CN216848346U

CN216848346U - Augmented reality device

Info

Publication number: CN216848346U
Application number: CN202122567496.9U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 胡雪蕾; 郑旭君; 楼歆晔; 林涛
Original assignee: Shanghai Kunyou Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Kunyou Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-07-15
Filing date: 2021-10-25
Publication date: 2022-06-28
Anticipated expiration: 2031-10-25

Abstract

An augmented reality device comprising: an apparatus main body; an optical waveguide and a split-aperture micro-projection device, wherein the optical waveguide and the multi-aperture micro-projection device are disposed at the apparatus main body, respectively, and the split-aperture micro-projection device includes: at least one image source for emitting a plurality of beams of image light; and the sub-aperture lenses are arranged on the light emitting side of the at least one image source side by side and correspond to the plurality of image lights emitted by the at least one image source one by one and are used for modulating the corresponding image lights to project the image lights to the coupling-in area of the optical waveguide, so that the large aperture can be realized, the smaller volume and the smaller weight can be kept, the condition of low illumination of the marginal field of view caused by the large aperture can be avoided, and the uniformity and the brightness on the pupil can be increased.

Description

Augmented reality device

Technical Field

The utility model relates to an augmented reality technical field especially relates to augmented reality equipment.

Background

Augmented Reality (AR), which is a technology for seamlessly integrating virtual world information and real world information, projects pixels on a pico projector into human eyes through an optical combiner, and simultaneously sees the real world through the optical combiner, i.e., superimposes virtual content provided by the pico projector and a real environment on the same picture or space in real time to exist simultaneously, so that a user obtains a virtual and real fused experience. Therefore, one of the design requirements of the optical combiner is that the front sight cannot be blocked and the optical combiner has high transmittance.

In the prior art, there are various implementations of augmented reality systems, which mainly include an optical machine (including an illumination system, a micro display screen, and an imaging system) and an optical combiner (such as a beam splitter prism, a free-form surface, a birdbath, or an optical waveguide). However, from the perspective of optical effect, appearance and mass production, the optical waveguide is the best augmented reality scheme at present, and has excellent development potential. As is well known, the basis of an optical waveguide is a thin, transparent glass substrate (the thickness of which is typically in the order of a few millimeters or sub-millimeters) so that light travels by total reflection back and forth between the upper and lower surfaces of the glass substrate, i.e., when the refractive index of a transmission medium is greater than that of the surrounding medium and the incident angle in the waveguide is greater than the critical angle for total reflection, the light can be transmitted without leakage by total reflection within the optical waveguide. In this way, after the image light from the projector has been coupled into the light guide, the image light continues to propagate without loss in the light guide until it is coupled out by the subsequent structures.

Currently, waveguides on the market are generally classified into geometric array waveguides and diffractive light waveguides. The geometric optical waveguide is generally referred to as an array optical waveguide, which implements output of an image and expansion of a movable eye socket through array mirror stacking, so that image quality and efficiency can reach a high level. The diffraction optical waveguide mainly utilizes a surface relief grating waveguide manufactured by using a photoetching technology and a holographic body grating waveguide manufactured based on a holographic interference technology, so that the diffraction optical waveguide has extremely high design freedom and volume production brought by nano-imprinting processing, and has obvious advantages.

Although the existing optical waveguide can perform one-dimensional pupil expansion and also can perform two-dimensional pupil expansion, when the optical waveguide only performs one-dimensional pupil expansion, an optical machine is needed to perform another-dimensional pupil expansion so as to obtain a larger eyebox. However, when the optical engine needs to expand the pupil to obtain a larger eyebox, the pupil (aperture) of the optical engine naturally increases greatly (even to more than 20 mm), so that at a certain angle of view, when the screen used by the projection system is smaller, the F number of the system is reduced to less than 1, which makes the design of the imaging system (i.e. lens) in the optical engine difficult, which not only results in a large increase in the size of the optical engine, but also results in a reduction in image quality. For example, as shown in fig. 1, a conventional optical engine 1P includes a screen 11P with an image plane half height of 1.3mm, a single aperture lens 20P with a pupil size of 12mm, and the field angle of the optical engine 1P is 15 °, at this time, the F number of the single aperture lens 12P is about 0.49, and at least ten lenses are required to complete the design of the lens, and the design difficulty is very large. Taking the single-aperture lens 12P designed by ten lenses as an example, the maximum aperture of the optical engine 1P is 23mm, and the total length reaches 26mm, and as can be seen from the MTF graph of the optical engine 1P shown in fig. 2, the image quality of the optical engine 1P is very poor.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

An advantage of the present invention is that it provides augmented reality equipment that can still maintain less volume and weight while realizing large aperture.

