Head mounted projector system

• US 6,312,129 B1
• Filed: 07/21/1998
• Issued: 11/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: L-3 Communications Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: L-3 Communications Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yaffe, Roger E., Sisodia, Ashok
• Primary Examiner(s): DOWLING, WILLIAM C
• Application Number:
  US09/119,923
• Time in Patent Office: 1,204 Days
• Field of Search: 353/30, 353/28, 353/13, 353/121, 353/122, 345/7, 345/8, 345/9, 359/618, 359/630, 359/627, 359/629, 359/637, 359/638, 385/43, 385/116, 385/119, 385/121, 385/122, 385/901
• US Class Current: 353/31
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/14 Details

Abstract

A head mounted projection unit (16) and system (30) is disclosed. The unit includes a tapered optical relay that allows the use of a simple optical projection system. The unit further includes structure for allowing the transmission of images having both low resolution portions and high resolution portions.

Claims

1. A projection system comprising:

an image generation system;

a head-mount unit adapted to be supported on a head of a user;

a projection screen separate from the head mount unit against which images can be projected for viewing by the user;

said head-mount unit comprising;

first and second image sources each being connected with the image generation system and each receiving therefrom at least a respective image or portion of an image to display, each of the image sources generating a respective image output responsive thereto;

first and second relays each associated with a respective image source, the first relay receiving and relaying the image output from said first image source to produce a first relayed image output, and the second relay receiving and relaying the image output from said second image source to produce a second relayed image output;

the first relayed image output being smaller than the image output from the first image source and smaller and in higher resolution than the second relayed image output;

an optics system receiving and combining the first and second relayed image outputs, and projecting the first and second relayed image outputs to the screen together so that the first relayed image output is viewed by the user in higher resolution than, and together with, the second relayed image output.

2. The projection system of claim 1, and

the second relayed image output being smaller than the image output from the second image source.

3. The projection system of claim 1, and

said relays being tapered relays reducing the size of images transmitted therethrough.

4. The projection system of claim 1, and

said relays each comprising a tapered fiber optic relay.

5. The projection system of claim 1, and

the image generator generating a primary image and separating said primary image into a low resolution channel image and a high resolution channel image, said high resolution channel image being sent to the first image source and said low resolution channel image being sent to the second image source.

6. The projection system of claim 1, and

each image source comprising a flat panel crystal display.

7. The projection system of claim 1, and

each image source comprising a miniature flat panel crystal display.

8. The projection system of claim 1, and

the head mount unit being part of headgear adapted to be worn on the head of the user.

9. The projection system of claim 1, and

said optics system comprising a beamsplitter to which the relayed image outputs are transmitted so that one relayed image is reflected therefrom and one relayed image passes therethrough so that said images are combined on the same image path.

10. The projection system of claim 1, and

said optics system comprising a fold mirror which reflects the combined relayed output images to project on the screen.

11. The projection system of claim 10, and

said fold mirror being formed of a partially reflective material.

12. The projection system of claim 11, and

said optics system including a lens causing the light of the relayed images to project conically for projection on the screen.

13. The projection system of claim 1, and

the lens having a dimension thereacross, and the first and second relayed image outputs being smaller than the dimension.

14. The projection system of claim 1, and

said optics system comprising combining means receiving the relayed image outputs and combining said relayed image output to be in the same image path;

a convex lens structure receiving the combined image and causing the light thereof to project conically for projection; and

a fold mirror reflecting the conically projecting light to the screen.

15. A method of projecting an image using a head mount projection system, said method comprising:

generating first and second images each representing part of the image to be projected;

providing said first and second images to a head mounted unit having first and second tapered fiber optic relays;

reducing at least a portion of said primary image using each of said tapered fiber optic relays to produce first and second relayed image outputs, one of the outputs having a higher resolution than the other;

combining the high and low resolution relayed image outputs with and optics system;

projecting said combined image outputs together onto a screen separate from the head mounted unit using said optics system to display the image to the user.

16. The method of claim 15 and

said image output from said first tapered relay being smaller than said image output from said second tapered relay.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said image output from said first tapered relay has a higher resolution than said image output from said second tapered relay.