The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 09, 2004
Filed:
Dec. 19, 2001
Koichi Hara, Kanagawa, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A display unit is provided which enables monocular observation of a magnified displayed image, and binocular observation of a non-magnified displayed image. The display unit comprises a liquid crystal display element having pixels arranged two-dimensionally, and a backlight source for illuminating the liquid crystal display element from the backside. The backlight source comprises a micro-spotlight illumination system constituted of a surface light source, a barrier element, and a microlenses. The barrier element is controlled to take a complete transmission mode to transmit the light emitted form the surface light source or an aperture-formation mode to form apertures in matrix arrangement. In the aperture formation mode, the microlenses are focused substantially on the apertures respectively. The apertures, the microlenses corresponding thereto, and the pixels corresponding thereto are arranged such that the optical axes of the respective micro-spotlight illumination system pass through the pixels of the corresponding liquid crystal display elements from the backside and come to intercross roughly at one point on a pupil of an eye E brought close to the display face of the liquid crystal display element at a short distance not focusable physiologically.