An advantage of the utility model is that an augmented reality equipment is provided, its marginal field of view illuminance low condition that can avoid large aperture to lead to helps increasing homogeneity and luminance on the pupil.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an augmented reality device, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, the multi-aperture micro-projection device in the augmented reality device can utilize the sub-aperture lens with smaller apertures to replace a single-aperture lens with larger aperture, which not only can reduce the size and weight of the device, but also can reduce the design difficulty of the lens, and improve the image quality.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide augmented reality apparatus, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, the multi-aperture micro-projection device can arrange along the expanding pupil direction different from the optical waveguide the plurality of sub-aperture lenses to perform expanding pupil of another dimension direction, thereby realizing a larger eyebox.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an augmented reality apparatus, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, in the multi-aperture micro-projection device, the arrangement direction of the plurality of sub-aperture lenses is perpendicular to the pupil expanding direction of the optical waveguide, so as to increase the eyebox to the maximum.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an augmented reality apparatus, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, there is a partial overlap in the fields of view of a plurality of sub-aperture lenses in the multi-aperture micro-projection device, so as to ensure continuity of the eyebox range.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an augmented reality apparatus, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, the multi-aperture micro-projection device sets an optical waveguide at the overlapping position of the view fields of the sub-aperture lenses, so as to reduce the size of the apparatus to the maximum while realizing a continuous eyebox range.

Another advantage of the present invention is that it provides an augmented reality apparatus, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus can include a plurality of sub-image sources corresponding to a plurality of sub-aperture lenses one-to-one, which helps to increase the uniformity of illumination in the whole pupil while reducing the design difficulty.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an augmented reality apparatus, wherein in an embodiment of the present invention, the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus can also include a single image source corresponding to the plurality of sub-aperture lenses, which helps to reduce cost and reduce the difficulty of assembly and adjustment.

Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an augmented reality device, wherein in order to achieve the above object, expensive materials or complex structures need not be employed in the present invention. Therefore, the utility model discloses succeed in and provide a solution effectively, not only provide augmented reality equipment, still increased simultaneously the practicality and the reliability of augmented reality equipment.

In order to realize above-mentioned at least one advantage or other advantages and purposes, the utility model provides an augmented reality equipment includes:

an apparatus main body;

an optical waveguide; and

a multi-aperture micro-projection device, wherein the optical waveguide and the multi-aperture micro-projection device are disposed at the apparatus main body, respectively, and the multi-aperture micro-projection device includes:

at least one image source for emitting a plurality of image lights; and

and the plurality of sub-aperture lenses are arranged on the light-emitting side of the at least one image source side by side, correspond to the plurality of beams of image light emitted by the at least one image source one by one, and are used for modulating the corresponding image light to project the image light to the coupling-in area of the optical waveguide.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the arrangement direction of the plurality of sub-aperture lenses is not parallel to the pupil expanding direction of the optical waveguide.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the arrangement direction of the plurality of sub-aperture lenses is perpendicular to the pupil expanding direction of the optical waveguide.

According to an embodiment of the present application, each of the sub-aperture lenses includes a lens group and a stop, wherein the stop is disposed in an optical axis direction of the lens group, and the lens group is located between the stop and the image source.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the optical waveguide is located at a position where fields of view of adjacent sub-aperture lenses overlap.

According to an embodiment of the present application, each of the indexes in the multi-aperture micro-projection device satisfies the following formula:

(2*p*tanω+d)*n≥D (1)

wherein: p is the distance between the optical waveguide and the diaphragm; omega is the half field angle of the multi-aperture micro-projection device; d is the aperture of the diaphragm of the sub-aperture lens; n is the number of the sub-aperture lenses; d is the pupil required by the multi-aperture micro-projection device; and L is the sub-aperture distance of the adjacent sub-aperture lenses.

