG. 4B, in accordance with an embodiment_R'，H_G', which corresponds to the hologram reconstruction shown in fig. 5. In particular, as described above, the checkerboard pattern used to generate the respective further first and second color secondary images 420', 430' of fig. 4B is inverted compared to the checkerboard pattern used to generate the respective first and second color secondary images 420, 430 of fig. 4A.

Fig. 6 thus shows a subset of the image points of the first color of the further first color holographic reconstruction 610 of the further first color hologram 425 'corresponding to the further first color secondary image 420' of the second chessboard pattern. Fig. 6 shows a subset of image points of a second color formed by a further second color holographic reconstruction 620 of a further second color hologram 435 'corresponding to a further second color secondary image 430' of the first chessboard pattern. Fig. 6 also shows a combined holographic reconstruction 630 presented to the viewer by forming further first and second color holographic reconstructions 610, 620 within the integration time of the human eye.

In an embodiment, further first color holograms 425 'and second color holograms 435' may be written to and thereby displayed on the SLM sequentially or substantially simultaneously. Thus, a viewer sees the replay field on which the holographic reconstructions 610, 620 are formed, seeing a single projected image formed by the first and second colors without reducing spatial resolution due to checkering.

The holographic reconstructions of fig. 5 and 6 corresponding to pairs of first and second color holograms may be formed sequentially (i.e. one after the other). It can be said that the holographic reconstructions of fig. 5 and 6 can be time interleaved. The image point of the first color holographic reconstruction 510 and the image points of the further first color holographic reconstruction 610 are thus displayed at different times, so that adjacent image points of the first color do not interfere with one another. Similarly, the image point of the second color holographic reconstruction 520 and the image point of the further second color holographic reconstruction 660 are displayed at different times such that adjacent image points of the second color do not interfere with each other. Thus, pixel interference is reduced.

The image processing engine forms a first pair of secondary images and then forms a second pair of secondary images. Each pair of secondary images comprises a secondary image derived from the first color component and a secondary image derived from the second color component. Every other pixel of each secondary image is invalidated according to a checkerboard pattern. The two secondary images of a pair are opposite, as long as the positions of the invalid pixels are exactly opposite/complementary. Thus, the holographically reconstructed image points of the holograms of one pair of secondary images fill the gaps of the holographically reconstructed image points of the holograms of the other secondary images of the pair. This mitigates the disadvantage of reduced spatial resolution due to tessellation. Furthermore, the process of forming the first pair of second secondary images followed by the second pair of secondary images forms a respective holographic reconstruction having first and second color image points corresponding to all pixels of the first and second color components of the source image. Furthermore, a holographic reconstruction of the hologram forming the first pair of secondary images and then a holographic reconstruction of the hologram forming the second pair of secondary images, the image points of the first and second colors being displayed one after the other at each image point position, thereby creating a color mixing effect. The inventors have found that this improves the perceived resolution of the panchromatic image.

In some embodiments, the display engine may be arranged to display each pair of complementary secondary images a plurality of times. The display of each pair of secondary images may be considered a "display event" comprising writing a corresponding hologram to the SLM. The display engine may be arranged to alternate between (1) forming first and second colour holographic reconstructions together (figure 5), and (2) forming further first and second colour holographic reconstructions together (figure 6). In practice, as shown in fig. 5 and 6, the positions of the first color light spot and the second color light spot are inverted a plurality of times. The positions of the first color light spot and the second color light spot may be inverted a plurality of times during the time of a video rate frame. Each coform event (i.e., display event) may be considered a subframe of an image frame. The position of the light spot may be inverted a number of times before receiving the next source image for processing and holographic projection, i.e. before the next frame.

Thus, by forming the first and second color holographic reconstructions 510, 520 substantially simultaneously, and forming the further first and second color holographic reconstructions 610, 620 substantially simultaneously, more display events can be performed within one frame time. As described herein, color mixing effects and improved color image resolution may be achieved as more display events are possible.

The first and second color holographic reconstructions 510, 520 of fig. 5 and the further first and second color holographic reconstructions 610, 620 of fig. 6 may be formed within the integration time of the human eye in the replay plane.

