Eyepiece for head wearable display using partial and total internal reflections

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates generally to the field of optics, and in particular but not exclusively, relates to eyepieces for head wearable displays.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

A head mounted display (“HMD”) or head wearable display is a display device worn on or about the head. HMDs usually incorporate some sort of near-to-eye optical system to create a magnified virtual image placed a few meters in front of the user. Single eye displays are referred to as monocular HMDs while dual eye displays are referred to as binocular HMDs. Some HMDs display only a computer generated image (“CGI”), while other types of HMDs are capable of superimposing CGI over a real-world view. This latter type of HMD typically includes some form of see-through eyepiece and can serve as the hardware platform for realizing augmented reality. With augmented reality the viewer's image of the world is augmented with an overlaying CGI, also referred to as a heads-up display (“HUD”).

HMDs have numerous practical and leisure applications. Aerospace applications permit a pilot to see vital flight control information without taking their eye off the flight path. Public safety applications include tactical displays of maps and thermal imaging. Other application fields include video games, transportation, and telecommunications. There is certain to be new found practical and leisure applications as the technology evolves; however, many of these applications are limited due to the cost, size, weight, field of view, and efficiency of conventional optical systems used to implemented existing HMDs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the invention are described with reference to the following figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various views unless otherwise specified. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles being described.

FIG. 1 is a plan view illustration of an eyepiece for a head wearable display, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a plan view illustration of a see-through eyepiece including an add-on component for a head wearable display, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate a demonstrative head wearable display including an eyepiece, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is an appendix that provides sag equations describing surface curvatures of a demonstrative implementation of the eyepiece, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of a system and apparatus for an eyepiece of a head wearable display that leverages partial and total internal reflections are described herein. In the following description numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the techniques described herein can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring certain aspects.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a plan view illustration of an eyepiece for a head wearable display, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. The illustrated embodiment of eyepiece 100 includes a light guide component 105 and a display source 110. The illustrated embodiment of light guide component 105 includes an input surface 115, an eye-ward facing side 120, a world facing side 125, partially reflective layers 130 and 135, a total internal reflection (“TIR”) portion 140, a partially reflective portion 145, and a viewing region 150.

In TIR portion 140 the light path of display light 155 is controlled such that reflections at eye-ward and world facing sides 120 and 125 are achieved via TIR. In partially reflective portion 145, the angles of incidence of the light path on eye-ward and world facing sides 120 and 125 are less than the critical angle such that TIR no longer occurs and partially reflective layers 130 and 135 are relied upon to achieve reflection. The reflections within partially reflective portion 145 are leaky, partial reflections.

Light guide component 105 is fabricated of a material having a higher index of refraction than air to induce total interface refraction (“TIR”) at one or more surfaces within light guide component 105. Light guide component 105 may be fabricated of optical grade plastic (e.g., Zeonex E-330-R), glass, or otherwise. In one embodiment, the component is injection molded to shape and then processed to add various optical coatings/layers discussed below.

In the illustrated embodiment, partially reflective layers 130 and 135 are disposed on eye-ward facing side 120 and world facing side 125, respectively, within partially reflective portion 145. In another embodiment, partially reflective layer 130 and 135 may coat the entire sides including TIR portion 140, though the coatings are effectively unused along TIR portion 140 since internal reflections occur due to TIR. Partially reflective layers 130 and 135 may be implemented as a conventional beam splitter (e.g., non-polarized beam splitter film) or a polarized beam splitter (“PBS”). The splitting ratio may be selected according to design needs, but in one embodiment may be implemented as a 50/50 beam splitter. In embodiments where partially reflective layers 130 and 135 are implemented using a PBS, display source 110 would output polarized light with a polarization selected to substantially reflect off of partially reflective layers 130 and 135. A PBS design can serve to increase the efficiency of the optical system. For example, LCD or liquid crystal on silicon (“LCoS”) are example display technologies that output polarized light. Of course, external polarizing films may be used in connection with other non-polarized display technologies. When operating with polarized light, it can be beneficial to use low stress materials to reduce the influence of birefringence on the optical design. Accordingly, in some embodiments, light guide component 105 may be fabricated of low stress plastics, glass, or other low stress optical grade materials.

In another embodiment, partially reflective layer 135 disposed on world facing side 125 is implemented using a switchable mirror having electrically variable transmittance/reflectance. For example, partially reflective layer 135 may be an active liquid crystal film coated along world facing side 125. The liquid crystal material is a thin film device that can rapidly switch between various transmissive and semi-transmissive/semi-reflective states in response to control signals applied to the liquid crystal film. The switchable mirror implementation provides variable reflectivity to adjust the brightness of the ambient environment and dynamically improve display contrast. In yet another embodiment, partially reflective layer 135 is implemented as a holographic mirror or reflective diffraction grating tuned to reflect the wavelength(s) of display light 155.

