LensIet VR: Thin, Flat and Wide-FOV Virtual Reality Display Using Fresnel Lens and LensIet Array.

Kiseung Bang,Minseok Chae,Byoungho Lee,Youngjin Jo

doi:10.1109/tvcg.2021.3067758

Kiseung Bang, Minseok Chae + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/tvcg.2021.3067758

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Abstract

We propose a new thin and flat virtual reality (VR) display design using a Fresnel lenslet array, a Fresnel lens, and a polarization-based optical folding technique. The proposed optical system has a wide field of view (FOV) of 102°x102°, a wide eye-box of 8.8 mm, and an ergonomic eye-relief of 20 mm. Simultaneously, only 3.3 mm of physical distance is required between the display panel and the lens, so that the integrated VR display can have a compact form factor like sunglasses. Moreover, since all lenslet of the lenslet array is designed to operate under on-axis condition with low aberration, the discontinuous pupil swim distortion between the lenslets is hardly observed. In addition, all on-axis lenslets can be designed identically, reducing production cost, and even off-the-shelf Fresnel optics can be used. In this paper, we introduce how we design system parameters and analyze system performance. Finally, we demonstrate two prototypes and experimentally verify that the proposed VR display system has the expected performance while having a glasses-like form factor.

Highlights

Virtual reality (VR) technology has attracted much attention because of its huge potential applications such as entertainment, education, training, fine arts, and social communication
We derive a proper specification of the optical system, and we demonstrate a glasses-sized wide-field of view (FOV), wide-eye-box, and full-color VR display prototype
The number of VR users will increase, the field using VR will expand, and sometime VR will be a part of daily life

Summary

Introduction

Virtual reality (VR) technology has attracted much attention because of its huge potential applications such as entertainment, education, training, fine arts, and social communication. It is the empty space that currently takes up most of the volume in commercial VR devices. This space is required by the optical design using a single floating lens for Manuscript received 9 Sept. This primitive optical design has been used without drastic changes since the early days of VR. While many other VR technologies, such as real-time tracking and rendering, show the rapid growth, the development of optical system design has been stagnant. The slow development of optical design has been a bottleneck for the explosive expansion of VR. In order to widen this bottleneck and open a new page of the VR market, the next-level VR optics is required

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