Patent ID: 8085260

Claim:
A system comprising: a matrix of control lines comprising first control lines extending in a first direction and second control lines extending in a second direction, different from said first direction, wherein said first control lines and said second control lines intersect to form crossover points in said matrix of control lines; a first device electrically coupled to the first control lines and configured to change an in-line impedance state of select ones of said first control lines from a high impedance state to a low impedance state and to apply a respective first drive voltage to each of said first control lines; a second device electrically coupled to the second control lines and configured to apply a respective second drive voltage to each of said second control lines; and a matrix of optical shutters comprising a light guidance substrate and a deformable elastomer layer, each one of the optical shutters being at a respective one of said crossover points; wherein for each crossover point, the optical shutter at said crossover point is activated when the respective first control line is in the low impedance state and a differential voltage between the second drive voltage on the respective second control line and the first drive voltage on the respective first control line increases in magnitude to traverse an activation threshold voltage for the optical shutter such that the deformable elastomer layer changes in shape from an original shape to a deformed shape at the optical shutter and light propagating in the light guidance substrate is coupled out from the light guidance substrate at the optical shutter.