Projection-receiving surface comprising a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes
View Patent ↗The present invention is a broadband projection-receiving surface that can function as a projection screen. This surface can, even in strong ambient light, provide high gain, prevent glare and speckle, provide high contrast, preserve of gray-scale linearity, provide a uniformity of brightness, provide rapid angular cut-off, preserve polarization, and provide the ability to function over a large spectral range. These achievements result from a production method that utilizes purposeful partitioning of the material processes used in sub-wavelength morphology (finish) from the processes used to make super-wavelength morphology (figure).
1. A projection-receiving surface, comprising:
a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet;
wherein the projection-receiving surface has a polarization ratio of greater than 250:1.
2. The projection-receiving surface of claim 1 , wherein the projection-receiving surface has at least 90,000 cells per square foot.
3. The projection-receiving surface of claim 1 , wherein the projection-receiving surface has at least 576 cells per square foot.
4. The projection-receiving surface of claim 1 , wherein the single sheet further comprises edges between the plurality of mirrorlettes and wherein the area and edges of the mirrorlettes are constant curvature in a predetermined profile.
5. The projection receiving surface of claim 1 , wherein said single sheet comprises edge regions of generally uniform width between mirrorlettes, wherein the mirrolettes are separated from adjacent mirrorlettes by a generally uniform distance.
6. The projection-receiving surface of claim 5 , wherein the surface area of all of said edge regions is about the same.
7. The projection-receiving surface of claim 5 , wherein the surface area of at least one of said edge regions differs from the surface area of the remaining ones of said edge regions.
8. The projection-receiving surface of claim 5 , wherein all of said mirrorlettes have the same geometry.
9. The projection-receiving surface of claim 5 , wherein the geometry of at least one of said mirrorlettes differs from the geometry of the remaining ones of said mirrorlettes.
10. The projection receiving surface of claim 1 , wherein said mirrorlettes are separated from one another by a plurality of cusped ledges.
11. The projection-receiving surface of claim 10 , wherein all of said mirrorlettes have the same geometry.
12. The projection-receiving surface of claim 10 , wherein the geometry of at least one of said mirrorlettes differs from the geometry of the remaining ones of said mirrorlettes.
13. The projection receiving surface of claim 1 , wherein said mirrorlettes are contiguous and share a common concave geometry.
14. The projection receiving surface of claim 1 , wherein said mirrorlettes are continuous and share a common convex geometry.
15. A projection-receiving surface, comprising:
a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet:
wherein the projection-receiving surface has a polarization ratio of greater than 500:1.
16. A projection-receiving surface, comprising:
a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet;
wherein the projection-receiving surface has an angular cut-off rate of 99% per degree at the viewing volume edge.
17. A projection-receiving surface, comprising:
a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet;
wherein the projection-receiving surface has an angular cut-off rate between 10% and 99% per degree at the viewing volume edge.
18. The projection-receiving surface of claim 17 , wherein the projection-receiving surface has a polarization ratio of greater than 100:1.
19. A projection-receiving surface, comprising:
a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet;
wherein the projection-receiving surface has an in-viewer-volume scattering ratio ranging from between 0.05 steradian to 0.01 per steradian.
20. A projection-receiving surface, comprising:
a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet;
wherein the projection-receiving surface has a gray-scale linearity metric ranging greater than 0.50 in direct sunlight.
21. A projection-receiving surface, comprising:
a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet; wherein the projection-receiving surface has a gray-scale linearity metric ranging greater than 0.75 in indirect sunlight.
22. A projection-receiving surface, comprising:
a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet; wherein the projection-receiving surface has a gray-scale linearity metric ranging greater than 0.9 in subdued room light.
23. A projection-receiving surface, comprising:
a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet;
wherein the projection-receiving surface has a gray-scale linearity metric ranging greater than 0.98 in a dark theatre.
24. A projection-receiving surface, comprising:
a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet; wherein the projection-receiving surface has desaturation below 10% in a darkened environment.
25. Aprojection-receiving surface, comprising:
a single sheet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet;
wherein the projection-receiving surface maintains color saturation in direct, off-axis sunlight to within 25%, and maintains color saturation in a darkened room to within 2%.
26. projection-receiving surface, comprising:
a,single skeet formed into a plurality of catenoid-like mirrorlettes, said sheet having a first side and a second side; and
a solid filler attached to one of said first side and said second side of said single sheet;
wherein the projection-receiving surface achieves an averaged modulation transfer function that is relatively flat within 0.05 throughout the image space from zero spatial frequency up to a spatial frequency of one-inverse screen cell in a darkened room, and flat to 0.15 in a lighted room.