According to an embodiment of the application, the at least one image source is a plurality of sub-image sources arranged side by side, wherein the plurality of sub-image sources are in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of sub-aperture lenses, and the sub-aperture lenses are configured to modulate image light emitted via the corresponding sub-image sources to be projected to the optical waveguide.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the at least one image source is a single image source, wherein the single image source corresponds to the plurality of sub-aperture lenses, and the single image source is configured to emit a plurality of beams of image light corresponding to the plurality of sub-aperture lenses one-to-one.

According to an embodiment of the application, the at least one image source is a Micro-LED screen or an OLED screen.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the apparatus body is a spectacle frame, wherein the spectacle frame includes a beam portion and a pair of temple portions, and the temple portions extend rearward from left and right sides of the beam portion, respectively, wherein the optical waveguides are provided correspondingly to the beam portion.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be fully apparent from the ensuing description and drawings.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a schematic structural diagram of a conventional optical machine.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic MTF curve of the above prior art optical machine.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an application of a multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 shows a first example of the sub-aperture lens of the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic MTF curve of the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus according to the first example of the present invention.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a distortion curve of the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus according to the first example of the present invention.

Fig. 7 shows a field curve diagram of the multi-aperture micro-projection device according to the first example of the present invention.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of relative illumination of the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus according to the first example of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of another existing optical bench.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic MTF curve of another prior art optical machine.

Fig. 11 shows a second example of the sub-aperture lens of the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of an augmented reality device implemented as AR glasses configured with optical waveguides according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 13 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method for manufacturing a multi-aperture micro-projection device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The following description is presented to disclose the invention so as to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention. The preferred embodiments in the following description are given by way of example only, and other obvious variations will occur to those skilled in the art. The basic principles of the invention, as defined in the following description, may be applied to other embodiments, variations, modifications, equivalents and other technical solutions without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that in the present disclosure, the terms "longitudinal," "lateral," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," and the like are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, as the terms are used in the description to indicate that the referenced device or element must have the specified orientation, be constructed and operated in the specified orientation, and not for the purposes of limitation.

In the present application, the terms "a" and "an" in the claims and the description should be understood as meaning "one or more", that is, one element or a plurality of elements may be included in one embodiment or a plurality of elements may be included in another embodiment. The terms "a" and "an" and "the" and similar referents are to be construed to mean that the elements are limited to only one element or group, unless otherwise indicated in the disclosure.

In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms "first," "second," and the like are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance. In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless explicitly stated or limited otherwise, the terms "connected" and "connected" should be understood broadly, and for example, the connection may be fixed, detachable or integrated; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present invention can be understood according to specific situations by those skilled in the art.

In the description of the present specification, reference to the description of "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "an example," "a specific example," or "some examples" or the like means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, the schematic representations of the terms used above are not necessarily intended to refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples. Furthermore, various embodiments or examples and features of different embodiments or examples described in this specification can be combined and combined by one skilled in the art without contradiction.

In recent years, with the rapid development of augmented reality technology, devices or apparatuses capable of realizing augmented reality are becoming more popular and used. However, the existing one-dimensional pupil-expanding optical waveguide (including geometric optical waveguide and diffractive optical waveguide) can only expand the exit pupil in one direction (e.g., X direction), and at this time, an optical machine (i.e., a projection device) is required to complete the pupil expansion in the other direction (e.g., Y direction). However, when a larger eyebox is required, the pupil size of the optical engine increases, even up to 20mm or more. Thus, under a certain field angle, if the screen adopted by the optical machine is smaller and the focal length is shorter, the F number of the optical machine is reduced to 1, so that the design difficulty of the optical machine becomes more difficult; if a larger screen is used to increase the F number, the focal length will inevitably increase, resulting in an increase in the total length of the optical device and thus an increase in the overall size of the device, which is contrary to the current trend of miniaturization of electronic devices. Therefore, in order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a multi-aperture micro-projection device, a method and an apparatus thereof, which can achieve a large aperture while maintaining a small volume and weight.

