Patent ID: 7265902

Claim:
A display apparatus capable of switching between a two-dimensional image display mode and a three-dimensional image display mode, the display apparatus comprising: a display panel having a plurality of pixels arranged in parallel lines; a light deflection member disposed parallel to said display panel and having a surface parallel to said display panel, a plurality of light deflection elements distributing along said surface in parallel lines, the lines of light deflection elements being separated from each other by respective flat transparent portions, each one line of the light deflection elements and a corresponding adjacent flat transparent portion corresponding to a respective one of the lines of the pixels; and a movable light shielding member disposed between said light deflection member and said display panel, and having a plurality of parallel transparent portions, with each two neighboring transparent portions being separated by a non-transparent portion, so that image light from pixels with a left eye perspective image are converged by the light deflection elements via the transparent portions to a left eye position of an observer and image light from pixels with a right eye perspective image are converged by the light deflection elements via the transparent portions to a right eye position of the observer to provide the three-dimensional image display mode while said flat transparent portions are shielded by the non-transparent portions, and allow said plurality of pixels to be viewable in said two-dimensional image display mode via said transparent portions while the lines of light deflection elements are shielded by the non-transparent portions, viewing in said two-dimensional image display mode and said three-dimensional image display mode being selectable via parallel movement of said light shielding member with respect to said light deflection member.