Methods and systems for generating virtual content display with a virtual or augmented reality apparatus
First Claim
1. A method for generating stereoscopic images for virtual reality or augmented reality, comprising:
- transmitting input light beams having an incident direction and carrying image information of at least one stereoscopic image into a substrate of an eyepiece by using an in-coupling optic element;
refracting, at the in-coupling optic element, the input light beams toward a first diffractive element;
diffracting, with at least the first diffractive element, a first portion of the input light beams incident on a first portion of the first diffractive element to propagate in a diffracted direction that points to a portion of a second diffractive element on the eyepiece while allowing a remaining portion of the input light beams to continue to propagate in the incident direction within the substrate of the eyepiece and to interact with a different portion of the second diffractive element, wherein the first diffractive element and the second diffractive element are disposed on two opposing sides of the substrate; and
projecting exiting light beams with an output light beam density for the at least one stereoscopic image to at least one eye of a viewer with the second diffractive element to diffract some of the first portion of the input light beams that is diffracted by the first diffractive element to the second diffractive element as the exiting light beams and to direct a remaining portion of the first portion incident on the second diffractive element in a direction to continue to propagate within the substrate, whereinthe output light beam density is configured based at least part upon degrees of spatial overlapping between the first and second diffractive elements, or the output light beam intensity is increased by embedding a beam-splitting surface in the substrate or by being sandwiched between the substrate and another substrate to split at least a part of the input light beams into a plurality of portions comprising a transmitted portion and a reflected portion,the first diffractive elements and the second diffractive elements are configured to comprise diffractive structures of both a volumetric type and a surface relief type, rather than the volumetric type of diffractive structures alone or the surface-relief type of diffractive structures alone, and the first and second diffractive elements are disposed on or in one or more transparent or translucent optical components.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Several unique configurations for interferometric recording of volumetric phase diffractive elements with relatively high angle diffraction for use in waveguides are disclosed. Separate layer EPE and OPE structures produced by various methods may be integrated in side-by-side or overlaid constructs, and multiple such EPE and OPE structures may be combined or multiplexed to exhibit EPE/OPE functionality in a single, spatially-coincident layer. Multiplexed structures reduce the total number of layers of materials within a stack of eyepiece optics, each of which may be responsible for displaying a given focal depth range of a volumetric image. Volumetric phase type diffractive elements are used to offer properties including spectral bandwidth selectivity that may enable registered multi-color diffracted fields, angular multiplexing capability to facilitate tiling and field-of-view expansion without crosstalk, and all-optical, relatively simple prototyping compared to other diffractive element forms, enabling rapid design iteration.
23 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A method for generating stereoscopic images for virtual reality or augmented reality, comprising:
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transmitting input light beams having an incident direction and carrying image information of at least one stereoscopic image into a substrate of an eyepiece by using an in-coupling optic element; refracting, at the in-coupling optic element, the input light beams toward a first diffractive element; diffracting, with at least the first diffractive element, a first portion of the input light beams incident on a first portion of the first diffractive element to propagate in a diffracted direction that points to a portion of a second diffractive element on the eyepiece while allowing a remaining portion of the input light beams to continue to propagate in the incident direction within the substrate of the eyepiece and to interact with a different portion of the second diffractive element, wherein the first diffractive element and the second diffractive element are disposed on two opposing sides of the substrate; and projecting exiting light beams with an output light beam density for the at least one stereoscopic image to at least one eye of a viewer with the second diffractive element to diffract some of the first portion of the input light beams that is diffracted by the first diffractive element to the second diffractive element as the exiting light beams and to direct a remaining portion of the first portion incident on the second diffractive element in a direction to continue to propagate within the substrate, wherein the output light beam density is configured based at least part upon degrees of spatial overlapping between the first and second diffractive elements, or the output light beam intensity is increased by embedding a beam-splitting surface in the substrate or by being sandwiched between the substrate and another substrate to split at least a part of the input light beams into a plurality of portions comprising a transmitted portion and a reflected portion, the first diffractive elements and the second diffractive elements are configured to comprise diffractive structures of both a volumetric type and a surface relief type, rather than the volumetric type of diffractive structures alone or the surface-relief type of diffractive structures alone, and the first and second diffractive elements are disposed on or in one or more transparent or translucent optical components. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. An apparatus for generating stereoscopic images for virtual reality and/or augmented reality, comprising:
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an eyepiece including a substrate; an in-coupling optic element to refract input light beams having an incident direction and carrying image information of at least one stereoscopic image into the substrate; and the substrate comprising first diffractive element and second diffractive element that are operatively coupled to the in-coupling optic element, wherein the first diffractive element and the second diffractive element are disposed on two opposing sides of the substrate, the first diffractive element is configured to diffract a first portion of the input light beams incident on at least a portion of the first diffractive element to propagate in a diffracted direction that points to a portion of second diffractive element while allowing a remaining portion of the input light beams to continue to propagate in the incident direction within the substrate of the eyepiece and to interact with a different portion of the second diffractive element, the second diffractive element is configured to project exiting light beams with an output light beam density for the at least one stereoscopic image to at least one eye of a viewer at least by diffracting some of the first portion of the input light beams that is diffracted by the first diffractive element as exiting light beams toward the at least one eye of the viewer and directing a remaining portion of the first portion incident on at least one portion of the second diffractive element in a direction to propagate within the substrate, the output light beam density is configured based at least in part on a degree of spatial overlapping between the first and second diffractive elements or an output light beam intensity is increased by embedding a beam-splitting surface in the substrate or sandwiching the beam-splitting surface between the substrate and another substrate to split at least a part of the input light beams into a plurality of portions comprising a transmitted portion and a reflected portion, the first and second diffractive elements are configured so each comprises diffractive structures of both a volumetric type and a surface relief type, rather than the volumetric type of diffractive structures alone or the surface-relief type of diffractive structures alone. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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Specification