International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Lexmark International, Inc.

Derek Brian Dove

Russell Alan Budd

Alan Edward Rosenbluth

Fuad Elias Doany

Rama Nand Singh

Thomas Mario Cipolla

George L Chiu

Janusz S Wilczynski

Kwang K Shih

Louis L Hsu

Edward John Yarmchuk

Timothy A Brunner

Ari Aviram

Kei-Hsiung Yang

Robert Stephen Olyha, Jr

George E Keefe

Carl G Powell

Istvan Lovas

James Lawrence Sanford

Kurt R Grebe

Chi-Min Yuan

Punit P Chiniwalla

Lawrence B Schein

William John Adair

Ramon Lane

Takeshi Takamori

Shinji Nakai

John J Boland

Tetsune Toyokawa

Ramon L Street

Claus D Makowka

Jesse R Crowe

Russel A Budd

Robert S Olyha

A head mounted virtual image display unit is provided which is compact in size and weight, and incorporates a high performance optical system offering a clear see-through capability. A sliding light shield may be incorporated for those instances when see-through capability is not desired. A focus adjustment may be incorporated to permit the focusing of the image, for example, at a distance of approximately 18 inches to infinity. An adjustable headband may be incorporated that adapts to fit the users head. A flexible boom structure may be incorporated to facilitate fine positional adjustment of the optical assembly. A slider and ball joint mechanism may also be incorporated to facilitate positional adjustment of the optical assembly. A built-in microphone may be incorporated to enable speech input by the user. The head mounted virtual image display unit may be used comfortably in conjunction with eye or safety glasses, and provides a useful image to the user without blocking his view of the surrounding environment. The unit is designed to have a pleasing appearance so as to greatly enhance user acceptability.

Compact optical system and packaging for head mounted display

A structure that possesses the combined properties of carrying signals through the provision of a series of electrical conductors, and by optical signals through the intermediary of a series of optical waveguides. This imparts a particular advantage thereto for the fabrication of optical data links, providing a convenient, compact method of interconnecting electrical paths to transducer chips and to waveguide structures. This approach solves the problem of connecting polymer waveguides to VCSEL (Vertical-Cavity-Surface-Emitting Laser) arrays, thereby avoiding the problem of damaging fragile wire bonds. A method is also provided which utilizes the foregoing structure.

Medium containing optical paths and electrically conducting paths for applications in high speed data links

A class of novel structures which make novel use of polymer based reflective polarizing films in an improved polarization conversion system which are useful in liquid crystal projection systems that are easily manufactured, of lower cost, and permit the versatility of higher numerical aperture polarization conversions. Another aspect of the present invention are polarization modulating liquid crystal projection display systems utilizing the polarization conversion systems of the present invention.

Polarization conversion system

The fabrication of transmissive attenuating types of phase shift masks by formation of and selective etch of a layer, deposited on a substrate. This single layer provides both the phase shift and the attenuation required and is readily patterned and processed to produce attenuating phase shift masks.

Thin film materials for the preparation of attenuating phase shift masks

An apparatus for polarization conversion having a light source for supplying vertically and horizontally linearly polarized light to an optical path and a parabolic mirror disposed in the optical path and proximate to the light source. In different embodiments, the parabolic mirror has a mirror coating to induce a phase shift of 0&deg;, 90&deg;, or an arbitrary phase shift between incident light and reflected light. A polarizer means, preferably a reflective polarizer film, is disposed in the optical path for reflecting light of one of the linear polarizations and for transmitting the other linear polarization. Lastly, one or more waveplates are disposed in the optical path between the polarizer means and the parabolic mirror. The waveplates have opposing segments each having axes which are antiparallel to each other for recycling the reflected linear polarization by converting it to the transmitted polarization.

