Light source and display

Claim 1

A light source, comprising: a plurality of optical waveguides, each optical waveguide comprising a block having a light emitting face from which light is emitted towards an observer, an end face opposite the light emitting face, and two side faces opposing each other and extending between the light emitting face and the end face with a distance between the light emitting face and the end face being greater than a distance between the side faces, wherein the plurality of optical waveguides are positioned adjacent each other such that the side face of one optical waveguide is substantially adjacent the side face of an adjacent optical waveguide, the light emitting faces of the plurality of optical waveguides are substantially contiguous with each other, and the side faces of the plurality of optical waveguides each include a fully optically reflective surface; and the light source further comprises a plurality of individually controllable light emitting means each comprising at least one light emitter, wherein a corresponding one of the individually controllable light emitting means is located proximate the end face of a respective optical waveguide such that the respective optical waveguide receives light only from the individually controllable light emitting means while substantially preventing passage of light from the other light emitting means between adjacent waveguides, and wherein substantially non-collimated light provided from each corresponding individually controllable light emitting means propagates through the respective optical waveguide from the end face towards the light emitting face by interacting with the reflective surfaces, and is emitted as substantially non-collimated light from the light emitting face so as to provide output light across adjacent light emitting faces having a generally uniform profile.