INDUCING PHASE DELAYS TO VARY AN AGGREGATE WAVEFRONT FOR AUGMENTED OR VIRTUAL REALITY
Configurations are disclosed for presenting virtual reality and augmented reality experiences to users. The system may comprise an image-generating source to provide one or more frames of image data in a time-sequential manner, a light modulator configured to transmit light associated with the one or more frames of image data, a substrate to direct image information to a user's eye, wherein the substrate houses a plurality of reflectors, a first reflector of the plurality of reflectors to reflect transmitted light associated with a first frame of image data at a first angle to the user's eye, and a second reflector to reflect transmitted light associated with a second frame of the image data at a second angle to the user's eye.
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This application is a continuation of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/555,585, filed Nov. 27, 2014, entitled “VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY SYSTEMS AND METHODS, which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/909,774, filed Nov. 27, 2013, entitled “VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY SYSTEMS AND METHODS”. The contents of the aforementioned applications are hereby expressly incorporated by reference into the present application their entireties.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present disclosure relates to virtual reality and augmented reality imaging and visualization systems.
BACKGROUNDModern computing and display technologies have facilitated the development of systems for so called “virtual reality” or “augmented reality” experiences, wherein digitally reproduced images or portions thereof are presented to a user in a manner wherein they seem to be, or may be perceived as, real. A virtual reality, or “VR”, scenario typically involves presentation of digital or virtual image information without transparency to other actual real-world visual input; an augmented reality, or “AR”, scenario typically involves presentation of digital or virtual image information as an augmentation to visualization of the actual world around the user. For example, referring to
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As noted above, the fovea of the retina contains the greatest density of photoreceptors, and while humans typically have the perception that they have high-resolution visualization capabilities throughout their field of view, they generally actually have only a small high-resolution center that they are mechanically sweeping around a lot, along with a persistent memory of the high-resolution information recently captured with the fovea. In a somewhat similar manner, the focal distance control mechanism of the eye (ciliary muscles operatively coupled to the crystalline lens in a manner wherein ciliary relaxation causes taut ciliary connective fibers to flatten out the lens for more distant focal lengths; ciliary contraction causes loose ciliary connective fibers, which allow the lens to assume a more rounded geometry for more close-in focal lengths) dithers back and forth by approximately ¼ to ½ diopter to cyclically induce a small amount of what is called “dioptric blur” on both the close side and far side of the targeted focal length; this is utilized by the accommodation control circuits of the brain as cyclical negative feedback that helps to constantly correct course and keep the retinal image of a fixated object approximately in focus.
The visualization center of the brain also gains valuable perception information from the motion of both eyes and components thereof relative to each other. Vergence movements (i.e., rolling movements of the pupils toward or away from each other to converge the lines of sight of the eyes to fixate upon an object) of the two eyes relative to each other are closely associated with focusing (or “accommodation”) of the lenses of the eyes. Under normal conditions, changing the focus of the lenses of the eyes, or accommodating the eyes, to focus upon an object at a different distance will automatically cause a matching change in vergence to the same distance, under a relationship known as the “accommodation-vergence reflex.” Likewise, a change in vergence will trigger a matching change in accommodation, under normal conditions. Working against this reflex, as do most conventional stereoscopic AR or VR configurations, is known to produce eye fatigue, headaches, or other forms of discomfort in users.
Movement of the head, which houses the eyes, also has a key impact upon visualization of objects. Humans move their heads to visualize the world around them; they often are in a fairly constant state of repositioning and reorienting the head relative to an object of interest. Further, most people prefer to move their heads when their eye gaze needs to move more than about 20 degrees off center to focus on a particular object (i.e., people do not typically like to look at things “from the corner of the eye”). Humans also typically scan or move their heads in relation to sounds—to improve audio signal capture and utilize the geometry of the ears relative to the head. The human visual system gains powerful depth cues from what is called “head motion parallax”, which is related to the relative motion of objects at different distances as a function of head motion and eye vergence distance (i.e., if a person moves his head from side to side and maintains fixation on an object, items farther out from that object will move in the same direction as the head; items in front of that object will move opposite the head motion; these are very salient cues for where things are spatially in the environment relative to the person—perhaps as powerful as stereopsis). Head motion also is utilized to look around objects, of course.
Further, head and eye motion are coordinated with something called the “vestibulo-ocular reflex”, which stabilizes image information relative to the retina during head rotations, thus keeping the object image information approximately centered on the retina. In response to a head rotation, the eyes are reflexively and proportionately rotated in the opposite direction to maintain stable fixation on an object. As a result of this compensatory relationship, many humans can read a book while shaking their head back and forth (interestingly, if the book is panned back and forth at the same speed with the head approximately stationary, the same generally is not true—the person is not likely to be able to read the moving book; the vestibulo-ocular reflex is one of head and eye motion coordination, generally not developed for hand motion). This paradigm may be important for augmented reality systems, because head motions of the user may be associated relatively directly with eye motions, and the system preferably will be ready to work with this relationship.
Indeed, given these various relationships, when placing digital content (e.g., 3-D content such as a virtual chandelier object presented to augment a real-world view of a room; or 2-D content such as a planar/flat virtual oil painting object presented to augment a real-world view of a room), design choices may be made to control behavior of the objects. For example, the 2-D oil painting object may be head-centric, in which case the object moves around along with the user's head (e.g., as in a GoogleGlass approach); or the object may be world-centric, in which case it may be presented as though it is part of the real world coordinate system, so that the user may move his head or eyes without moving the position of the object relative to the real world.
Thus when placing virtual content into the augmented reality world presented with an augmented reality system, whether the object should be presented as world centric (i.e., the virtual object stays in position in the real world so that the user may move his body, head, eyes around it without changing its position relative to the real world objects surrounding it, such as a real world wall); body, or torso, centric, in which case a virtual element may be fixed relative to the user's torso, so that the user can move his head or eyes without moving the object, but that is slaved to torso movements; head centric, in which case the displayed object (and/or display itself) may be moved along with head movements, as described above in reference to GoogleGlass; or eye centric, as in a “foveated display” configuration, as is described below, wherein content is slewed around as a function of what the eye position is.
With world-centric configurations, it may be desirable to have inputs such as accurate head pose measurement, accurate representation and/or measurement of real world objects and geometries around the user, low-latency dynamic rendering in the augmented reality display as a function of head pose, and a generally low-latency display.
The systems and techniques described herein are configured to work with the visual configuration of the typical human to address these challenges.
SUMMARYEmbodiments of the present invention are directed to devices, systems and methods for facilitating virtual reality and/or augmented reality interaction for one or more users. In one aspect, a system for displaying virtual content is disclosed.
In one or more embodiment, the system comprises an image-generating source to provide one or more frames of image data in a time-sequential manner, a light modulator configured to transmit light associated with the one or more frames of image data, a substrate to direct image information to a user's eye, wherein the substrate houses a plurality of reflectors, a first reflector of the plurality of reflectors to reflect light associated with a first frame of image data at a first angle to the user's eye, and a second reflector of the plurality of reflectors to reflect light associated with a second frame of image data at a second angle to the user's eye.
In another embodiment, a system for displaying virtual content comprises an image-generating source to provide one or more frames of image data in a time-sequential manner, a display assembly to project light rays associated with the one or more frames of image data, the display assembly comprises a first display element corresponding to a first frame-rate and a first bit depth, and a second display element corresponding to a second frame-rate and a second bit depth, and a variable focus element (VFE) configurable to vary a focus of the projected light and transmit the light to the user's eye.
In yet another embodiment, a system for displaying virtual content comprises an array of optical fibers to transmit light beams associated with an image to be presented to a user, and a lens coupled to the array of the optical fibers to deflect a plurality of light beams output by the array of optical fibers through a single nodal point, wherein the lens is physically attached to the optical fibers such that a movement of the optical fiber causes the lens to move, and wherein the single nodal point is scanned.
In another embodiment, a virtual reality display system comprises a plurality of optical fibers to generate light beams associated with one or more images to be presented to a user, and a plurality of phase modulators coupled to the plurality of optical fibers to modulate the light beams, wherein the plurality of phase modulators modulate the light in a manner that affects a wavefront generated as a result of the plurality of light beams.
In one embodiment, a system for displaying virtual content to a user comprises a light projection system to project light associated with one or more frames of image data to a user's eyes, the light project system configured to project light corresponding to a plurality of pixels associated with the image data and a processor to modulate a size of the plurality of pixels displayed to the user.
In one embodiment, a system of displaying virtual content to a user, comprises an image-generating source to provide one or more frames of image data, a multicore assembly comprising a plurality of multicore fibers to project light associated with the one or more frames of image data, a multicore fiber of the plurality of multicore fibers emitting light in a wavefront, such that the multicore assembly produces an aggregate wavefront of the projected light, and a phase modulator to induce phase delays between the multicore fibers in a manner such that the aggregate wavefront emitted by the multicore assembly is varied, thereby varying a focal distance at which the user perceives the one or more frames of image data.
In another embodiment, a system for displaying virtual content to a user comprises an array of microprojectors to project light beams associated with one or more frames of image data to be presented to the user, wherein the microprojector is configurable to be movable relative to one or more microprojectors of the array of the microprojectors, a frame to house the array of microprojectors, a processor operatively coupled to the one or more microprojectors of the array of microprojectors to control one or more light beams transmitted from the one or more projectors in a manner such that the one or more light beams are modulated as a function of a position of the one or more microprojectors relative to the array of microprojectors, thereby enabling delivery of a lightfield image to the user.
Additional and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are described in the detail description, figures and claims.
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The local processing and data module (70) may comprise a power-efficient processor or controller, as well as digital memory, such as flash memory, both of which may be utilized to assist in the processing, caching, and storage of data a) captured from sensors which may be operatively coupled to the frame (64), such as image capture devices (such as cameras), microphones, inertial measurement units, accelerometers, compasses, GPS units, radio devices, and/or gyros; and/or b) acquired and/or processed using the remote processing module (72) and/or remote data repository (74), possibly for passage to the display (62) after such processing or retrieval. The local processing and data module (70) may be operatively coupled (76, 78), such as via a wired or wireless communication links, to the remote processing module (72) and remote data repository (74) such that these remote modules (72, 74) are operatively coupled to each other and available as resources to the local processing and data module (70).
In one embodiment, the remote processing module (72) may comprise one or more relatively powerful processors or controllers configured to analyze and process data and/or image information. In one embodiment, the remote data repository (74) may comprise a relatively large-scale digital data storage facility, which may be available through the internet or other networking configuration in a “cloud” resource configuration. In one embodiment, all data is stored and all computation is performed in the local processing and data module, allowing fully autonomous use from any remote modules.
