56.2: Invited Paper: Evaluation of Optical See‐through Real Scene Image Quality in AR Eyewear Displays

Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) has become a hot topic. It seems AR is finally becoming ready for the generals: Public securities have been using AR glasses to assist their public patrol activities, the museum offers the AR glasses to enhance the visitor experience, the oil evaporation workers wear AR headset to help their evaporation operation, etc. However, the one component that is probably most limiting today's popularization is the display's image quality. This paper addressed the image quality of see‐through real scene for AR glasses. Michelson contrast or namely luminance modulation, is measured to evaluate the quality of an see‐through optics. In this paper, we studied the Michelson contrast at different locations of the optics of AR displays. Two types of AR displays were selected for the evaluation and measurement. This paper discussed the two favorable AR type technologies: waveguide and combiner (prism‐combiner).