Holographic wide angle display

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9341846-B2
Application number	US-201313869866-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 24, 2013
Priority date	Apr 25, 2012
Publication date	May 17, 2016
Grant date	May 17, 2016

Abstract

An apparatus for displaying an image, including: an input image node configured to provide at least a first and a second image modulated lights; and a holographic waveguide device configured to propagate the at least one of the first and second image modulated lights in at least a first direction. The holographic waveguide device includes: at least a first and second interspersed multiplicities of grating elements disposed in at least one layer, the first and second grating elements having respectively a first and a second prescriptions. The first and second multiplicity of grating elements are configured to deflect respectively the first and second image modulated lights out of the at least one layer into respectively a first and a second multiplicities of output rays forming respectively a first and second FOV tiles.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. An apparatus for displaying an image, comprising:
an input image node configured to provide at least first and second image modulated lights; and
a holographic waveguide device configured to propagate at least one of the first and second image modulated lights in at least a first direction, the holographic waveguide device comprising:
at least first and second interspersed multiplicities of grating elements disposed in at least one layer, the first and second grating elements having respectively first and second prescriptions;
wherein the first and second image modulated lights are modulated respectively with first field of view (FOV) image information and second FOV image information;
wherein the first multiplicity of grating elements are configured to deflect the first image modulated light out of the at least one layer into a first multiplicity of output rays forming a first FOV tile, and the second multiplicity of grating elements are configured to deflect the second image modulated light out of the layer into a second multiplicity of output rays forming a second FOV tile,
wherein the at least first and second interspersed multiplicities of grating elements comprises N 1 interspersed multiplicities of grating elements disposed in the at least one layer, where N 1 is an integer, each of the N 1 interspersed multiplicity of grating elements having a respective different prescription, the multiplicities of grating elements arranged in a series of bands including a first band having N 1 different prescriptions, and two second bands arranged respectively on both sides of the first band and having an integer N 2 different prescriptions, where N 1 >N 2 ,
wherein the series of bands includes two third bands arranged respectively on both sides of the second bands and having an integer N 3 different prescriptions, and two fourth bands arranged respectively on both sides of the third bands and having an integer N 4 different prescriptions, where N 1 >N 2 >N 3 >N 4 .

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first and second multiplicities of the grating elements are tessellated in a predetermined pattern.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first and second multiplicities of the grating elements are tessellated in a predetermined pattern and the predetermined pattern is at least one of a periodic pattern, a non-periodic pattern, a self-similar pattern, and randomly distributed pattern.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein all elements in the first or second multiplicities of grating elements are configured to be switched into a diffracting state simultaneously.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second multiplicities of the grating elements have a shape that comprises at least one of square, triangle and diamond.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein elements of the first multiplicity of grating elements have a first geometry and elements of the second multiplicity of grating elements have a second geometry.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second grating elements have at least two different geometries.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein all grating elements in the at least one the layer are optimized for one wavelength.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second grating elements in the at least one layer are optimised for at least two wavelengths.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second grating elements have multiplexed prescriptions optimized for at least two different wavelengths.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second grating elements have multiplexed prescriptions optimized for at least two different diffraction efficiency angular bandwidths.

12. A device comprising the apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the device is a part of a stereoscopic display in which the first and second image modulated lights provide left and right eye perspective views.

13. A device comprising the apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the device is a part of at least one of HMD, HUD, and HDD.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second multiplicities of the grating elements have a diffraction efficiency that is spatially dependent.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image modulated light from at least one grating element of a given prescription is present within an exit pupil region bounded by the instantaneous aperture of the human eye pupil.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second multiplicities of the grating elements are electrically switchable.

17. A method of displaying an image, the method comprising:
(i) providing an apparatus comprising: an input image node and a holographic waveguide device comprises N 1 interspersed multiplicities of grating elements, where N 1 is an integer, each of the N 1 interspersed multiplicity of grating elements having a respective different prescription, the multiplicities of grating elements arranged in a series of bands including a first band having N 1 different prescriptions, and two second bands arranged respectively on both sides of the first band and having an integer N 2 different prescriptions, where N 1 >N 2 ;
(ii) generating image modulated light I by the input image node corresponding to a field of view (FOV) tile I, for integers 1≦I≦N;
(iii) switching grating elements of prescription matching FOV tile I to their diffracting states;
(iv) illuminating grating elements of prescription matching FOV tile I with image modulated light I; and
(v) diffracting the image modulated light I into FOV tile I,
wherein the series of bands includes two third bands arranged respectively on both sides of the second bands and having an integer N 3 different prescriptions, and two fourth bands arranged respectively on both sides of the third bands and having an integer N 4 different prescriptions, where N 1 >N 2 >N 3 >N 4 .

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising repeating (ii)-(v) until achieving full FOV tiled.

19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising sampling the input image into a plurality of angular intervals, each of the plurality of angular intervals having an effective exit pupil that is a fraction of the size of the full pupil.

20. The method of claim 17 , further comprising improving the displaying of the image by modifying at least one of the following of at least one grating lamina of at least one of a first and second optical substrates: grating thickness, refractive index modulation, k-vector, surface grating period, and hologram-substrate index difference.

Assignees

• Popovich Milan Momcilo
• Waldern Jonathan David
• Grant Alastair John
• Hendrick Wyatt L
• Stanley James H
• Rockwell Collins Inc

Inventors

• Popovich Milan Momcilo
• Waldern Jonathan David
• Grant Alastair John
• Hendrick Wyatt L
• Stanley James H

Classifications

• G02B30/34

  Stereoscopes providing a stereoscopic pair of separated images corresponding to parallactically displaced views of the same object, e.g. three-dimensional [3D] slide viewers · CPC title

• G02B30/26

  of the autostereoscopic type · CPC title

• G02B27/0103 Primary

  comprising holographic elements · CPC title

• G03H2001/2226

  Edge lit holograms · CPC title

• G02B2027/0174

  holographic · CPC title