MXPA01003469A - Light beam display - Google Patents

Abstract

A laser beam display includes at least a first and a second plurality of laser beam sources (200, 300), each of which may preferably be an array of semiconductor lasers, providing a plurality of laser beams in an optical path so as to reflect off reflective facets (204, 304) of a movable reflector (32) and illuminate a display screen (206). In a color display, each column of the laser array corresponds to a separate primary color. The separate rows of each array correspond to independently activated but simultaneously driven scan lines to be illuminated by the laser beam scanning apparatus. The plural laser beam arrays subdivide the width of the screen into smaller scan segments to increase the scanning angle or increase the horizontal scanning speed of the apparatus. Tilted facets illuminate different vertical sections of the screen with the laser beams as the reflector rotates. A scan format employing simultaneously illuminated diagonal scan tiles provides optimal use of the plural laser beam arrays.

Description

LUMINOUS RAY SCREEN RELATED APPLICATION INFORMATION This application is a continuation of the US series no. 09/169 163 filed on October 8, 1998, which for its part is a continuation in part of the US series no. 08/887 947 filed July 3, 1997 which in turn is a continuation of the US series no. 08/162 043 filed on February 2, 1994 now US patent DO NOT. 5,646,766. This presentation of the patenre indicated above and the applications are incorporated here as references. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION. The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for presenting an image using a beam or light rays. 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREVIOUS TECHNIQUE AND RELATED INFORMATION. High resolution screens have a wide range of applications including computer monitors, high definition television and simulators. In such applications, the primary considerations are resolution, maximum visible area, cost and reliability. Although several paths have been employed including CRT screen, rear projection screens, and front projection, plasma and LCD screens none of these have been able to satisfactorily provide all the above desirable characteristics. In other screen applications such as control panel screens and vehicle and aircraft border displays, resolution is less important than brightness and comparc size and reliability. Although potentially the laser can provide many advantages for the screens of both types noted above, laser-based screens have not been widely employed, this is largely due to the limitations in the available laser scanning machines. A conventional method for scanning a laser beam uses a rotating mirror to scan the laser beam in a linear direction while rotating the mirror. Typically, the mirror is configured in a polygon shape with each side corresponding to a scan length of the laser jet in the linear direction. An example of such a rotary polygon laser jet scanner is illustrated in FIG. 1. The prior art laser jet scanning apparatus shown in FIG. 1 employs a polygon-shaped mirror 1 which receives a laser beam provided by the laser 2 and deflects the laser beam in a scanning direction X when polygon 1 rotates. It will be appreciated immediately by inspection of the geometry of Figure 1 that such a rotating polygon system has the ability to scan the laser beam through a maximum angle of 180 ° with a scanning or scanning line whose duration is determined by the speed rotary of the polygon divided by N where N is the number on the side of the polygon. It will also be appreciated that for a large N the sweep angle can be significantly reduced below 180 °. Thus for the polygon of eight side and configured as illustrated in figure 1, the laser beam ex scanned or swept through an angle of approximately 90 ° with the duration of each scan line being 1/8 the period for a rotation of the polygon. The laser scanning apparatus illustrated in Figure 1 has the advantage of being quite simple and is convenient for some applications, however, this conventional laser scanning apparatus is not suitable for high resolution screens, since the inherent limitations from that apparatus it is difficult to achieve simultaneously a high degree of resolution, high scanning speed and a large scanning angle. More specifically a high degree of resolution requires a relatively large polygon with few sides. That is, if the laser beam is to provide accurate information as it is scanned or swept along the scanning direction, the modulation of the laser beam as it travels across the surface of the polygon side must unambiguously provide discrete points. in the direction of exploration. Thus each side of the polygon must be increased with the diameter of the beam and the number of discrete or separate scanning points (n). Thus, a high resolution corresponding to a very large number (n) of discrete scan points, in general requires large polygon sides. This limitation is particularly important where the target surface of the scanned jet is located close to the polygon mirror. Thus, as noted above, the scanning angle is reduced when, the number of sides of the polygon increases. Therefore, high resolution and a high scanning angle require a large polygon with relatively few sides. The requirements of a large polygon with few sides, however, collide with an elevated scanning cup and thus severely restrict the resolution and / or recovery rate of a screen based on such laser beam scanning apparatus. As indicated above, the scanning speed is directly related to the polygon side number. Therefore, a polygon with few sides requires a very high rotation speed to achieve a high sweep speed. By rotating a large polygon at a high speed, however, mechanical problems occur. In particular, high velocity spraying introduces vibrations, stress in the moving parts and reduced accuracy in the registration of the mirror with respect to the laser beam. These factors collectively limit the rotational speed of the mirror and therefore the scanning rate of the beam. As noted above, another screen application category of increasing importance, requires relatively small but robust displays that have good brightness and acceptable resolution for gravidas such as maps and text. Such screens have remarkable applications in automobiles and other vehicles, in such applications, a laser-based screen has potential advantages due to its brightness, however, once again, the existing laser beam scanning apparatus is not very convenient, in particular The optical path of the laser beam is quite short in such applications, due to the compact space available for the screen. This requires increasing the size of the rotating polygon, however mechanical instability is associated with large rotating polygons and is a serious disadvantage for such applications where reliability is critical. Therefore, it will be appreciated that there is a need for an improved laser beam display apparatus at present. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an apparatus and method of presentation, which employs light rays for scanning through a large scanning angle with high speed and with a high degree of accuracy to provide a high resolution display or screen .

