University of Arizona

Magic Leap, Inc.

Beijing Institute of Technology

Augmented Vision, Inc

University of Connecticut

Hong Hua

Chunyu Gao

Yuxiang Lin

Dewen Cheng

Yongtian Wang

Rui Zhang

Brian T Schowengerdt

Hui-Chuan Cheng

Bahram Javidi

Xinda Hu

Christophe Peroz

Stanley K Pau

Hekun Huang

Yi Qin

Sheng Liu

Rengmao Wu

Sheng-Huei Lu

Mike Nguyen

Pengyinjie Lyu

Austin Wilson

Jason W Kuhn

Several unique hardware configurations and methods for freeform optical display systems are disclosed. A freeform display system includes primary freeform optical element(s) and secondary freeform optical element(s) in tiled arrangements to expand the horizontal field of view (FOV) or the vertical field of view. The system may include a variable focusing system that produces intermediate pupil and changes the focal distance of a single focal plane or switches among multiple focal planes for rendering objects in focus while resolving accommodation-convergence conflict. The system may map light samples to appropriate light rays in physical space and use a cluster of projectors to project the mapped light rays to produce the light field of the virtual display content. Methods for making tiled freeform optical display systems and methods for producing virtual content with variable focus freeform optics and rendering light fields are also disclosed.

Methods and systems for displaying stereoscopy with a freeform optical system with addressable focus for virtual and augmented reality

Eye-tracked head-mounted displays are provide which, in one aspect, may utilize the same optics for eyetracking and image viewing, with a selected portion of the optics used for an eyetracking optical path and a selected portion of the display optics used for an image viewing optical path.

Compact eye-tracked head-mounted display

A tiled head-mounted display device, comprising: an optical component including a plurality of prisms with free-form surfaces, each prism being a wedge prism comprising a first optical surface, a second optical surface and a third optical surface; and a display component including a plurality of micro-displays, wherein the number of the micro-displays and the number of the prisms with free-form surfaces is identical. The tiled head-mounted display device according to the present invention is compact and light, provides wide field of view and high resolution, especially for the optical tiling head-mounted display device, the exit pupil planes of each display channels are coincident, thus avoiding pupil aberration and keeping exit pupil diameter and eye clearance same as the single ocular. There is no resolution variance throughout the entire field of view, thus preventing extra trapezoid distortion. The tiled head-mounted display device according to the present invention can be readily applicable to augmented environments applications by simply adding an auxiliary free-form lens behind the free-form prism.

Wide angle and high resolution tiled head-mounted display device

Images perceived to be substantially full color or multi-colored may be formed using component color images that are distributed in unequal numbers across a plurality of depth planes. The distribution of component color images across depth planes may vary based on color. In some embodiments, a display system includes a stack of waveguides that each output light of a particular color, with some colors having fewer numbers of associated waveguides than other colors. The waveguide stack may include multiple pluralities (e.g., first and second pluralities) of waveguides, each configured to produce an image by outputting light corresponding to a particular color. The total number of waveguides in the second plurality of waveguides may be less than the total number of waveguides in the first plurality of waveguides, and may be more than the total number of waveguides in a third plurality of waveguides, in embodiments that utilize three component colors.

Virtual and augmented reality systems and methods having unequal numbers of component color images distributed across depth planes

The present invention comprises a compact optical see-through head-mounted display capable of combining, a see-through image path with a virtual image path such that the opaqueness of the see-through image path can be modulated and the virtual image occludes parts of the see-through image and vice versa.

Apparatus for optical see-through head mounted display with mutual occlusion and opaqueness control capability

Head-mounted light field display with integral imaging and relay group.

Head-mounted light field display with integral imaging and relay optics

Freeform waveguide prism and use with head-mounted light field display with integral imaging and relay group.

Head-mounted light field display with integral imaging and waveguide prism

Devices and methods that use a perceptual-driven approach to foveated displays with the goal of offering elegant degradation of image resolution with the increase of eccentricity and eye movements. As a result, the implementation leads to minimally perceivable image artifacts and image resolution discontinuity, and may further eliminate or limit the need for an eyetracker or scanning mechanism. Hereby we refer this approach as perceptual-driven continuous foveated display in contrast to the multi-level discrete foveation approach used previously.

Perceptual-driven foveated displays

In a display system configured to display images at multiple depth planes, images perceived to be substantially full color or multi-colored may be formed using component color images that are distributed in unequal numbers across a plurality of depth planes. The distribution of component color images across the depth planes may vary based on color. In some embodiments, a display system includes a stack of waveguides that each output light of a particular color, with some colors having fewer numbers of associated waveguides than other colors. The stack of waveguides may include multiple pluralities of different numbers of waveguides, each plurality configured to produce an image by outputting light corresponding to a particular color. A display controller can introduce blur and/or change pixel size for images to be presented for at least one depth plane, based on the contents of images.

Compact occlusion-capable optical see-through head mounted displays (OCOST-HMDs) are described having a double-wrapped path and capable of rendering per-pixel mutual occlusion, and correct see-through viewing perspective or a pupil-matched viewing between the virtual and real views. An example device includes a polarizer, a polarizing beam splitter, an objective lens, a spatial light modulator (SLM), an eyepiece lens, a quarter wave plate, and a reflective optical element configured to reflect the light that is incident thereupon in a first direction, and to transit the light received from a microdisplay that is incident thereupon from a second direction. The components form a first double-pass configurations that allow the light that passes through the objective to reflect from the SLM and propagate again through the objective, and a second double-pass configuration that allows the light that passes through the eyepiece to reflect from the reflective optical element and propagate again through the eyepiece.

Pupil matched occlusion-capable optical see-through head-mounted display

A display placed in an optical pathway extending from an entrance pupil of a person's eye to a real-world scene beyond the eye. The display includes at least one 2-D added-image source that is addressable to produce a light pattern corresponding to a virtual object. The source is situated to direct the light pattern toward the person's eye to superimpose the virtual object on an image of the real-world scene as perceived by the eye via the optical pathway. An active-optical element is situated between the eye and the added-image source at a location that is optically conjugate to the entrance pupil and at which the active-optical element forms an intermediate image of the light pattern from the added-image source. The active-optical element has variable optical power and is addressable to change its optical power to produce a corresponding change in perceived distance at which the intermediate image is formed, as an added image to the real-world scene, relative to the eye.

3-dimensional electro-optical see-through displays

The present invention relates generally to a head-mounted projection display, and more particularly, but not exclusively to a polarized head-mounted projection display including a light engine and a compact, high-performance projection lens for use with reflective microdisplays.

Head-mounted projection display using reflective microdisplays

A method for rendering light field images of a 3D scene in an HMD using an integral-imaging-based light field display. The method includes providing integral imaging (InI) optics including a microdisplay, the InI optics having a central depth plane (CDP) associated therewith; providing an eyepiece in optical communication with the InI optics, the eyepiece and the InI optics together providing InI-HMD optics; sampling the 3D scene using a simulated virtual array of cameras so that each camera captures a respective portion of the 3D scene to create a plurality of elemental images; and displaying the image data on the microdisplay.

Growing community of inventors

Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Hong Hua