Single-Panel Head-Mounted Display Optics Block Vergence-Accommodation Conflict
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Solution Overview
Problem
Head-mounted displays (HMDs) cause discomfort due to vergence and accommodation conflicts, where the difference between the vergence distance and focal distance leads to visual fatigue and nausea, as users' eyes struggle to maintain focus and alignment with the displayed virtual objects.
Innovation Solution
A single-panel HMD design that uses novel optics to shift the perceived center of the image for each eye, reducing the discrepancy between vergence and focal distances by presenting the same image to both eyes with unique shifted versions, allowing the optics block to adjust dynamically to mitigate these conflicts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the display screen is located close to the user's eyes to make the HMD compact, then the device size is reduced, but vergence and accommodation conflict occurs causing visual fatigue and nausea
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the display system into separate left-eye and right-eye optical paths with independent display screens and optical components. Each eye receives a dedicated image through its own optical path, allowing independent optimization of vergence and accommodation for each eye while maintaining compact overall device size.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces optical components (lenses, waveguides, or other intermediary elements) between the display screens and the user's eyes to mediate the optical path. These intermediaries enable the display screens to be positioned close to the eyes while still achieving the desired virtual image distance, thereby resolving the vergence-accommodation conflict without increasing device size.
2Stability of the object's composition
If separate images are presented to left and right eyes using conventional HMD design, then stereoscopic 3D effect is achieved, but device complexity and resolution requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the display system into independent left-eye and right-eye channels, each with its own display screen and optical path. This segmentation enables simplified optical design for each eye while maintaining overall stereoscopic functionality, reducing cross-talk and alignment complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using a single display screen with complex optical splitting mechanisms, the invention inverts the approach by using separate display screens for each eye. This simplifies the optical system by eliminating the need for beam splitters, dichroic mirrors, or complex waveguide coupling mechanisms.
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
This approach reduces discomfort by aligning the vergence and focal angles, enabling higher-resolution images without the need for separate images for each eye, thus providing a more comfortable and effective virtual reality experience.
Implementation Method 1
a first optical component comprising a first curved surface and a first flat surface opposite the first curved surface... an optics block that shifts the perceived center of the image for the left and right eyes
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are head-mounted displays comprising a display screen and an optics block. The optics block is configured to present, at a time instant, to a left eye of a user of the head-mounted display apparatus, a first shifted version all of an image generated by the display screen. The first shifted version of the image has a first perceived center location that differs from the center of the display screen. The optics block is also configured to present, at the time instant, to a right eye of the user of the head-mounted display apparatus, a second shifted version of the image generated by the display screen, the second shifted version of the image having a second perceived center location that differs from the center of the display screen and that differs from the first perceived center location.