Eyepiece for head wearable display using partial and total internal reflections

• US 9,389,422 B1
• Filed: 12/23/2013
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Cakmakci, Ozan, Gupta, Anurag
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh, Jack
• Application Number:
  US14/139,277
• Time in Patent Office: 932 Days
• Field of Search: 359/631, 359/630, 359/633
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 1/18 Coatings for keeping optical surfaces clean, e.g. hydrophobic or photo-catalytic films G02B1/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0174 holographic
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0178 Eyeglass type eyeglass details G02C
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0172 characterised by optical features

Abstract

An eyepiece for a head wearable display includes a light guide component for guiding display light received at a peripheral location offset from a viewing region and emitting the display light in the viewing region. The light guide component includes an input surface oriented to receive the display light into the light guide component, an eye-ward facing side having a first curvature, a world facing side having a second curvature, a total internal reflection (“TIR”) portion disposed proximal to the input surface to guide the display light using TIR, and a partially reflective portion disposed distal to the input surface to receive the display light from the TIR portion and guide the display light to the viewing region using partial reflections. The first and second curvatures of the eye-ward and world facing sides together operate to adjust the vergence of the display light to virtually displace an image.

Claims

1. An eyepiece for a head wearable display, the eyepiece comprising:

a light guide component for guiding display light received at a peripheral location offset from a viewing region and emitting the display light along an eye-ward direction in the viewing region, the light guide component including;

an input surface oriented to receive the display light into the light guide component at the peripheral location;

an eye-ward facing side having a first curvature;

a world facing side having a second curvature different from the first curvature;

a total internal reflection (“

TIR”

) portion disposed proximal to the input surface to guide the display light received through in the input surface using TIR off of the eye-ward and world facing sides; and

a partially reflective portion disposed distal to the input surface to receive the display light from the TIR portion and guide the display light to the viewing region using partial reflections off of the eye-ward and world facing sides,

wherein the first and second curvatures of the eye-ward and world facing sides together operate to adjust the vergence of the display light via successive reflections between the eye-ward and world facing sides to virtually displace an image of the display light emitted,

wherein an optical path of a single ray of the display light within the light guide component includes two or more TIR reflections within the TIR portion and four or more partial reflections within the partially reflective portion.

2. The eyepiece of claim 1, wherein the light guide component further comprises:

partially reflective layers disposed on the eye-ward facing and world facing sides within the partially reflective portion.

3. The eyepiece of claim 2, wherein the partially reflective layers comprise partially reflective coatings.

4. The eyepiece of claim 3, wherein the partially reflective coatings comprise polarized beam splitter (“

PBS”

) coatings.

5. The eyepiece of claim 2, wherein the one of the partially reflective layers disposed on the world facing side comprises a switchable mirror.

6. The eyepiece of claim 2, wherein the reflectivity of one or both of the partially reflective layers is non-uniform along a direction extending from a proximal end to a distal end of the light guide component.

7. The eyepiece of claim 2, wherein the one of the partially reflective layers disposed on the world facing side comprises a holographic mirror.

8. The eyepiece of claim 1, wherein the optical path includes three TIR reflections within the TIR portions and eight partial reflections within the partially reflection portion.

9. The eyepiece of claim 1, further comprising:

a see-through add-on component mounted to the world facing side of the light guide component in the viewing region,

wherein the see-through add-on component and the light guide component are at least partially transparent to external scene light travelling along the eye-ward direction.

10. The eyepiece of claim 9, wherein the see-through add-on component is formed of a material having an index of refraction substantially equivalent to that of the light guide component.

11. The eyepiece of claim 9, wherein the see-through add-on component comprises:

an interface surface having a third curvature that mates to the second curvature of the world facing side in the viewing region; and

an external facing surface having a fourth curvature that is complementary to the first curvature of the eye-ward facing side in the viewing region to substantially offset optical power of the eye-ward facing side in the viewing region for the external scene light.

12. The eyepiece of claim 1, wherein the input surface comprises a flat surface.

13. The eyepiece of claim 1, wherein the eye-ward and world facing sides are coated with anti-fingerprint coatings along the TIR portion.

14. A head wearable display for displaying an image to a user, the head wearable display comprising:

a display source to generate display light;

an eyepiece to guide light, the eyepiece including;

an input surface oriented to receive the display light into the light guide component at a peripheral location offset from a viewing region of the eyepiece;

an eye-ward facing side having a first curvature;

a world facing side having a second curvature different from the first curvature;

a total internal reflection (“

TIR”

) portion disposed proximal to the input surface to guide the display light received through in the input surface using TIR off of the eye-ward and world facing sides; and

a partially reflective portion disposed distal to the input surface to receive the display light from the TIR portion and guide the display light to the viewing region using partial reflections off of the eye-ward and world facing sides, wherein an optical path of a single ray of the display light within the eyepiece includes two or more TIR reflections within the TIR portion and four or more partial reflections within the partially reflective portion; and

a frame assembly to support the eyepiece and the display source for wearing on a head of the user with the viewing region positioned in front of the eye of the user.

15. The head wearable display of claim 14, further comprises:

partially reflective layers disposed on the eye-ward facing and world facing sides within the partially reflective portion.

16. The head wearable display of claim 15, wherein the partially reflective coatings comprise polarized beam splitter (“

PBS”

) coatings.

17. The head wearable display of claim 15, wherein the one of the partially reflective layers disposed on the world facing side comprises a switchable mirror.

18. The head wearable display of claim 15, wherein the reflectivity of one or both of the partially reflective layers is non-uniform along a direction extending from a proximal end to a distal end of the light guide component.

19. The head wearable display of claim 14, further comprising:

a see-through add-on component mounted to the world facing side in the viewing region,

wherein the see-through add-on is at least partially transparent to external scene light travelling along the eye-ward direction.

20. The head wearable display of claim 19, wherein the see-through add-on component comprises:

an interface surface having a third curvature that mates to the second curvature of the world facing side in the viewing region; and

an external facing surface having a fourth curvature that is complementary to the first curvature of the eye-ward facing side in the viewing region to substantially offset optical power of the eye-ward facing side in the viewing region for the external scene light.