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In one embodiment, the light carrying the image information (106) may strike the reflective surface (110) directly after entering substrate (108) at input interface (112), without first reflecting from the surfaces of substrate (108). In one embodiment, the light carrying the image information (106) may reflect from one or more surfaces of substrate (108) after entering at input interface (112) and before striking the reflective surface (110); for instance, substrate (108) may act as a planar waveguide, propagating the light carrying image information (106) by total internal reflection. Light may also reflect from one or more surfaces of the substrate (108) from a partially reflective coating, a wavelength-selective coating, an angle-selective coating, and/or a polarization-selective coating.
In one embodiment, the angled reflectors may be constructed using an electro-active material, such that upon application of a voltage and/or current to a particular reflector, the refractive index of the material comprising such reflector changes from an index substantially matched to the rest of the substrate (108), in which case the reflector is in a transmissive configuration, to a reflective configuration wherein the refractive index of the reflector mismatches the refractive index of the substrate (108) such that a reflection effect is created. Example electro-active material includes lithium niobate and electro-active polymers. Suitable substantially transparent electrodes for controlling a plurality of such reflectors may comprise materials such as indium tin oxide, which is utilized in liquid crystal displays.
In one embodiment, the electro-active reflectors (110) may comprise liquid crystal, embedded in a substrate (108) host medium such as glass or plastic. In some variations, liquid crystal may be selected that changes refractive index as a function of an applied electric signal, so that more analog changes may be accomplished as opposed to binary (from one transmissive state to one reflective state). In an embodiment wherein 6 sub-images are to be presented to the eye frame-sequential to form a large tiled image with an overall refresh rate of 60 frames per second, it is desirable to have an input display that can refresh at the rate of about 360 Hz, with an electro-active reflector array that can keep up with such frequency. In one embodiment, lithium niobate may be utilized as an electro-active reflective material as opposed to liquid crystal; lithium niobate is utilized in the photonics industry for high-speed switches and fiber optic networks and has the capability to switch refractive index in response to an applied voltage at a very high frequency; this high frequency may be used to steer line-sequential or pixel-sequential sub-image information, especially if the input display is a scanned light display, such as a fiber-scanned display or scanning mirror-based display.
In another embodiment, a variable switchable angled mirror configuration may comprise one or more high-speed mechanically repositionable reflective surfaces, such as a MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) device. A MEMS device may include what is known as a “digital mirror device”, or “DMD”, (often part of a “digital light processing”, or “DLP” system, such as those available from Texas Instruments, Inc.). In another electromechanical embodiment, a plurality of air-gapped (or in vacuum) reflective surfaces could be mechanically moved in and out of place at high frequency. In another electromechanical embodiment, a single reflective surface may be moved up and down and re-pitched at very high frequency.
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For virtual reality configurations wherein it is desirable to also be able to see through the waveguide to the real world (144), a similar set of lenses (139) may be presented on the opposite side of the waveguide (124) to compensate for the lower set of lenses; thus creating a the equivalent of a zero-magnification telescope. The reflective surfaces (126, 128, 130, 132, 134, 136) each may be aligned at approximately 45 degrees as shown, or may be configured to have different alignments, akin to the configurations of
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To compensate for the variable focus lens element (166) between the eye (58) and the waveguide (164), another similar variable focus lens element (167) is placed on the opposite side of the waveguide (164) to cancel out the optical effects of the lenses (166) for light coming from the world (144) for augmented reality (i.e., as described above, one lens compensates for the other, producing the functional equivalent of a zero-magnification telescope).
The variable focus lens element (166) may be a refractive element, such as a liquid crystal lens, an electro-active lens, a conventional refractive lens with moving elements, a mechanical-deformation-based lens (such as a fluid-filled membrane lens, or a lens akin to the human crystalline lens wherein a flexible element is flexed and relaxed by actuators), an electrowetting lens, or a plurality of fluids with different refractive indices. The variable focus lens element (166) may also comprise a switchable diffractive optical element (such as one featuring a polymer dispersed liquid crystal approach wherein a host medium, such as a polymeric material, has microdroplets of liquid crystal dispersed within the material; when a voltage is applied, the molecules reorient so that their refractive indices no longer match that of the host medium, thereby creating a high-frequency switchable diffraction pattern).
One embodiment includes a host medium in which microdroplets of a Kerr effect-based electro-active material, such as lithium niobate, is dispersed within the host medium, enabling refocusing of image information on a pixel-by-pixel or line-by-line basis, when coupled with a scanning light display, such as a fiber-scanned display or scanning-mirror-based display. In a variable focus lens element (166) configuration wherein liquid crystal, lithium niobate, or other technology is utilized to present a pattern, the pattern spacing may be modulated to not only change the focal power of the variable focus lens element (166), but also to change the focal power of the overall optical system—for a zoom lens type of functionality.
In one embodiment, the lenses (166) could be telecentric, in that focus of the display imagery can be altered while keeping magnification constant—in the same way that a photography zoom lens may be configured to decouple focus from zoom position. In another embodiment, the lenses (166) may be non-telecentric, so that focus changes will also slave zoom changes. With such a configuration, such magnification changes may be compensated for in software with dynamic scaling of the output from the graphics system in sync with focus changes).
Referring back to the projector or other video display unit (160) and the issue of how to feed images into the optical display system, in a “frame sequential” configuration, a stack of sequential two-dimensional images may be fed to the display sequentially to produce three-dimensional perception over time; in a manner akin to the manner in which a computed tomography system uses stacked image slices to represent a three-dimensional structure. A series of two-dimensional image slices may be presented to the eye, each at a different focal distance to the eye, and the eye/brain would integrate such a stack into a perception of a coherent three-dimensional volume. Depending upon the display type, line-by-line, or even pixel-by-pixel sequencing may be conducted to produce the perception of three-dimensional viewing. For example, with a scanned light display (such as a scanning fiber display or scanning mirror display), then the display is presenting the waveguide (164) with one line or one pixel at a time in a sequential fashion.
If the variable focus lens element (166) is able to keep up with the high-frequency of pixel-by-pixel or line-by-line presentation, then each line or pixel may be presented and dynamically focused through the variable focus lens element (166) to be perceived at a different focal distance from the eye (58). Pixel-by-pixel focus modulation generally requires an extremely fast/high-frequency variable focus lens element (166). For example, a 1080P resolution display with an overall frame rate of 60 frames per second typically presents around 125 million pixels per second. Such a configuration also may be constructed using a solid state switchable lens, such as one using an electro-active material, e.g., lithium niobate or an electro-active polymer. In addition to its compatibility with the system illustrated in
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The waveguide (182) nearest the eye is configured to deliver collimated light, as injected into such waveguide (182), to the eye, which may be representative of the optical infinity focal plane. The next waveguide up (184) is configured to send out collimated light which passes through the first weak lens (192; e.g., a weak negative lens) before it can reach the eye (58); such first weak lens (192) may be configured to create a slight convex wavefront curvature so that the eye/brain interprets light coming from that next waveguide up (184) as coming from a first focal plane closer inward toward the person from optical infinity. Similarly, the third up waveguide (186) passes its output light through both the first (192) and second (194) lenses before reaching the eye (58); the combined optical power of the first (192) and second (194) lenses may be configured to create another incremental amount of wavefront divergence so that the eye/brain interprets light coming from that third waveguide up (186) as coming from a second focal plane even closer inward toward the person from optical infinity than was light from the next waveguide up (184).
The other waveguide layers (188, 190) and weak lenses (196, 198) are similarly configured, with the highest waveguide (190) in the stack sending its output through all of the weak lenses between it and the eye for an aggregate focal power representative of the closest focal plane to the person. To compensate for the stack of lenses (198, 196, 194, 192) when viewing/interpreting light coming from the world (144) on the other side of the stacked waveguide assembly (178), a compensating lens layer (180) is disposed at the top of the stack to compensate for the aggregate power of the lens stack (198, 196, 194, 192) below. Such a configuration provides as many perceived focal planes as there are available waveguide/lens pairings, again with a relatively large exit pupil configuration as described above. Both the reflective aspects of the waveguides and the focusing aspects of the lenses may be static (i.e., not dynamic or electro-active). In an alternative embodiment they may be dynamic using electro-active features as described above, enabling a small number of waveguides to be multiplexed in a time sequential fashion to produce a larger number of effective focal planes.
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Preferably, the DOE (220) has a relatively low diffraction efficiency so that only a portion of the light of the beam is deflected away toward the eye (58) with each intersection of the DOE (220) while the rest continues to move through the planar waveguide (216) via total internal reflection; the light carrying the image information is thus divided into a number of related light beams that exit the waveguide at a multiplicity of locations and the result is a fairly uniform pattern of exit emission toward the eye (58) for this particular collimated beam bouncing around within the planar waveguide (216), as shown in
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The DOEs (220, 221) are depicted bisecting the associated waveguides (216, 218) but this need not be the case; they could be placed closer to, or upon, either side of either of the waveguides (216, 218) to have the same functionality. Thus, as shown in
In one embodiment, one or more DOEs are switchable between “on” states in which they actively diffract, and “off” states in which they do not significantly diffract. For instance, a switchable DOE may comprise a layer of polymer dispersed liquid crystal, in which microdroplets comprise a diffraction pattern in a host medium, and the refractive index of the microdroplets can be switched to substantially match the refractive index of the host material (in which case the pattern does not appreciably diffract incident light) or the microdroplet can be switched to an index that does not match that of the host medium (in which case the pattern actively diffracts incident light). Further, with dynamic changes to the diffraction terms, such as the linear diffraction pitch term as in
Configurations such as those illustrated in
The opposite extreme may be a configuration wherein DOE elements can shift focus at tens to hundreds of MHz or greater, which facilitates switching of the focus state of the DOE elements on a pixel-by-pixel basis as the pixels are scanned into the eye (58) using a scanned light display type of approach. This is desirable because it means that the overall display frame-rate can be kept quite low; just low enough to make sure that “flicker” is not a problem (in the range of about 60-120 frames/sec).
In between these ranges, if the DOEs can be switched at KHz rates, then on a line-by-line basis the focus on each scan line may be adjusted, which may afford the user with a visible benefit in terms of temporal artifacts during an eye motion relative to the display, for example. For instance, the different focal planes in a scene may, in this manner, be interleaved, to minimize visible artifacts in response to a head motion (as is discussed in greater detail later in this disclosure). A line-by-line focus modulator may be operatively coupled to a line scan display, such as a grating light valve display, in which a linear array of pixels is swept to form an image; and may be operatively coupled to scanned light displays, such as fiber-scanned displays and mirror-scanned light displays.