The present invention provides a light beam display apparatus having a relatively compact configuration for a given screen size and which is relatively free of vibration or other mechanical problems even at high resolution and recovery rates. The present invention provides a laser beam display or display that includes first and second sources of pluralities of light rays, each of which may preferably be an arrangement or array of laser semiconductors that provide a plurality of light rays in an optical path to simultaneously reflect the multiple reflective facets of a movable reflector and illuminate a display screen. In a color preseion, each column of the laser array corresponds to a separate primary color and the separate rows of the array correspond to scan lines boosted simultaneously but independently activated which are to be illuminated by the laser beam scanning apparatus. Multiple laser beam rays subdivide the panning width into smaller scan segments to increase the scan angle or increase the horizo scan speed of the scanner. A scanning format that employs diagonally illuminated scanning mosaics simultaneously provides optimal use of the multiplied laser beam rays. More specifically, in a preferred embodiment, the laser beam scanning apparatus of the present invention includes an input for receiving video data including a plurality of horizo lines of preseion information and a high speed memory for storing the video data for plurality. of horizo lines. First and second rays of light diodes are provided each comprising a plurality of rows and at least one column. A control circuit controls the simultaneous activation of the light rays according to the video data from the multiple horizo lines stored in the high-speed memory. An optical path includes a movable reflector which directs the multiple beams activated simultaneously from both diode rays of at least two facets of the movable reflector to the display screen. In another aspect, the present invention provides a method for presenting information on a display screen employing a plurality of light beam sources and a rotating reflector having a plurality of reflective facets inclined at different angles. A first plurality of light rays is directed to a first facet of the movable reflector inclined at a first angle, and from the first facet to the display screen from the first light source. A second plurality of light rays are directed to a second movable reflector facet inclined at a different angle and from the second facet to the display screen from the second light source. The reflector is rotated so as to cause the first and second plurality of light rays to simultaneously trace parallel multilinear scan segments onto the display screen. The parallel scan segments are moved vertically on the screen by the inclined facets to provide a generally diagonal configuration on the display screen The whole screen is illuminated by the tilting of the screen with these diagonal scan patterns when facets tilted differently rotate in the optical path of light rays. Other features and advaes of the present invention will be appreciated from the following detailed description of the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS. Figure 1 is a schematic top view of a laser scanning apparatus of the prior art. Figure 2 is a schematic drawing of a laser beam preseion according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 is a schematic drawing of a scanning pattern according to the operation of the laser preseion of the present invention. Figures 4A-4C are schematic drawings of a scanning pattern provided in accordance with a preferred mode of operation of the laser beam display of the present invention.

