Electronic display devices, such as monitors used with computers and screens built in to telephones and portable information devices, are usually designed to have a viewing angle as wide as possible, so that they can be read from as many viewing positions as possible.
However, there are some situations where it is useful to have a display that is visible from only a narrow range of angles. For example, where a person is reading a confidential or private document on the display of a mobile device in a crowded place, he would wish to minimise the risk of others around him also having sight of the document on the display.
It is therefore useful to have a display device that is switchable between two modes of operation. In a ‘public’ mode, the display device would have a wide viewing angle for general use. In a ‘private’ mode, the display device would have a narrow viewing angle, so that private information could be read in a public place.
For example, when certain secure web pages are accessed (e.g. bank site web pages), or when a certain PIN (personal identification number) is input to the keyboard (e.g. bank account PIN), the display could automatically go into the privacy mode. In the private mode, an indicator or icon could be shown on the screen to indicate that the private mode is active.
This concept can be applied to many other types of devices where a user may which to view confidential information, but cannot control who else may be watching. Examples are mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), laptop PCs, desktop monitors, Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and Electronic Point of Sale (EPoS) equipment.
A number of devices are known which restrict the range of angles or positions from which a display can be viewed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,552,850 describes a method for the display of private information on a cash dispensing machine. Light emitted by the machine's display has a fixed polarisation state. The machine and its user are surrounded by a large screen of sheet polariser that absorbs light of that polarisation state but transmits the orthogonal state. Passers-by can see the user and the machine but cannot see information displayed on the screen.
One method for controlling the direction of light is the use of a “louvred” film. Such a film consists of alternating transparent and opaque layers in an arrangement similar to a Venetian blind. These layers may be perpendicular to the surface of the film or at some other angle. Like a Venetian blind, it allows light to pass through it when the light is travelling in a direction nearly parallel to the plane of the layers, but absorbs light travelling at large angles to the plane of the layers. Methods for the production of such films are described in USRE 27,617, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,766,023 and 4,764,410.
Other methods exist for making films with similar properties to the louvred film. These are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,147,716 and 5,528,319.
The techniques described above may be used to restrict the range of angles from which a display can be viewed; in other words, they can be used to make a display ‘private’. However none of them gives a method by which the privacy function can easily be switched off to allow viewing from a wide range of angles.
Several methods are known for providing a display that can be switched between a public mode (with a wide viewing angle) and a private mode (with a narrow viewing angle).
US 2002/0158967 describes the use of a light control film mounted on a display so that the light control film can be moved over the front of the display to give a private mode, or mechanically retracted into a holder behind or beside the display to give a public mode. This method has the disadvantages that it requires moving parts that may fail or be damaged, and it adds significant bulk to the display.
One method for switching from public to private mode with no moving parts is to mount a light control film behind the display panel, and to place a diffuser that can be electronically switched on and off between the light control film and the panel. When the diffuser is inactive, the light control film restricts the range of viewing angles and the display is in the private mode. When the diffuser is switched on, it causes light travelling at a wide range of angles to pass through the panel and the display is in the public mode. It is also possible to mount the light control film in front of the panel and place the switchable diffuser in front of the light control film to achieve the same effect.
Switchable privacy devices of this type are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,831,698, 6,211,930 and 5,877,829. They share the disadvantage that the light control film absorbs a significant fraction of the light incident upon it, whether the display is in the public or the private mode. The display is therefore inefficient in its use of light. Since the diffuser spreads light through a wide range of angles in the public mode, these displays are also dimmer in the public mode than in the private mode, unless the backlight is made brighter to compensate.
Another disadvantage relates to the power consumption of such devices. In the public mode of operation, the diffuser is switched off. This would typically mean that a voltage is applied to a switchable polymer-dispersed liquid crystal diffuser. More power is therefore consumed in the public mode than in the private mode. This is a disadvantage for displays that are used for most of the time in the public mode.
Another known method for providing a switchable public/private display is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,436. The light control device disclosed is similar in structure to the louvred film described above. However, each opaque element in the louvred film is replaced by a liquid crystal cell that can be electronically switched from an opaque state to a transparent state. The light control device is placed in front of or behind a display panel. When the cells are opaque, the display is in a private mode; when the cells are transparent, the display is in a public mode.
One disadvantage of this method relates to the difficulty and expense of manufacturing liquid crystal cells with an appropriate shape. Another disadvantage is that, in the private mode, a ray of light may enter at an angle such that it passes first through the transparent material and then through part of a liquid crystal cell. Such a ray will not be completely absorbed by the liquid crystal cell and this may reduce the privacy of the device.
Another method for producing a switchable public/private display device is disclosed in JP 3607272. The disclosed device uses an additional liquid crystal panel, which has patterned liquid crystal alignment. Different aligned segments of the panel modify the viewing characteristics of different areas of the display in different ways, with the result that the whole display panel is fully readable only from a central position.
GB-A-2405544 and JP 2005-078093 describe switchable privacy devices based on louvres, which operate only for one polarisation of light. The louvres are switched on and off either by rotating dyed liquid crystal molecules in the louvre itself or by rotating the plane of polarisation of the incident light using a separate element.
GB-A-2410116 (WO 2005/071449) disclose various backlight arrangements for use in a display device having the ability to switch the viewing angle between public and private modes, for example. Further known systems and techniques in this area are also described therein.