In one embodiment, partially reflective layers 130 and 135 have uniform reflectivity characteristic between the two layers and along their lengths extending from the proximal end closest to display source 110 and towards the distal end furthest from display source 110. In other embodiments, the reflectivity of one or both partially reflective layers 130 and 135 is non-uniform along a direction extending from the proximal end towards the distal end of eyepiece 100. This non-uniform reflectivity can be designed to increase brightness uniformity across viewing region 150. As such, in one embodiment, the reflectivity may increase towards the distal end.

During operation, display source 110 emits display light 155 from a peripheral location offset from viewing region 150 into light guide component 105. Display source 110 may be implemented using a variety of different display technologies including a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), an organic light emitting diode (“OLED”) display, or otherwise. Display light 155 may include computer generated images.

Display light 155 is incident into light guide component 105 through input surface 115. In the illustrated embodiment, input surface 115 is a flat surface without optical power. In other embodiments, input surface 115 may have a curvature with optical power to apply a lensing function to display light 155.

After display light 155 enters into light guide component 105 through input surface 115, it enters into TIR portion 140. Within TIR portion 140 of light guide component 105, the angles of incidence of the optical path are such that display light 155 internally reflects off of eye-ward facing side 120 and world facing side 125 via TIR. TIR is a substantially non-lossy reflection and therefore optically efficient. In the illustrated embodiment, the initial reflection is off of world facing side 125, while a total of three TIR reflections occur within TIR portion 140. In other embodiments, two or greater TIR reflections may be implemented. Higher number of TIR reflections may be achieved by selecting materials with a high index of refraction. Higher index material brings the critical angle closer to normal and therefore TIR reflections can be sustained further along the length of light guide component 105 before partially reflective layers 130 and 135 are necessary to sustain internal reflections.

Display light 155 is guided to partially reflective portion 145 via TIR reflections within TIR portion 140. Once display light 155 enters into partially reflective portion 145, partially reflective layers 130 and 135 sustain the reflections. These reflections will typically be lossy due to the inherent nature of partially reflective coatings. However, the partially reflective layers 130 and 135 permit the incident angles to approach normal before reaching an emission area on eye-ward facing side 120 within viewing region 150. Within viewing region 150, display light 155 exits light guide component 105 along an eye-ward direction towards eye 160. In various embodiments, partially reflective portion 145 partially reflects a single ray of display light 155 four or more times between eye-ward and world facing sides 120 and 125. In the illustrated embodiment, partially reflective portion 145 partially reflects a single ray of display light 155 eight times between eye-ward and world facing sides 120 and 125

Eye-ward facing side 120 and world facing side 125 are curved surfaces with reflective optical power as display light 155 is internally reflected and refractive optical power as display light 155 is emitted towards eye 160 in viewing region 150. The curvatures of these two surfaces operate together to adjust the vergence of display light 155 with each successive reflection and the final refraction to magnify and virtually displace the image presented to eye 160 by display light 155. The image is virtually displaced back from eye 160 by a distance (e.g., 1 m to 10 m) that enables eye 160 to comfortably bring the near-to-eye image into focus. In other words, the curved sides of light guide component 105 operate to both transport display light 155 from a peripheral location to viewing region 150 while simultaneously collimating, or nearly collimating, the image without a separate or additional collimating lens between display source 110 and light guide component 105. This design reduces the number of optical components and reduces fabrication and assembly complexity. FIG. 4 presents example sag equations with coefficient values specifying example curvatures for eye-ward facing side 120 (surface S1) and world facing side 125 (surface S2). Of course, other curvatures may be implemented.

In one embodiment, both eye-ward facing side 120 and world facing side 125 are clear surfaces that reflect display light 155 via TIR in TIR portion 140 and via partially reflective layers 130 and 135 in partially reflective portion 145. Clear surfaces achieve a desirable industrial design characteristic, since eyepiece 100 will appear as a clear eyepiece to external observers. Eyepiece 100 further achieves desirable industrial design characteristics with the thickness between eye-ward and world facing sides 120 and 125 ranging between 1 mm to 5 mm thick. The illustrated design can provide a 15 degree of diagonal field of view (“FOV”) with an eyebox of about 10 mm and an eye relief of about 19.4 mm. Of course, other dimensions can be achieved.

FIG. 2 is a plan view illustration of a see-through eyepiece 200 including an add-on component for a head wearable display, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. See-through eyepiece 200 is similar to eyepiece 100, except for the addition of see-through add-on component 205 in front of world facing side 125 in at least viewing region 150. The illustrated embodiment of add-on component 205 includes an interface surface 210 and external facing surface 215. In one embodiment, add-on component 205 may substantially cover the entire partially reflective portion 145 of light guide component 105.

