SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ZONAL SWITCHING FOR LIGHT STEERING TO PRODUCE AN IMAGE HAVING HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE

1 . A system for producing an image having high dynamic range, comprising:

a light source for providing light along an optical path;

a spatial light modulator for directing portions of the light to off-state and on-state light paths, thereby producing an image, the spatial light modulator having a plurality of illumination zones corresponding to the image; and

a set of sequentially-arranged optical elements in the optical path for steering at least some of the light from a first subset of the plurality of illumination zones to a second subset of the plurality of illumination zones to increase the dynamic range of the image.

2 . The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an intermediary optical element for capturing and modulating the steered light according to the plurality of illumination zones.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the modulation comprises homogenizing the steered light.

4 . The system of claim 1 wherein a dwell time of the one of more sequentially arranged optical elements is modified to steer light.

5 . The system of claim 4 wherein modifying the dwell time modifies a composition of the duty cycle of one or more sequentially arranged optical elements.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein one or more optical element of the set of sequentially-arranged optical elements spends a portion of a duty cycle steering the at least some of the light from the first subset to the second subset to increase the dynamic range of the image.

7 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the intermediary optical element comprises an array of integrating rods arranged to correspond to the plurality of illumination zones.

8 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the portion of the duty cycle corresponds to a light intensity level of a light intensity zone of the image.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of sequentially-arranged optical elements comprises one or more rotatable mirrors.

10 . The system of claim 7 , wherein at least one of the one or more rotatable mirrors is mounted on a gimbal.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of sequentially-arranged optical elements comprises one or more digital micro-mirror devices.

12 . The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a drive system for configuring the spatial light modulator to produce the image based on image content data; and

wherein the drive system configures the set of sequentially-arranged optical elements to steer the light to the plurality of illumination zones of the spatial light modulator based on the image content data.

13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the light source comprises a laser light module.

14 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the light source comprises a lamp.

15 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the light source comprises at least one of a light emitting diode and a laser-phosphor hybrid light source.

16 . The system of claim 1 further comprising light collimating optics.

17 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the spatial light modulator comprises a digital micromirror device.

18 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the spatial light modulator comprises a liquid crystal device.

19 . A method for producing an image having high dynamic range, comprising:

providing light along an optical path;

steering the light by one or more sequentially arranged optical elements to increase the dynamic range of an image; and

directing the light to produce an image.

20 . The method of claim 19 , the steering further comprising modifying a dwell time of the one or more sequentially arranged optical elements.

21 . The method of claim 19 further comprising modifying a composition of the duty cycle of one or more sequentially arranged optical elements.