As described above, when the first and second color holographic reconstructions 510, 520 of fig. 5 are temporally interleaved with the further first and second color holographic reconstructions 610, 620 of fig. 6, the inventors found that a human viewer perceives two color image points at each monochromatic point location due to a color mixing effect. That is, even if there is only monochromatic image content at each pixel location, it appears to have first and second color content at each pixel location (illustrated by combined holographic reconstructions 530 and 630 of fig. 5 and 6). The inventors have found that the process of exchanging the checkered patterns thus significantly improves the perceived image quality, in particular the perceived resolution. Thus, the advantages of tessellation, i.e. reducing interference between adjacent pixels of the same colour, can be retained without reducing the perceived resolution. It can be said that the inventors have devised a scheme in which the resolution lost by invalidating the pixel values is fully restored. This can be achieved by using an opposite and alternating checkerboard pattern to invalidate pixel values.

Image magnification

In some embodiments, the number of pixels of the source image is increased (e.g., by processing using an image processing engine) prior to forming each monochromatic secondary image. For example, the target image may be "zoomed in" to form a source image with an increased number of pixels. Any suitable amplification technique may be used. The magnification is such that the number of first color pixels and second color pixels in the replay field can be varied according to the application requirements. For example, the number of first color pixels and second color pixels can be varied to optimize the spacing of the first color pixels and the spacing of the second color pixels in the playback field.

In particular, the source image may be enlarged (i.e. the number of pixels increased) before forming the secondary image, in order to increase the number of image points that will produce a corresponding holographic reconstruction. Thus, the number of pixels of the secondary image is not necessarily half of the number of pixels of the original source image, since the number of pixels of the source image may increase (e.g. by 25%) before the secondary image is computed. Thus, the density of image points in each individual holographic reconstruction may be increased in order to improve the perceived image quality. The process of magnification can be used to ensure that the pixels are as closely packed as possible without interference between adjacent pixels to maximize the perceived image quality.

The image processing engine is arranged to receive further source images and to swap the first checkerboard pattern and the second checkerboard pattern for each new source image. Each source image may be one of a plurality of images forming a video rate sequence of image frames for projection. In other embodiments, the checkerboard pattern may be inverted each time a new source image is received and processed, without (or in addition to) the inversion at the sub-frame level that may occur with respect to the same image. It can be said that the tessellation scheme is reversed every frame and/or every sub-frame.

A method of holographic projection is also disclosed. The first step of the method comprises receiving a source image for projection. The source image includes a first color component and a second color component. The second step comprises forming a first color sub-image from the first color component by invalidating alternating pixel values of the first color component according to a first chessboard pattern. The third step comprises forming a second color sub-image from the second color component by invalidating alternating pixel values of the second color component according to a second chessboard pattern. The first chessboard pattern is inverted from the second chessboard pattern. The fourth step comprises determining a first color hologram corresponding to the first color secondary image and a second color hologram corresponding to the second color secondary image. A fifth step includes forming (e.g., together) a first color holographic reconstruction from the first color hologram and a second color holographic reconstruction from the second color hologram. The first to fifth steps may be performed in order.

The method may further comprise the steps of: further first color sub-images are formed from the first color components according to a second chess board pattern, and further second color sub-images are formed from the second color components according to the first chess board pattern. Further first color holograms and further second color holograms may be formed from the further first color secondary images and the further second color secondary images, respectively. A further first color holographic reconstruction and a further second color holographic reconstruction may be formed from (e.g. formed together with) the further first color hologram and the further second color hologram, respectively.

As will be understood by those skilled in the art, although fig. 4A and 4B show the generation of two secondary images from a source image, it is possible to generate three or more secondary images and compute corresponding holograms. This can be achieved using "checkerboard" by increasing the spacing (number of unsampled pixels) between sampled image pixels (or groups/clusters of pixels) of the source image, thereby increasing the number of checkerboard patterns. For example, three checkerboard patterns (each sampling every three pixels in each row) may be used to generate three monochromatic secondary images from a source image, and so on. In this case, three monochromatic holograms may be generated and displayed to form corresponding monochromatic holographic reconstructions substantially simultaneously. The triplets of monochrome holograms having complementary checkerboard patterns may be interleaved in time to achieve the advantages described above. Thus, a full color image can be projected.

