Reduced bandwidth holographic near-eye display

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018188688-A1
Application number	US-201715397646-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 3, 2017
Priority date	Jan 3, 2017
Publication date	Jul 5, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

Examples are disclosed that relate to holographic near-eye display systems. One example provides a near-eye display device, comprising a diverging light source, an image producing dynamic digital hologram panel configured to receive light from the diverging light source and form an image. The near-eye display device also includes and a combiner comprising a holographic optical element positioned to receive light from the dynamic digital hologram panel and to redirect the light toward an eyebox, the holographic optical element being positioned between the eyebox and a view of an external environment to combine a view of the image formed by the dynamic digital hologram panel and the view of the external environment.

First claim

1 . A near-eye display device, comprising:
a diverging light source (DLS); an image-producing Dynamic Digital Hologram (DDH) panel configured to receive light from the DLS and form an image; and a combiner comprising a holographic optical element (HOE) positioned to receive light from the image-producing DDH panel and to redirect the light toward an eyebox, the HOE being positioned between the eyebox and a view of an external environment to combine a view of the image formed by the DDH panel and the view of the external environment.

2 . The near-eye display device of claim 1 , further comprising a controller in communication with the DDH panel, the controller being configured to control the DDH panel to control a focal depth of each pixel in the image.

3 . The near-eye display device of claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to control the DDH panel to correct for aberrations in one or more of the HOE and a viewer's eye.

4 . The near-eye display device of claim 3 , wherein the controller is configured to control the DDH panel to correct for aberrations by calculating a Computer Generated Hologram (CGH) as an integration of sub-CGHs.

5 . The near-eye display device of claim 4 , wherein the controller is configured to control the DDH panel to compute the sub-CGHs by tracing a bundle of rays for each point in the image from an eye to the DDH panel, and from the DLS to the DDH panel, and to compute an associated phase delay.

6 . The near-eye display device of claim 4 , wherein the controller is configured to control the DDH panel to compute the sub-CGH to produce a wavefront based on an optical aberration model for the optical system.

7 . The near-eye display device of claim 6 , further comprising a camera, and wherein the controller is configured to select model parameters of the optical aberration model based on observing the wavefront via the camera, and adjust the model parameters to reduce a spot size.

8 . The near-eye display device of claim 4 , wherein the controller is configured to select the phase of each sub-CGH such that the phase is within a threshold consistency over the image between sub-CGHs.

9 . The near-eye display device of claim 3 , wherein the controller is configured to control the DDH panel to correct for aberrations individually for each color channel in the display device.

10 . The near-eye display device of claim 3 , wherein the controller is configured to control the DDH panel to correct for one or more of focus and aberrations in a portion of the image near a tracked position of a fovea and not in another portion of the image.

11 . The near-eye display device of claim 10 , wherein the controller is configured to control the DDH panel to compute a CGH as an inverse fast Fourier transform of a product of a fast Fourier transform of the image multiplied with a fast Fourier transform of a phase function that corrects for aberrations and focuses light at a depth in the portion of the image near the tracked position of the fovea.

12 . The near-eye display device of claim 2 , wherein the DDH panel is controllable to compute a CGH based on a separable convolution or a fast Fourier transform convolution, and wherein the phase modulating panel is further controllable to compute the hologram by using a larger area of the CGH to calculate portions of the image near the tracked position of the fovea, and a smaller area of the CGH in other portions of the image.

13 . The near-eye display device of claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to shift an exit pupil by electrically switching between holograms in the HOE.

14 . The near-eye display device of claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to shift an exit pupil via an HOE sensitive to a property of incoming light and configured to steer light to a different exit pupil position based upon the property.

15 . The near-eye display device of claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to control the DDH panel to correct for aberrations based on a position of an exit pupil.

16 . The near-eye display device of claim 1 , wherein the DDH panel is positioned and oriented to provide an even distribution of resolution over a field of view of the display device.

17 . A near-eye display device, comprising:
a DLS; a DDH panel configured to receive light from the DLS, form an image from the light, and redirect the light; a combiner comprising a HOE positioned to receive light from the DDH panel and to redirect the light toward an eyebox, the HOE being positioned between the eyebox and a view of an external environment to combine a view of the image formed by the DDH panel and the view of the external environment; and a controller configured to control the DDH panel to produce the image and to pre-distort a wavefront produced by the DDH panel to compensate for aberrations of the HOE or other integrated optics.

18 . The near-eye display device of claim 17 , wherein the controller is configured to control the DDH panel to pre-distort the wavefront to compensate for aberrations in a sub-portion of the image based upon eye tracking data.

19 . A near-eye display device, comprising:
a DLS; a DDH panel configured to receive light from the DLS, form an image from the light, and redirect the light; a combiner comprising a HOE positioned to receive light from the DDH panel and to redirect the light toward an eyebox, the HOE being positioned between the eyebox and a view of an external environment to combine a view of the image formed by the DDH panel and the view of the external environment; and a controller configured to control the DDH panel to produce the image and to pre-distort a wavefront produced by the DDH panel to compensate for optical characteristics of a user's eye.

20 . The near-eye display device of claim 19 , wherein the controller is configured to control the DDH panel to pre-distort the wavefront to compensate for optical characteristics of the user's eye in a sub-portion of the image based upon eye tracking data.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Maimone Andrew
• Georgiou Andreas
• Kollin Joel Steven

Classifications

• G03H2226/02

  Computing or processing means, e.g. digital signal processor [DSP] · CPC title

• G03H2001/0883

  Reconstruction aspect, e.g. numerical focusing · CPC title

• G02B2027/014

  comprising information/image processing systems · CPC title

• G03H2210/44

  Digital representation · CPC title

• G03H2001/264

  One hologram being a HOE · CPC title