Figure 5 is a block schematic drawing of the circuitry of a preferred embodiment of the laser beam display of the present invention. Figure 6 is a partial sectional view of a laser diode array according to the present invention. Figures 7A and 7B illustrate an alternative embodiment of the present invention, employing a fiber optic laser beam delivery head. Figure 8 illustrates two fiber optic supply heads according to the alternative embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to Figure 2, a preferred embodiment of the laser beam display apparatus of the present invention is illustrated in a schematic drawing showing the basic structure and electronics of the embodiment. The dimensions of the structural components and the optical path are not shown in Fig. 2, and the specific dimensions and establishment of the optical path will depend on the specific application. As shown in Figure 2, the laser beam scanning apparatus includes a multi-faceted polygon reflector 32. The polygon-shaped reflector 32 is preferably coupled to a variable speed motor 36 which provides high speed rotation of the reflector 32 so that successive plane deflecting facets in the circumference of the same are put in contact of reflection with the laser beams. The rotational speed of reflector 32 is controlled with a decoder (not shown) which in turn provides (a signal to the motor control circuit which can be included in the control electronics 220). The motor control circuitry, the power supply and the angular speed control feedback can be as described in US Patent No. 5,646,766, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Although a multifaceted wheel-shaped reflector 32 is now preferred, it will be appreciated that other forms of multi-sided movable reflectors may also be employed to consecutively bring reflective planar surfaces to the reflecting contact with the laser beams. Such alternative reflectors can be driven by any number of a wide variety of electromechanical actuator systems, including linear and rotational motors with a specific drive system to provide the desired speed of the facets for the specific application.

The apparatus of Figure 2 includes a first source 200 of a plurality of laser beams 202, plurality of beams that can include beams of different frequencies, colors as discerned later in detail, and an optical path for the laser beams between the source laser 200 and presentation screen 206. A second source 300 of a plurality of beams 302 is also provided with an optic path generally parallel to display pan 206. As an example of the presently preferred embodiment, laser beam sources 200, 300 can each comprise a rectangular array of laser diodes having a plurality of rows and at least one column. A monochromatic presentation can have a single column for each diode array, where a color presentation can have three columns. Thus a color arrangement provides the three primary colors for each row. The number of rows corresponds to the number of parallel scan lines plotted on the display screen 206 for each due arrangement. For example, fourteen rows of diodes can be used. Each array of two-dimensional diodes 200, 300 can thus provide one to forty-two separate laser beams 202, 302 simultaneously (under the control of the control electronics 220 discussed below). Other sources of a plurality of laser beams they can also be used. For example, a single beam can be separated into a plurality of independently modulated rays using an AOM modulator to thereby constitute a source of a plurality of rays. Such a way to create plural beams using an AOM modulator is described in the US 5 patent, 646,766 incorporated herein by reference. The optical path is configured in such a way that the laser beams intersect the rotating polygon 32 in a manner such that a desired scanning margin is provided through the display screen 206 as the polygon rotates. The optical path will depend on the specific application and as illustrated can employ one or more reflective optical elements 212 to increase the length of the path. Also one or more lenses 214, 314 can be provided for each laser beam 202, 302 to thereby focus the rays with a desired luminous point size on the display screen 206. It will be appreciated that many modifications to the optical path and the elements are possible. optical elements illustrated in Figure 2. For example, additional optical elements can be provided to increase the length of the optical path or to vary the geometry and maximize the scanning margin in a limited space application. Alternatively, the optic path may not require any path extender elements such as reflector element 212 in an application that allows adequate geometry of the ray sources 200, 300, reflector 32 and screen 206. Similarly, additional or optical focusing elements may be used. collimation such as lenses 214 may be provided to give the size of the illuminated spot desired for the specific application. In other applications the individual flash elements 214, 314 may be combined for groups of diodes. For example, all diodes in a single row in a diode array can be focused by a single optical focussing element 214, 314, but in other applications the focusing elements may not be needed if the desired luminous point size and resolution can be provided by the laser beams emitted from the diode array 200, 300. The screen 206 can itself be a reflective or transmitting screen with a transmitting diffusing screen, preferring at present for compact presentations or where a high degree of brightness is desired. As more schematically illustrated in Figure 2, the laser beam sources 200,300 provide the plurality of laser beams, generally illustrated by the beams 202, 302 in Figure 2, simultaneously, on respective facets 204, 304 of the rotating reflector 32. In in particular, plural beams 202 are simultaneously directed to illuminated spots or pixels in display 206 via facet 204. Plural beams 302 via facet 304 are simultaneously directed to a different set of pixels in display 206. A plurality of beams from a laser source 200 or 300 can also simultaneously illuminate a single pixel. In particular, in a color presentation the three diodes in a single row of a diode array can simultaneously illuminate a single pixel. Even in a monochromatic presentation, plural beams can be combined in a single pixel to provide an increase in brightness. This combination of plural beams with plural pixels is generally illustrated in FIG. 2 by the four laser beams directed simultaneously to the display 206, each of which preferably includes plural beams of different frequency components or different color. The specific manner in which the spokes 202, 302 plot the video data on the screen 206 will be described in greater detail in relation to Figures 3 and 4A-4C.

