Envisics Ltd

Dualitas Ltd

Two Trees Photonics Limited

Daqri Holographics Limited

Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Cambridge Enterprise Limited

Envisics Lid

Enviscis Ltd

Jamieson Christmas

Dackson Masiyano

Máté Karner

Alexander Cole

Neil Collings

Mikael Collin

Timothy Smeeton

Michal Wengierow

Brian Mullins

Ruisheng Lin

Thomas A Seder

Kai-Han Chang

William Alden Crossland

Ian Bledowski

Daniel Burnham

Nicu Gavrila

Andreas Georgiou

Rakesh Maharjan

William Crossland

Celedonia Krawczyk

Paul Whiting

Mark Newsam

Roderick Oldfield

Konstantin Deichsel

Daniel Molina

Sahar Chowdhury

Gavin Fowler

Michael Spurr

Gary Mills

Jonathan Seamus Blackley

Niall McGee

Collin Mikael

There is provided an optical system having a viewing window. The optical system comprises a display device arranged to spatially modulated light in accordance with a hologram displayed thereon to form a holographic wavefront. The holographic wavefront forms a holographic reconstruction of an image downstream of the display device. The optical system further comprises a waveguide arranged to receive the holographic wavefront and waveguide the holographic wavefront between a pair of reflective surfaces thereof. One surface of the pair of reflective surfaces is partially transmissive such that a plurality of replicas of the holographic wavefront are emitted therefrom. The optical system further comprises an optical component between the holographic reconstruction and the waveguide, wherein the optical component is arranged to (a) form a virtual image of the holographic reconstruction upstream of the display device and (b) form an image of the displayed hologram at infinity or downstream of the waveguide.

Optical system

A head-up display is described. A spatial light modulator is arranged to display a diffractive pattern of first picture content and/or second picture content. A screen assembly has first and second diffusers arranged in a stepped configuration so that the first diffuser is spatially offset from the second diffuser by a perpendicular distance. A light source is arranged to illuminate the diffractive pattern such that the first picture content is formed on the first diffuser and/or the second picture content is formed on the second diffuser. An optical system comprising at least one optical element having optical power is arranged so that the first and second diffusers have different object distances to the optical system.

Multi-plane display device

Systems and method disclosed herein include, among other features, receiving an image for display within a display area of a display system, determining a first image component of the image, calculating a hologram of the image, displaying the hologram on a display device and spatially modulating light in accordance with the displayed hologram, and propagating the spatially modulated light through a pupil expander arranged to provide a plurality of different light propagation paths for the spatially modulated light from the display device to the viewing area, wherein each light propagation path corresponds to a respective continuous region of the image owing to the angular distribution of light from the hologram.

Hologram calculation

A liquid crystal display device and corresponding method to display a hologram is described. A grey level value for each pixel of a hologram is received and a pixel voltage based on grey level for each pixel of the hologram is determined. The pixels of the display device are driven in accordance with a first representation of the pixel voltages during at least one first drive event. The pixels of the display device are driven in accordance a second representation of the pixel voltages during at least one second drive event after the at least one first drive event. The first representation may be an n-bit representation and the second representation may be a m-bit representation and n<m. The at least one first drive event may be shorter in duration than the at least one second drive event.

Display device and method

There is provided a method of projection using an optical element having spatially variant optical power. The method comprises combining Fourier domain data representative of a 2D image with Fourier domain data having a first lensing effect to produce first holographic data. Light is spatially modulated with the first holographic data to form a first spatially modulated light beam. The first spatially modulated light beam is redirected using the optical element by illuminating a first region of the optical element with the first spatially modulated beam. The first lensing effect compensates for the optical power of the optical element in the first region.

Holographic image projection with holographic correction

An illumination system is arranged to output a light beam for illuminating a scene. The system comprises a spatial light modulator arranged to receive incident light, and to output light comprising a first component and a second component. The first component comprises incident light that is output without modulation by the spatial light modulator. The second component comprises incident light that is spatially-modulated according to a hologram and output by the spatial light modulator. A control device is operable to control the proportion of light output by the spatial light modulator that corresponds to the second component.

Illumination system and method

There is disclosed herein a waveguide including an optical slab and an optical wedge. The optical slab has a first refractive index, n>1. The optical slab includes: a pair of opposing surfaces and an input port. The pair of opposing surfaces are arranged in a parallel configuration. The input port is arranged to receive light into the optical slab at an angle such that the light is guided between the first and second opposing surfaces. The optical wedge has a second refractive index, n, wherein 1<n<n. The optical wedge includes a pair of opposing surfaces arranged in a wedge configuration. A first surface of the optical wedge abuts the second surface of the optical slab to form an interface. The angle of the wedge allows light received at the interface to escape through the second surface of the optical wedge such that the exit pupil of the waveguide is expanded.

Pupil expansion

There is disclosed a projector arranged to project a light pattern. The projector comprises a spatial light modulator and a light source. The spatial light modulator has an array of pixels arranged to display a phase pattern. The array of pixels may be a substantially planar array of pixels. Each pixel comprises liquid crystals having a director rotatable in a plane of rotation between a first direction and a second direction. The light source is arranged to illuminate the array of pixels with polarised light such that the light is spatially-modulated in accordance with the phase pattern to form the light pattern. It may be said that the light pattern corresponds to the phase pattern. The angle of incidence of the light on the array of pixels is greater than zero and the light is s-polarised. The first direction is parallel to the polarisation direction of the light. The second direction is in the plane of incidence.

