Push-Pull Liquid Crystal Modulator For Electronic Stereoscopic Display

Lenny Lipton; Arthur Berman

doi:10.1117/12.944734

8 June 1988 Push-Pull Liquid Crystal Modulator For Electronic Stereoscopic Display

Lenny Lipton, Arthur Berman

Proceedings Volume 0902, Three-Dimensional Imaging and Remote Sensing Imaging; (1988) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.944734
Event: 1988 Los Angeles Symposium: O-E/LASE '88, 1988, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

A new type of large liquid crystal modulator, the ZScreen(R), has been developed for use in a stereoscopic display system and has been put into production by StereoGraphics Corporation. The fabrication of large area surface mode liquid crystal cells requiring extreme uniformity of thickness has been achieved in a two year development program. Two of these cells are placed in optical series, with their alignment axes orthogonal. Laminated to the liquid crystal cells is a linear polarizer whose absorption axis besects the alignment axes of the liquid crystal cells. When placed in intimate juxtaposition with a CRT display with the linear polarizer facing the CRT screen, and when the cells are driven electrically out of phase, the light output of the CRT is alternately left and right handed circularly polarized. When this so-called push-pull modulator is viewed through passive circularly pollarized spectacles worn by an observer, a shutter is formed having a high dynamic range. Each eye of the observer is sequentially occluded. By properly choosing the parameters of construction, such a liquid crystal modulator can have a broad cone of view, high dynamic range, and good transmission. This type of modulator is superior to a single liquid crystal cell modulator since it has fast and symmetrical rise- and decay times and identical dynamic range for both eyes. These features are of particular importance in a field-sequential stereoscopic system, because the rise and decay time of such a shutter should take place substantially within the vertical blanking interval, which is generally on the order of a millisecond. The 9-inch diagonal versions of the modulator have been in production since the last quarter of 1986 and now are being supplied in up to 19-inch diagonal sizes for computer graphics and video displays.

Citation Download Citation

Lenny Lipton and Arthur Berman "Push-Pull Liquid Crystal Modulator For Electronic Stereoscopic Display", Proc. SPIE 0902, Three-Dimensional Imaging and Remote Sensing Imaging, (8 June 1988); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.944734

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available