Patent ID: 8651678

Claim:
A method comprising, in combination: (a) using an illumination source to provide light that is transmitted through at least (i) a stack of polarization rotators and (ii) a polarizer; and (b) using one or more processors (i) to perform an optimization calculation to compute a set of polarization state rotations induced in the light at respective pixels of the polarization rotators; and (ii) to output control signals to control the polarization state rotations induced in the light at the respective pixels; wherein (I) each of the polarization rotators is a layer in the stack, (II) the polarizer is optically in front of the stack, (III) each of the polarization rotators comprises a spatially addressable device, the device being configured to dynamically vary per pixel polarization state rotations induced in the light, and (IV) for each respective light ray in a set of light rays, the optimization calculation includes computing a summation of changes to polarization state rotation of the respective light ray that occur as the respective light ray travels through the stack of polarization rotators.