Autostereoscopic optical apparatus

Abstract

An autostereoscopic optical apparatus (10) for viewing a stereoscopic virtual image comprises a left image to be viewed by an observer (12) at a left viewing pupil (14l) and a right image to be viewed by the observer at a right viewing pupil (14r). The apparatus comprises a left pupil imaging system for forming the left image. A right pupil imaging system forms the right image.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 10 / 662,208, filed Sep. 12, 2003, entitled AUTOSTEREOSCOPIC OPTICAL APPARATUS, by Cobb et al.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention generally relates to display apparatus and more particularly relates to an autostereoscopic display apparatus providing a wide field of view, large viewing pupils, and high brightness. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] The potential value of autostereoscopic display systems is well appreciated for a broad range of data visualization uses and for a wide range of applications that include entertainment, engineering, medical, government, security, and simulation fields. Autostereoscopic display systems include “immersion” systems, intended to provide a realistic viewing experience for an observer by visually surrounding the observer with a three-dimensional (3-D) image having a very wide field of view. As differentiated from the larger group of stere...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0026] It is an advantage of the present invention that it uses a larger imaging display than previous solutions, relaxing Lagrange invariant constraints on available luminance.

Problems solved by technology

As a group, these conventional approaches have been adapted for autostereoscopic displays, but allow only a narrow field of view and provide limited brightness and poor contrast.

Time-based multiplexing introduces the inherent problem of image flicker.

Combining these multiplexing techniques, as is disclosed in European Patent Application EP 0 764 869 A2 to Ezra et al., may provide an increased number of views, but does not compensate for these inherent drawbacks.

As a further disadvantage, each of the imaging technologies described in the Pastoor et al. article present the viewer with a real image, rather than with a virtual image.

However, the optical system disclosed in this article is subject to field curvature constraints, limiting its field of view.

Notably, the system described in the Hopf article provides a virtual image; however, due to substantial field curvature, the total field of view of such a system is limited to less than about 15 degrees.

While such a narrow field of view may be acceptable for videoconferencing applications, this level of performance would not be useful for a desktop display system.

It is recognized in the optical arts that each of these requirements, by itself, can be difficult to achieve.

It is well known that conflict between depth cues associated with vergence and accommodation can adversely impact the viewing experience.

It is known that there can be a temporary degradation of a viewer's depth perception when the viewer is exposed for a period of time to mismatched depth cues for vergence and accommodation.

There are also other basic optical limitations for immersion systems that must be addressed with any type of optical projection that provides a wide field of view.

An important limitation is imposed by the Lagrange invariant.

An invariant that applies throughout the optical system, the Lagrange invariant can be a limitation when using, as an image generator, a relatively small spatial light modulator or similar pixel array which operate over a relatively small numerical aperture, since the Lagrange value associated with the device is small.

At the same time, however, some amount of correction may be needed, since eye movement within a larger viewing pupil can cause some amount of “swim” effect, in which pixels appear to shift position as the eye moves within the viewing pupil.

In addition, as is well known in the imaging arts, some amount of spherical aberration is generally inherent in any optical system that employs a curved mirror for image collimation.

At the same time, however, the use of a diffusive surface effectively reduces overall brightness, introduces some level of graininess to the image, and limits the achievable contrast.

There are other minor drawbacks to autostereoscopic displays that use the design approach of the '181 disclosure.

While spherical lenses such as the ball lenses of the '181 disclosure have overall advantages for maximizing field of view and for minimizing some types of imaging aberration, there are some inherent disadvantages to the use of highly spherical optics, requiring compensation for chromatic effects for example.

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