Referring to fig. 3 to 4, a multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application is illustrated, wherein the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 can be combined with an optical waveguide 2 to form an augmented reality device for projecting image light into the optical waveguide 2 to transmit the image light to a user's eye through the optical waveguide 2, and external ambient light can pass through the optical waveguide 1 to be incident into the user's eye, so that the user obtains an augmented reality experience.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 3 and 4, the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 may include at least one image source 10 for emitting a plurality of beams of image light, and a plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20, wherein the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20 are disposed side by side on a light emitting side of the at least one image source 10, and the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20 are in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of beams of image light emitted via the at least one image source 10, for modulating the corresponding image light to be projected to the incoupling area of the optical waveguide 2, so as to transmit the image light to the eye of the user through the optical waveguide 2 for imaging.

It should be noted that, since the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20 of the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 are arranged side by side, so that although the apertures of the sub-aperture lenses 20 are smaller, the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 can realize a larger pupil (aperture), the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 of the present invention can divide the required larger pupil (aperture) into a plurality of smaller sub-apertures, which helps to reduce the design difficulty. Meanwhile, a relatively independent small-aperture lens (namely, the sub-aperture lens 20) is also arranged at the edge part of the field of view corresponding to a large-aperture system (namely, a single-aperture system), so that the problem that the dark angle is generated at the pupil edge due to the too large NA angle of the single-aperture system is avoided, and the uniformity on the pupil is improved. In addition, compared with a single-aperture system under the same index, the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 of the present application is smaller in size and easier to be produced.

More specifically, according to the above-mentioned embodiment of the present application, the arrangement direction of the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20 in the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 is not parallel to the pupil expanding direction of the optical waveguide 2, that is, the pupil expanding direction of the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 is different from the pupil expanding direction of the optical waveguide 2, so that the augmented reality device can obtain a large enough eyebox, which is helpful to meet the user's requirement and obtain a comfortable wearing experience. It will be appreciated that when the augmented reality device is implemented as AR glasses, the increased range of the eyebox enables the user to move the eye around the center point of the lens to a greater extent after wearing the AR glasses, and still see the image clearly, making it easier to adapt the product to all people.

Preferably, the arrangement direction of the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20 is perpendicular to the pupil expanding direction of the optical waveguide 2. Exemplarily, when the pupil expanding direction of the optical waveguide 2 is implemented as the X-axis direction (the direction perpendicular to the paper as shown in fig. 3), the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20 are preferably arranged along the Y-axis direction (the vertical direction as shown in fig. 3), so that the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 can expand the exit pupil along the vertical direction while the optical waveguide 2 expands the exit pupil along the horizontal direction, which helps to ensure that the augmented reality device obtains a sufficiently large eyebox.

It is noted that the optical waveguide 2 may be implemented as a one-dimensional extended pupil optical waveguide. For example, the optical waveguide 2 may be implemented as a geometric optical waveguide capable of one-dimensional pupil expansion, or the optical waveguide 2 may also be implemented as a diffractive optical waveguide provided with only one-dimensional grating, as long as one-dimensional pupil expansion is possible, which is not described herein again.

Furthermore, the image source 10 in the multi-aperture Micro projection device 1 may be, but is not limited to being, implemented as a self-emitting light screen such as Micro-LED or OLED.

According to the above-mentioned embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 4, each of the sub-aperture lenses 20 may include a lens group 21 and a stop 22, wherein the stop 22 is disposed in the optical axis direction of the lens group 21, and the lens group 21 is located between the stop 22 and the image source 10, such that the image light emitted via the image source 10 passes through the lens group 21, then passes through the stop 22 to propagate to the coupling-in area of the optical waveguide 2. In other words, the stop 22 of the present application is advanced to define the pupil size of the sub-aperture lens 20 by the stop 22. It is understood that the material of the lenses in the lens group 21 of the sub-aperture lens 20 may be implemented by glass, or may be implemented by transparent resin.

