The light field stereoscope

Over the last few years, virtual reality (VR) has re-emerged as a technology that is now feasible at low cost via inexpensive cellphone components. In particular, advances of high-resolution micro displays, low-latency orientation trackers, and modern GPUs facilitate extremely immersive experiences. To facilitate comfortable long-term experiences and wide-spread user acceptance, however, the vergence-accommodation conflict inherent to all stereoscopic displays will have to be solved. We present the first factored near-eye display technology supporting high image resolutions as well as focus cues --- i.e. accommodation and retinal blur. To this end, we build on Brewster's original stereoscope but augment it with modern factored light field synthesis via stacked liquid crystal panels. We demonstrate significant improvements in resolution and retinal blur quality over previously-proposed near-eye displays.