A stacked configuration, similar to those of
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In one implementation, a high-frame-rate and lower persistence display may be combined with a lower-frame-rate and higher persistence display and a variable focus element to comprise a relatively high-frequency frame sequential volumetric display. In one embodiment, the high-frame-rate display has a lower bit depth and the lower-frame-rate display has a higher bit depth, and are combined to comprise an effective high-frame-rate and high bit depth display, that is well suited to presenting image slices in a frame sequential fashion. With such an approach, a three-dimensional volume that is desirably represented is functionally divided into a series of two-dimensional slices. Each of those two-dimensional slices is projected to the eye frame sequentially, and in sync with this presentation, the focus of a variable focus element is changed.
In one embodiment, to get enough frame rate to support such a configuration, two display elements may be integrated: a full-color, high-resolution liquid crystal display (“LCD”; a backlighted ferroelectric panel display also may be utilized in another embodiment; in a further embodiment a scanning fiber display may be utilized) operating at 60 frames per second, and aspects of a higher-frequency DLP system. Instead of illuminating the back of the LCD panel in a conventional manner (i.e., with a full size fluorescent lamp or LED array), the conventional lighting configuration may be removed to accommodate using the DLP projector to project a mask pattern on the back of the LCD (in one embodiment, the mask pattern may be binary in that the DLP either projects illumination, or not-illumination; in another embodiment described below, the DLP may be utilized to project a grayscale mask image).
DLP projection systems can operate at very high frame rates; in one embodiment for 6 depth planes at 60 frames per second, a DLP projection system can be operated against the back of the LCD display at 360 frames/second. Then the DLP projector is utilized to selectively illuminate portions of the LCD panel in sync with a high-frequency variable focus element (such as a deformable membrane mirror) that is disposed between the viewing side of the LCD panel and the eye of the user, the variable focus element being used to change the global display focus on a frame by frame basis at 360 frames/second. In one embodiment, the variable focus element is positioned to be optically conjugate to the exit pupil, to enable adjustments of focus without simultaneously affecting image magnification or “zoom.” In another embodiment, the variable focus element is not conjugate to the exit pupil, such that image magnification changes accompany focus adjustments, and software is used to compensate for these optical magnification changes and any distortions by pre-scaling or warping the images to be presented.
Operationally, it's useful to consider an example again wherein a three-dimensional scene is to be presented to a user wherein the sky in the background is to be at a viewing distance of optical infinity, and wherein a branch coupled to a tree located at a certain location closer to the user than optical infinity extends from the tree trunk in a direction toward the user, so that the tip of the branch is closer to the user than is the proximal portion of the branch that joins the tree trunk.
In one embodiment, for a given global frame, the system may be configured to present on an LCD a full-color, all in-focus image of the tree branch in front the sky. Then at subframe1, within the global frame, the DLP projector in a binary masking configuration (i.e., illumination or absence of illumination) may be used to only illuminate the portion of the LCD that represents the cloudy sky while functionally black-masking (i.e., failing to illuminate) the portion of the LCD that represents the tree branch and other elements that are not to be perceived at the same focal distance as the sky, and the variable focus element (such as a deformable membrane mirror) may be utilized to position the focal plane at optical infinity so that the eye sees a sub-image at subframe1 as being clouds that are infinitely far away.
Then at subframe2, the variable focus element may be switched to focusing on a point about 1 meter away from the user's eyes (or whatever distance is required; here 1 meter for the branch location is used for illustrative purposes), the pattern of illumination from the DLP can be switched so that the system only illuminates the portion of the LCD that represents the tree branch while functionally black-masking (i.e., failing to illuminate) the portion of the LCD that represents the sky and other elements that are not to be perceived at the same focal distance as the tree branch. Thus the eye gets a quick flash of cloud at optical infinity followed by a quick flash of tree at 1 meter, and the sequence is integrated by the eye/brain to form a three-dimensional perception. The branch may be positioned diagonally relative to the viewer, such that it extends through a range of viewing distances, e.g., it may join with the trunk at around 2 meters viewing distance while the tips of the branch are at the closer position of 1 meter.
In this case, the display system can divide the 3-D volume of the tree branch into multiple slices, rather than a single slice at 1 meter. For instance, one focus slice may be used to represent the sky (using the DLP to mask all areas of the tree during presentation of this slice), while the tree branch is divided across 5 focus slices (using the DLP to mask the sky and all portions of the tree except one, for each part of the tree branch to be presented). Preferably, the depth slices are positioned with a spacing equal to or smaller than the depth of focus of the eye, such that the viewer will be unlikely to notice the transition between slices, and instead perceive a smooth and continuous flow of the branch through the focus range.
In another embodiment, rather than utilizing the DLP in a binary (illumination or darkfield only) mode, it may be utilized to project a grayscale (for example, 256 shades of grayscale) mask onto the back of the LCD panel to enhance three-dimensional perception. The grayscale shades may be utilized to impart to the eye/brain a perception that something resides in between adjacent depth or focal planes. Back to the branch and clouds scenario, if the leading edge of the branch closest to the user is to be in focalplane1, then at subframe1, that portion branch on the LCD may be lit up with full intensity white from the DLP system with the variable focus element at focalplane1.
Then at subframe2, with the variable focus element at focalplane2 right behind the part that was lit up, there would be no illumination. These are similar steps to the binary DLP masking configuration above. However, if there is a portion of the branch that is to be perceived at a position between focalplane1 and focalplane1, e.g., halfway, grayscale masking can be utilized. The DLP can project an illumination mask to that portion during both subframe1 and subframe2, but at half-illumination (such as at level 128 out of 256 grayscale) for each subframe. This provides the perception of a blending of depth of focus layers, with the perceived focal distance being proportional to the illuminance ratio between subframe1 and subframe2. For instance, for a portion of the tree branch that should lie ¾ths of the way between focalplane1 and focalplane2, an about 25% intensity grayscale mask can be used to illuminate that portion of the LCD at subframe1 and an about 75% grayscale mask can be used to illuminate the same portion of the LCD at subframe2.
In one embodiment, the bit depths of both the low-frame-rate display and the high-frame-rate display can be combined for image modulation, to create a high dynamic range display. The high dynamic range driving may be conducted in tandem with the focus plane addressing function described above, to comprise a high dynamic range multi-focal 3-D display.
In another embodiment that may be more efficient on computation resources, only a certain portion of the display (i.e., LCD) output may be mask-illuminated by the DMD and variably focused en route to the user's eye. For example, the middle portion of the display may be mask illuminated, with the periphery of the display not providing varying accommodation cues to the user (i.e. the periphery could be uniformly illuminated by the DLP DMD, while a central portion is actively masked and variably focused en route to the eye).
In the above described embodiment, a refresh rate of about 360 Hz allows for 6 depth planes at about 60 frames/second each. In another embodiment, even higher refresh rates may be achieved by increasing the operating frequency of the DLP. A standard DLP configuration uses a MEMS device and an array of micro-mirrors that toggle between a mode of reflecting light toward the display or user to a mode of reflecting light away from the display or user, such as into a light trap—thus they are inherently binary. DLPs typically create grayscale images using a pulse width modulation schema wherein the mirror is left in the “on” state for a variable amount of time for a variable duty cycle in order to create a brighter pixel, or pixel of interim brightness. Thus, to create grayscale images at moderate frame rate, they are running at a much higher binary rate.
In the above described configurations, such setup works well for creating grayscale masking. However, if the DLP drive scheme is adapted so that it is flashing subimages in a binary pattern, then the frame rate may be increased significantly—by thousands of frames per second, which allows for hundreds to thousands of depth planes being refreshed at 60 frames/second, which may be utilized to obviate the between-depth-plane grayscale interpolating as described above. A typical pulse width modulation scheme for a Texas Instruments DLP system has an 8-bit command signal (first bit is the first long pulse of the mirror; second bit is a pulse that is half as long as the first; third bit is half as long again; and so on)—so that the configuration can create 2 to the 8th power different illumination levels. In one embodiment, the backlighting from the DLP may have its intensity varied in sync with the different pulses of the DMD to equalize the brightness of the subimages that are created, which is a practical workaround to get existing DMD drive electronics to produce significantly higher frame rates.
In another embodiment, direct control changes to the DMD drive electronics and software may be utilized to have the mirrors always have an equal on-time instead of the variable on-time configuration that is conventional, which would facilitate higher frame rates. In another embodiment, the DMD drive electronics may be configured to present low bit depth images at a frame rate above that of high bit depth images but lower than the binary frame rate, enabling some grayscale blending between focus planes, while moderately increasing the number of focus planes.
In another embodiment, when limited to a finite number of depth planes, such as 6 in the example above, it is desirable to functionally move these 6 depth planes around to be maximally useful in the scene that is being presented to the user. For example, if a user is standing in a room and a virtual monster is to be placed into his augmented reality view, the virtual monster being about 2 feet deep in the Z axis straight away from the user's eyes, then it makes sense to cluster all 6 depth planes around the center of the monster's current location (and dynamically move them with him as he moves relative to the user)—so that more rich accommodation cues may be provided for the user, with all six depth planes in the direct region of the monster (for example, 3 in front of the center of the monster, 3 in back of the center of the monster). Such allocation of depth planes is content dependent.
For example, in the scene above the same monster is to be presented in the same room, but also to be presented to the user is a virtual window frame element, and then a virtual view to optical infinity out of the virtual window frame, it will be useful to spend at least one depth plane on optical infinity, one on the depth of the wall that is to house the virtual window frame, and then perhaps the remaining four depth planes on the monster in the room. If the content causes the virtual window to disappear, then the two depth planes may be dynamically reallocated to the region around the monster, and so on—content-based dynamic allocation of focal plane resources to provide the most rich experience to the user given the computing and presentation resources.
In another embodiment, phase delays in a multicore fiber or an array of single-core fibers may be utilized to create variable focus light wavefronts. Referring to
In another embodiment related to the use of optical fibers, a known Fourier transform aspect of multi-mode optical fiber or light guiding rods or pipes may be utilized for control of the wavefronts that are output from such fiber. Optical fibers typically are available in two categories: single mode and multi-mode. Multi-mode optical fiber typically has larger core diameters and allows light to propagate along multiple angular paths, rather than just the one of single mode optical fiber. It is known that if an image is injected into one end of a multi-mode fiber, that angular differences that are encoded into that image will be retained to some degree as it propagates through the multi-mode fiber, and for some configurations the output from the fiber will be significantly similar to a Fourier transform of the image that was input.