It should be noted that, due to the diaphragm advance characteristic of the sub-aperture lens 20, the aperture of the lens in the lens group 21 which is forward (i.e. close to the diaphragm 22) is larger than the aperture of the diaphragm 22 (i.e. the size of the sub-pupil), so that in order to avoid the collision between the adjacent sub-aperture lenses 20, the sub-pupils of the adjacent sub-aperture lenses 20 in the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 cannot be connected, and only the optical waveguide 2 can be far away from the diaphragm 22 of the sub-aperture lens 20. Meanwhile, in order not to miss any ray information of the field of view, the optical waveguide 2 is preferably located at a field-of-view overlapping position of the adjacent sub-aperture lenses 20, so as to minimize the length size of the apparatus while ensuring that a continuous eyebox range is achieved. It will be appreciated that in other examples of the application, the optical waveguide 2 may also be arranged at a greater distance from the diaphragm 22, while still ensuring continuity of the eyebox range.

For example, each index in the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 in the augmented reality device needs to satisfy the following formulas (1) and (2):

(2*p*tanω+d)*n≥D (1)

wherein: p is the distance between the optical waveguide 2 and the diaphragm 22; ω is the half field angle of the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1; d is the aperture of the diaphragm 22 of the sub-aperture lens 20; n is the number of the sub-aperture lenses 20; d is the pupil required for the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1; l is the sub-aperture distance of the adjacent sub-aperture lens 20.

In an example of the present application, the pupil D required for the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 may be implemented, but is not limited to, 10mm to 30 mm. Preferably, the required pupil D of the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 is implemented as 20 mm.

In an example of the present application, the half field angle ω of the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 may be, but is not limited to, implemented as 5 ° to 90 °. Preferably, the half field angle ω of the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 is implemented as 15 °.

It should be noted that, in order to reduce the system volume as much as possible, the smaller the sub-aperture distance L of the adjacent sub-aperture lenses 20, the better; in order to reduce the weight and volume of the system, the number of the sub-aperture lenses 20 is as small as possible, but the number of the sub-aperture lenses 20 should be greater than or equal to two. In order to simplify the system as much as possible, the aperture d of the stop 22 of the sub-aperture lens 20 is preferably larger. In order to reduce the system length as much as possible, the distance p between the optical waveguide 2 and the diaphragm 22 is preferably as small as possible.

Further, in an example of the present application, the focal length f of the sub-aperture lens 20 may be, but is not limited to, implemented to be 3mm to 90 mm. Preferably, the focal length f of the sub-aperture lens 20 is implemented to be 9.8 mm.

In an example of the present application, the F-number of the sub-aperture lens 20 may be, but is not limited to, implemented to be 0.3 to 3.5. Preferably, the F-number of the sub-aperture lens 20 is implemented as 2.

It is noted that in the first example of the present application, as shown in fig. 3, the at least one image source 10 in the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 may be implemented as a plurality of sub-image sources 11 arranged side by side, wherein the plurality of sub-image sources 11 are in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20, and the sub-aperture lenses 20 are used for modulating the image light emitted via the corresponding sub-image sources 11 to be projected to the incoupling area of the optical waveguide 2. It can be understood that, since the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 includes a plurality of the sub-image sources 11, and the sub-image sources 11 correspond to the sub-aperture lenses 20 one by one, the size of each sub-image source 11 is small, that is, in this example of the application, the image height of the required screen in the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 is small, such as a screen with a diagonal half length of 1.3 mm.

Exemplarily, in order to design a micro-projection system with a pupil size of 20mm and a field angle of 15 °, the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 of the present application may include four sub-image sources 11 and four sub-aperture lenses 20, wherein the sub-image sources 11 are screens with a diagonal half-length of 1.3mm, and the aperture of the sub-aperture lenses 20 is 4 mm. The focal length of the sub-aperture lens 20 of the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 is 9.8mm and the F-number is 2.47, which helps to reduce the difficulty of designing thereof and can increase the uniformity of illuminance across the entire pupil.

Thus, it can be calculated from the above equations (1) and (2): the minimum distance p between the optical waveguide 2 and the diaphragm 22 is 3.8 mm; the sub-aperture distance L of the adjacent sub-aperture lenses 20 is 1 mm; the overall length of the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 is 11.8mm, and the maximum aperture is 12.2 mm. Therefore, the overall system volume of the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 of the present application is greatly reduced compared to the volume of a single-aperture system as shown in fig. 1.

