Selective Light Combiner for See-Through Display Contrast
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Solution Overview
Problem
Display devices face challenges in integrating complex electronic and optoelectronic components with a small footprint, light weight, and reasonable cost, leading to issues such as image quality problems like lacking vividness and contrast in augmented or virtual reality content, and obscuring concurrent visual content.
Innovation Solution
A display device with a display light combiner that selectively reflects device display light and transmits external display light based on different light properties, using light selection layers to enhance transmission and reflection efficiencies, preventing ghosting and allowing high-intensity light from both sources to reach the viewer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a display device integrates complex electronic and optoelectronic components to render AR or VR video content, then the rendering capability is improved, but the device footprint and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The optical system is segmented into distinct functional layers including a light selection layer with wavelength-selective regions and a polarizing beam splitter layer. This segmentation allows each layer to perform a specific function (wavelength selection, polarization separation) enabling complex AR/VR rendering capabilities while distributing components efficiently to minimize overall device weight and footprint.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes the spectral dimension by implementing wavelength-selective regions that reflect specific wavelength ranges (e.g., red, green, blue bands) while transmitting others. This dimensional approach to light manipulation enables multiple AR/VR content channels to be rendered simultaneously through a compact optical structure, improving rendering capability without proportionally increasing device size.
2Illumination intensity
If the display device renders AR or VR video content with high intensity, then the image vividness is improved, but the transmission of external visual content is degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The light selection layer incorporates spatially varying optical properties with different regions having different wavelength selectivity. For example, certain regions reflect red wavelengths while transmitting green and blue, while other regions do the opposite. This local differentiation allows the system to direct high-intensity device-generated light to the viewer's eye while simultaneously transmitting external visual content through transparent regions, preventing obscuration and maintaining both image vividness and external visibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically controls the optical parameters of the light selection layer by adjusting the wavelength-selective reflection and transmission characteristics. By changing which wavelengths are reflected versus transmitted in different regions, the device can optimize the balance between AR/VR content intensity and external content transmission, ensuring high vividness without harmful obscuration of external visual information.
3Manufacturing precision
If the display device uses multiple light sources for AR and external content, then the image quality is improved, but the power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple light sources (device-generated AR/VR light and external ambient light) into a single optical path through the combiner assembly. The light selection layer and polarizing beam splitter work together to combine these light sources efficiently, allowing both to contribute to the final image without requiring separate optical paths. This merging improves image quality by integrating multiple light sources while minimizing power consumption through efficient optical combining rather than requiring additional independent light-generating components.
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 solution ensures clear separation and superimposition of external and device image layers, maintaining high light intensity and color accuracy, while reducing power consumption for intensity and color matching, and supporting multi-user experiences.
Implementation Method 1
The display light combiner causes the optical configuration to selectively reflect, based on the second light property, the device display light toward the viewer's vision field
Implementation Method 2
to selectively transmit, based on the first light property, the external display light toward the viewer's vision field
Implementation Method 3
using light selection layers to enhance transmission and reflection efficiencies
Implementation Method 4
The reflective polarizer substantially reflects polarized light having a first polarization state and substantially transmits polarized light having a second polarization state perpendicular to the first polarization state
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 1C~1D
Figure 1E~1F
AI summary
A computing device comprises a device image display outputting device display light; an optical configuration for a viewer of the computing device to view external display images rendered with external display light from an external image display and device display images rendered with the device display light; a display light combiner to combine the external display light and the device display light to reach the viewer's vision field. The external display light and the device display light are of different light properties. The display light combiner selectively reflects the device display light toward the viewer's vision field and selectively transmits the external display light toward the viewer's vision field.