Controllable liquid crystal gratings for an adaptive 2D/3D auto-stereoscopic display

2D/3D switchable, viewpoint controllable and 2D/3D localizable auto-stereoscopic displays based on controllable liquid crystal gratings are proposed in this work. Using the dual-layer staggered structure on the top substrate and bottom substrate as driven electrodes within a liquid crystal cell, the ratio between transmitting region and shielding region can be selectively controlled by the corresponding driving circuit, which indicates that 2D/3D switch and 3D video sources with different disparity images can reveal in the same auto-stereoscopic display system. Furthermore, the controlled region in the liquid crystal gratings presents 3D model while other regions maintain 2D model in the same auto-stereoscopic display by the corresponding driving circuit. This work demonstrates that the controllable liquid crystal gratings have potential applications in the field of auto-stereoscopic display.