Thus in one embodiment, the inverse Fourier transform of a wavefront (such as a diverging spherical wavefront to represent a focal plane nearer to the user than optical infinity) may be input so that, after passing through the fiber that optically imparts a Fourier transform, the output is the desired shaped, or focused, wavefront. Such output end may be scanned about to be used as a scanned fiber display, or may be used as a light source for a scanning mirror to form an image, for instance. Thus such a configuration may be utilized as yet another focus modulation subsystem. Other kinds of light patterns and wavefronts may be injected into a multi-mode fiber, such that on the output end, a certain spatial pattern is emitted. This may be utilized to have the equivalent of a wavelet pattern (in optics, an optical system may be analyzed in terms of what are called the Zernicke coefficients; images may be similarly characterized and decomposed into smaller principal components, or a weighted combination of comparatively simpler image components). Thus if light is scanned into the eye using the principal components on the input side, a higher resolution image may be recovered at the output end of the multi-mode fiber.
In another embodiment, the Fourier transform of a hologram may be injected into the input end of a multi-mode fiber to output a wavefront that may be used for three-dimensional focus modulation and/or resolution enhancement. Certain single fiber core, multi-core fibers, or concentric core+cladding configurations also may be utilized in the aforementioned inverse Fourier transform configurations.
In another embodiment, rather than physically manipulating the wavefronts approaching the eye of the user at a high frame rate without regard to the user's particular state of accommodation or eye gaze, a system may be configured to monitor the user's accommodation and rather than presenting a set of multiple different light wavefronts, present a single wavefront at a time that corresponds to the accommodation state of the eye. Accommodation may be measured directly (such as by infrared autorefractor or eccentric photorefraction) or indirectly (such as by measuring the convergence level of the two eyes of the user; as described above, vergence and accommodation are strongly linked neurologically, so an estimate of accommodation can be made based upon vergence geometry). Thus with a determined accommodation of, say, 1 meter from the user, then the wavefront presentations at the eye may be configured for a 1 meter focal distance using any of the above variable focus configurations. If an accommodation change to focus at 2 meters is detected, the wavefront presentation at the eye may be reconfigured for a 2 meter focal distance, and so on.
Thus in one embodiment incorporating accommodation tracking, a variable focus element may be placed in the optical path between an outputting combiner (e.g., a waveguide or beamsplitter) and the eye of the user, so that the focus may be changed along with (i.e., preferably at the same rate as) accommodation changes of the eye. Software effects may be utilized to produce variable amounts blur (e.g., Gaussian) to objects which should not be in focus to simulate the dioptric blur expected at the retina if an object were at that viewing distance and enhance the three-dimensional perception by the eyes/brain.
A simple embodiment is a single plane whose focus level is slaved to the viewer's accommodation level, however the performance demands on the accommodation tracking system can be relaxed if even a low number of multiple planes are used. Referring to
A variable focus compensating lens (314) is also shown to ensure that light coming in from the real world (144) in an augmented reality configuration is not refocused or magnified by the assembly of the stack (328) and output lens (316). The variable focus in the lenses (316, 314) may be achieved, as discussed above, with refractive, diffractive, or reflective techniques.
In another embodiment, each of the waveguides in a stack may contain their own capability for changing focus (such as by having an included electronically switchable DOE) so that the variable focus element need not be centralized as in the stack (328) of the configuration of
In another embodiment, variable focus elements may be interleaved between the waveguides of a stack (i.e., rather than fixed focus weak lenses as in the embodiment of
Such stacking configurations may be used in accommodation tracked variations as described herein, and also in a frame-sequential multi-focal display approach.
In a configuration wherein light enters the pupil with a small exit pupil, such as ½ mm diameter or less, one has the equivalent of a pinhole lens configuration wherein the beam is always interpreted as in-focus by the eyes/brain—e.g., a scanned light display using a 0.5 mm diameter beam to scan images to the eye. Such a configuration is known as a Maxwellian view configuration, and in one embodiment, accommodation tracking input may be utilized to induce blur using software to image information that is to be perceived as at a focal plane behind or in front of the focal plane determined from the accommodation tracking. In other words, if one starts with a display presenting a Maxwellian view, then everything theoretically can be in focus, and to provide a rich and natural three-dimensional perception, simulated dioptric blur may be induced with software, and may be slaved to the accommodation tracking status.
In one embodiment a scanning fiber display is well suited to such configuration because it may be configured to only output small-diameter beams in a Maxwellian form. In another embodiment, an array of small exit pupils may be created to increase the functional eye box of the system (and also to reduce the impact of a light-blocking particle which may reside in the vitreous or cornea of the eye), such as by one or more scanning fiber displays, or by a DOE configuration such as that described in reference to
As discussed above, an object at optical infinity creates a substantially planar wavefront; an object closer, such as 1 m away from the eye, creates a curved wavefront (with about 1 m convex radius of curvature). The eye's optical system needs to have enough optical power to bend the incoming rays of light so that they end up focused on the retina (convex wavefront gets turned into concave, and then down to a focal point on the retina). These are basic functions of the eye.
In many of the embodiments described above, light directed to the eye has been treated as being part of one continuous wavefront, some subset of which would hit the pupil of the particular eye. In another approach, light directed to the eye may be effectively discretized or broken down into a plurality of beamlets or individual rays, each of which has a diameter less than about 0.5 mm and a unique propagation pathway as part of a greater aggregated wavefront that may be functionally created with the an aggregation of the beamlets or rays. For example, a curved wavefront may be approximated by aggregating a plurality of discrete neighboring collimated beams, each of which is approaching the eye from an appropriate angle to represent a point of origin that matches the center of the radius of curvature of the desired aggregate wavefront.
When the beamlets have a diameter of about 0.5 mm or less, it is as though it is coming through a pinhole lens configuration, which means that each individual beamlet is always in relative focus on the retina, independent of the accommodation state of the eye—however the trajectory of each beamlet will be affected by the accommodation state. For instance, if the beamlets approach the eye in parallel, representing a discretized collimated aggregate wavefront, then an eye that is correctly accommodated to infinity will deflect the beamlets to all converge upon the same shared spot on the retina, and will appear in focus. If the eye accommodates to, say, 1 m, the beams will be converged to a spot in front of the retina, cross paths, and fall on multiple neighboring or partially overlapping spots on the retina—appearing blurred.
If the beamlets approach the eye in a diverging configuration, with a shared point of origin 1 meter from the viewer, then an accommodation of 1 m will steer the beams to a single spot on the retina, and will appear in focus; if the viewer accommodates to infinity, the beamlets will converge to a spot behind the retina, and produce multiple neighboring or partially overlapping spots on the retina, producing a blurred image. Stated more generally, the accommodation of the eye determines the degree of overlap of the spots on the retina, and a given pixel is “in focus” when all of the spots are directed to the same spot on the retina and “defocused” when the spots are offset from one another. This notion that all of the 0.5 mm diameter or less beamlets are always in focus, and that they may be aggregated to be perceived by the eyes/brain as though they are substantially the same as coherent wavefronts, may be utilized in producing configurations for comfortable three-dimensional virtual or augmented reality perception.
In other words, a set of multiple narrow beams may be used to emulate what is going on with a larger diameter variable focus beam, and if the beamlet diameters are kept to a maximum of about 0.5 mm, then they maintain a relatively static focus level, and to produce the perception of out-of-focus when desired, the beamlet angular trajectories may be selected to create an effect much like a larger out-of-focus beam (such a defocussing treatment may not be the same as a Gaussian blur treatment as for the larger beam, but will create a multimodal point spread function that may be interpreted in a similar fashion to a Gaussian blur).
In a preferred embodiment, the beamlets are not mechanically deflected to form this aggregate focus effect, but rather the eye receives a superset of many beamlets that includes both a multiplicity of incident angles and a multiplicity of locations at which the beamlets intersect the pupil; to represent a given pixel from a particular viewing distance, a subset of beamlets from the superset that comprise the appropriate angles of incidence and points of intersection with the pupil (as if they were being emitted from the same shared point of origin in space) are turned on with matching color and intensity, to represent that aggregate wavefront, while beamlets in the superset that are inconsistent with the shared point of origin are not turned on with that color and intensity (but some of them may be turned on with some other color and intensity level to represent, e.g., a different pixel).
Referring to
As regards patterns of points of intersection of beamlets with the anatomical pupil of the eye (i.e., the pattern of exit pupils), they may be organized in configurations such as a cross-sectionally efficient hex-lattice (for example, as shown in
Discretized aggregate wavefronts may be created using several configurations, such as an array of microdisplays or microprojectors placed optically conjugate with the exit pupil of viewing optics, microdisplay or microprojector arrays coupled to a direct field of view substrate (such as an eyeglasses lens) such that they project light to the eye directly, without additional intermediate viewing optics, successive spatial light modulation array techniques, or waveguide techniques such as those described in relation to
Referring to
Each of the small exit pupils of the configuration is created by a dedicated small display in the bundle (338), such as a scanning fiber display. Optically, it's as though the entire hex array (338) is positioned right into the anatomical pupil (45). Such embodiments are means for driving different subimages to different small exit pupils within the larger anatomical entrance pupil (45) of the eye, comprising a superset of beamlets with a multiplicity of incident angles and points of intersection with the eye pupil. Each of the separate projectors or displays may be driven with a slightly different image, such that subimages may be created that pull out different sets of rays to be driven at different light intensities and colors.
In one variation, a strict image conjugate may be created, as in the embodiment of
Referring to
With such a configuration, at the anatomical pupil (45) the user is going to receive a similar result as received in the embodiments discussed in reference to
Thus another configuration for creating the angular diversity necessary for a discretized aggregate wavefront display is presented. To optimize such a configuration, the sizes of the displays may be decreased to the maximum. Scanning fiber displays which may be utilized as displays may have baseline diameters in the range of 1 mm, but reduction in enclosure and projection lens hardware may decrease the diameters of such displays to about 0.5 mm or less, which is less disturbing for a user. Another downsizing geometric refinement may be achieved by directly coupling a collimating lens (which may, for example, comprise a gradient refractive index, or “GRIN”, lens, a conventional curved lens, or a diffractive lens) to the tip of the scanning fiber itself in a case of a fiber scanning display array. For example, referring to
In another embodiment the end of the fiber may be shaped into a hemispherical shape using a curved polishing treatment of an optical fiber to create a lensing effect. In another embodiment a standard refractive lens may be coupled to the end of each optical fiber using an adhesive. In another embodiment a lens may be built from a dab of transmissive polymeric material or glass, such as epoxy. In another embodiment the end of an optical fiber may be melted to create a curved surface for a lensing effect.