Apparatus for polarization conversion

An illumination apparatus including: at least two light sources, in which each of the light sources produce independent light beams; a controller for sequentially driving each of the light sources at a high power above their respective maximum rated power, to produce a respective light beam for each light source, and for leaving the remaining light sources at a low power below their respective maximum rated power, such that the time-average of the high and low power levels are set to a predetermined value for each of the light sources; and a combiner and director for sequentially combining each of the light beams from their respective light sources while being driven at high power into a common output beam with a fixed direction. Various combiner and directors are disclosed including tiltable mirrors under the control of the controller as well as optical systems.

Apparatus and method for intensifying illumination brightness by time-superposing multiple pulsed light sources

The invention provides a newly designed head mounted virtual image display that is dramatically less in weight than is known in the art by virtue of a unique beam folding design, making possible wearable computer systems of significantly greater convenience and acceptability to a wide range of users. The unit may be used comfortably in conjunction with eyeglasses. Optical systems according to the invention are provided that are advantageous for use with emissive, transmissive and reflective microdisplays, and which provide high optical performance, compact design and clear see-through properties. Also, the invention provides an improved method of illumination for reflection liquid crystal microdisplays. This makes possible optical systems for virtual image displays of improved field of view, compactness, and shorter image path combined with good efficiency.

Compact optical system for use in virtual display applications

Head mounted display

System and method for improving color convergence in projection display systems employs one or more mirror units disposed for reflecting light from the projection lens to a display screen, each mirror unit including one or more reflective layers adjustably positioned for changing the path length of selected one or more color components of the color image. Changing the path length of the selected one or more color components of the color image effectively changes the magnification of those selected color components according to:

Method and apparatus for improving the color convergence of projection-based displays

An optical system for a projection display includes one or more polarizing beam splitters, one or more reflective light valves disposed to receive light transmitted through the one or more splitters and one or more phase correcting members, each disposed between the one or more splitters and the one or more light valves, whereby contrast of the display is substantially improved.

Optical system and method for high contrast projection display

An apparatus for polarization conversion having a light source for supplying vertically and horizontally linearly polarized light to an optical path and a parabolic mirror disposed in the optical path and proximate to the light source. In different embodiments, the parabolic mirror has a mirror coating to induce a phase shift of 0.degree., 90.degree., or an arbitrary phase shift between incident light and reflected light. A polarizer, preferably a reflective polarizer film, is disposed in the optical path for reflecting light of one of the linear polarizations and for transmitting the other linear polarization. Lastly, one or more waveplates are disposed in the optical path between the polarizer and the parabolic mirror. The waveplates have opposing segments each having axes which are antiparallel to each other for recycling the reflected linear polarization by converting it to the transmitted polarization.

An optical projection display system, such as a liquid crystal display device, is disclosed. A feature of the present invention is that the projection display system utilizes a modified X-cube (or X-prism) arrangement wherein the internal angles of the prisms forming the modified X-cube deviate from 90.degree.. The utilization of the present modified X-cube arrangement improves contrast for checkerboard images, minimizes the possibility of spurious unwanted reflections from entering the projection lens as well as substantially eliminating glare and ghost images typically present using prior art X-cubes.

Modified X-cube arrangement for improved contrast projection display

A head mounted display for entering an image into the eye of a viewer along a viewing axis. The head mounted display has a light source for supplying unpolarized light to an optical path. Also provided is a first polarizer disposed in the optical path for rotating the unpolarized light to that of a first polarization. A second polarizer is also disposed in the optical path for blocking light of the first polarization from reaching the eye. A reflective light valve is disposed in the optical path for rotating the light of the first polarization to an image of a second polarization. Also provided is a concave mirror disposed in the optical path for focusing and reflecting the image of the second polarization. Lastly, a directing means is provided for directing the light of the first polarization to the reflective light valve, for directing the image of the second polarization to the concave mirror, and for directing the focused and reflected image from the concave mirror towards the second polarizer. The second polarizer then transmits the focused and reflected image towards the eye of the viewer along the viewing axis.

Head mounted displays utilizing reflection light valves

Growing community of inventors

Mount Kisco, NY, United States of America

Derek Brian Dove