General Electric Company

Hughes Electronics Corporation

William S Beamon, Iii

David A Ansley

Richard Economy

Jeffrey D Potter

Robert F Stone

Edward H Tegge, Jr

A lighter weight helmet mountable display (HMD) that is easily adjustable to accommodate variable inter-pupillary distances includes substantially parallel left and right optical channels, and projects left and right images onto the helmet's visor. Each channel includes light sources that form a complete scan line of the image, and project luminance patterns for successive scan lines through a lens which reduces the light's divergence. A deflector is moved to deflect successive luminance patterns back through the lens so that the lens focuses the patterns onto successive scan lines on a back projection screen. The screen emits luminance patterns in response to the incident luminance patterns for each successive scan line to project the image onto the visor.

Color helmet mountable display

A helmet mountable display system may display a raster scanned image to each eye of a wearer of the helmet for presenting a stereoscopic image. The system includes a single lens unit operating with a single row of light sources and with first and second oscillatable deflecting surfaces for generating a different scanned image on each of a pair of juxtaposed projection screen portions. The image on each screen portion images is relayed to an associated eye of the wearer.

Single-lens color video stereoscopic helmet mountable display

A helmet mountable display system may display a raster scanned image to each eye of a wearer of the helmet for presenting a stereoscopic image. The system includes a first and second lens having a respective optical axis and first and second oscillatable deflecting surfaces for generating the raster. The lenses may be arranged so that the optical axes from a V with the first and second deflecting surfaces disposed substantially at the apex of the V. This arrangement may be bilaterally symmetrical such that a plurality of light rays for forming a first image passes through the first lens along one optical path, strikes the first deflecting surface, is directed onto the second deflecting surface, and is directed through the second lens toward a focal plane where a real image is available to be supplied to one eye. Another plurality of light rays for forming a second image passes through the second lens along another optical path generally opposite to the one optical path, strikes the first deflecting surface, is directed onto the second deflecting surface and is directed through the first lens toward a focal plane where another real image is available to be supplied to the other eye. The real images are raster scanned when the first and second surfaces are oscillating in a predetermined pattern. Each light ray supplies information to a corresponding zone of the image.

Helmet display

A helmet mountable display includes electronic apparatus for ultimately providing sweep lines of a full color raster graphic image and electromechanical apparatus for disposing the sweep lines to appear at their proper spatial position at the image. The electronic apparatus may include a cathode ray tube having a strip of red, green and blue emitting phosphor, and either one electron gun for sequentially scanning a trace in each strip or three electron guns for parallel scanning in response to respective color video information. The three traces are superimposed and registered, such as by color information delay apparatus, a focusing optical system or a combination thereof, to form a sweep line so that the sweep line exhibits full color characteristics which form a portion of the image. The shape of the electron beam that forms the traces in the strips may be elongated transverse the direction of the sweep and later compressed, such as by a cylindrical lens, for allowing a higher intensity or increased brightness trace to form the image without exceeding the peak energy handling capability of the phosphors.

Raster graphic helmet mountable display

In computer image generation (CIG) systems, image data for defining pixel modulation values and for supporting a display having a predetermined resolution are determined for defining a scene. For some applications, such as for representing background and/or peripheral areas, it may be acceptable to use data having a lower resolution than the predetermined resolution. Method and apparatus for taking a portion of the image data obtain derived data by a predetermined combination of the portion of image data. Lines of composed data supplied to a display device include a sequence of pixel modulation values selected from the portion of image data and the derived data. In one embodiment the number of lines supported by the image data is doubled with each line containing 50% image data and 50% derived data. Pixel modulation values may be oversampled between adjacent lines of the display for obtaining derived data. Respective composed data for a plurality of display devices may be obtained from a respective plurality of portions of the image data, thus obviating the need to provide additional video processing channels along with associated hardware.

Pixel and line enhancement method and apparatus

A helmet mountable display system includes separate optical paths for providing a respective image to the left and right eye of an observer for stereoscopic viewing. Each of a first and second plurality of spaced apart, substantially point light sources supply a respective group of modulated rays of light. The rays of each group are collimated by a respective input lens and the collimated rays from each input lens are directed so that their envelopes all intersect at the same point. A horizontal and a vertical deflecting surface are disposed on opposite sides of the intersection point. Electro-mechanical drivers move the surfaces which scan all the collimated rays. The scanned rays from each group are focused onto a respective screen by a respective output lens to form a raster scanned image. The screens are divided into a plurality of contiguous zones with a ray from each light source assigned to a corresponding zone, which reduces the vertical scan angle excursions required. Simultaneous scan lines from the rays are displayed in each zone on the screen which reduces the video bandwidth requirement of the system. The image from the screens is supplied to the inside surface of a visor from which it is reflected to a corresponding eye of the observer.

The scan pattern of a raster scan video display system is modified to provide a sinusoidal raster scan, so that derived scan lines made up of pixels of adjacent scan lines are generated to enhance vertical scene resolution. A sinusoidal deflection circuit and microdeflection yoke produce the desired waveform, and a distortion compensation circuit corrects for distortions of the desired waveform.

Growing community of inventors

Ormond Beach, FL, United States of America

William S Beamon, Iii