Referring still to Figure 2, the arrays or diode beams 206, 300 are driven by control signals provided from the control electronics 220, which in turn receives the video information that is to be presented from the data source. video 100. Video data source 100 may comprise any video information source to be presented in presentation 206 and may comprise a source of analog or digital video signals in any variety of known formats. The control electronics 220 converts the video data provided from the source 100, to digital form if necessary, and then to a parallel scanning format adapted for the specific scanning pattern provided by the diode arrays 200, 300 as described later in more detail. Referring to Figure 3, the manner in which multiple diode arrays 200, 300 simultaneously provides plural beams to plural facets and provides an increased scanning speed and / or an increased scanning angle for presentation is illustrated. In Figure 3, a front view of the display screen 205 is schematically illustrated with the wearable portion of the screen being one dimension wide. () and a height dimension (H). The screen or presentation shown is for a color presentation, with three different colored light rays activated and focused simultaneously on each pixel 210, 310 from each of the laser sources 200, 300, respectively. These individual rays preferably correspond to three primary colors blue and green to provide a color image in the display 206. Thus, for the three sets or sets of pixels 210, 310 illustrated in FIG. 3, red laser beams are provided , blue and green (R, V, G) simultaneously by the laser sources 200, 300. As shown in figure 3, the width dimension () of the presentation screen 206 can be subdivided into plural segments of horizontal scanning corresponding to the number of diode arrays. Although two horizontal scan segments 208, 308 corresponding to diode arrays 200, 300 the number of such segments and the diode arrays are not limited as such and can generally be 2-10 or a larger number. In the first horizontal scanning segment 208 a first plurality of rays is provided from the diode array 200 to plural rows of pixels 210 as illustrated in FIG. 3 to establish or trace a first set of scan lines 212. At the same time a plurality of rays from the diode array 300 illuminates the plural rows of pixels 310 which trace a second set of scan lines 312 in the horizontal second scan segment 308. These respective rays scanned along the plural horizontal scan lines by Thus, it will be appreciated that for the rotation of the polygon 32 through an angular range corresponding to only face width, the width scanned on the pan 208 will be doubled. from that provided by a single source of laser beams. Therefore, a concomitant increase in scan speed and / or screen size is provided. The vertical margin by the height (H) of the display screen 208 is scanned by repeating the parallel scan for each of the vertical scan segments 316. It will be appreciated that to consecutively scan the laser beams on the respective vertical scan segments 316 is it requires some means to displace the rays vertically to cover any vertical distance H shown in Fig. 3. different means of that type to vertically displace the rays are described in US Pat. No. 5,646,766, the description of which is incorporated herein.

In a preferred embodiment at present the vertical displacement of the rays is achieved using the facets of the rotating polygon 32 Each facet angle corresponds to a different position on the display 206 allowing the different vertical exploitation segments 316 to be traced as the rays laser 202, 302 consecutively intersect increasingly sloping facets. Therefore, a rotation of the polygon 32 will result in all of the vertical scan segments 316 being illuminated providing over the entire usable super-area of the display screen 206. According to the use of inclined facets of the rotating polygon reflector 32, as a means for vertical displacement of the rays, preferably a modification of the scanning format of Fig. 3 is used. In particular, a scan format inclined diagonally is preferably employed. This format is illustrated in Figs. 4A-4C, figures showing consecutive sections of the screen 206 that is illuminated by the laser beams in an inclined pattern. The inclination example of the inclination scanning format shown in Figures 4A-4C includes fourteen rows of laser diodes simultaneously provided from each of the laser beam sources 200 and 300 and a rotating polygon reflector 32, having N , facets (or a multiple integer thereof plus any dead facets between the structures), each of the N facets, is tilted at a different angle, the angle for each facet corresponding to a different vertical position on the screen 206, as generally it is indicated to the left of each vertical scanner segment in Figures 4A-4C. The numbering of the facets for FIGS. 4A-4C is such that the facet 1 corresponds to the inclined facet to illuminate the upper part of the screen 206, while the facet N is tilted to illuminate the bottom of the face. screen 206. Referring to figure 4A, the scanning pattern begins with a first scanning mosaic 400-1, illuminated by the laser beams from the first laser source, this is the array of diodes 200, the beating face 1, of the rotating polygon reflector 2, and which is scanned across the width of a horizontal scanner segment 208. In this way, for the example of an array 100, of fourteen diode rows, 14 rows of video information are scanned in parallel through of the horizontal scan segment in the first tile 400-1. the