DigiDelve Technologies has developed an extremely power efficient mobile display technology, the Steered Beam Display (SBD). The energy savings provided by the SBD represent a significant leap compared to existing technologies, which result in incremental gains.
Our Steered Beam Display (SBD) technology was developed for use with OLED displays. The primary technology incorporates user head tracking with a modified OLED display. By knowing the exact location of the user’s head in relation to the screen, the SBD can redirect light directly to the user, and only to the user (or users if multiple people are viewing the display).
Variations of this technology remove either the steering or the head tracking for simpler configurations that are still very power efficient. Each technology variation provides different benefits and allows for very flexible product offerings.
The four versions of the SBD technology are as follows:
Display manufacturers will get the power savings associated with a tight viewing angle, and the functionality of a wide viewing angle, in essence achieving both of the advantages without the drawbacks of either. The end result is an estimated energy savings of a factor of 2 to 50, with 50 being at or near the practical upper limit (based on current OLED luminance results).
A normal display typically has a viewing angle of 160° or more. The display will beam images to the entire area, regardless of the number of actual users. This is very inefficient and is typically implemented for the convenience of the user.
The result of this design is that a 300mW display will use 300mW for a single user, and it will use 300mW for 5 users. Every current and new display technology suffers from this flaw.
DigiDelve’s Steered Beam Display technology removes this flaw in a variety of ways, the foremost being that the display only sends images to where there is a user.
SBD-Full
The SBD-F works by locating and identifying where the user(s) is in relation to the display. The SBD-F then beams the image to each individual user. The potential power savings of the SBD-F are in the range of 2 to 15 times.
SBD-Full Features
- Uses image sensor and software to track user head
- Focuses steered light towards user
- Capable of accommodating multiple users simultaneously
- Power savings of 10x to 15x for single user
SBD-Option
The SBD-O lets the user toggle between a wide angle, to accommodate multiple users or for convenience, and a narrow viewing angle for a single user and power savings. The narrow viewing angle is set at the time of manufacture, and can be anywhere from 30° to 60°.
The savings factor in the narrow mode are in the range of 5 to 10 times.
SBD-Option Features
- No head tracking
- Viewing angle toggle for narrow and wide
- Power savings of 2x to 15x
SBD-Variable
Similar to the SBD-O, the SBD-V can be toggled to achieve both a narrow and wide viewing angle. Different from the SBD-O is the ability for the SBD-V to incrementally increase or decrease the viewing angle based on user preference or the application.
For example, email and word processing might be displayed at a 45° angle, web browsing at a 75° angle, and video at the full 160° viewing angle. The user may also selectively decrease the viewing angle when wishing to conserve power for an extended session.
SBD-Variable Features
- No head tracking
- Viewing angle controlled through software
- Allows for a variety of potential applications
- Power savings of 2x to 15x
SBD-Static
For maximum power savings and full privacy, the SBD-S achieves power savings in the range of up to 50 times with a very narrow viewing angle. This would be used for very specific applications, such as a bank ATM or secondary display where privacy and power savings would be a much higher priority than viewing angle.
SBD-Static Features
- No head tracking
- Viewing angle set at the hardware level
- Full privacy
- Power savings of 15x to 50x