Referring to
In the context of discussing discretized aggregate wavefront displays, there is value placed in having some angular diversity created for every point in the exit pupil of the eye. In other words, it is desirable to have multiple incoming beams to represent each pixel in a displayed image. Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The basic embodiment of
As noted briefly above, in addition to using stacked liquid crystal displays as SLMs, planes of DMD devices from DLP systems may be stacked to function as SLMs, and may be preferred over liquid crystal systems as SLMs due to their ability to more efficiently pass light (with a mirror element in a first state, reflectivity to the next element on the way to the eye may be quite efficient; with a mirror element in a second state, the mirror angle may be moved by an angle such as 12 degrees to direct the light away from the path to the eye). Referring to
A lightfield of many small beamlets (say, less than about 0.5 mm in diameter) may be injected into and propagated through a waveguide or other optical system. For example, a conventional “birdbath” type of optical system may be suitable for transferring the light of a lightfield input, or a freeform optics design, as described below, or any number of waveguide configurations.
Referring to
Alternatively, as an input to the wedge-shaped waveguides shown herein, a stack of SLM devices may be utilized, in which case rather than the direct view of SLM output as described above, the lightfield output from the SLM configuration may be used as an input to a configuration such as that shown in
In another related embodiment, rather than projecting with multiple separate displays, a multicore fiber may be used to generate a lightfield and inject it into the waveguide. Further, a time-varying lightfield may be utilized as an input, such that rather than creating a static distribution of beamlets coming out of a lightfield, one may have some dynamic elements that are methodically changing the path of the set of beams. They may be done using components such as waveguides with embedded DOEs (e.g., such as those described above in reference to
One embodiment of a scanning light display may be characterized simply as a scanning fiber display with a lens at the end of the scanned fiber. Many lens varieties are suitable, such as a GRIN lens, which may be used to collimate the light or to focus the light down to a spot smaller than the fiber's mode field diameter providing the advantage of producing a numerical aperture (or “NA”) increase and circumventing the optical invariant, which is correlated inversely with spot size. Smaller spot size generally facilitates a higher resolution opportunity from a display perspective, which generally is preferred. In one embodiment, a GRIN lens may be long enough relative to the fiber that it may comprise the vibrating element (i.e., rather than the usual distal fiber tip vibration with a scanned fiber display)—a configuration which may be deemed a “scanned GRIN lens display”.
In another embodiment, a diffractive lens may be utilized at the exit end of a scanning fiber display (i.e., patterned onto the fiber). In another embodiment, a curved mirror may be positioned on the end of the fiber that operates in a reflecting configuration. Essentially any of the configurations known to collimate and focus a beam may be used at the end of a scanning fiber to produce a suitable scanned light display.
Two significant utilities to having a lens coupled to or comprising the end of a scanned fiber (i.e., as compared to configurations wherein an uncoupled lens may be utilized to direct light after it exits a fiber) are a) the light exiting may be collimated to obviate the need to use other external optics to do so; b) the NA, or the angle of the cone at which light sprays out the end of the single-mode fiber core, may be increased, thereby decreasing the associated spot size for the fiber and increasing the available resolution for the display.
As described above, a lens such as a GRIN lens may be fused to or otherwise coupled to the end of an optical fiber or formed from a portion of the end of the fiber using techniques such as polishing. In one embodiment, a typical optical fiber with an NA of about 0.13 or 0.14 may have a spot size (also known as the “mode field diameter” for the optical fiber given the NA) of about 3 microns. This provides for relatively high resolution display possibilities given the industry standard display resolution paradigms (for example, a typical microdisplay technology such as LCD or organic light emitting diode, or “OLED” has a spot size of about 5 microns). Thus the aforementioned scanning light display may have ⅗ of the smallest pixel pitch available with a conventional display; further, using a lens at the end of the fiber, the aforementioned configuration may produce a spot size in the range of 1-2 microns.
In another embodiment, rather than using a scanned cylindrical fiber, a cantilevered portion of a waveguide (such as a waveguide created using microfabrication processes such as masking and etching, rather than drawn microfiber techniques) may be placed into scanning oscillatory motion, and may be fitted with lensing at the exit ends.
In another embodiment, an increased numerical aperture for a fiber to be scanned may be created using a diffuser (i.e., one configured to scatter light and create a larger NA) covering the exit end of the fiber. In one variation, the diffuser may be created by etching the end of the fiber to create small bits of terrain that scatter light; in another variation a bead or sandblasting technique, or direct sanding/scuffing technique may be utilized to create scattering terrain. In another variation, an engineered diffuser, similar to a diffractive element, may be created to maintain a clean spot size with desirable NA, which ties into the notion of using a diffractive lens, as noted above.
Referring to
What was an X axis type of separation in the bundle before exit from the angled faces, will become a Z axis separation, a fact that is helpful in creating a multifocal light source from such a configuration. In another embodiment, rather than using a bundled/coupled plurality of single mode fibers, a multicore fiber, such as those available from Mitsubishi Cable Industries, Ltd. of Japan, may be angle polished.
In one embodiment, if a 45 degree angle is polished into a fiber and then covered with a reflective element, such as a mirror coating, the exiting light may be reflected from the polished surface and emerge from the side of the fiber (in one embodiment at a location wherein a flat-polished exit window has been created in the side of the fiber) such that as the fiber is scanned in what would normally be an X-Y Cartesian coordinate system axis, that fiber would now be functionally performing the equivalent of an X-Z scan, with the distance changing during the course of the scan. Such a configuration may be beneficially utilized to change the focus of the display as well.
Multicore fibers may be configured to play a role in display resolution enhancement (i.e., higher resolution). For example, in one embodiment, if separate pixel data is sent down a tight bundle of 19 cores in a multicore fiber, and that cluster is scanned around in a sparse spiral pattern with the pitch of the spiral being approximately equal to the diameter of the multicore, then sweeping around will effectively create a display resolution that is approximately 19× the resolution of a single core fiber being similarly scanned around. Indeed, it may be more practical to have the fibers more sparsely positioned relative to each other, as in the configuration of
With a sparse configuration as shown in
The notion that densely packed scanned cores can create blurring at the display may be utilized as an advantage in one embodiment wherein a plurality (say a triad or cores to carry red, green, and blue light) of cores may be intentionally packed together densely so that each triad forms a triad of overlapped spots featuring red, green, and blue light. With such a configuration, one is able to have an RGB display without having to combine red, green, and blue into a single-mode core, which is an advantage, because conventional mechanisms for combining a plurality (such as three) wavelets of light into a single core are subject to significant losses in optical energy. Referring to
Referring to
Multicore fibers also may be utilized for creating lightfield displays. Indeed, rather than keeping the cores separated enough from each other so that the cores do not scan on each other's local area at the display panel, as described above in the context of creating a scanning light display, with a lightfield display, it is desirable to scan around a densely packed plurality of fibers because each of the beams produced represents a specific part of the lightfield. The light exiting from the bundled fiber tips can be relatively narrow if the fibers have a small NA; lightfield configurations may take advantage of this and have an arrangement in which at the anatomic pupil, a plurality of slightly different beams are being received from the array. Thus there are optical configurations with scanning a multicore that are functionally equivalent to an array of single scanning fiber modules, and thus a lightfield may be created by scanning a multicore rather than scanning a group of single mode fibers.
In one embodiment, a multi-core phased array approach may be used to create a large exit pupil variable wavefront configuration to facilitate three-dimensional perception. A single laser configuration with phase modulators is described above. In a multicore embodiment, phase delays may be induced into different channels of a multicore fiber, such that a single laser's light is injected into all of the cores of the multicore configuration so that there is mutual coherence.
In one embodiment, a multi-core fiber may be combined with a lens, such as a GRIN lens. Such lens may be, for example, a refractive lens, diffractive lens, or a polished edge functioning as a lens. The lens may be a single optical surface, or may comprise multiple optical surfaces stacked up. Indeed, in addition to having a single lens that extends the diameter of the multicore, a smaller lenslet array may be desirable at the exit point of light from the cores of the multicore, for example.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The multifocal beam may be passed into a scanning mirror which may be configured to create a raster scan (or, for example, a Lissajous curve scan pattern or a spiral scan pattern) of the multifocal beam which may be passed through a series of focusing lenses and then to the cornea and crystalline lens of the eye. The various beams emerging from the lenses are creating different pixels or voxels of varying focal distances that are superimposed.
In one embodiment, one may write different data to each of the light modulation channels at the front end, thereby creating an image that is projected to the eye with one or more focus elements. By changing the focal distance of the crystalline lens (i.e., by accommodating), the user can bring different incoming pixels into and out of focus, as shown in
Referring to
Rather than having individual lenses at the end of each scanned fiber enclosure housing, in one embodiment a monolithic lenslet array may be utilized, so that the lenses can be as closely packed as possible, which allows for even smaller spot sizes in the image plane because one may use a lower amount of magnification in the optical system. Thus arrays of fiber scan displays may be used to increase the resolution of the display, or in other words, they may be used to increase the field of view of the display, because each engine is being used to scan a different portion of the field of view.
For a lightfield configuration, the emissions may be more desirably overlapped at the image plane. In one embodiment, a lightfield display may be created using a plurality of small diameter fibers scanned around in space. For example, instead of having all of the fibers address a different part of an image plane as described above, have more overlapping, more fibers angled inward, etc., or change the focal power of the lenses so that the small spot sizes are not conjugate with a tiled image plane configuration. Such a configuration may be used to create a lightfield display to scan lots of smaller diameter rays around that become intercepted in the same physical space.
Referring back to
Referring to
Referring to
Such a filtering configuration may be coupled with a scanning fiber display that is producing a very narrow band illumination for red, green, and blue, and the contact lens with the notch filtering will block out all of the light coming from the display (such as a minidisplay, such as an OLED display, mounted in a position normally occupied by an eyeglasses lens) except for the transmissive wavelengths. A narrow pinhole may be created in the middle of the contact lens filtering layers/film such that the small aperture (i.e., less than about 1.5 mm diameter) does allow passage of the otherwise blocked wavelengths. Thus a pinhole lens configuration is created that functions in a pinhole manner for red, green, and blue only to intake images from the minidisplay, while light from the real world, which generally is broadband illumination, will pass through the contact lens relatively unimpeded. Thus a large depth of focus virtual display configuration may be assembled and operated. In another embodiment, a collimated image exiting from a waveguide would be visible at the retina because of the pinhole large-depth-of-focus configuration.