number of resolution pixels in direction depends on the video data, for example, 320 pixels is a specific example for a high resolution presentation, but fewer or more pixels can be provided. Referring to FIG. 4B, the scan pattern is illustrated after rotating polygon 32 with the rotated facet 1, in the optical path of the second laser source, that is, the array of diodes 300, and the second facet is in the optical path of the first laser beam source, the rotation of the reflector at this time, explores the laser beams of the first and second sources of laser beam on 2 mosaics configured diagonally 400-2, as illustrated in Fig. 4B. This diagonal inclined scanning pattern continues with the next faceted facet consecutively faceted 3, which enters the optical path of the laser beam sources to illuminate diagonal mosaics 400-3 as illustrated in Fig. 4C. This pattern continues until the entire display screen 406 has been illuminated by laser beams, as used hitherto the term parallel scanning segments refer to tiles that are explored together in parallel, for example, mosaics 400-2, in Fig. 4B, and the tiles 400-3 illustrated in Fig. 4C. It will be appreciated that if additional sources of laser beam are provided, the mosaic pattern illustrated in Figs. 4A-4C will add additional scan segment, the diagonal mosaic pattern in turn across the width of the presentation with the number of tiles being equal to the number of horizontal scan segments. For example, if three diode arrays were used, the scan pattern corresponding to Figures 4B-4C would include three diagonally lit mosaics., similarly, more tiles will be illuminated simultaneously for a greater number of laser beam sources, which as noted above can be 2-10, or even larger if given for the particular application. It will be appreciated by the technicians that the ability to provide multiple mosaics, each of the rays in its depth on the screen 208 has important advantages in presentation applications. The above example using a rectangular array of diodes 014 x 3, provides a reasonable compromise between the scanning speed and the size of diode arrays 200, 300, and a linear color image 504, can be provided on the display screen 206 x 36 scans of the laser beams in the horizontal direction through the display 206. Thus, 36 independently inclined facets would provide scanning of all 504 lines of the screen 206 in a single rotation of the rotating polygon 32. Thus, the combination of the two dimensional arrays of diodes 200, 300 and a tilted multiple facet polygon 32, allows the size and rotational speed of the polygon 32 to be reduced without compromising the resolution or size of the screen. It will be appreciated by technicians that a variety of different combinations of diode array and / or rotary polygon 32 dimensions can be viewed according to the specific requirements of any given application including cost, available space for the laser beam scanner, size of desired screen, total number of scan lines required, etc. In addition, although a rectangular arrangement of diodes has the advantage of facilitating placement and is well adapted to a straight line scan in a presentation application, it will be appreciated that they can be used for other diode array arrangements. The presentation of the present invention has greater advantage for presentations of color presentation compared to conventional color presentations, conventional presentations, for example the cathode ray tube (CRT), can not provide different colors precisely in a region of a single pixel, since the phosphor must have different characteristics for different colors, and it should be, the individual color pixels in the CRT presentations are arranged side by side in a way that is optically perceived by the eye as a single pixel. However, for very high resolutions, the limitation of having to provide 3 separate pixel regions for each pixel of the presentation may negatively affect the resolution of the presentation, however, the present invention may place the three different colored rays in precisely the same point to be illuminated of pixel, either for a reflective or transmitting screen 208 thus avoiding a side-by-side placement of the pixel color regions. Referring to Fig. 5, a block drawing of the electronics 220 is illustrated, the control electronics receives a video input signal from the video source along the line 222. As noted, the signal of input may be from any of a number of conventional formats, for example, between NTSC launch or progressive scan formats and may be analog or digital in nature. The signal is provided to the video interface 236, which in the case of an analog input video signal will be provided along the line 222, and will provide an analog-to-digital conversion of the input signal. The video interface 86 ejects the digital video data in series format along the line 268 to the parallel series converter 280. The serial-to-parallel converter 290 in conjunction with the video controller 292 RAM for converting serial video data that may typically be in a frame scan format to a parallel scan format corresponding to the illustrated parallel tilted scan pattern in Figures 4A-4C. The video RAM controller 292 will include a high speed temporary memory such as an edge access memory (RAM) or a FIFO buffer of sufficient capacity to contain a parallel scan segment of the data, corresponding to two exploration tiles. The synchronous video signals in the video data provided along the line 268 in turn are passed through the beam timing logic 294 which synchronizes the