Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B27/00—Optical systems or apparatus not provided for by any of the groups G02B1/00 - G02B26/00, G02B30/00
  • G02B27/0075—Optical systems or apparatus not provided for by any of the groups G02B1/00 - G02B26/00, G02B30/00 with means for altering, e.g. increasing, the depth of field or depth of focus
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B27/00—Optical systems or apparatus not provided for by any of the groups G02B1/00 - G02B26/00, G02B30/00
  • G02B27/0093—Optical systems or apparatus not provided for by any of the groups G02B1/00 - G02B26/00, G02B30/00 with means for monitoring data relating to the user, e.g. head-tracking, eye-tracking
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B27/00—Optical systems or apparatus not provided for by any of the groups G02B1/00 - G02B26/00, G02B30/00
  • G02B27/01—Head-up displays
  • G02B27/017—Head mounted
  • G02B27/0172—Head mounted characterised by optical features
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B30/00—Optical systems or apparatus for producing three-dimensional [3D] effects, e.g. stereoscopic images
  • G02B30/10—Optical systems or apparatus for producing three-dimensional [3D] effects, e.g. stereoscopic images using integral imaging methods
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02F—OPTICAL DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF LIGHT BY MODIFICATION OF THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIA OF THE ELEMENTS INVOLVED THEREIN; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; FREQUENCY-CHANGING OF LIGHT; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS
  • G02F1/00—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics
  • G02F1/29—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the position or the direction of light beams, i.e. deflection
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06V—IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING
  • G06V40/00—Recognition of biometric, human-related or animal-related patterns in image or video data
  • G06V40/10—Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
  • G06V40/18—Eye characteristics, e.g. of the iris
  • G06V40/19—Sensors therefor
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B27/00—Optical systems or apparatus not provided for by any of the groups G02B1/00 - G02B26/00, G02B30/00
  • G02B27/01—Head-up displays
  • G02B27/0101—Head-up displays characterised by optical features
  • G02B2027/0138—Head-up displays characterised by optical features comprising image capture systems, e.g. camera
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B27/00—Optical systems or apparatus not provided for by any of the groups G02B1/00 - G02B26/00, G02B30/00
  • G02B27/01—Head-up displays
  • G02B27/017—Head mounted
  • G02B2027/0178—Eyeglass type

Definitions

• Head-mounted displays (HMDs) and other near-eye display systems can utilize an integral lightfield display or other computational display to provide effective display of three-dimensional (3D) graphics.
• the integral lightfield display employs one or more display panels and an array of lenslets, pinholes, or other optic features that overlie the one or more display panels.
• a rendering system renders an array of elemental images, with each elemental image representing an image or view of an object or scene from a corresponding perspective or virtual camera position.
• Such integral lightfield displays typically exhibit a tradeoff between resolution and accommodation range as resolution is proportional to the density of lenslets.
• a conventional near-eye display system employing an integral lightfield display typically has a low density of large-sized lenslets, which limits the display resolution or has a high density of smaller-sized lenslets that limit the accommodation range.
• FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a near-eye display system employing eye tracking and corresponding elemental image shifting to provide dynamic focal length adjustment in accordance with some embodiments.
• FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of dynamic focal length adjustment in the near-eye display system of FIG. 1 in accordance with some embodiments.
• FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an additional example of dynamic focal length adjustment in the near-eye display system of FIG. 1 in accordance with some embodiments.
• FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for dynamic focal length adjustment in the near-eye display system of FIG. 1 in accordance with some embodiments.
• FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of dynamic accommodation range adjustment in the near-eye display system of FIG. 1 in accordance with some embodiments.
• FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example varifocal lenslet array for dynamic focal length adjustment in the near-eye display system of FIG. 1 in accordance with some embodiments.
• FIGs. 1 -6 illustrate example methods and systems for dynamic focal length and accommodation range adjustment based on user eye pose in a near-eye display system.
• the near-eye display system employs a computational display to display integral lightfield frames of imagery to a user so as to provide the user with an immersive virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) experience.
