A full‐color eyewear display using planar waveguides with reflection volume holograms

Abstract

Abstract— A full‐color eyewear display with over 85% see‐through transmittance with a 16° horizontal field of view was developed. Very low color crosstalk, less than 0.008 Δu′v′ uniformity, and 120% NTSC color gamut were achieved. Waveguides with two in‐ and out‐coupling reflection volume hologram elements enabled a simple configuration that has an optical engine beside the user's temples. The reflection volume hologram elements used on the waveguides realized a small thickness of 1.4 mm for each waveguide, and an out‐coupling reflection volume hologram used as an optical combiner contributed a high see‐through transmittance of 85% due to its wavelength selectivity. However, there are technical challenges in achieving a reasonable screen size and quality color images with optics that utilize holographic waveguides because holograms have large chromatic dispersions compared to conventional optical elements such as lenses and mirrors. Approaches to overcome these issues are described.

The Composite Structure of Hologram and Optical Waveguide

“…Fig. 25 illustrates this type structure of the holographic planar waveguide of the eyewear display [Mukawa et al, 2009]. The waveguide has an in-coupling and an out-coupling reflection volume hologram which have exactly the same fringe pattern and a mirror symmetrically positioned.…”

Assessment of minimum permissible geometrical parameters of a near-to-eye display

“…During the last decade increased attention is paid to nearto-eye displays (NEDs) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. NEDs, which are usually associated with head mounted displays, are used solely as a hand-off information source in portable equipment for practical and leisure purposes.…”

“…Numerous medical and military applications, telecommunication, transportation and game industry are only a few areas where NEDs are of inestimable value. Despite the dramatic advances in development of NEDs [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], expectations for NEDs with ergonomics comparable to eyeglasses have yet to be met [5].…”

Full Color Holographic Optical Element Fabrication for Waveguide-type Head Mounted Display Using Photopolymer

“…However, this method did not yield high diffraction efficiency, and previous studies did not fabricate full color HOE. Subsequently, full color eyewear display was proposed by H. Mukawa et al [10]. In this method, the issue of color-uniformity should be solved.…”