Multiview backlight, multiview display and method employing offset multibeam elements

1. A multiview backlight, comprising:

a light guide configured to guide light as guided light according to total internal reflection; and

a multibeam element configured to couple out a portion of the guided light as a tilted plurality of directional light beams having different principal angular directions corresponding to view directions of a plurality of views in a view zone of a multiview display, a tilt angle of the tilted plurality of directional light beams being provided by an offset of the multibeam element from a centerline of a corresponding multiview pixel of the multiview display,

wherein the tilt angle is configured to provide the plurality of views in the view zone of the multiview display.

2. The multiview backlight of claim 1 , wherein a size of the multibeam element is comparable to a size of a sub-pixel in a multiview pixel of the multiview display, the multibeam element being between fifty percent and two hundred percent of the sub-pixel size.

3. The multiview backlight of claim 1 , wherein the multibeam element comprises a diffraction grating configured to diffractively couple out the portion of the guided light as the tilted plurality of directional light beams according to the offset.

4. The multiview backlight of claim 1 , wherein the multibeam element comprises one or both of a micro-reflective element and a micro-refractive element, the micro-reflective element being configured to reflectively couple out a portion of the guided light as the tilted plurality of directional light beams, the micro-refractive element being configured to refractively couple out a portion of the guided light as the tilted plurality of directional light beams.

5. The multiview backlight of claim 1 , wherein the multibeam element is further configured to provide a tilted emission pattern, the tilted emission pattern having a tilt angle corresponding to the tilt angle of the tilted plurality of directional light beams.

6. The multiview backlight of claim 1 , further comprising another multibeam element configured to couple out from the light guide another portion of the guided light as another tilted plurality of directional light beams having different principal angular directions corresponding to view directions of another plurality of views in another view zone of a multiview display, a tilt angle of the other tilted plurality of directional light beams being provided by an offset of the other multibeam element from a centerline of a multiview pixel corresponding to the other multibeam element,

wherein the tilt angle of the other tilted plurality of directional light beams is configured to provide the other plurality of views in the other view zone of the multiview display, the view zones being spatially displaced from one another.

7. The multiview backlight of claim 6 , wherein a multiview image provided by the multiview display in the view zone comprises content that differs from content of a multiview image provided by the multiview display in the other view zone.

8. The multiview backlight of claim 6 , wherein respective offsets of the multibeam element and the other multibeam element have an opposite sign from one another.

9. The multiview backlight of claim 1 , further comprising a light source optically coupled to an input of the light guide, the light source being configured to provide light to be guided as the guided light.

10. A multiview display comprising the multiview backlight of claim 1 , the multiview display further comprising an array of light valves configured to modulate directional light beams of the tilted plurality of directional light beams, a light valve of the array corresponding to a sub-pixel in a multiview pixel of the multiview display, a set of light valves of the array corresponding to the multiview pixel.

11. A multiview display comprising:

an array of multiview pixels configured to provide a plurality of different views to a view zone of the multiview display, a multiview pixel of the multiview pixel array comprising a plurality of light valves configured to modulate a tilted plurality of directional light beams having different principal angular directions corresponding to view directions of the different views;

a light guide configured to guide light as guided light according to total internal reflection; and

an array of multibeam elements optically coupled to the light guide, each multibeam element of the multibeam element array being configured to provide to a corresponding multiview pixel the tilted directional light beam plurality,

wherein a tilt angle of the tilted directional light beam plurality is determined by an offset between the multibeam element and the corresponding multiview pixel.

12. The multiview display of claim 11 , wherein the multiview display is a multi-zone multiview display having a first view zone and a second view zone spatially offset from the first view zone, a first set of multibeam elements of the multibeam element array and a corresponding first set of multiview pixels to provide a first set of different views to the first view zone and a second set of multibeam elements of the multibeam element array and a corresponding second set of multiview pixels being configured to provide a second set of different views to the second view zone.

13. The multiview display of claim 12 , wherein a multiview image provided by the multiview display in the first view zone comprises content that differs from content of a multiview image provided by the multiview display in the second view zone.

14. The multiview display of claim 12 , wherein the first view zone of the multi-zone multiview display is configured to be viewable by a driver of an automobile and the second view zone of the multi-zone multiview display is configured to be viewable by a passenger of the automobile.

15. The multiview display of claim 11 , wherein a size of the multibeam element is comparable to a size of a light valve of the multiview pixel, the multibeam element being between fifty percent and two hundred percent of the light valve size.

16. The multiview display of claim 11 , wherein a multiview element of the multibeam element array comprises one of a diffraction grating, a micro-reflective element and a micro-refractive element configured to couple out a portion of the guided light as the tilted plurality of directional light beams.

17. The multiview display of claim 11 , wherein each multibeam element is further configured to provide a tilted emission pattern, a tilt of the tilted emission pattern corresponding to the tilt angle the respective tilted directional light beam plurality.

18. A method of multiview display operation, the method comprising:

guiding light in a propagation direction along a length of a light guide; and

coupling a portion of the guided light out of the light guide using a multibeam element to provide a tilted plurality of directional light beams having different principal angular directions corresponding to respective different view directions of a plurality of different views of a multiview display, the tilted plurality of directional light beams having a tilt angle corresponding to an offset of the multibeam element from a centerline of a multiview pixel in the multiview display,

wherein the plurality of different views are provided to a view zone of the multiview display.

19. The method of multiview display operation of claim 18 , further comprising modulating light beams of the tilted plurality of directional light beams using an array of light valves to provide the different views as multiview images.

20. The method of multiview display operation of claim 18 , wherein the multiview display provides a plurality of view zones, the method further comprising displaying a first multiview image in a first view zone and a second multiview image in a second view zone, the first view zone being spatially separated from the second view zone.