• Each integral lightfield frame is composed of an array of elemental images, with each elemental image representing a view of an object or scene from a different corresponding viewpoint.
• An array of lenslets overlies the display panel and operates to present the array of elemental images to the user as a single
• the near-eye display systems described herein utilize a dynamic technique wherein an eye tracking component is utilized to determine the current pose (position and/or rotation) of the user's eye and, based on this current pose, determine a voltage to be applied to a variable-index material by which light projected out of lenslets have their focal lengths changed so as to change how in focus portions of an image are perceived based on the current pose of the user's eye.
• the refractive index of the material may initially be set to generate a first accommodation range within which objects may be perceived in focus. Subsequently, the refractive index of the material may be changed to generate a second accommodation range within which objects may be perceived in focus. As the user's gaze changes, the refractive index of the material is changed to dynamically adjust the accommodation range within which objects may be perceived in focus. Thus, dynamically changing the refractive index and shifting the
• FIG. 1 illustrates a near-eye display system 100 incorporating dynamic
• the near-eye display system 100 includes a computational display sub-system 102, a rendering component 104, and one or more eye tracking components, such as one or both of an eye tracking component 106 for tracking a user's left eye and an eye tracking component 108 for tracking the user's right eye.
• the computational display sub-system 102 includes a left-eye display 1 10 and a right-eye display 1 12 mounted in an apparatus 1 14 (e.g., goggles, glasses, etc.) that places the displays 1 10, 1 12 in front of the left and right eyes, respectively, of the user.
• each of the displays 1 10, 1 12 includes at least one display panel 1 18 to display a sequence or succession of integral lightfield frames
• each of the displays 1 10, 1 12 further includes an array 124 of lenslets 126 (also commonly referred to as "microlenses") overlying the display panel 1 18.
• the number of lenslets 126 in the lenslet array 124 is equal to the number of elemental images 122 in the array 120, but in other implementations the number of lenslets 126 may be fewer or greater than the number of elemental images 122. Note that while the example of FIG. 1 illustrates a 5x4 array of elemental images 122 and a
• a separate display panel 1 18 is implemented for each of the displays 1 10, 1 12, whereas in other embodiments the left-eye display 1 10 and the right-eye display 1 12 share a single display panel 1 18, with the left half of the display panel 1 18 used for the left-eye display 1 10 and the right half of the display panel 1 18 used for the right-eye display 1 12.
• Cross-view 128 of FIG. 1 depicts a cross-section view along line A-A of the lenslet array 124 overlying the display panel 1 18 such that the lenslet array 124 overlies the display surface 130 of the display panel 1 18 so as to be disposed between the display surface 130 and the corresponding eye 132 of the user.
• each lenslet 126 focuses a corresponding region of the display surface 130 onto the pupil 134 of the eye, with each such region at least partially overlapping with one or more adjacent regions.
• the rendering component 104 includes a set of one or more processors, such as the illustrated central processing unit (CPU) 136 and graphics processing units (GPUs) 138, 140 and one or more storage components, such as system memory 142, to store software programs or other executable instructions that are accessed and executed by the processors 136, 138, 140 so as to manipulate the one or more of the processors 136, 138, 140 to perform various tasks as described herein.
• processors such as the illustrated central processing unit (CPU) 136 and graphics processing units (GPUs) 138, 140
• storage components such as system memory 142
• software programs include, for example, rendering program 144 comprising executable instructions for an accommodation range adjustment process, as described below, as well as an eye tracking program 146 comprising executable instructions for an eye tracking process, as also described below.
• the rendering component 104 receives rendering information 148 from a local or remote content source 150, where the rendering information 148 represents graphics data, video data, or other data representative of an object or scene that is the subject of imagery to be rendered and displayed at the display sub-system 102.
• the CPU 136 uses the rendering information 148 to send drawing instructions to the GPUs 138, 140, which in turn utilize the drawing instructions to render, in parallel, a series of lightfield frames 151 for display at the left-eye display 1 10 and a series of lightfield frames 153 for display at the right- eye display 1 12 using any of a variety of well-known VR/AR computational/lightfield rendering processes.