In one embodiment, light guide component 105 and add-on component 205 are fabricated as two independent pieces that are bonded together along world facing side 125 and interface surface 210 using a clear adhesive. Light guide component 105 and add-on component 205 may be fabricated of two different materials having the same index of refraction, or both of the same material. For example, light guide component 105 and add-on component 205 both may be fabricated of optical grade plastic (e.g., Zeonex E-330-R), glass, or otherwise. In one embodiment, the components are injection molded to shape, processed to add various optical coatings/layers (e.g., partially reflective layers 130 and 135, anti-fingerprint coatings, etc.), and then bonded together.

Since partially reflective layers 130 and 135 are only partially reflective and light guide component 105 and add-on component 205 are fabricated of optically transmissive materials (e.g., clear plastic), viewing region 150 permits at least a portion of external scene light 220 to pass through to eye 160. Thus, see-through eyepiece 200 operates as an optical combiner, which combines external scene light 220 with display light 155 emitted through viewing portion 150 along an eye-ward direction into eye 160. In this way, eyepiece 200 is capable of displaying an augmented reality to eye 160.

As illustrated, add-on component 205 is bonded onto light guide component 105 in viewing region 150. Interface surface 210 of add-on component 205 is designed with a curvature that smoothly mates to the curvature of world facing side 125 of light guide component 105. Furthermore, add-on component 205 is designed with a curved prism or curved wedge shape that forms a smooth, continuous outer surface that includes world facing side 125 and external facing side 215. In one embodiment, the first, second, and third derivatives of the curvatures of both world facing side 125 and external facing surface 215 are controlled to achieve a smooth and continuous transition at the junction between world facing side 125 and external facing surface 215.

As mentioned above, add-on component 205 and light guide component 105 are fabricated of material(s) having the same or similar index of refraction. This serves to remove optical power at the junction between world facing side 125 and interface surface 210 for external scene light 220 that passes through viewing region 150 to eye 160. Additionally, the curvature of external scene facing surface 215 is complementary to eye-ward facing side 120 to counter-act the refractive lensing of eye-ward facing side 120. In short, the input angle of external scene light 220 entering external scene facing surface 215 is substantially equivalent to the output angle of external scene light 220 exiting eye-ward facing side 120. As such, eyepiece 200 passes at least a portion of external light 160 through viewing region 150 substantially without lensing, thereby permitting the user to have a substantially undistorted view of the ambient environment in front of eyepiece 200.

In one embodiment, the surfaces of eyepiece 100 (or 200) at which the optical path of display light 155 is redirected via TIR are coated with anti-fingerprint coatings. For example, in one embodiment, both eye-ward and world facing sides 120 and 125 in TIR portion 140 are coated with an anti-fingerprint coating to reduce the impact of fingerprint oils on total internal reflection at these surfaces. Anti-fingerprint coatings are known in the art.

FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate a monocular head wearable display 300 using an eyepiece 301, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 3A is a perspective view of head wearable display 300, while FIG. 3B is a top view of the same. Eyepiece 301 may be implemented with embodiments of eyepieces 100 or 200 as discussed above. Eyepiece 301 is mounted to a frame assembly, which includes a nose bridge 305, left ear arm 310, and right ear arm 315. Housings 320 and 325 may contain various electronics including a microprocessor, interfaces, one or more wireless transceivers, a battery, a camera, a speaker, etc. Although FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate a monocular embodiment, head wearable display 300 may also be implemented as a binocular display with two eyepieces 301 each aligned with a respective eye of the user when display 300 is worn.

The see-through piece 301 is secured into an eye glass arrangement or head wearable display that can be worn on the head of a user. The left and right ear arms 310 and 315 rest over the user's ears while nose bridge 305 rests over the user's nose. The frame assembly is shaped and sized to position viewing region 150 in front of an eye of the user. Other frame assemblies having other shapes may be used (e.g., traditional eyeglasses frame, a single contiguous headset member, a headband, goggles type eyewear, etc.).

The illustrated embodiment of head wearable display 300 is capable of displaying an augmented reality to the user. In see-through embodiments, eyepiece 301 permits the user to see a real world image via external scene light 220. Left and right (binocular embodiment) display light 155 may be generated by display sources 110 mounted in peripheral corners outside the user's central vision. Display light 155 is seen by the user as a virtual image superimposed over external scene light 220 as an augmented reality. In some embodiments, external scene light 220 may be fully, partially, or selectively blocked to provide sun shading characteristics and increase the contrast of image light 155 via tinting add-on component 205.

The above description of illustrated embodiments of the invention, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described herein for illustrative purposes, various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize.

These modifications can be made to the invention in light of the above detailed description. The terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the invention to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification. Rather, the scope of the invention is to be determined entirely by the following claims, which are to be construed in accordance with established doctrines of claim interpretation.