Bifocal Head-up Display System

• US 20140036374A1
• Filed: 08/01/2012
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microvision, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Microvision, Inc.
• Inventors: Lescure, Alban N., Duelli, Markus, Miller, Joshua O., Evans, Lansing B.
• Granted Patent: US 9,030,749 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 359/630
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0127 comprising devices increasing the depth of field
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0145 creating an intermediate image
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0101 characterised by optical features G02B27/0172 takes precedence

Abstract

A bifocal head-up display system includes a projector, at least one projection surface in an intermediate image plane, and relay optics to direct a display image to a reflector in a vehicle operator'"'"'s field of view. The display image includes two image portions focused at different distances from the vehicle operator. A first image portion focused at a first distance may include information related to vehicle operation, and a second image portion focused at a second distance may include to information related to extra-vehicular objects.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a projector to display an image;

first and second projection surfaces at different distances from the projector; and

relay optics to direct the image to a reflector in a vehicle operator'"'"'s field of view, and to focus the image from the first and second projection surfaces at different distances from the vehicle operator.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first and second projection surfaces are parallel to form a first portion of the image focused at a first distance from the vehicle operator and a second portion of the image appearing above the first portion of the image and focused at a second distance greater than the first distance.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the first portion of the image displays vehicle operation information related to vehicle operation.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the second portion of the image displays augmented reality information related to environmental objects external to the vehicle.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first and second projection surfaces are arranged to form a first portion of the image focused at a first distance from the vehicle operator and a second portion of the image surrounding the first portion of the image on at least three sides and focused at a second distance, wherein the first distance is greater than the second distance.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the projector comprises a scanning laser projector.

7. A head-up display device to display an image in a vehicle operator'"'"'s field of view, the head-up display device having a bifocal projection apparatus to focus a first portion of the image at a first distance from the vehicle operator, and to focus a second portion of the image at a second distance further from the vehicle operator than the first distance.

8. The head-up display device of claim 7 wherein the bifocal projection apparatus displays the first portion of the image below the second portion of image.

9. The head-up display device of claim 7 wherein the first portion of the image displays information related to vehicle operation.

10. The head-up display device of claim 7 wherein the second portion of the image displays augmented reality information related to extra-vehicular objects.

11. The head-up display device of claim 7 wherein the second portion of the image is inset in the first portion of the image.

12. The head-up display device of claim 7 wherein the bifocal projection apparatus comprises a projector and two intermediate image planes at different distances from the projector.

13. The head-up display device of claim 7 wherein the bifocal projection apparatus comprises a projector and an intermediate image plane a variable distance from the projector.

14. The head-up display device of claim 7 wherein the bifocal projection apparatus comprises a scanning laser projector.

15. The head-up display device of claim 7 wherein the bifocal projection apparatus comprises a projector, an intermediate image plane upon which the projector projects an image, and multiple separate optical devices to separately focus different portions of the image from the intermediate image plane.

16. A head-up display device comprising:

a projector to project an image in a vehicle operator'"'"'s field of view, wherein the image includes vehicle operation data and augmented reality data; and

a bifocal focusing apparatus to focus the vehicle operation data at a first distance from the vehicle operator and to focus the augmented reality data at a second distance from the vehicle operator.

17. The head-up display device of claim 16 wherein the second distance is greater than the first distance.

18. The head-up display device of claim 17 wherein a difference between the first distance and the second distance is greater than one meter.

19. The head-up display device of claim 17 wherein a difference between the first distance and the second distance is greater than five meters.

20. The head-up display device of claim 16 wherein the augmented reality data comprises information related to vehicle navigation.