Spatial light modulation

There is disclosed herein a waveguide comprising an optical slab and an optical wedge. The optical slab has a first refractive index, n>1. The optical slab comprises: a pair of opposing surfaces and an input port. The pair of opposing surfaces are arranged in a parallel configuration. The input port is arranged to receive light into the optical slab at an angle such that the light is guided between the first and second opposing surfaces by a series of internal reflections. The optical wedge has a second refractive index, n, wherein 1<n<n. The optical wedge comprises a pair of opposing surfaces arranged in a wedge configuration. A first surface of the optical wedge abuts the second surface of the optical slab to form an interface that allows partial transmission of light guided by the optical slab into the optical wedge at a plurality of points along the interface such that the light is divided a plurality of times. The angle of the wedge allows light received at the interface to escape through the second surface of the optical wedge such that the exit pupil of the waveguide is expanded by the plurality of divisions of the light.

A holographic projector comprises an image processing engine, a hologram engine, a display engine and a light source. The image processing engine is arranged to receive a source image for projection and generate a plurality of secondary images from a primary image based on the source image. The source image comprises pixels. Each secondary image may comprise fewer pixels than the source image. The plurality of secondary images are generated by sampling the primary image. The hologram engine is arranged to determine, such as calculate, a hologram corresponding to each secondary image to form a plurality of holograms. The display engine is arranged to display each hologram on the display device. The light source is arranged to Illuminate each hologram during display to form a holographic reconstruction corresponding to each secondary image on a replay plane. The primary image is selected from the group comprising: the source image and an intermediate image.

Holographic projection

There is provided a head-up display having an eye-box comprising a driver monitoring system, picture generating unit and optical system. The driver monitoring system is arranged to illuminate and monitor a driver. The driver monitoring system comprises a first display channel. The picture generating unit is arranged to display a picture on a replay plane. The picture generating unit comprises a second display channel. Each display channel comprises a light source, spatial light modulator and controller. Each light source is arranged to emit light. Each spatial light modulator is arranged to receive light from the respective light source and output spatially-modulated light in accordance with a computer-generated hologram displayed on the spatial light modulator to form a respective light pattern on the replay plane. Each controller is arranged to output the computer-generated hologram to the spatial light modulator. The optical system is arranged to relay each light pattern from the replay plane. The optical system comprises an input, output and at least one mirror. The input is arranged to receive light of each light pattern. The output is arranged to output light of each light pattern. The at least one mirror is arranged to guide light from the input to the output along an optical path. The light pattern formed by the first display channel is an infrared light pattern. Each light pattern is a holographic reconstruction.

Head-up display

Methods of performing a complex Fourier transform of a complex data set corresponding to an image are disclosed. The methods comprise receiving a complex data set and performing a first 1D complex Fourier transform in the complex data set in Cartesian form; converting the complex data set into polar form and compressing the complex data set in polar form; performing a row-column transformation of the complex data set; decompressing the complex data set and converting the complex data set back into Cartesian form; and performing a second 1D Fourier transform in the complex data set in Cartesian form, wherein the second 1D complex Fourier transform is orthogonal to the first 1D complex Fourier transform. Corresponding systems are also disclosed, as are application to the iterative computation of computer-generated holograms.

Image processing systems and methods

Display system and methods including a display device arranged to display a hologram and spatially modulate light and a hologram engine arranged to receive contribution information identifying contributory and non-contributory areas of the display device based on the location of an entrance pupil. The contributory areas of the display device propagate light passing through the entrance pupil at the determined location. The non-contributory areas of the display device propagate light stopped by the entrance pupil at the determined location. The contribution information identifies (i) at least one primary contributory area of the display device that contributes to a primary image and (ii) at least one secondary contributory area of the display device that contributes to a secondary image. The hologram engine is arranged to determine a hologram based on the at least one primary contributory area of the display device identified by the processing engine.

Image projection

A holographic system comprises a display device and a waveguide pupil expander. The display device is arranged to display a hologram and to output spatially modulated light in accordance with the hologram. The waveguide pupil expander is configured to receive spatially modulated light from the display device at the input port thereof and to expand the viewing window of the system. The waveguide pupil expander comprises first and second substantially planar reflective surfaces arranged in parallel having an optically transparent material therebetween. The first reflective surface is fully reflective and the second reflective surface is partially reflective such that light is guided from the input port to an output port at the second reflective surface by a series of internal reflections. The optically transparent material is formed by a layered glass structure arranged to maintain the integrity of the waveguide in the event of breakage of glass.

Pupil expander integrity

There is provided a method of projection using an optical element () having spatially variant optical power. The method comprises combining Fourier domain data representative of a 2D image with Fourier domain data having a first lensing effect () to produce first holographic data. Light is spatially modulated () with the first holographic data to form a first spatially modulated light beam. The first spatially modulated light beam is redirected using the optical element () by illuminating a first region () of the optical element () with the first spatially modulated beam. The first lensing effect () compensates for the optical power of the optical element in the first region (). Advantageous embodiments relate to a head-up display for a vehicle using the vehicle windscreen () as an optical element to redirect light to the viewer ().

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Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

Jamieson Christmas