Abstract: The invention is directed to provide a virtual image display device capable of setting the aspect ratio of the image light entering the eyes of the observer as a virtual image to a desired state while fulfilling the design limitations. In the invention, the aspect ratio of the virtual image can be converted to the aspect ratio (16:9) laterally longer than the aspect ratio (4:3) of the image area due to the conversion in the aspect ratio conversion optical system. Thus, the aspect ratio of the image light to be recognized by the eye of the observer as a virtual image can be adjusted to a desired state even in the case in which, for example, the lateral width of the image forming device with respect to the whole of the virtual image display device is limited by a design requirement.

Abstract: A light guide member which guides video light includes a peripheral area forming portion extending to the outside of an effective light flux guide portion which is an area through which an effective light flux of the video light passes, and thus for example, even when ghost light resulting from components generated by unintended reflection or scattering in a position such as a side surface forming portion of the light guide member may be generated, the side surface forming portion can be separated from the effective light flux guide portion.

Abstract: An intermediate image is formed inside the prism by a projection lens or the like, and since an image light that is totally reflected at three or more surfaces; a third surface firstly, a first surface firstly, at a third surface secondly, at a first surface secondly, and the second surface in this order, transmits the first surface and then arrives at an observer's eyes, the thickness of the prism can be reduced and the size and weight of the entire optical system can be reduced, and it is possible to realize a display of high performance and brightness with a wide angle of view. Since the external light can be observed after passing through the first surface and the third surface, and the visibility at that time becomes substantially zero, it is possible to reduce the defocus or distortion of the external light when observing the external light.

Abstract: An intermediate image is formed inside the prism by a projection lens or the like, and since an image light that is totally reflected at three or more surfaces; at a third surface firstly, at a first surface firstly, at a third surface secondly, at the first surface secondly, and at the second surface in the order specified, transmits the first surface, and then arrives at an observer's eye, the size and weight of the prism can be reduced and it is possible to realize a display of high performance and brightness with a wide angle of view. In addition, since the external light can be observed after passing through the first surface and the third surface, and the visibility at that time becomes substantially zero, it is possible to reduce the defocus or distortion of the external light when observing the see-through external light.

Abstract: A thickness of a tapered part provided at the deeper side (?X side) in a light guide direction of a light transmission member is smaller toward the deeper side, and thus, a reflection angle of ghost light that has passed through a fourth reflection surface provided with a half mirror layer and reached the light transmission member gradually becomes smaller within the tapered part and no longer satisfies a total reflection condition, and the light is ejected to the outside in the position diverging from an eye of an observer. That is, the tapered part may prevent the ghost light from reaching the eye and good see-through observation can be realized.

Abstract: In a virtual image display device, a mirror layer has a thickness of 50 nm or more to perform non-transparent reflection in a second ridge line vicinity area on a third reflection face side in a ridge line portion extending between the third reflection face and a second reflection face. Accordingly, reflectance of image light can be prevented from being decreased by the second ridge line vicinity area (that is, a peripheral portion on a light guide unit in the third reflection face), and thus stripe-shaped brightness unevenness extending in a longitudinal direction can be prevented from occurring on the viewed image. That is, in the image display device, it is possible to secure sufficient reflection even in the peripheral portion close to a boundary with the second reflection face with respect to the third reflection face, and also to display a bright image with little brightness unevenness.

Abstract: A thickness of a tapered part provided at the deeper side (?X side) in a light guide direction of a light transmission member is smaller toward the deeper side, and thus, a reflection angle of ghost light that has passed through a fourth reflection surface provided with a half mirror layer and reached the light transmission member gradually becomes smaller within the tapered part and no longer satisfies a total reflection condition, and the light is ejected to the outside in the position diverging from an eye of an observer. That is, the tapered part may prevent the ghost light from reaching the eye and good see-through observation can be realized.

Abstract: Image light is formed of light flux components having a diameter of, e.g., 3 mm or smaller. The image light is then caused to be incident on the iris of an eye to form an image in the form of a virtual image. The position where the principal rays of the light flux components that form the image light intersect one another is set to be a position shifted from the position of the iris of the eye toward the retina. The range of the light flux components that reach the retina can thus be changed in accordance with the motion of the eye. As a result, in accordance with a change in the line of sight that occurs when a wearer moves the line of sight in a specific direction, the image light can be so controlled that only image light components in the specific direction reach the retina of the eye.

Abstract: A trapezoidal correction processing portion performs trapezoidal correction (distortion correction) on video image areas each of which is divided into a plurality of video image areas separately in accordance with the divided video image areas. In this case, each of the video image areas is divided into a plurality of areas. Further, a pair of right and left virtual image formation sections perform trapezoidal correction in a mirror symmetric manner, and the center position of the wearer's eye in each of the virtual image formation sections is so adjusted that the center position coincides with a distortion-free image corrected by using a small amount of correction.

