The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 22, 1989
Filed:
Aug. 03, 1987
Arthur L Berman, Milpitas, CA (US);
James E Melzer, San Jose, CA (US);
Kaiser Electronics, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
An optical collimating apparatus employs a semi-reflective concave mirror and cholesteric liquid crystal element. In one embodiment, the optical collimating apparatus is used as a heads-up display device. Images in the line of sight of an observer substantially pass through a transmitter/combiner, semi-reflective concave mirror, and cholesteric liquid crystal element to an observer. Images generated by an image source are focussed on the transmitter/combiner such that the transmitter/combiner reflects the images into the line of sight of the observer. The generated images are transmitted by the primarily transmissive (convex) side of the semi-reflective concave mirror to the cholesteric liquid crystal element. The cholesteric liquid crystal element reflects the generated images back toward the primarily reflective (concave) side of the semi-refective concave mirror, which in turn reflects the images back toward the cholesteric liquid crystal element, which transmits the generated images to the observer. In an alternative embodiment, such as in a flight simulator or similar device, an image source projects images upon the primarily transmissive (convex) side of a semi-reflective concave mirror which transmits the images to a cholesteric liquid crystal element. The images are reflected by the cholesteric liquid crystal element back toward the primarily reflective (concave) side of the semi-reflective concave mirror. The images are then reflected by the semi-reflective concave mirror back toward the cholesteric liquid crystal element which transmits the images to the observer.