Invention:
This invention consists of the design and embodiments of a statically optical see through head mounted displays (OST-HMDs) in which the angular pixel density decreases with the increase of the filed eccentricity according to a specified angular pixel density function.
To facilitate the head mounted display capability to simultaneously see the image rendered by a display and the view go the real-world scene, a freeform prism is utilized as the optical combiner to merge the optical paths of the virtual image display and real-world view. The implementation of the described features creates minimally perceivable image artifacts and image resolution discontinuity and may further eliminate or limit the need for an eye tracker or scanning mechanism.
Background:
Head-mounted displays (HMDs) have been created for numerous effective purposes, including training, medical education, navigation, and various other applications. Traditional HMD configurations utilize the widely accepted rectilinear sampling approach, which is primarily employed in 2D display and imaging systems. As a result of using such configurations, conventional HMD are subject to the inherent trade-off between field of view (FOV) and resolution.
To alleviate the trade-off between FOV and resolution, a foveated display, inspired by the foveation properties of the human eye, can be generally defined as a method that identifies a user's region of interest (ROI) and allocates limited resources, such as a finite number of pixels or data processing and transmission bandwidth, differently between the ROI and the peripheral area outside the ROI region.
Applications:
- Training
- Medical education
- Navigation
- Entertainment
Advantages:
- Can realize a large FOV and high resolution in a display system at the same time
- Can achieve a spatially varying angular pixel density distribution for the virtual display path