parallel scan segments with the beginning of the structure and the beginning of the the linear signals typically provided in a digital analog signal and provide the scanning timing signals parallel to the video controller 292 RAM. The output of the RAM controller 292 in turn is independently provided to the red, green and blue video driver circuitry 278, 282, 280 respectively, in the form of digital, color intensity signals to allow color control in gray scale to a desired palette of colors for color presentation. The circuitry in turn converts the digital color intensity signals to drive signals provided to the individual diodes in the array of diodes 200 or 300 not shown in FIG. 5, to turn them off or on with a related intensity of gray scale and provide the desired color for each pixel. Referring to Fig. 6, one mode of diode array 200 is illustrated in a perspective cut-away view (the array of diodes will have an identical structure and therefore is not shown) as shown by array 200 is provided by a Compact configuration of individual 230 laser diodes, this is 230R, 230B and 230G specific color diodes. The individual laser diodes 230 are configured in a compact housing 240, which in turn can be mounted to a printed circuit board or other structure by means of clamp 242, alternatively, also suitable adhesive or assembly techniques well known to the technicians can be employed. , as further illustrated in FIG. 6, the individual laser diodes may include a lens hood focusing to the output portion of the laser diode to provide an initial focus of the laser beam. The power signals are in turn provided to the individual laser diodes through a suitable electrical connection, such as the flexure circuit 250 illustrated in FIG. 6, the flexure circuit 250 is electrically and mechanically coupled to the box 240. and to the diodes 230 by means of a plug connector 252, it will be appreciated that a variety of other connection may also be employed, however electrical connections to each laser diode 230 or provision of independent printed circuit board for each column of the diode array. The flexible circuit 250 is coupled to the control electronics 220, which in turn is preferably configured as a printed circuit board. The control electronics can, however, be provided on the same circuit board that receives the mounting bracket 242 or to which the housing 240 is directly mounted otherwise. Referring to Figures 7A and 7B, an alternative embodiment of the laser source 200 and the associated source is illustrated employing an optical laser beam delivery head which may be advantageous for applications with space limitations or other constraints that require a compact head of laser supply.

As shown in Figure 7A, the fiber optic laser beam supply head 260 includes a beam of optical fibers 262 arranged in a compact rectangular array within a housing 264, the ends of each of the optical fibers 262 can include preferably a wick-end hood element 266, as illustrated more clearly in Figure 7B. Although the illustration 7B is not intended to show the exact optical form of the fading element 266, it illustrates the compact manner in which it can be integrated with the optical fiber 262. Referring to Fig. 7A, the opposite end of each optical fiber 262 is coupled at the output of a corresponding laser diode 268. An additional collimator and focuser 270 may be provided at the output of the individual laser diodes 268, depending on the length of the optical fiber 262 and the output characteristics of the rays 268. The rays laser 268 and the collimator elements for each column of the diode array may be mounted on separate circuit boards 272, 274, 276, as illustrated in FIG. 7A, or on a single circuit board if space permits. The length of the optical fibers 263 is chosen to allow the laser array supply head 260 to be conveniently mounted in the desired path with respect to the display screen 206. the individual laser diodes 268, in turn, receive respective circuit power. of blue, green, red 270, 282 video impeller forming part of the electronics 220 as described. The driver circuitry may be configured by the circuit boards 272, 274, 276, that the laser diodes or in a separate circuit board depending on the specific application and the space requirements. Referring to Fig. 8, a compact circuit board implementation of the plural fiber optic supply heads that drive laser diodes is illustrated as shown by two fiber optic supply heads 330, 332, are coupled to a plurality of diodes laser 334, via optical fibers 336. The individual laser diodes 334 can be configured on a single circuit board 338, as illustrated or can be separated into separate boards depending on the space requirements of the specific application. Also, as in relation to the embodiment described above in FIG. 7A, the optical collimator elements / or focusing elements 340 may be provided between the output of the laser diodes and the optical fibers. as shown more clearly in Fig. 8, the control electronics separates the video driver signals for each color (the red being illustrated in Fig. 8), in parallel drive signals corresponding to the two supply heads. Although the above detailed description of the present invention has been made in relation to specific embodiments it will be appreciated that such embodiments and modes of operation are purely for illustrative purposes and that a large number of different implementations of the present invention can also be made, so both the above detailed description should not be considered limiting but simply limiting in nature.