• the CPU 136 may receive pose information 150 from an inertial management unit (IMU) 154, whereby the pose information 150 is representative of a current pose of the display sub-system 102 and control the rendering of one or more pairs of lightfield frames 151 , 153 to reflect the viewpoint of the object or scene from the current pose.
• IMU inertial management unit
• the rendering component 104 further may use eye pose information from one or both of the eye tracking components 106, 108 to shift the focal length of projections of elemental images 122 from the lenslet array 124 to the eye 132 for the lightfield frame to be displayed, and thereby adjusting the focus of one or more of the elemental images 122 for the lightfield frame so displayed.
• the eye tracking components 106, 108 each may include one or more infrared (IR) light sources (referred to herein as "IR illuminators) to illuminate the corresponding eye with IR light, one or more imaging cameras to capture the IR light reflected off of the corresponding eye as a corresponding eye image (eye image information 156), one or more mirrors, waveguides, beam splitters, and the like, to direct the reflected IR light to the imaging cameras, and one or more processors to execute the eye tracking program 146 so as to determine a current position, current orientation, or both (singularly or collectively referred to herein as "pose") of the corresponding eye from the captured eye image.
• IR infrared
• Any of a variety of well-known eye tracking apparatuses and techniques may be employed as the eye tracking components 146, 148 to track one or both eyes of the user.
• the properties of the lenslet array overlaying a display are typically fixed (that is, the physical dimensions and/or the material construction of the lenslets are fixed, and often are the same for all the lenslets), which in turn results in the optical properties of the lenslets being fixed.
• changing the focus at which the user perceives the displayed imagery often includes mechanical actuation to physically move the lenslet array closer to or further away from the user's eyes.
• the small focal length of lenslets subjects them to small lens-display spacing tolerances.
• any inaccuracies in the initial construction of the lenslet array or inaccuracies in mechanical translation during operation can result in unintended impacts to the user's perception of the displayed imagery, such as loss of focus or blurry objects in displayed imagery.
• the near-eye display system 100 improves the accuracy of adjustments to the focus of displayed imagery by implementing a variable-focal-length lenslet array configured to adjust the focal length of projected imagery to more closely align with the current pose of the user's eye. This is accomplished by using the eye tracking components 106, 108 to track one or both eyes of the user so as to determine the current pose of one or both of the eyes for a corresponding lightfield frame to be displayed. With the current pose determined, the rendering component 104 then electrically adjusts the focal length of light projected from one or more of the lenslets 126 in the lenslet array to change the focus point of one or more of the elemental images 122 within a lightfield frame being rendered relative to the user's eye 132. This change to the focus point brings objects as displayed by the display panel 1 18 into- or out-of-focus from the user's
• the focal length(s) of the lenslets 126 may be
• the lenslet array 124 includes lenslets constructed from nematic liquid crystal cells.
• the nematic liquid crystal cells are electrically
• variable-index material 158 is positioned so as to be disposed between the display panel 1 18 and the lenslet array 124.
• variable-index material and/or variable-focus optical component may be used without departing from the scope of this disclosure.
• optical components can include, but is not limited to, deformable membrane mirrors (DMMs), fluid lenses, spatial light modulators (SLMs), electro- optical polymers, etc.
• focal length of light projected from the lenslet array 124 may further be adjusted by combining the variable-index lenslets or layer of variable-index material with a mechanical actuator (not shown) to change the physical distance between the lenslet array 124, the layer of variable-index material 158, the display panel 1 18, and the eye 132.
• mechanical actuators may include piezo-electric, voice-coil, or electro active polymer actuators.
• a voltage is applied to the lenslet array 124 or the layer of variable-index material 158 as a whole. Accordingly, each individual lenslet 126 or the entire layer of variable-index material 158 receives the same voltage for adjusting its refractive index, thereby changing the focal length of light projected from the entire lenslet array 124. This achieves the same effect as mechanically actuating and translating the lenslet array 124 closer to or further away from the eye 132, and further improves the accuracy of achieving the desired focal length.