GB-A-2413394 (US 2005/0243265) discloses a switchable privacy device that is constructed by adding one or more extra liquid crystal layers and polarisers to a display panel. The intrinsic viewing angle dependence of these extra elements can be changed by electrically switching the liquid crystal.
US 2003/0146893 discloses a polarisation modifying layer (PML) that is placed behind the exit polariser of a liquid crystal display panel. Some parts of the PML are transparent. Other parts change the polarisation of light passing through them so that pixels viewed through these parts are inverted in colour (bright pixels becoming dark and dark pixels becoming bright). Data sent to pixels directly behind these parts are inverted so that when the display is viewed from a central position, the image appears normally. However, when the display is viewed from a different angle, different pixels are viewed through the retarder elements and the image is corrupted. Off-axis viewers see a confusing image, for example a random dot pattern. The PML may be made from liquid crystal and switched off to give a public mode.
GB-A-2418518 discloses a device in which a guest host (dyed) LC layer with a patterned electrode is added to a standard TFT LC display. The dyed LC layer can be switched between an absorbing (private) and non-absorbing state (public). The dye molecules absorption is dependent upon the incident angle and polarisation of light. For a given polarisation and orientation the absorption of the dye increases with larger viewing angles resulting in low brightness at high angles (narrow mode).
Co-pending British Patent Application No. 0510422.9 discloses the combination of a privacy function and a 3D function provided by a single additional switch cell. The display has three operating states: a wide mode; a private mode; and a 3D mode. Both patterned and unpatterned LC alignment examples are described.
The concept of using a hologram to provide a privacy function which was first described in GB-A-2404991 (US 2005/0063029). However, due to unwanted diffraction of light from the display by the hologram, the colour of the image seen by viewers may be affected. Furthermore, for applications using a touch screen mounted on the front of the display, the user's hand can block the illumination of the hologram and so reduce the effectiveness of the privacy mode.
Co-pending British Patent Application No. 0511536.5 discloses the use of an extra liquid crystal layer located between the existing polarisers of an LCD panel. In this location the extra switch cell can modify the greyscale curves for off-axis light. This provides a higher level of privacy for images than the techniques disclosed in, for example, GB-A-2413394 (US 2005/0243265).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,219 describes a method for controlling the viewing angle of a LC display by converting a digital view angle parameter to an analogue bias voltage which is applied to the LC. However, this technique will only serve to modify the view angle characteristics of the display, and will not tend to hide the image at wide angles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,936,596 and JP 2003-295160 (US 2006/0126156) describe changing the voltage range applied to the pixels in an LC display to change the viewing angle. Look-up tables are used to change the display between narrow and wide view-angle modes. However, this method does not conceal displayed information as such when in the narrow mode, it only modifies the grey-scale mapping to distort the image.
The article “A Method for Concealment of Displayed Data”, M. Dogruel, Displays, vol. 24, no. 3, October 2003, describes a method for concealing data shown on a display by time-sequentially rendering the image and its inverse at a rate faster than the human eye can perceive. The eye of a casual observer thus averages the images and therefore sees a uniform grey display screen. To see the private image, the user must wear shuttered glasses synchronised with the display, such that the inverse image is blocked. This method has a number of drawbacks: firstly, the user must wear shuttered glasses in order to observe the correct image; secondly, image privacy can also be compromised by rapidly moving a toothed object across the view of the display and thus obscuring some parts of the cancelling image; and thirdly a ghost image can be observed as it is very difficult to design the two images to cancel perfectly. This article also describes adding a third image to act as a confusing image, but this requires the display to run at three times the normal video rate.
Rocket Software, Inc. (http://www.rocketsoftware.com) have developed a software package that provides some level of privacy using the inherent properties of an LC display. The software modifies the image sent to the display by applying an extra patterning across the whole image that reduces the grey levels or contrast of the image. Due to the non-linear response of the display, the level of reduction is such that, when viewed on-axis, the image is only slightly disturbed but, when viewed off-axis, the non-linear response of the display leads to an enhanced contrast patterning. However, this solution does inevitably affect the on-axis performance of the display in some degree, and the pattern visibility will disturb even the authorised user when using the display in the private mode. Further, in practice, the patterning is not sufficient to provide an adequate level of privacy off-axis.
WO 03/015424 discloses a light switching apparatus that comprises a passive birefringent lens and a switchable polariser. By switching the polarisation, different directional distributions of output light are provided. However, when activated, the lenses do not discriminate in angle which light is imaged.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,369,949 discloses an optically anisotropic micro-lens window. The imaging element described is not switchable, and consequently a device making use of this technology could not be switchable between public and private modes of operation.
GB-A-2410339 discloses the use of multiple arrays of polarisation sensitive lenses in a polarisation optical conversion system.
JP 09-230377 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,640 describe a method of changing the viewing angle properties of a single layer LCD panel. This is achieved for a Vertically Aligned Nematic (VAN) LC mode. Electric fields in the plane of the display panel are used to control how the LC material tilts in a pixel area. The number and orientation of different tilt domains within a pixel can be controlled by the in-plane fields. A pixel with several tilt domains will have a wide viewing angle, while a pixel with one tilt domain will have a narrower viewing angle. The use of such a method to vary the viewing angle of a display is described. However, the viewing angle of a single tilt domain of the VAN mode described is generally not sufficiently narrow to provide a good privacy mode.
JP 3405972 describes a single LC panel which uses patterned LC alignment to provide a narrow viewing angle mode LCD. However, this narrow mode is fixed, and there is no wide viewing mode.