It may be useful to create a display that can vary its depth of focus over time. For example, in one embodiment, a display may be configured to have different display modes that may be selected (preferably rapidly toggling between the two at the command of the operator) by an operator, such as a first mode combining a very large depth of focus with a small exit pupil diameter (i.e., so that everything is in focus all of the time), and a second mode featuring a larger exit pupil and a more narrow depth of focus. In operation, if a user is to play a three-dimensional video game with objects to be perceived at many depths of field, the operator may select the first mode; alternatively, if a user is to type in a long essay (i.e., for a relatively long period of time) using a two-dimensional word processing display configuration, it may be more desirable to switch to the second mode to have the convenience of a larger exit pupil, and a sharper image.
In another embodiment, it may be desirable to have a multi-depth of focus display configuration wherein some subimages are presented with a large depth of focus while other subimages are presented with small depth of focus. For example, one configuration may have red wavelength and blue wavelength channels presented with a very small exit pupil so that they are always in focus. Then, a green channel only may be presented with a large exit pupil configuration with multiple depth planes (i.e., because the human accommodation system tends to preferentially target green wavelengths for optimizing focus level). Thus, in order to cut costs associated with having too many elements to represent with full depth planes in red, green, and blue, the green wavelength may be prioritized and represented with various different wavefront levels. Red and blue may be relegated to being represented with a more Maxwellian approach (and, as described above in reference to Maxwellian displays, software may be utilized to induce Gaussian levels of blur). Such a display would simultaneously present multiple depths of focus.
As described above, there are portions of the retina which have a higher density of light sensors. The fovea portion, for example, generally is populated with approximately 120 cones per visual degree. Display systems have been created in the past that use eye or gaze tracking as an input, and to save computation resources by only creating really high resolution rendering for where the person is gazing at the time, while lower resolution rendering is presented to the rest of the retina; the locations of the high versus low resolution portions may be dynamically slaved to the tracked gaze location in such a configuration, which may be termed a “foveated display”.
An improvement on such configurations may comprise a scanning fiber display with pattern spacing that may be dynamically slaved to tracked eye gaze. For example, with a typical scanning fiber display operating in a spiral pattern, as shown in
In a foveated display configuration, a non-uniform scanning pitch may be utilized, with smaller/tighter pitch (and therefore higher resolution) dynamically slaved to the detected gaze location. For example, if the user's gaze was detected as moving toward the edge of the display screen, the spirals may be clustered more densely in such location, which would create a toroid-type scanning pattern for the high-resolution portions, and the rest of the display being in a lower-resolution mode. In a configuration wherein gaps may be created in the portions of the display in a lower-resolution mode, blur could be intentionally dynamically created to smooth out the transitions between scans, as well as between transitions from high-resolution to lower-resolution scan pitch.
The term lightfield may be used to describe a volumetric 3-D representation of light traveling from an object to a viewer's eye. However, an optical see-through display can only reflect light to the eye, not the absence of light, and ambient light from the real world will add to any light representing a virtual object. That is, if a virtual object presented to the eye contains a black or very dark portion, the ambient light from the real world may pass through that dark portion and obscure that it was intended to be dark.
It is nonetheless desirable to be able to present a dark virtual object over a bright real background, and for that dark virtual object to appear to occupy a volume at a desired viewing distance; i.e., it is useful to create a “darkfield” representation of that dark virtual object, in which the absence of light is perceived to be located at a particular point in space. With regard to occlusion elements and the presentation of information to the eye of the user so that he or she can perceive darkfield aspects of virtual objects, even in well lighted actual environments, certain aspects of the aforementioned spatial light modulator, or “SLM”, configurations are pertinent. As described above, with a light-sensing system such as the eye, one way to get selective perception of dark field to selectively attenuate light from such portions of the display, because the subject display systems are about manipulation and presentation of light; in other words, darkfield cannot be specifically projected—it's the lack of illumination that may be perceived as darkfield, and thus, configurations for selective attenuation of illumination have been developed.
Referring back to the discussion of SLM configurations, one way to selectively attenuate for a darkfield perception is to block all of the light coming from one angle, while allowing light from other angles to be transmitted. This may be accomplished with a plurality of SLM planes comprising elements such as liquid crystal (which may not be the most optimal due to its relatively low transparency when in the transmitting state), DMD elements of DLP systems (which have relative high transmission/reflection ratios when in such mode), and MEMS arrays or shutters that are configured to controllably shutter or pass light radiation, as described above.
With regard to suitable liquid crystal display (“LCD”) configurations, a cholesteric LCD array may be utilized for a controlled occlusion/blocking array. As opposed to the conventional LCD paradigm wherein a polarization state is changed as a function of voltage, with a cholesteric LCD configuration, a pigment is being bound to the liquid crystal molecule, and then the molecule is physically tilted in response to an applied voltage. Such a configuration may be designed to achieve greater transparency when in a transmissive mode than conventional LCD, and a stack of polarizing films is not needed as it is with conventional LCD.
In another embodiment, a plurality of layers of controllably interrupted patterns may be utilized to controllably block selected presentation of light using moire effects. For example, in one configuration, two arrays of attenuation patterns, each of which may comprise, for example, fine-pitched sine waves printed or painted upon a transparent planar material such as a glass substrate, may be presented to the eye of a user at a distance close enough that when the viewer looks through either of the patterns alone, the view is essentially transparent, but if the viewer looks through both patterns lined up in sequence, the viewer will see a spatial beat frequency moire attenuation pattern, even when the two attenuation patterns are placed in sequence relatively close to the eye of the user.
The beat frequency is dependent upon the pitch of the patterns on the two attenuation planes, so in one embodiment, an attenuation pattern for selectively blocking certain light transmission for darkfield perception may be created using two sequential patterns, each of which otherwise would be transparent to the user, but which together in series create a spatial beat frequency moire attenuation pattern selected to attenuate in accordance with the darkfield perception desired in the augmented reality system.
In another embodiment a controlled occlusion paradigm for darkfield effect may be created using a multi-view display style occluder. For example, one configuration may comprise one pin-holed layer that fully occludes with the exception of small apertures or pinholes, along with a selective attenuation layer in series, which may comprise an LCD, DLP system, or other selective attenuation layer configuration, such as those described above. In one scenario, with the pinhole array placed at a typical eyeglasses lens distance from the cornea (about 30 mm), and with a selective attenuation panel located opposite the pinhole array from the eye, a perception of a sharp mechanical edge out in space may be created. In essence, if the configuration will allow certain angles of light to pass, and others to be blocked or occluded, than a perception of a very sharp pattern, such as a sharp edge projection, may be created. In another related embodiment, the pinhole array layer may be replaced with a second dynamic attenuation layer to provide a somewhat similar configuration, but with more controls than the static pinhole array layer (the static pinhole layer could be simulated, but need not be).
In another related embodiment, the pinholes may be replaced with cylindrical lenses. The same pattern of occlusion as in the pinhole array layer configuration may be achieved, but with cylindrical lenses, the array is not restricted to the very tiny pinhole geometries. To prevent the eye from being presented with distortions due to the lenses when viewing through to the real world, a second lens array may be added on the side of the aperture or lens array opposite of the side nearest the eye to compensate and provide the view-through illumination with basically a zero power telescope configuration.
In another embodiment, rather than physically blocking light for occlusion and creation of darkfield perception, the light may be bent or bounced, or a polarization of the light may be changed if a liquid crystal layer is utilized. For example, in one variation, each liquid crystal layer may act as a polarization rotator such that if a patterned polarizing material is incorporated on one face of a panel, then the polarization of individual rays coming from the real world may be selectively manipulated so they catch a portion of the patterned polarizer. There are polarizers known in the art that have checkerboard patterns wherein half of the “checker boxes” have vertical polarization and the other half have horizontal polarization. In addition, if a material such as liquid crystal is used in which polarization may be selectively manipulated, light may be selectively attenuated with this.
As described above, selective reflectors may provide greater transmission efficiency than LCD. In one embodiment, if a lens system is placed such that it takes light coming in from the real world and focuses a plane from the real world onto an image plane, and if a DMD (i.e., DLP technology) is placed at that image plane to reflect light when in an “on” state towards another set of lenses that pass the light to the eye, and those lenses also have the DMD at their focal length, the one may create an attenuation pattern that is in focus for the eye. In other words, DMDs may be used in a selective reflector plane in a zero magnification telescope configuration, such as is shown in
As shown in
In another embodiment, as shown in
In another embodiment, the panels may also be ferroelectric, or may be any other kind of reflective or selective attenuator panel or array. In one embodiment similar to those depicted in
Alternatively, referring back to
In another embodiment, a DMD or similar matrix of controllably movable devices may be created upon a transparent substrate as opposed to a generally opaque substrate, for use in a transmissive configuration such as virtual reality.
In another embodiment, two LCD panels may be utilized as lightfield occluders. In one variation, they may be thought of as attenuators due to their attenuating capability as described above; alternatively they may be considered polarization rotators with a shared polarizer stack. Suitable LCDs may comprise components such as blue phase liquid crystal, cholesteric liquid crystal, ferroelectric liquid crystal, and/or twisted nematic liquid crystal.
One embodiment may comprise an array of directionally-selective occlusion elements, such as a MEMS device featuring a set of louvers that can change rotation such that they pass the majority of light that is coming from a particular angle, but are presenting more of a broad face to light that is coming from a different angle (somewhat akin to the manner in which plantation shutters may be utilized with a typical human scale window). The MEMS/louvers configuration may be placed upon an optically transparent substrate, with the louvers substantially opaque. Ideally such a configuration would have a louver pitch fine enough to selectably occlude light on a pixel-by-pixel basis. In another embodiment, two or more layers or stacks of louvers may be combined to provide yet further controls. In another embodiment, rather than selectively blocking light, the louvers may be polarizers configured to change the polarization state of light on a controllably variable basis.
As described above, another embodiment for selective occlusion may comprise an array of sliding panels in a MEMS device such that the sliding panels may be controllably opened (i.e., by sliding in a planar fashion from a first position to a second position; or by rotating from a first orientation to a second orientation; or, for example, combined rotational reorientation and displacement) to transmit light through a small frame or aperture, and controllably closed to occlude the frame or aperture and prevent transmission. The array may be configured to open or occlude the various frames or apertures such that they maximally attenuate the rays that are to be attenuated, and only minimally attenuate the rays to be transmitted.
In an embodiment wherein a fixed number of sliding panels can either occupy a first position occluding a first aperture and opening a second aperture, or a second position occluding the second aperture and opening the first aperture, there will always be the same amount of light transmitted overall (because 50% of the apertures are occluded, and the other 50% are open, with such a configuration), but the local position changes of the shutters or doors may create targeted moire or other effects for darkfield perception with the dynamic positioning of the various sliding panels. In one embodiment, the sliding panels may comprise sliding polarizers, and if placed in a stacked configuration with other polarizing elements that are either static or dynamic, may be utilized to selectively attenuate.