In some embodiments, a display device, such as a head-up display, is provided that includes a holographic projector and an optical relay system. The optical relay system is arranged to form a virtual image of each holographic reconstruction. In some embodiments, the target image includes near-field image content in a first region of the target image and far-field image content in a second region of the target image. The virtual image of the holographically reconstructed near-field content is formed at a first virtual image distance from a viewing plane (e.g., eye-box), and the virtual image of the holographically reconstructed far-field content is formed at a second virtual image distance from the viewing plane, wherein the second virtual image distance is greater than the first virtual image distance. In some embodiments, one hologram of the plurality of holograms corresponds to image content of a target image (e.g., velocity information) to be displayed to a user in the near field, and another hologram of the plurality of holograms corresponds to image content of the target image (e.g., landmark indicator or navigation indicator) to be projected to the far field. The refresh rate of image content in the far field may be higher than the refresh rate of image content in the near field, and vice versa.

The method disclosed herein provides multiple degrees of freedom and thus a more flexible holographic projector. For example, the technique defining how the secondary image is derived from the source image may be dynamically changed.

System diagram

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a holographic system according to an embodiment. In particular, the holographic system includes an image processing engine 950, a hologram engine 960, and a display engine 970. The image processing engine 950 receives an input image (e.g., from an image source) including a source image. The source image may be an enlarged version of the target image, or the image processing engine 950 may perform enlargement as described herein. In the arrangement shown, the source image comprises two color components. The image processing engine 950 is arranged to generate a plurality of monochromatic secondary images from a source image according to a defined scheme, as described herein. In particular, the image processing engine 950 generates the first color secondary image 420 and the second color secondary image 430, for example, by tessellation using the example technique of fig. 4A or 4B. The image processing engine 950 may receive control signals or otherwise determine the scheme for generating the secondary images 420, 430. Each secondary image 420, 430 comprises pixels of a monochromatic component of the source image. The image processing engine 950 passes the first and second color secondary images 420, 430 to the hologram engine 960.

The image processing engine 950 may generate the first and second color secondary images according to the control signal. For example, the control signal may dynamically control the refresh rate of the secondary image and may dynamically control the checkered pattern. Other dynamically controllable features and parameters, such as tiling schemes, may be determined based on external factors and indicated by control signals. The holographic system may receive control signals related to such factors, or may include modules for determining such factors and generating such control signals therefrom, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

Hologram engine 960 is arranged to determine a monochrome hologram corresponding to each monochrome secondary image 420, 430, as described herein. In particular, hologram engine 960 determines a first color hologram 425 corresponding to first color secondary image 420 and a (complementary) second color hologram 435 corresponding to second color secondary image 430. Hologram engine 960 passes first and second color holograms 425, 435 to display engine 970. The display engine 970 is arranged to display the first and second color holograms 425, 435 on the respective first and second SLMs 940, 940' to form respective first and second holographic reconstructions on a common playback plane 925, as shown in fig. 8 and described below. The image processing engine 950, hologram engine 960, and display engine 970 may be said to include a first color channel for a first color component of a source image and a second color channel for a second color component of the source image. The first color channel generates a first color secondary image 420 from a first color component of the source image, determines a first color hologram 425 and forms a first color holographic reconstruction thereof, as shown in fig. 7. Similarly, the second color channel generates a second color sub-image 430 from a second color component of the source image, determines a second color hologram 435 and forms a second color holographic reconstruction thereof, as shown in fig. 7.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a display engine 970 of the holographic system of FIG. 7 displaying a pair of monochrome holograms, according to an embodiment.

As shown in fig. 8, display engine 970 includes a first color channel arranged to display first color hologram 425 received from hologram engine 960 and a second color channel arranged to display second color hologram 435 received from hologram engine 960. The first color channel includes a first tiling engine 972, a first software optical combiner 974, and a first SLM940, the first laser 910 illuminating the first SLM940 with light of a first color. The second color channel includes a second tiling engine 972', a second software optical combiner 974', and a second SLM940 ', the second laser 910' illuminating the second SLM940 ' with light of a second color.

