A Superwide-FOV Optical Design for Head-Mounted Displays

We present a new optical design for head-mounted displays (HMD) that has an exceptionally wide field of view (FOV). It can cover even the full human FOV. It is based on seamless lenses and screens curved around the eyes. We constructed several compact and lightweight proof-of-concept prototypes of the optical design. One of them far exceeds the human FOV, although the anatomy of the human head limits the effective FOV. The presented optical design has advantages such as compactness, light weight, low cost and superwide FOV with high resolution. The prototypes are promising, and though this is still work-in-progress and display functionality is not yet implemented, it suggests a feasible way to significantly expand the FOV of HMDs.

[1]  Thad Starner,et al.  A review of head-mounted displays (HMD) technologies and applications for consumer electronics , 2013, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[2]  Yasushi Yagi,et al.  Super wide viewer using catadioptrical optics , 2003, VRST '03.

[3]  Tobias Höllerer,et al.  Evaluating wide-field-of-view augmented reality with mixed reality simulation , 2016, 2016 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR).

[4]  Ismo Rakkolainen,et al.  A compact, wide-FOV optical design for head-mounted displays , 2016, VRST.

[5]  Lawrence G. Brown,et al.  8.1: Invited Paper: Applications of the Sensics Panoramic HMD , 2008 .

[6]  C Bungert.  HMD/headset/VR-helmet Comparison Chart , 2005 .

[7]  Kiyoshi Kiyokawa.  A Wide Field-of-view Head Mounted Projective Display using Hyperbolic Half-silvered Mirrors , 2007, 2007 6th IEEE and ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality.

[8]  Ismo Rakkolainen,et al.  Head-mounted display with mid-air tactile feedback , 2015, VRST.

[9]  Byron J. Pierce,et al.  Perceptual Issues in the Use of Head-Mounted Visual Displays , 2006, Hum. Factors.

[10]  Jaehoon Jung,et al.  Head mounted display with peripheral vision , 2005, ICAT '05.

[11]  J. Rolland,et al.  Head-worn displays: a review , 2006, Journal of Display Technology.

[12]  Henry Been-Lirn Duh,et al.  Effects of field of view on presence, enjoyment, memory, and simulator sickness in a virtual environment , 2002, Proceedings IEEE Virtual Reality 2002.

[13]  Suranga Nanayakkara,et al.  SpiderVision: extending the human field of view for augmented awareness , 2014, AH.

[14]  C. E. Rash,et al.  Helmet-mounted Displays: Sensation, Perception, and Cognition Issues , 2009 .

[15]  Eric M. Howlett.  Wide-angle orthostereo , 1990, Other Conferences.

[16]  Mark T. Bolas,et al.  Comparability of narrow and wide field-of-view head-mounted displays for medium-field distance judgments , 2012, SAP.

[17]  Maud Marchal,et al.  FlyVIZ: a novel display device to provide humans with 360° vision by coupling catadioptric camera with hmd , 2012, VRST '12.

[18]  Robert Xiao,et al.  Augmenting the Field-of-View of Head-Mounted Displays with Sparse Peripheral Displays , 2016, CHI.

[19]  Ivan E. Sutherland,et al.  A head-mounted three dimensional display , 1968, AFIPS Fall Joint Computing Conference.

[20]  Yongtian Wang,et al.  Design of a wide-angle, lightweight head-mounted display using free-form optics tiling. , 2011, Optics letters.

[21]  Kiyoshi Kiyokawa,et al.  Fisheye vision: peripheral spatial compression for improved field of view in head mounted displays , 2014, SUI.