Foveated imaging for near-eye displays

Abstract

The angular resolution of current near-eye display devices is still far below humaneye acuity. How to achieve retina-level resolution while keeping wide field-of-view (FOV) remains a great challenge. In this work, we demonstrate a multi-resolution foveated display with two display panels and an optical combiner. The first display panel provides a wide FOV but relatively low resolution for the surrounding region, while the second one offers an ultrahigh resolution for the central fovea region, by an optical minifying system which enhances the effective resolution by 5 ×. In addition, a switchable Pancharatnam-Berry phase deflector is employed to shift the high-resolution region. The proposed design effectively reduces the pixelation and screen-door effect in near-eye displays.

32‐1: Invited Paper: Review of Micro‐light‐emitting‐diode Technology for Micro‐display Applications

“…It is known that there is a trade-off relation between pixels per degree (PPD) and field of view (FOV) for a near-eye display as shown in Figure 4 [43]. Based on the curve of PPD versus FOV, there exist nominal conditions that human can feel a projected image as a real one.…”

59‐1: Liquid Crystal Technology for Solving Key Optical Challenges in Virtual and Augmented Realities

“…A High-resolution insert can be used in the headset and match with the acuity distribution of human eyes. Several multi-resolution foveated display designs have been proposed 9,10 and 1 arcmin display was achieved in the foveated region 11,12 . In both design cases 11,12 for high-resolution displays, LC photonics devices plays an important role to realize such kind of designs.…”

Liquid Crystal Beam Steering Devices: Principles, Recent Advances, and Future Developments

“…Precisely positioning a laser beam or light ray is crucial for practical applications, such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR) [1][2][3], displays [4][5][6], microscopy [7], optical tweezers [8], and laser micro-machining [9]. For example, LiDAR, as the most pivotal application promoting beam steering techniques, can map landscapes in a three-dimensional (3D) space and serves as an enabling technology for space station navigation, telescope docking, and autonomous cars, drones, and underwater vehicles [10][11][12].…”