The first color channel receives the first color hologram 425 and the first tiling engine 972 tiles the first color hologram 425 according to a tiling scheme. In particular, tiling engine 970 may receive control signals to determine a tiling scheme, or may otherwise determine a tiling scheme for tiling based on holograms. The first software optical combiner 974 may optionally add a phase ramp function (software grating function also referred to as a software lens) to shift the position of the replay field on the replay plane. The first SLM940 receives drive signals from the first color channel to display the first color hologram 425 and is illuminated by the first laser 410 with light of the first color to form a first color holographic reconstruction on the common replay plane 925. The second color channel receives the second color hologram 435 and the second tiling engine 972' tiles the second color hologram 435 according to a tiling scheme. The second software optical combiner 974' may optionally add a phase ramp function (software grating function also referred to as a software lens) to shift the position of the replay field on the replay plane. A second SLM940 'receives drive signals from a second color channel to display a second color hologram 435 and is illuminated by a second laser 410' with light of a second color to form a second color holographic reconstruction on a common replay plane 925. Thus, for each monochrome hologram 425, 435, a respective color channel of the display engine 970 is arranged to output a drive signal to a respective SLM940, 940' to display the hologram 425, 435 on a common replay plane 925, as described herein. The display engine 990 may output the driving signal as a display event. For each display event, first SLM940 and second SLM 940' display pairs of first color hologram 425 and second color hologram 435, respectively, substantially simultaneously. Display engine 970 may output the sequence of drive signals as a plurality of display events of a single source image. For each successive display event, the SLMs 940, 940' may display a different pair of complementary holograms, e.g., a pair of monochrome holograms in fig. 5 and a pair of monochrome holograms in fig. 6, one after the other. The sequence of drive signals may cause the SLMs 940, 940' to repeatedly alternate between displaying different pairs of holograms. Thus, multiple display events can display the same pair of holograms during an image frame time of a single source image.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the above-described features of the holographic systems of fig. 7 and 8 may be implemented in software, firmware, or hardware, as well as any combination thereof.

Additional functions

Embodiments are directed, by way of example only, to electrically activated LCOS spatial light modulators. For example, the teachings of the present disclosure may be equivalently implemented on any spatial light modulator capable of displaying a computer-generated hologram according to the present disclosure, such as any electrically activated SLM, optically activated SLM, digital micromirror device, or microelectromechanical device.

In some embodiments, the light source is a laser, such as a laser diode. In some embodiments, the light receiving surface is a diffusing surface or screen, such as a diffuser. The holographic projection system of the present disclosure may be used to provide an improved head-up display (HUD) or head-mounted display. In some embodiments, a vehicle is provided that includes a holographic projection system mounted in the vehicle to provide a HUD. The traffic may be a motor vehicle such as an automobile, truck, van, motorcycle, train, airplane, boat or ship.

The quality of the holographic reconstruction may be affected by the so-called zeroth order problem, which is a result of the use of the diffractive properties of the pixelated spatial light modulator. Such zero order light may be considered "noise" and includes, for example, specularly reflected light as well as other unwanted light from the SLM.

In the example of fourier holography, this "noise" is concentrated at the focus of the fourier lens, causing a bright spot at the centre of the holographic reconstruction. The zeroth order light can simply be blocked, but this means replacing the bright spots with dark spots. Some embodiments include an angle selective filter to remove only zero-order collimated rays. Embodiments also include a method of managing zeroth order as described in european patent 2,030,072, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The size of the holographic replay field (i.e. the physical or spatial extent of the holographic reconstruction) is determined by the pixel pitch of the spatial light modulator (i.e. the distance between adjacent light modulation elements or pixels of the spatial light modulator). The smallest feature that can be formed on a replay field can be referred to as a "resolution element", "pixel" or "image pixel". Typically, each pixel of the spatial light modulator has a quadrilateral shape. The fourier transform of a quadrilateral aperture is a sine (Sinc) function, and thus each image pixel is a sine function. More specifically, the spatial luminance distribution of each image pixel over the replay field is a sine function. Each of the sine functions may be considered to include a primary diffraction order of peak intensity and a series of higher diffraction orders of decreasing intensity radially away from the primary order. The size of each of the sine functions (i.e., the physical or spatial extent of each sine function) is determined by the size of the spatial light modulator (i.e., the physical or spatial extent of the aperture formed by the array of light modulation elements or the array of spatial light modulator pixels). Specifically, the larger the aperture formed by the array of light modulating pixels, the smaller the image pixels. It is generally desirable to have small image pixels.