• each of the lenslets 126 are individually addressable and can receive a different voltage from one another.
• the layer of variable-index material 158 may be pixelated with dimensions matching that of the lenslet array; each of the pixelated areas of the layer of variable-index material 158 may be individually addressable. This allows greater control over the focal length of light projected from each lenslet 126. Accordingly, the focal length of light projected from each lenslet 126 is modulable and each of the elemental images 122 may represent different portions of an image with a different viewing distance to objects in the image. To provide further granularity in control over focal points, in some embodiments, the layer of variable-index material 158 may be pixelated at a sub-lenslet level with dimensions such that different portions of each elemental image 122 corresponding to each lenslet 126 may be individually addressed to a unique focal length.
• the near-eye display system 100 includes an optional phase mask 160 positioned so as to be disposed between the display panel 1 18 and the lenslet array 124.
• the optional phase mask 160 is a pixelated spatial light modulator (SLM) that receives incoming light from the display 1 18 (or in some embodiments, from variable-index material 158) and spatially modulates the phase of the output light beam.
• SLM pixelated spatial light modulator
• each lenslet 126 would receive an incident beam having a plurality of spatially varying phases for different rays such that different portions of each elemental image 122 may be focused to at different focal lengths.
• the lenslet array 124 or the layer of variable-index material 158 may be segmented into two or more partitions. Each partition may be addressed with the same voltage, thereby changing the focal length for that partion only.
• the lenslet array 124 or the layer of variable-index material 158 may be segmented into four equal quadrants that each receive a different voltage signal, into individually addressable rows, into individually columns, etc.
• any segmentation of the lenslet array 124 or the layer of variable- index material 158 into spatially-varying addressable partitions may be used without departing from the scope of this disclosure.
• FIG. 2 depicts a cross-section view 200 of a computational display such as the ones utilized in the near-eye display system 100 using variable-index lenslets.
• each of the lenslets 126 of the lenslet array 124 serves as a separate "projector” onto the eye 132, with each "projector” overlapping with one or more adjacent projectors in forming a composite virtual image 202 from the array of elemental images displayed at the display panel 1 18.
• the lenslet 126-1 projects a corresponding elemental image (represented by region 204) from region 210 of the virtual image 202
• the lenslet 126-2 projects a corresponding elemental image (represented by region 206) from region 212 of the virtual image 202
• the lenslet 126-3 projects a corresponding elemental image (represented by region 208) from region 214 of the virtual image 202.
• regions 210 and 212 overlap in sub-region 216
• regions 212 and 214 overlap in sub-region 220
• all three regions 210, 212, 214 overlap in sub-region 218.
• the refractive index of lenslet 126-2 may be computed (e.g., by rendering component 104) and electrically changed such that light containing image data from lenslet 126-2 is focused at a first focal point 222 at the back of the eye 132. Accordingly, the region 212 portion of virtual image 202 would appear to be in focus at the first time ti .
• the refractive index of lenslet 126-2 may be computed (e.g., by rendering component 104) and electrically changed such that light containing image data from lenslet 126-2 is focused at a second focal point 224 such that the accommodation range of the user's eyes cannot bring such that portion of the image into focus. Accordingly, the region 212 portion of virtual image 202 would appear to be out of focus (e.g., blurry) at the second time t2.
• FIG. 3 depicts a cross-section view 300 of a computational display such as the ones utilized in the near-eye display system 100 using a layer of variable-index material.
• each of the lenslets 126 of the lenslet array 124 serves as a separate "projector” onto the eye 132, with each "projector” overlapping with one or more adjacent projectors in forming a composite virtual image 202 from the array of elemental images displayed at the display panel 1 18.
• the lenslet 126-1 projects a corresponding elemental image (represented by region 304) from region 310 of the virtual image 302
• the lenslet 126-2 projects a corresponding elemental image (represented by region 306) from region 312 of the virtual image 302
• the lenslet 126-3 projects a
• regions 310 and 312 overlap in sub-region 316
• regions 312 and 314 overlap in sub-region 320
• all three regions 310, 312, 314 overlap in sub-region 318.
