US Patent 7956981 LCD based environment scanner and 3-D display

A liquid crystal display (LCD) device (100) has the dual functionality of image display and environment scanning. Specifically, during environment scanning mode, the LCD device searches for targets, i.e., markers (700) in the environment. To enable such scanning, the LC layer (20) is configured to provide a scanning optical path allowing passage of a directional marker signal. The scanning optical path is controlled according to one or more transparent openings programmed to scan at least part of the LC layer. As a marker (700) is detected, based on the marker signal, a positional coordinate (e.g., relative angular position) is determinable based on the current scan position of the transparent opening(s).