Claims (20)

1. CLAIMS 1.- A display apparatus or light beam screen comprising: a display screen having a verrical and a horizontal dimension, a first plurality of light beam source configured in an arrangement comprising and at least one column , a second plurality of light beam sources configured in an array comprising a plurality of rows and at least one column, control means for simultaneously activating the first and second sources of the plurality of light rays, and an optical path that it includes a movable reflector having a plurality of reflecting facets between the display screen and the first and second light beam source for simultaneously directing the plural light rays activated to the display by means of respective first and second facets of the baffle movable to illuminate simultaneously different regions of the presentation.
2. 2. - A light beam scanning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the movable baffle is a rotating polygon and wherein the lightning beam scanning apparatus further comprises a moror to rotate the polygon at a predetermined angular velocity carrying thus facets successive to the optical path to intercept the plural light rays.
3. 3. - A light beam scanning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sources of light beam in each column of the array correspond to a different color of the light.
4. 4. A light beam scanning apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the array has three columns and each one corresponds to a source of a light beam having a primary color.
5. 5. - A light beam scanning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of light beam source comprises semiconductor lasers.
6. 6. A light beam scanning apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the light beam sources comprise semiconductor diodes.
7. 7. - A light beam scanning apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for shifting the light rays to illuminate different vertical scan segments of the display screen.
8. 8. - A light beam scanning apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the means for displacing comprise a plurality of reflective facets configured in the movable deflector inclined with different degrees.
9. 9. A light beam scanning apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the movable deflector is a rotating polygon and wherein the inclined facets are inclined with respect to the axis of rotation of the polygon so as to direct the light rays. to vertical exploration segments variants on the presentation screen.
10. 10. A light beam scanning apparatus comprising: an input for receiving video data, the video data including a plurality of horizontal lines of presentation information; a presentation screen; a first plurality of light beam sources configured in an array comprising a plurality of rows and at least one column; a second plurality of light beam sources configured in an array comprising a plurality of rows and at least one column; a movable reflector having a plurality of reflective facets inclined at different angles; a memory for storing a plurality of horizontal lines of video data; a control circuit for simul- taneously activating the light beam sources according to video data from plural horizontal lines stored in the memory; and an optical path between the display screen, the movable reflector and the first and second sources of the plurality of light rays to direct the simultaneously activated plural rays to at least two facets of the movable reflector and to the display screen, wherein in movable reflector it explores each of the first and second plurality of light rays on a horizontal line portion.
11. 11. A light beam scanning apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the movable reflector is a rotating polygon and wherein the light beam scanning apparatus further comprises a motor for rotating the polygon at an angular speed. predetermined thus taking the respective facets to the optical path to thus intercept the plural light rays.
12. 12. - A light beam apparatus according to claim 2, wherein each of the light source source arrangements have plural columns corresponding to a different color of light.
13. 13. A light beam apparatus according to claim 12, wherein each array has three columns and each one corresponds to a primary color light source.
14. 14. A light beam apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the plurality of light beam sources comprise semiconductor lasers.
15. 15. A light beam apparatus according to claim 14, wherein each array comprises an array of optical fibers mounted in an array and optically coupled to respective light emitting diodes.
16. 16. A method for presenting information on a display screen employing a plurality of light beam sources and a movable reflector having a plurality of reflective facets inclined at different angles, comprising the steps of: directing a first plurality of light rays. light to a first facet of the movable reflector, and from the first facet to the display screen; directing a second plurality of light rays to a second facet of the movable reflector and of the second facet to the display screen; Moving the reflector to cause the first and second plurality and rays of light to simultaneously trace a first direction parallel multi-line scanning segments on the display screen, the parallel scanning segments being displaced in a second direction so as to provide a configuration generally in diagonal on the presentation screen.
17. 17.- A method according to the reivi cication 16, wherein the display screen has a generally rectangular configuration and the first direction corresponds to the horizontal dimension to the screen and the second corresponds to the vertical direction to the screen.
18. 18.- A method according to the claim 17, wherein the entire screen is illuminated by parallel scanning segments that illuminate in sequence using different sets of inclined facets in the optical path of the light rays.
19. 19. A method according to claim 17, wherein the parallel scanning segments comprise adjacent rectangular segments diagonally on the display screen.
20. 20. A method according to claim 18, wherein the parallel scan segments each have a plurality of different horizontal lines of video information.