No abstract

An augmented reality (AR) system involving the electrically tunable location of a projected image is implemented using a liquid-crystal (LC) lens. The projected image is either real or virtual. By effectively doubling the LC lens power following light reflection, the position of a projected virtual image can be made to vary from 42 to 360 cm, while the tunable range for a projected real image is from 27 to 52 cm on the opposite side. The optical principle of the AR system is introduced and could be further developed for other tunable focusing lenses, even those with a lower lens power. The benefits of this study could be extended to head-mounted display systems for vision correction or vision compensation. We believe that tunable focusing LC optical elements are promising developments in the thriving field of AR applications.

Development of liquid crystal (LC) lenses is limited by the power law. The aperture size of LC lenses is traded for the lens power. In this letter, we prove theoretically and experimentally that the aperture size is not limited by the power law based on a polarizer-free LC lens exploiting an embeddedmultilayered structure. By adding numbers of LC layers, the aperture size of the LC lens can be enlarged without lowering the tunable lens power. The optical theory of the polarization independence of the LC lens is derived. The wavefronts are measured after light propagates through the LC lens to discuss the polarization independence and image adjustment. The impact of this study is to show the possibility of LC lenses with large aperture size for wearable devices and ophthalmic applications.Index Terms-Liquid crystal lens, ophthalmic lens, polarizer free. 1041-1135

We present a three dimensional (3D) micro integral imaging display system with extended depth of focus by using a polarized bifocal liquid crystal lens. This lens and other optical components are combined as the relay optical element. The focal length of the relay optical element can be controlled to project an elemental image array in multiple positions with various lenslet image planes, by applying different voltages to the liquid crystal lens. The depth of focus of the proposed system can therefore be extended. The feasibility of our proposed system is experimentally demonstrated. In our experiments, the depth of focus of the display system is extended from 3.82 to 109.43 mm.

Augmented reality (AR), which use computer-aided projected information to augment our sense, has important impact on human life, especially for the elder people. However, there are three major challenges regarding the optical system in the AR system, which are registration, vision correction, and readability under strong ambient light. Here, we solve three challenges simultaneously for the first time using two liquid crystal (LC) lenses and polarizer-free attenuator integrated in optical-see-through AR system. One of the LC lens is used to electrically adjust the position of the projected virtual image which is so-called registration. The other LC lens with larger aperture and polarization independent characteristic is in charge of vision correction, such as myopia and presbyopia. The linearity of lens powers of two LC lenses is also discussed. The readability of virtual images under strong ambient light is solved by electrically switchable transmittance of the LC attenuator originating from light scattering and light absorption. The concept demonstrated in this paper could be further extended to other electro-optical devices as long as the devices exhibit the capability of phase modulations and amplitude modulations.