High-performance integral-imaging based light field augmented reality display

A new design of a head-mounted optical see-through light field display based on integral imaging is proposed to achieve both a wide see-through view and a high resolution light field display over a large depth volume. The design, which incorporates custom-designed freeform optics, a tunable lens and an aperture array, offers a true 3D display view of 30 degrees by 18 degrees in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively, and a crosstalk-free eyebox of 6mm by 6mm. Owning to the capability of dynamically tuning the position of the central depth plane using the tunable lens, the virtual display is able to render the light field of a true 3D scene and maintains the spatial resolution of 3 arc minutes across a depth range of over 3 diopters. Due to the unique design of the freeform eyepiece, the see-through optics provides a field of view of 65 degrees by 40 degrees with an angular resolution as high as 0.5 arc minutes and very low distortion to the see-through view.