It should be noted that, since the F number of the sub-aperture lens 20 in this example of the present application is 2.47, the difficulty in designing the sub-aperture lens 20 is reduced, and therefore, as shown in fig. 5, the sub-aperture lens 20 of the present application only needs four lenses to obtain a better imaging quality.

Further, the MTF graph of the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 according to this example of the present application is shown in fig. 5, the distortion graph is shown in fig. 6, the field curvature graph is shown in fig. 7, and the relative illuminance graph is shown in fig. 8. Therefore, the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 has good image quality and a relative illumination greater than 85% to obtain good projection quality according to the image quality evaluation curve.

It should be noted that, since the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 according to the above example of the present application employs a plurality of self-luminous screens (i.e., the sub-image sources 11), the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 has a large cost and is not easy to adjust. Similar to the conventional single-aperture imaging scheme shown in fig. 1, in the case of keeping the design criteria (i.e. the pupil size is 20mm and the field angle is 15 °) unchanged, as shown in fig. 9, the half-image height of the screen 21P in the optical engine 2P is increased to 5.9mm, and the F-number of the single-aperture lens 22P in the optical engine 2P is increased to 2.24. At this time, it is known through calculation that the focal length of the single aperture lens 22P is about 45mm, the entire length of the optical engine 2P is as high as 41mm, the maximum aperture is 21mm, and the distortion reaches 2%, resulting in a long total length and a large volume of the optical engine 2P. In addition, as is apparent from the MTF graph of the optical machine 2P shown in fig. 10, the image quality of the optical machine 2P is also poor.

In order to solve the above problem, in the second example of the present application, as shown in fig. 11, the at least one image source 10 in the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 may also be implemented as a single image source 12, wherein the single image source 12 corresponds to the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20, and the single image source 12 is configured to emit a plurality of image lights in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20, such that each of the sub-aperture lenses 20 modulates the corresponding image light emitted via the single image source 12. It can be understood that, since the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 only includes one single image source 12, and one single image source 12 needs to correspond to a plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20 at the same time, in this example of the present application, the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 only needs to adopt one larger screen to replace a plurality of smaller screens, which helps to reduce the cost and the difficulty of adjustment.

Illustratively, the single image source 12 of the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 may be implemented as a screen having a diagonal half-length of 5.9mm, and has a plurality of image areas 120 distributed side by side, and the image areas 120 are in one-to-one correspondence with the sub-aperture lenses 20, so that the sub-aperture lenses 20 can modulate image light emitted via the corresponding image areas 120 to project the image light to corresponding positions of the incoupling area of the optical waveguide 2.

According to another aspect of the present application, as shown in fig. 12, the present application further provides an augmented reality device 4, wherein the augmented reality device 4 may include a multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1, an optical waveguide 2, and a device body 3, wherein the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 and the optical waveguide 2 are correspondingly disposed on the device body 3, such that image light projected via the multi-aperture micro-projection apparatus 1 is transmitted to a user's eye by the optical waveguide 2 to be received to see a corresponding image. It will be appreciated that the sub-aperture lens 20 of the multi-aperture micro-projection device 1 is located in the optical path between the image source 10 and the optical waveguide 2.

In an example of the present application, as shown in fig. 12, the main body 3 of the augmented reality apparatus 4 may be implemented as an eyeglass frame 31 including a beam portion 311 and a pair of temple portions 312, wherein the temple portions 312 extend rearward from left and right sides of the beam portion 311, respectively, to form the main body 3 of the apparatus having an eyeglass frame structure. The optical waveguide 2 is provided in the beam portion 311 as an eyeglass lens for near-eye display.

Exemplarily, as shown in fig. 12, the coupling-in region in the optical waveguide 2 may correspond to the beam portion 311 of the eyeglasses frame 31; at this time, the multi-aperture micro-projector 1 is mounted to the beam portion 311 of the glasses frame 31, so that when the user wears the augmented reality device 4, the multi-aperture micro-projector 1 is correspondingly located near the forehead of the user, which helps to reserve a larger mounting space for the multi-aperture micro-projector 1.