• the layer of variable-index material 158 (such as previously discussed with respect to FIG. 1 ) changes its refractive index to change the incidence of light on the lenslets 126, which in turn changes the focal distance of light projected from the lenslets 126.
• the refractive index of the layer of variable-index material 158 may be computed (e.g., by rendering component 104) and electrically changed such that light containing image data projected from lenslet 126-2 is focused at a first focal point 322 at the back of the eye 132. Accordingly, the region 312 portion of virtual image 302 would appear to be in focus at the first time ti . Subsequently, assuming in this example that the user looks away at a second time t2 to focus on an elemental image positioned at region 304 of the display panel 1 18.
• the refractive index of the layer of variable-index material 158 may be computed (e.g., by rendering component 104) and electrically changed such that light containing image data from lenslet 126-2 is focused at a second focal point 324 such that the accommodation range of the user's eyes cannot bring such that portion of the image into focus. Accordingly, the region 312 portion of virtual image 302 would appear to be out of focus (e.g., blurry) at the second time t2.
• FIG. 4 illustrates a method 400 of operation of the near-eye display system 100 for rendering lightfield frames using lenslets with adjustable focal lengths to provide dynamic image focus adjustments in accordance with some embodiments.
• the method 400 illustrates one iteration of the process for rendering and displaying a lightfield frame for one of the left-eye display 1 10 or right-eye display 1 12, and thus the illustrated process is repeatedly performed in parallel for each of the displays 1 10, 1 12 to generate and display a different stream or sequence of lightfield frames for each eye at different points in time, and thus provide a 3D, autostereoscopic VR or AR experience to the user.
• method 400 starts at block 402, whereby the rendering component 402 identifies the image content to be displayed to the corresponding eye of the user as a lightfield frame.
• the rendering component 104 receives the IMU information 152 representing data from various pose-related sensors, such as a gyroscope, accelerometer,
• the CPU 136 executing the rendering program 144, can determine a corresponding current viewpoint of the subject scene or object, and from this viewpoint and graphical and spatial descriptions of the scene or object provided as rendering information 148, determine the imagery to be rendered for the current pose.
• the CPU 136, executing eye tracking program 146 determines the current pose of the corresponding eye of the user.
• the current pose of an eye may be determined using any of a variety of eye tracking techniques.
• such techniques include the capture of one or more images of IR light reflected from the pupil and cornea of the eye.
• the eye tracking program 146 then may manipulate the CPU 136 or the GPUs 138, 140 to analyze the images to determine the pose of the eye based on the corresponding position of one or both of the pupil reflection or corneal reflection. Further, the orientation of the pupil relative to the cornea in turn may be used to determine the orientation of the eye (that is, the direction of gaze of the eye).
• block 404 is illustrated in FIG. 4 as being subsequent to block 404, the process of block 404 may be performed before, during, or after the process of block 402.
• the rendering program 144 manipulates the CPU 136 to calculate a desired focal length (e.g., to desired a focal point or a focal plane) for one or more lenslets 126 in lenslet array 124, based on the current pose of the user's eye.
• the focal length represents the distance at which the sharpest focus is attained when viewing light (carrying image data) projected from the lenslet.
• the desired focal length is intended to allow for image elements (e.g., objects, individuals, scenes and the like in the virtual image) that the user's eye gaze is directed at to be perceived as being in focus after projecting through the lenslet 126.
• the desired focal length serves to dynamically adjust the distance at which light rays projected from the lenslets converge to match the current pose of the eye, thereby changing the focus at which different views of the image content are perceived.
• the calculation of the desired focal length is based at least in part on an identification of a virtual object in the virtual image that the user is directing his or her gaze towards using the current pose of the user's eye relative to the display panel 1 18.
• the virtual image can include a number of objects intended to be perceived by the eye 132 at different depths.
• the virtual image includes image data representing a coconut 502 and a tree 504 positioned at depths di and 62 within the virtual image, respectively.
• the desired focal length may be calculated such that light containing image data for the coconut 502 projected from lenslet 126-3 is focused at a first focal point 508 at the back of the eye 132. Accordingly, the coconut 502 in the virtual image would appear to be in focus.