Referring to
Such a configuration may have a relatively thin shape factor, and is designed to allow light from the real world (144) to be selectively attenuated. As waveguides work most cleanly with collimated light, such a configuration may be well suited for virtual reality configurations wherein focal lengths are in the range of optical infinity. For closer focal lengths, a lightfield display may be used as a layer on top of the silhouette created by the aforementioned selective attenuation/darkfield configuration to provide other cues to the eye of the user that light is coming from another focal distance. An occlusion mask may be out of focus, even nondesirably so, and then in one embodiment, a lightfield on top of the masking layer may be used to hide the fact that the darkfield may be at the wrong focal distance.
Referring to
Focusing lenses may also be placed between the reflectors at each end and the waveguides. In another embodiment the reflectors (548, 550) at each end may comprise standard mirrors (such as alumized mirrors). Further, the reflectors may be wavelength selective reflectors, such as dichroic mirrors or film interference filters. Further, the reflectors may be diffractive elements configured to reflect incoming light.
Referring to
For simplicity the selective attenuator is shown oriented substantially perpendicularly to the waveguide; in other embodiments, various optics components, such as refractive or reflective optics, may be utilized to have the selective attenuator at a different and more compact orientation relative to the waveguide.
Referring to
Referring to
After the selective attenuator (614), reflected light is coupled back into the second wedge-shaped waveguide which then relays the light by total internal reflection along the wedge. The properties of the wedge-shaped waveguide are intentionally such that each bounce of light causes an angle change; the point at which the angle has changed enough to be the critical angle to escape total internal reflection becomes the exit point from the wedge-shaped waveguide. Typically the exit will be at an oblique angle, so another layer of turning film may be used to “turn” the exiting light toward a targeted object such as the eye (58).
Referring to
One way to optimize the overall geometry is to reduce the diameter of the lenses by splitting them out into smaller lenslets, as shown in
Referring to
As discussed briefly above, one of the main challenges for a presenting darkfield augmented reality object is that the system generally cannot add or paint in “darkness”; generally the display is configured to add light. Thus, referring to
Referring to
Preferably the halo may be presented to the user with a perceived focal distance that is behind the focal distance of the robot character in three-dimensional space. In a configuration wherein single panel occlusion techniques such as those described above is being utilized to present darkfield, the light halo may be presented with an intensity gradient to match the dark halo that may accompany the occlusion, minimizing the visibility of either darkfield effect. Further, the halo may be presented with blurring to the background behind the presented halo illumination for further distinguishing effect. A more subtle aura or halo effect may be created by matching, at least in part, the color and/or brightness of a relatively light-colored background.
Referring to
Wedge-shaped waveguides have been described above, such as in reference to
With a series or array of displays injecting image information into a wedge-shaped waveguide, as shown in
As was further discussed above in the context of lightfield displays, a plurality of viewing zones may be created within a given pupil, and each may be used for a different focal distance, with the aggregate producing a perception similar to that of a variable wavefront creating waveguide, or similar to the actual optical physics of reality of the objects viewed were real. Thus a wedge-shaped waveguide with multiple displays may be utilized to generate a lightfield. In an embodiment similar to that of
Thus such a configuration may be utilized to produce pluralities of beams spraying out at lots of different angles, and each beam may be driven separately due to the fact that under such configuration, each beam is driven using a separate display. In another embodiment, one or more arrays or displays may be configured to inject image information into wedge-shaped waveguide through sides or faces of the wedge-shaped waveguide other than that shown in
Various reflectors or reflecting surfaces may also be utilized in concert with such a wedge-shaped waveguide embodiment to outcouple and manage light from the wedge-shaped waveguide. In one embodiment, an entrance aperture to a wedge-shaped waveguide, or injection of image information through a different face other than shown in
Referring to
To further distribute remaining light that reaches an end (and in one embodiment to allow for selection of a relatively low diffraction efficiency DOE which would be favorable from a view-to-the-world transparency perspective), a reflective element (650) at one or both ends may be included. Further, referring to the embodiment of
In one embodiment, this ghosting effect may be eliminated by having a dual-waveguide (646, 654) circulating reflection configuration, such as that shown in
In another embodiment (as shown in
Referring to
Referring to
Other configurations describe above are configured to profit from the inclusion of waveguides for similar manipulations and light. For example, referring back to
Referring back to
Referring back to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring back to
In a conventional waveguide approach wherein total internal reflection is relied upon for light propagation, the field of view is restricted because there is only a certain angular range of rays propagating through the waveguide (others may escape out). In one embodiment, if a red/green/blue (or “RGB”) laserline reflector is placed at one or both ends of the planar surfaces, akin to a thin film interference filter that is highly reflective for only certain wavelengths and poorly reflective for other wavelengths, than one can functionally increase the range of angles of light propagation. Windows (without the coating) may be provided for allowing light to exit in predetermined locations. Further, the coating may be selected to have a directional selectivity (somewhat like reflective elements that are only highly reflective for certain angles of incidence). Such a coating may be most relevant for the larger planes/sides of a waveguide.
Referring back to
The externally-projecting planar waveguide portions (358) may be vibrated individually, or as a group along with oscillatory motion of the substrate (356). Such scanning motion may provide horizontal scanning, and for vertical scanning, the input (360) aspect of the assembly (i.e., such as one or more scanning fiber displays scanning in the vertical axis) may be utilized. Thus a variation of the scanning fiber display is presented.
Referring back to
In one embodiment, a single beam may be fed in with a number of cone beamlets coming out, but if the introduction vector of the entering beam is changed (i.e., laterally shift the beam injection location for the projector/display relative to the waveguide), one may control where the beam exits from the waveguide as it is directed toward the eye. Thus one may use a waveguide to create a lightfield by creating a bunch of narrow diameter collimated beams, and such a configuration is not reliant upon a true variation in a light wavefront to be associated with the desired perception at the eye.
If a set of angularly and laterally diverse beamlets is injected into a waveguide (for example, by using a multicore fiber and driving each core separately; another configuration may utilize a plurality of fiber scanners coming from different angles; another configuration may utilize a high-resolution panel display with a lenslet array on top of it), a number of exiting beamlets can be created at different exit angles and exit locations. Since the waveguide may scramble the lightfield, the decoding is preferably predetermined.
Referring to
In another variation, a very dense stack of waveguides with embedded DOEs may be produced such that it spans the size of the anatomical pupil of the eye (i.e., such that multiple layers 698 of the composite waveguide are required to cross the exit pupil, as illustrated in
Such a concept may be extended to configurations comprising a waveguide with a switchable/controllable embedded DOE (i.e. that is switchable to different focal distances), such as those described in relation to
Referring to
As was discussed above in relation to
Referring to
In another embodiment, a uniaxial scanning fiber display (say scanning the fast line scan, as the scanning fiber is relatively high frequency) may be used to inject the fast line scan into the waveguide, and then the relatively slow DOE switching (i.e., in the range of 100 Hz) may be used to scan lines in the other axis to form an image.
In another embodiment, a DOE with a grating of fixed pitch may be combined with an adjacent layer of electro-active material having a dynamic refractive index (such as liquid crystal), so that light may be redirected into the grating at different angles. This is an application of the basic multipath configuration described above in reference to
In another embodiment, a DOE such as a Bragg grating, may be configured to change pitch versus time, such as by a mechanical stretching of the grating (for example, if the grating resides on or comprises an elastic material), a moire beat pattern between two gratings on two different planes (the gratings may be the same or different pitches), Z-axis motion (i.e., closer to the eye, or farther away from the eye) of the grating, which functionally is similar in effect to stretching of the grating, or electro-active gratings that may be switched on or off, such as one created using a polymer dispersed liquid crystal approach wherein liquid crystal droplets may be controllably activated to change the refractive index to become an active grating, versus turning the voltage off and allowing a switch back to a refractive index that matches that of the host medium.
In another embodiment, a time-varying grating may be utilized for field of view expansion by creating a tiled display configuration. Further, a time-varying grating may be utilized to address chromatic aberration (failure to focus all colors/wavelengths at the same focal point). One property of diffraction gratings is that they will deflect a beam as a function of its angle of incidence and wavelength (i.e., a DOE will deflect different wavelengths by different angles: somewhat akin to the manner in which a simple prism will divide out a beam into its wavelength components).
One may use time-varying grating control to compensate for chromatic aberration in addition to field of view expansion. Thus, for example, in a waveguide with embedded DOE type of configuration as described above, the DOE may be configured to drive the red wavelength to a slightly different place than the green and blue to address unwanted chromatic aberration. The DOE may be time-varied by having a stack of elements that switch on and off (i.e. to get red, green, and blue to be diffracted outbound similarly).
In another embodiment, a time-varying grating may be utilized for exit pupil expansion. For example, referring to
In another embodiment, a time-varying grating may be utilized with a waveguide for one, two, or three axis light scanning. In a manner akin to that described in reference to
Notwithstanding the discussions herein regarding specialized treatments and uses of DOEs generally in connection with waveguides, many of these uses of DOE are usable whether or not the DOE is embedded in a waveguide. For example, the output of a waveguide may be separately manipulated using a DOE; or a beam may be manipulated by a DOE before it is injected into a waveguide; further, one or more DOEs, such as a time-varying DOE, may be utilized as an input for freeform optics configurations, as discussed below.
As discussed above in reference to
Referring to
In another embodiment, a circular DOE may be layered in front of a waveguide for focus modulation. Referring to
In another embodiment, multiple stacked circular DOEs may be used for additive power and many focus levels—from a relatively small number of switchable DOE layers. In other words, three different DOE layers may be switched on in various combinations relative to each other; the optical powers of the DOEs that are switched on may be added. In one embodiment wherein a range of up to 4 diopters is desired, for example, a first DOE may be configured to provide half of the total diopter range desired (in this example, 2 diopters of change in focus); a second DOE may be configured to induce a 1 diopter change in focus; then a third DOE may be configured to induce a ½ diopter change in focus. These three DOEs may be mixed and matched to provide ½, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, and 3.5 diopters of change in focus. Thus a super large number of DOEs would not be required to get a relatively broad range of control.