Abstract: In fabrication of a light guiding unit, a half mirror layer as a reflection film for folding light is covered by a light transmission main body part as a coating member, i.e., a light transmission member, and a hard coating layer is deposited thereon. Therefore, even when the surfaces of a light guide main body part and the light transmission main body part forming the light guiding unit are cleansed as pre-processing of the deposition of the hard coating layer, the situations such that the half mirror layer is separated thereby may be avoided and optical properties of the half mirror layer may not be lost.

Abstract: Since a distance from an image extraction part to a light exiting surface is shorter downstream in an optical path than upstream in the optical path in relation to Z direction that is an arraying direction of reflection units, image light that propagates to pass between the image extraction part and the light exiting surface without becoming incident on the reflection units and therefore cannot be extracted to outside can be reduced. That is, since image light having a large total reflection angle in a light guide plate can be securely made incident on the image extraction part and efficiently extracted from the light exiting surface, light use efficiency in image formation can be enhanced. Thus, a virtual image display apparatus with brightness and high performance can be provided.

Abstract: A light blocking member that is a light blocking structure disposed in an exit pupil position can remove in advance a light component of video image light that undergoes unintended reflection to avoid generation of ghost light and allows formation of a satisfactory image. Further, a projection lens and other components form an intermediate image in a prism, and the video image light totally reflected off at least two surfaces of the prism, a third surface, a first surface, and a second surface in this order, passes through the first surface and reaches an eye of a viewer, whereby the prism can be thin and the overall optical system can be compact and lightweight and provide wide angle, bright, high-performance display.

Abstract: The image light entering the image take-out section is reflected by the first reflecting surface and the second reflecting surface in a two-stage manner. It is not only possible to make the light beam with a small total reflection angle out of the image light directly enter the side near to the light entrance section out of each of the reflecting units, but also to make the light beam with a large total reflection angle directly enter the side far from the light entrance section out of each of the reflecting units to thereby make it possible to take out the image light to the outside. Therefore, the image light is emitted as the effective virtual image light for the observer in the condition in which the brightness variation and the picture variation are prevented and a high light efficiency can be obtained.

Abstract: A half mirror layer has an angle dependency in which when an angle of incidence becomes larger than the angle of incidence range of image light, reflectance increases, such that it is possible to prevent unintended light, which is emitted to a light transmitting member from a light guiding member and is reflected inside a light transmitting member, from being returned to a light emission portion of the light guiding member after passing through the half mirror layer as a reflective film at a relatively large angle of incidence. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the image light passed through the light transmitting member from becoming ghost light while mitigating the demand for increasing processing accuracy of the light transmitting member, and bonding accuracy between the light guiding member and the light transmitting member, and thereby it is possible to make a virtual image displayed by a virtual image display device have a high quality.

Abstract: A half mirror layer has an angle dependency in which when an angle of incidence becomes larger than the angle of incidence range of image light, reflectance increases, such that it is possible to prevent unintended light, which is emitted to a light transmitting member from a light guiding member and is reflected inside a light transmitting member, from being returned to a light emission portion of the light guiding member after passing through the half mirror layer as a reflective film at a relatively large angle of incidence. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the image light passed through the light transmitting member from becoming ghost light while mitigating the demand for increasing processing accuracy of the light transmitting member, and bonding accuracy between the light guiding member and the light transmitting member.

Abstract: In regard to a second direction (combination direction) that is turned back by a reflection at the time of light-guiding, a projective optical system has an emission opening width larger than an opening width of a third reflective surface, such that it is possible to prevent a partial deficiency of image light when the image light emitted from the projective optical system is incident to the third reflective surface from occurring, and thereby it is possible to prevent the occurrence of deficiency of an image or a large variation in brightness.

Abstract: Image light reflected by a third reflective surface of a light incidence portion is propagated while being totally reflected by first and second reflective surfaces of a light guiding portion, is reflected by a fourth reflective surface of a light emission portion, and is incident to observer's eye as a virtual image. At this time, the number of times of reflection of first image light, which is emitted from a first partial region of an image display device, in the light guiding portion, and the number of times of reflection of second image light, which is emitted from a second partial region of the image display device in the light guiding portion are different from each other, such that it is possible to take in the image light beams from the different partial regions of the image display device with a relatively wide angle of view.

Abstract: Image lights formed by a light emitting device and a virtual-image forming member and external light transmitted through a visibility adjusting member and the virtual-image forming member can be observed in parallel in a see-through manner. In the observation of the external light, the visibility adjusting member enables visibility adjustment corresponding to the eyesight of a wearer. Therefore, the wearer can observe the external light without wearing a device for visibility adjustment such as glasses. Therefore, it is possible to suppress an increase in the size of a virtual image display device.

Abstract: A wearer of a virtual image display apparatus can adjust the position of the virtual image display apparatus relative to the position of each of the wearer's eyes by using a registration mechanism while checking a marker member that is a positioning member, whereby an optimum adjusted position is readily achieved. Further, registration according to person-to-person differences in the position of each of the eyes can be readily achieved, whereby it is not necessary to increase the light flux width of image light in advance or provide the image light with a margin so that the wearer can recognize an image even when the position of the eye deviates from a normal position to some extent, and the size of the apparatus will not increase.