• the calculation of the desired focal length further includes the determination of an accommodation range, which generally refers to a range of depths at which objects in the virtual image will be perceived as in focus.
• Objects positioned within the accommodation range may be perceived to be in focus; objects positioned outside the accommodation range (i.e., at a virtual depth too close or too far away from the eye) will not be perceived to be in focus even if the current pose of the eye is gazing directly at that out of accommodation range object.
• the tree 504 would not be perceived as in focus even if the current pose of the eye is gazing directly at the tree 504 as it is positioned outside the accommodation range 506.
• both the coconut 502 and tree 504 could appear to be in focus to the eye 132.
• the current pose of the eye as determined in block 404 determines that the user's gaze is focusing on the coconut 502 at a first time ti
• the coconut 502 in the virtual image would appear to be in focus as it is positioned within the accommodation range 512.
• the tree 504 in the virtual image is positioned within the accommodation range 512 but is not perceived to be in focus as the current pose of the eye is focused on the coconut 502. That is, the determination of the accommodation range further includes determining one or more desired focal lengths such that objects positioned within the accommodation range, but are not focused on by the user's gaze, are not perceived to be completely in focus.
• the focal lengths can be determined to provide one or more of focus areas in which directed gaze perceives objects in focus and defocus areas in which defocus blur is provided, thereby providing accommodation cues in the form of retinal blur to aid in the simulation of depth perception.
• the tree 504 in the virtual image would appear to be in focus as it is positioned within the accommodation range 512.
• the coconut 502 is positioned within the accommodation range 512 but is not perceived to be in focus as the current pose of the eye at the second time t2 is focused on the tree 504.
• the calculating of a desired focal length in block 406 can optionally include a compensation for existing refractive errors in the user's eye (e.g. , myopia, hyperopia).
• a flat shift may be applied to the desired focal distance for each portion of the integral lightfield to correct for nearsightedness or farsightedness of the user, enabling the image to be viewed in focus by a user who normally must wear corrective lenses (e.g., glasses or contact lenses) without wearing such corrective lenses.
• Similar compensations can also be applied to account for mechanical/thermal drift due to environmental conditions or assembly tolerances from manufacturing.
• the rendering program 144 manipulates the CPU 136 to calculate a voltage to be applied to a variable-index material.
• the CPU 136 also instructs the calculated voltage to be applied for inducing a change in the refractive index of the variable-index material, which in turn causes a change in the incidence angles of light entering and exiting the lenslets discussed herein.
• some embodiment include constructing the lenslets out of the variable-index material.
• variable-index material can be provided as a layer disposed between the display panel 1 18 and the lenslet array 124.
• applying the calculated voltage to the layer of variable-index material 158 only directly changes the refractive index and incidence angles of light entering and exiting the layer of variable-index material 158.
• the change to incidence angles of light entering and exiting the layer of variable-index material 158 results in a change to the incidence angles of light received by the lenslet array 124, thereby changing the focus point and length of the lenslets 126.
• the GPU subsequently renders the lightfield frame at block 210 and provides the lightfield frame to the corresponding one of the computational displays 1 10, 1 12 for display to the eye 132 of the user with the adjustment to focal lengths of blocks 406 and 408.
• block 410 is illustrated in FIG. 4 as being the last step of method 400, the process of block 410 may also be performed before, during, or after the process of block 402.
• the dynamic accommodation range adjustment and focal length change process described herein utilizes an eye tracking component (e.g., eye tracking components 106, 108) to determine the current pose of a corresponding eye.
• This eye tracking component typically includes one or more IR illuminators to illuminate the eye, an imaging camera to capture imagery of IR reflections from the eye, one or more lenses, waveguides, or other optical elements to guide the reflected IR light from the eye to the imaging camera, and one or more processors executing a software program to analyze the captured imagery.
• FIG. 5 illustrates an additional example computational display such as the ones utilized in the near-eye display system 100 for accommodation range extension using variable-index materials in accordance with some embodiments.
