Light Field Projection for Immersive Virtual Environments
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current technologies fail to create a compelling, immersive virtual environment that stimulates all human sensory receptors like the Holodeck concept, lacking in resolution, image quality, and seamless energy surface generation, especially for visual, auditory, and somatosensory systems.
Innovation Solution
The development of a system using light field and holographic technology to project a reconfigured 4D energy field, employing energy-directing systems with waveguides and control systems to simulate environmental energy, capable of projecting dynamic and changing energy fields, including light and acoustic fields, to create an immersive experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional display technologies are used, then device complexity is reduced, but manufacturing precision and image quality are insufficient to create immersive virtual environments
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the virtual environment into multiple energy fields (light field, acoustic field, thermal field, etc.) that can be independently generated and controlled. Each field type is handled by specialized subsystems (waveguides for light, transducers for acoustic, etc.), allowing high precision in each domain while managing overall complexity through modular organization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from conventional 2D/3D display approaches to 4D energy field manipulation by adding temporal dynamics and multiple sensory dimensions. The control system manages energy propagation in four dimensions (three spatial + temporal), enabling immersive experiences that conventional technologies cannot achieve.
2Manufacturing precision
If high resolution energy field projection is implemented, then sensory stimulation quality improves, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by directing energy precisely to specific spatial locations and sensory receptors rather than uniformly illuminating entire spaces. Waveguides and energy-directing elements focus energy only where needed, achieving high resolution sensory stimulation while minimizing waste energy in unused areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system implements partial action by activating only the necessary energy fields and locations required for the current virtual scene, rather than continuously projecting all possible sensory information. This selective activation maintains high resolution where needed while reducing overall energy consumption.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system effectively simulates a dynamic and immersive 4D energy field, capable of fooling human sensory receptors into perceiving a real, interactive virtual environment without external accessories, achieving high resolution and seamless energy propagation across multiple sensory domains.
Implementation Method 1
an array of waveguides able to direct energy from the plurality of energy locations along a plurality of propagation paths where each propagation path extends through one of the plurality of energy locations, and where each waveguide is able to direct energy from the plurality of energy locations through the waveguide along the plurality of propagation paths
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a device that utilizes a light-field display to project a virtual continuum of real world perspectives of a natural scene to a plurality of observer viewpoints to simulate a natural environment. An observer perceives different perspectives as he or she moves through the simulated environment just like the observer would as if he or she were in a natural environment.