In some embodiments, a "tiling" technique is implemented to improve image quality. In particular, some embodiments implement tiling techniques to minimize the size of image pixels while maximizing the amount of signal content entering the holographic reconstruction.

In some embodiments, the holographic pattern written to the spatial light modulator comprises at least one complete tile (i.e., a complete hologram) and at least a fraction of the tile (i.e., a contiguous subset of pixels of the hologram).

The holographic reconstruction is created within the zeroth or primary diffraction order of the entire window defined by the spatial light modulator. Preferably, the first and subsequent steps are shifted far enough so as not to overlap the image, and therefore a spatial filter may be used to block them.

In an embodiment, the holographic reconstruction is chromatic. In the examples disclosed herein, three different color light sources and three corresponding SLMs are used to provide a composite color. These examples may be referred to as spatially separated colors "SSCs". In a variation encompassed by the present disclosure, different holograms of each color are displayed on different regions of the same SLM and then combined to form a composite color image. However, the skilled person will appreciate that at least some of the apparatus and methods of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other methods of providing a composite colour holographic image.

One of these methods is called frame sequential color, "FSC. In an exemplary FSC system, three lasers (red, green, and blue) are used and each laser is fired at a single SLM in succession to produce each frame of video. These colors cycle at a rate fast enough (red, green, blue, etc.) to allow a human viewer to see a multi-color image from the combination of images formed by the three lasers. Thus, each hologram is color specific. For example, in a video of 25 frames per second, a first frame is generated by emitting the red laser light 1/75 seconds, then emitting the green laser light 1/75 seconds, and finally emitting the blue laser light 1/75 seconds. The next frame is then generated, starting with the red laser and so on.

The advantage of the FSC method is that the whole SLM is used for each color. This means that the quality of the three color images produced is not affected, since all pixels of the SLM are used for each color image. However, a disadvantage of the FSC method is that since each laser is used for only one third of the time, the overall image produced will not be as bright as the corresponding image produced by the SSC method, but will be attenuated by a factor of about 1/3. This drawback can be addressed by overdriving the laser or using a more powerful laser, but this would require the use of more power, would result in higher costs, and would reduce the compactness of the system.

The advantage of the SSC method is that the image is brighter since all three lasers are emitted simultaneously. However, if only one SLM needs to be used due to space constraints, the surface area of the SLM can be divided into three portions, in effect as three separate SLMs. This has the disadvantage that the quality of each monochromatic image is reduced due to the reduced surface area of the SLM available for each monochromatic image. Therefore, the quality of the multicolor image is reduced accordingly. The reduction in the available surface area of the SLM means that fewer pixels can be used on the SLM, thereby reducing image quality. The image quality is reduced due to the reduced resolution. Examples utilize the improved SSC technique disclosed in british patent 2,496,108, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Some embodiments describe two-dimensional holographic reconstruction by way of example only. In other embodiments, the holographic reconstruction is a 3D holographic reconstruction. That is, in some embodiments, each computer-generated hologram forms a 3D holographic reconstruction.

The methods and processes described herein may be embodied on a computer readable medium. The term "computer-readable medium" includes media arranged to store data, either temporarily or permanently, such as Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), cache memory, flash memory and cache memory. The term "computer-readable medium" shall also be taken to include any medium, or combination of media, that is capable of storing instructions for execution by the machine, such that the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the machine to perform, in whole or in part, any one or more of the methodologies described herein.

The term "computer-readable medium" also encompasses cloud-based storage systems. The term "computer-readable medium" includes, but is not limited to, one or more tangible and non-transitory data stores (e.g., data volumes) in the form of examples of solid-state memory chips, optical disks, magnetic disks, or any suitable combination thereof. In some example embodiments, the instructions for execution may be conveyed by a carrier medium. Examples of such carrier media include transitory media (e.g., a propagated signal conveying instructions).

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the scope of the appended claims. The disclosure is intended to cover all modifications and variations within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.