• each of the lenslets 126 of the lenslet array 124 serves as a separate "projector” onto the eye 132, with each "projector” overlapping with one or more adjacent projectors in forming a composite virtual image from the array of elemental images displayed at the display panel 1 18.
• a virtual image can include a number of objects intended to be perceived by the eye 132 at different depths.
• the virtual image includes image data representing a coconut 502 and a tree 504 positioned at depths di and 62 within the virtual image, respectively.
• the refractive index of the layer of variable-index material 158 may be computed (e.g., by rendering component 104) and electrically changed such that light containing image data as projected from the lenslets is associated with an accommodation range 506.
• Image data for the coconut 502 projected from lenslet 126-3 is focused at a first focal point 508 at the back of the eye 132. Accordingly, the coconut 502 in the virtual image would appear to be in focus at the first time ti .
• the refractive index of the layer of variable-index material 158 at the first time ti light containing image data for the tree 504 from lenslet 126-1 is focused at a second focal point 510.
• the tree 504 is positioned outside of the accommodation range 506. Accordingly, the tree 504 in the virtual image would appear to be out of focus (e.g., blurry) at the first time ti .
• the refractive index of the layer of variable-index material 158 had been computed to generate an accommodation range 512, both the coconut 502 and tree 504 would appear to be in focus to the eye 132.
• FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example varifocal lenslet array for dynamic focal length adjustment in the near-eye display system of FIG. 1 in accordance with some embodiments.
• the lenslet array 124 includes a first array 602 of cubic phase plates 604 and a second array 606 of cubic phase plates 604. Spatially translating the first array of cubic phase plates 602 relative to the second array of cubic phase plates 604, such as by the lateral displacement between the two arrays as illustrated in FIG. 6, changes the focal length of the cubic phase plates 604. By translating two superimposed cubic phase functions, a variable quadratic (i.e., varifocal) effect is introduced.
• a variable quadratic (i.e., varifocal) effect is introduced.
• the lenslet array 124 can include two arrays of freeform phase plates, such as Lohmann- Alvarez varifocal lenses in which the focal length of the lenses is changed by a lateral displacement between the lenses. This enables dynamic focal length adjustment by using well defined surface functions.
• certain aspects of the techniques described above may implemented by one or more processors of a processing system executing software.
• the software comprises one or more sets of executable instructions stored or otherwise tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium.
• the software can include the instructions and certain data that, when executed by the one or more processors, manipulate the one or more processors to perform one or more aspects of the techniques described above.
• the non-transitory computer readable storage medium can include, for example, a magnetic or optical disk storage device, solid state storage devices such as Flash memory, a cache, random access memory (RAM) or other non-volatile memory device or devices, and the like.
• the executable instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium may be in source code, assembly language code, object code, or other instruction format that is interpreted or otherwise executable by one or more processors.
• a computer readable storage medium may include any storage medium, or combination of storage media, accessible by a computer system during use to provide instructions and/or data to the computer system.
• Such storage media can include, but is not limited to, optical media (e.g., compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), Blu-Ray disc), magnetic media (e.g., floppy disc , magnetic tape, or magnetic hard drive), volatile memory (e.g., random access memory (RAM) or cache), non-volatile memory (e.g., read-only memory (ROM) or Flash memory), or microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based storage media.
• optical media e.g., compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), Blu-Ray disc
• magnetic media e.g., floppy disc , magnetic tape, or magnetic hard drive
• volatile memory e.g., random access memory (RAM) or cache
• non-volatile memory e.g., read-only memory (ROM) or Flash memory
• MEMS microelect
• the computer readable storage medium may be embedded in the computing system (e.g., system RAM or ROM), fixedly attached to the computing system (e.g., a magnetic hard drive), removably attached to the computing system (e.g., an optical disc or Universal Serial Bus (USB)-based Flash memory), or coupled to the computer system via a wired or wireless network (e.g., network accessible storage (NAS)).
• system RAM or ROM system RAM or ROM
• USB Universal Serial Bus
• NAS network accessible storage

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