Make your own Retinal Projector: Retinal Near-Eye Displays via Metamaterials

Title: Make your own Retinal Projector: Retinal Near-Eye Displays via Metamaterials

Teams: University of Tsukuba；Pixie Dust Technologies

Writers: Yoichi Ochiai, Kazuki Otao, Yuta Itoh, Shouki Imai, Kazuki Takazawa, Hiroyuki Osone, Atsushi Mori, and Ippei Suzuki

Publication date: June 2018

Abstract

Retinal projection is required for xR applications that can deliver immersive visual experience throughout the day. If general-purpose retinal projection methods can be realized at a low cost, not only could the image be displayed on the retina using less energy, but there is also a possibility of cutting off the weight of projection unit itself from the AR goggles. Several retinal projection methods have been previously proposed. Maxwellian optics based retinal projection was proposed in 1990s [Kollin 1993]. Laser scanning [Liao and Tsai 2009], laser projection using spatial light modulator (SLM) or holographic optical elements were also explored [Jang et al. 2017]. In the commercial field, QD Laser1 with a viewing angle of 26 degrees is available. However, as the lenses and iris of an eyeball are in front of the retina, which is a limitation of a human eyeball, the proposal of retinal projection is generally fraught with narrow viewing angles and small eyebox problems. Due to these problems, retinal projection displays are still a rare commodity because of their difficulty in optical schematics design. To solve this problem, we introduce novel methods and samples of an optical system for solving the common problems of retinal projection by using the metamaterial mirror (plane symmetric transfer optical system). Using this projection method, the designing of retinal projection becomes easy, and if appropriate optics are available, it would be possible to construct an optical system that allows quick follow-up of retinal projection hardware [Ochiai 2018].