Notably, the augmented reality device 4 may be implemented as a heads-up display (HUD) in addition to the augmented reality device 4 being implemented as AR glasses. As everyone knows, the HUD is the application that another of optical waveguide has a prospect, and especially on-vehicle HUD can make the car owner when driving, need not to bow just can look over the relevant information of car, and the switching back and forth between road conditions and display need not be done to eyes sight to guarantee the security and the travelling comfort of driving. And AR-HUD combines image information in actual traffic road conditions through the optical system of inside special design accurately, projects information such as tire pressure, speed, rotational speed and the like to the front windshield and then reflects to form a distant virtual image so as to enter human eyes, so that the user can observe the prompt message fused with actual road conditions through the display area of the front windshield. In addition, compared with the general W-HUD in the market at present, the AR-HUD has a compact and light structure, can greatly save the installation space in the automobile, has larger intuition for a user, and intuitively guides a driver to advance by combining the real road condition information and showing some information such as virtual arrows in real time, thereby avoiding the situations of crossing the intersection and dispersing the attention of the driver in driving.

According to another aspect of the present application, as shown in fig. 13, an embodiment of the present application further provides a method for manufacturing a multi-aperture micro-projection device, which may include the steps of:

s100: providing at least one image source 10; and

s200: a plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20 are disposed side by side on the light emitting side of the at least one image source 10, wherein the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20 are in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of image lights emitted from the at least one image source 10 for modulating the corresponding image lights to project to the coupling-in area of the optical waveguide 2.

It is noted that, in an example of the present application, in the step S100: a plurality of sub-image sources 11 are arranged side by side to form the at least one image source 10, wherein the plurality of sub-image sources 11 are in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20, and the sub-aperture lenses 20 are configured to modulate image light emitted by the corresponding sub-image sources 11 to be projected to the optical waveguide 2.

In another example of the present application, in the step S100: the at least one image source 10 is a single image source 12, wherein the single image source 12 corresponds to the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20, and the single image source 12 is configured to emit a plurality of image lights corresponding to the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20 one to one.

In an example of the present application, in the step S200: the plurality of sub-aperture lenses 20 are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the pupil expanding direction of the optical waveguide 2.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present invention as described above and shown in the drawings are given by way of example only and are not limiting of the present invention. The objects of the present invention have been fully and effectively accomplished. The functional and structural principles of the present invention have been shown and described in the embodiments without departing from the principles, embodiments of the present invention may have any deformation or modification.

Claims

1. Augmented reality device, characterized in that includes:

an apparatus main body;

an optical waveguide; and

at least one image source for emitting a plurality of beams of image light; and

2. The augmented reality device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sub-aperture lenses are arranged in a direction that is not parallel to a pupil expanding direction of the optical waveguide.

3. The augmented reality device of claim 2, wherein the plurality of sub-aperture lenses are arranged in a direction perpendicular to a pupil expanding direction of the optical waveguide.

4. The augmented reality device of claim 3, wherein each of the sub-aperture lenses comprises a lens group and a stop, wherein the stop is disposed in an optical axis direction of the lens group, and the lens group is located between the stop and the image source.

5. The augmented reality device of claim 4, wherein the optical waveguide is located at a position where fields of view of adjacent sub-aperture lenses overlap.

6. The augmented reality apparatus of claim 5, wherein each indicator in the multi-aperture micro-projection device satisfies the following formula:

(2*p*tanω+d)*n≥D (1)

7. The augmented reality device of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the at least one image source is a plurality of sub-image sources arranged side by side, wherein the plurality of sub-image sources are in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of sub-aperture lenses, and the sub-aperture lenses are configured to modulate image light emitted via the corresponding sub-image sources for projection to the optical waveguide.

8. The augmented reality device of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the at least one image source is a single image source, wherein the single image source corresponds to the plurality of sub-aperture lenses and the single image source is configured to emit a plurality of beams of image light in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of sub-aperture lenses.

9. An augmented reality device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the at least one image source is a Micro-LED screen or an OLED screen.

10. The augmented reality apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the apparatus body is an eyeglass frame, wherein the eyeglass frame comprises a beam portion and a pair of temple portions, and the temple portions extend rearward from left and right sides of the beam portion, respectively, wherein the optical waveguide is provided correspondingly to the beam portion.