Eye-box extended retinal projection type near-eye display with multiple independent viewpoints [Invited]

Abstract

We introduce an approach to expand the eye-box in a retinal-projection-based near-eye display. The retinal projection display has the advantage of providing clear images in a wide depth range; however, it has difficulty in practical use with a narrow eye-box. Here, we propose a method to enhance the eye-box of the retinal projection display by generating multiple independent viewpoints, maintaining a wide depth of field. The method prevents images projected from multiple viewpoints from overlapping one other in the retina. As a result, our proposed system can provide a continuous image over a wide viewing angle without an eye tracker or image update. We discuss the optical design for the proposed method and verify its feasibility through simulation and experiment.

Augmented reality and virtual reality displays: emerging technologies and future perspectives

“…Methods to expand eyebox can be generally categorized into pupil duplication [168][169][170][171][172] and pupil steering 9,13,167,173 . Pupil duplication simply generates multiple viewpoints to cover a large area.…”

Gaze‐Matched Pupil Steering Maxwellian‐View Augmented Reality Display with Large Angle Diffractive Liquid Crystal Lenses

“…This gaze mismatch will let the user see an unnatural image and get a terrible viewing experience at these viewing points. [24,25] The third drawback of pupil duplication is that the optical efficiency will drop to 1/N when N viewing points are presented (e.g., N ¼ 3 in Figure 2), because only one viewing point is used at a time.…”

Pupil steerable Maxwellian AR display with gaze matching

“…This gaze mismatching will introduce unnatural image and annoying viewing experience at these viewpoints. 14,15 Moreover, all the viewpoints appear simultaneously, but only one is used at a time. Therefore, the optical efficiency of pupil duplication will drop to 1/N, if N viewpoints are generated.…”

“…Except for the central viewpoint, the direction of chief ray and the user's viewing direction (eye gaze) will not be matched. This gaze mismatching will introduce unnatural image and annoying viewing experience at these viewpoints 14,15 . Moreover, all the viewpoints appear simultaneously, but only one is used at a time.…”