Retinal projection type super multi-view 3D head-mounted display using the time division projection optical system

Abstract

We have previously proposed the see-through retinal projection type super multi-view head-mounted display (HMD). The smooth motion parallax provided by the super multi-view technique enables a precise superposition of virtual 3D images on real scene. Moreover, if a viewer focuses one’s eyes on the displayed 3D image, the stimulus for the accommodation of human eye is reproduced naturally. To realize the super multi-view condition, multiple parallax images must be projected onto the retina. However, in the previous proposed HMD, since the respective parallax images were spatially divided and were projected onto the retina, the image resolution was low and the optical system was complicated. In order to overcome these problems, we propose the improved see-through retinal projection type super multi-view HMD by using the time division projection optical system. The proposed HMD consists of a multiple exposure holographic lens with multi-convergence points, a high frame rate display device, and a high-speed optical shutter. Multiple parallax images are displayed by time division and are converged on respective points by the holographic lens. The optical shutter which synchronized to the display device passes only one convergence light corresponding to the right parallax image. Therefore, proposed HMD realizes the pseudo super multi-view condition and displays the virtual image at the distance within ability for focusing on the human eye. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed HMD, we confirmed the depth range of the 3D image by the prototype of the proposed HMD was more than 250 mm in front of the pupil.