In one embodiment, a matrix of switchable DOE elements may be utilized for scanning, field of view expansion, and/or exit pupil expansion. Generally in the above discussions of DOEs, it has been assume that a typical DOE is either all on or all off. In one variation, a DOE (732) may be subdivided into a plurality of functional subsections (such as the one labeled as element 734 in
Referring to
The depicted set of parallel exiting beams may represent, for example, the farthest left pixel of what the user is seeing in the real world as viewed through the waveguide, and light off to the rightmost extreme will be a different group of parallel exiting beams. Indeed, with modular control of the DOE subsections as described above, one may spend more computing resource or time creating and manipulating the small subset of beams that is likely to be actively addressing the user's pupil (i.e., because the other beams never reach the user's eye and are effectively wasted). Thus, referring to
In one embodiment, if a circular DOE may be controllably stretched radially-symmetrically, the diffraction pitch may be modulated, and the DOE may be utilized as a tunable lens with an analog type of control. In another embodiment, a single axis of stretch (for example, to adjust an angle of a linear DOE term) may be utilized for DOE control. Further, in another embodiment a membrane, akin to a drum head, may be vibrated, with oscillatory motion in the Z-axis (i.e., toward/away from the eye) providing Z-axis control and focus change over time.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Given this, if one wants to increase the field of view, he must increase the size of the lens, but that might mean pushing a physical lens toward the forehead of the user from an ergonomic perspective. Further, the reflector may not catch all of the light from the larger lens. Thus, there is a practical limitation imposed by human head geometry, and it generally is a challenge to get more than a 40-degree field of view using conventional see-through displays and lenses.
With freeform lenses, rather than having a standard planar reflector as described above, one has a combined reflector and lens with power (i.e., a curved reflector 766), which means that the curved lens geometry determines the field of view. Referring to
Referring to
The third surface may comprise a half-silvered, arbitrarily-curved surface configured to bounce the light out through the second surface toward the eye, as shown in
Referring to
Referring to
One of the main objectives with such an assembly is to try to lengthen the optic assembly while retaining as uniform a thickness as possible (to facilitate transport by total internal reflection, and also viewing of the world through the assembly without further compensation) for a larger field of view.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
An all-total-internal-reflection freeform waveguide may be created such that there are no reflective coatings (i.e., such that total-internal-reflection is being relied upon for propagation of light until a critical angle of incidence with a surface is met, at which point the light exits in a manner akin to the wedge-shaped optics described above). In other words, rather than having two planar surfaces, one may have a surface comprising one or more sub-surfaces from a set of conical curves, such as parabolas, spheres, ellipses, etc.).
Such a configuration still may produce a shallow-enough angles for total internal reflection within the optic; thus an approach that is somewhat a hybrid between a conventional freeform optic and a wedge-shaped waveguide is presented. One motivation to have such a configuration is to get away from the use of reflective coatings, which do help product reflection, but also are known to prevent transmission of a relatively large portion (such as 50%) of the light transmitting through from the real world (144). Further, such coatings also may block an equivalent amount of the light coming into the freeform optic from the input device. Thus there are reasons to develop designs that do not have reflective coatings.
As described above, one of the surfaces of a conventional freeform optic may comprise a half-silvered reflective surface. Generally such a reflective surface will be of “neutral density”, meaning that it will generally reflect all wavelengths similarly. In another embodiment, such as one wherein a scanning fiber display is utilized as an input, the conventional reflector paradigm may be replaced with a narrow band reflector that is wavelength sensitive, such as a thin film laserline reflector. Thus in one embodiment, a configuration may reflect particular red/green/blue wavelength ranges and remain passive to other wavelengths, which generally will increase transparency of the optic and therefore be preferred for augmented reality configurations wherein transmission of image information from the real world (144) across the optic also is valued.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
In one embodiment, a packet or bundle of scanning fiber displays may be utilized as an input to overcome one of the challenges in operatively coupling a scanning fiber display to a freeform optic. One such challenge with a scanning fiber display configuration is that the output of an individual fiber is emitted with a certain numerical aperture, or “NA”, which is like the projectional angle of light from the fiber; ultimately this angle determines the diameter of the beam that passes through various optics, and ultimately determines the exit functional exit pupil size; thus in order to maximize exit pupil size with a freeform optic configuration, one may either increase the NA of the fiber using optimized refractive relationships, such as between core and cladding, or one may place a lens (i.e., a refractive lens, such as a gradient refractive index lens, or “GRIN” lens) at the end of the fiber or build one into the end of the fiber as described above, or create an array of fibers that is feeding into the freeform optic, in which case all of those NAs in the bundle remain small, and at the exit pupil an array of small exit pupils is produced that in the aggregate forms the functional equivalent of a large exit pupil.
Alternatively, in another embodiment a more sparse array (i.e., not bundled tightly as a packet) of scanning fiber displays or other displays may be utilized to functionally increase the field of view of the virtual image through the freeform optic. Referring to
In an embodiment wherein a plurality of smaller exit pupils is to be aggregated into a functionally larger exit pupil, one may elect to have each of the scanning fibers monochromatic, such that within a given bundle or plurality of projectors or displays, one may have a subgroup of solely red fibers, a subgroup of solely blue fibers, and a subgroup of solely green fibers. Such a configuration facilitates more efficiency in output coupling for bringing light into the optical fibers; for instance, there would be no need in such an embodiment to superimpose red, green, and blue into the same band.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
With a tiled freeform optics assembly, the optics elements may be aggregated to produce a larger field of view; the tiling configurations described above have addressed this notion. For example, in a configuration wherein two freeform waveguides are aimed at the eye such as that depicted in
With such a configuration, the field of view has been increased with the tiled freeform waveguides, but the exit pupil has not grown in size. Alternatively, the freeform waveguides may be oriented such that they do not toe in as much—so they create exit pupils that are side-by-side at the eye's anatomical pupil. In one example, the anatomical pupil may be 8 mm wide, and each of the side-by-side exit pupils may be 8 mm, such that the functional exit pupil is expanded by about two times. Thus such a configuration provides an enlarged exit pupil, but if the eye is moved around in the “eyebox” defined by that exit pupil, that eye may lose parts of the visual field (i.e., lose either a portion of the left or right incoming light because of the side-by-side nature of such configuration).
In one embodiment using such an approach for tiling freeform optics, especially in the Z-axis relative to the eye of the user, red wavelengths may be driven through one freeform optic, green through another, and blue through another, such red/green/blue chromatic aberration may be addressed. Multiple freeform optics also may be provided to such a configuration that are stacked up, each of which is configured to address a particular wavelength.
Referring to
To ensure that one surface is not interfering with another surface in the freeform optics, one may use wavelength or polarization selective reflector surfaces. For example, referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Various example embodiments of the invention are described herein. Reference is made to these examples in a non-limiting sense. They are provided to illustrate more broadly applicable aspects of the invention. Various changes may be made to the invention described and equivalents may be substituted without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation, material, composition of matter, process, process act(s) or step(s) to the objective(s), spirit or scope of the present invention. Further, as will be appreciated by those with skill in the art that each of the individual variations described and illustrated herein has discrete components and features which may be readily separated from or combined with the features of any of the other several embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the present inventions. All such modifications are intended to be within the scope of claims associated with this disclosure.
The invention includes methods that may be performed using the subject devices. The methods may comprise the act of providing such a suitable device. Such provision may be performed by the end user. In other words, the “providing” act merely requires the end user obtain, access, approach, position, set-up, activate, power-up or otherwise act to provide the requisite device in the subject method. Methods recited herein may be carried out in any order of the recited events which is logically possible, as well as in the recited order of events.
Example aspects of the invention, together with details regarding material selection and manufacture have been set forth above. As for other details of the present invention, these may be appreciated in connection with the above-referenced patents and publications as well as generally known or appreciated by those with skill in the art. The same may hold true with respect to method-based aspects of the invention in terms of additional acts as commonly or logically employed.
In addition, though the invention has been described in reference to several examples optionally incorporating various features, the invention is not to be limited to that which is described or indicated as contemplated with respect to each variation of the invention. Various changes may be made to the invention described and equivalents (whether recited herein or not included for the sake of some brevity) may be substituted without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention. In addition, where a range of values is provided, it is understood that every intervening value, between the upper and lower limit of that range and any other stated or intervening value in that stated range, is encompassed within the invention.
Also, it is contemplated that any optional feature of the inventive variations described may be set forth and claimed independently, or in combination with any one or more of the features described herein. Reference to a singular item, includes the possibility that there are plural of the same items present. More specifically, as used herein and in claims associated hereto, the singular forms “a,” “an,” “said,” and “the” include plural referents unless the specifically stated otherwise. In other words, use of the articles allow for “at least one” of the subject item in the description above as well as claims associated with this disclosure. It is further noted that such claims may be drafted to exclude any optional element. As such, this statement is intended to serve as antecedent basis for use of such exclusive terminology as “solely,” “only” and the like in connection with the recitation of claim elements, or use of a “negative” limitation.
Without the use of such exclusive terminology, the term “comprising” in claims associated with this disclosure shall allow for the inclusion of any additional element—irrespective of whether a given number of elements are enumerated in such claims, or the addition of a feature could be regarded as transforming the nature of an element set forth in such claims. Except as specifically defined herein, all technical and scientific terms used herein are to be given as broad a commonly understood meaning as possible while maintaining claim validity.
The breadth of the present invention is not to be limited to the examples provided and/or the subject specification, but rather only by the scope of claim language associated with this disclosure.
Claims
1. A system of displaying virtual content to a user, the system comprising:
- an image-generating source to provide one or more frames of image data;
- a multicore assembly comprising a plurality of multicore fibers to project light associated with the one or more frames of image data, a multicore fiber of the plurality of multicore fibers emitting light in a wavefront, such that the multicore assembly produces an aggregate wavefront of the projected light; and
- a phase modulator to induce phase delays between the multicore fibers in a manner such that the aggregate wavefront emitted by the multicore assembly is varied, thereby varying a focal distance at which the user perceives the one or more frames of image data.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein an inverse Fourier transform of a desired beam is injected into the multicore fibers, such that a desired aggregate wavefront is produced.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the aggregate wavefront is a spherical wavefront.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein wavefronts generated by the plurality of microfibers interfere with each other.
5. The system of claim 4, wherein the interference is a constructive interference.
6. The system of claim 4, wherein the interference is a destructive interference.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the aggregate wavefront is a planar wavefront.
8. The system of claim 7, wherein the planar wavefront corresponds to an optical infinity depth plane.
9. The system of claim 3 wherein the spherical wavefront corresponds to a depth plane closer than optical infinity.
10. The system of claim 1 implemented as a method.
Type: Application
Filed: May 7, 2015
Publication Date: Aug 27, 2015
Applicant: Magic Leap, Inc. (Dania Beach, FL)
Inventors: Brian T. Schowengerdt (Seattle, WA), Matthew D. Watson (Bellevue, WA)
Application Number: 14/706,596