Tiled optical fiber display
The present invention provides a tiled optical fiber display device structure which includes a light emitting diode (LED) backlit liquid crystal display (LCD). Light from the LCD enters an array of optical fibers that directs the light to a viewing screen. The optical fibers eliminate the use of energy absorbing color filters in conventional LCD's, and also enable the seamless tiling of multiple display modules.
1. A tiled optical display, comprising:
at least one display module including
i) a single liquid crystal display modulator and at least three light emitting diodes positioned to backlight the liquid crystal display modulator, the at least three light emitting diodes including one each of red, green and blue light emitting diodes with a beam of light from each light emitting diode being focused onto a separate one of at least three pre-selected regions of the liquid crystal display modulator spaced from the light emitted by the other light emitting diodes, each pre-selected region of the liquid crystal display modulator including a set of optical modulation elements such that light from each beam of light passes through one set of corresponding optical modulation elements, including a control circuit connected to each individual modulation element of each set of optical modulation elements for controlling a desired amount of light from each beam to pass through each individual optical modulation element of the liquid crystal modulator; and
ii) a planar view plane having a pre-selected number of pixels,
wherein each pixel is optically coupled to a modulation element in each of said at least three pre-selected regions, each optical fiber having a first end optically coupled to its associated modulation element and a second end optically coupled to its associated pixel, and wherein said first ends of each optical fiber are arranged symmetrically with respect to the beam of light focused onto each pre-selected region of the liquid crystal display modulator so the first ends of said optical fibers in a given pre-selected region of the liquid crystal display modulator is illuminated with substantially the same intensity from the light emitting diode illuminating said given pre-selected region.
2. The tiled optical display according to claim 1 wherein the at least one display module is a plurality of display modules, the planar view plane of each display module being tiled together with a planar view plane of at least one other display module.
3. The tiled optical display according to claim 1 wherein each light emitting diode is positioned sufficiently close to the liquid crystal display modulator so that the light beams from each light emitting diode do not mix with the light beams from any other light emitting diode on the pre-selected region of the liquid crystal display modulator.