Transparent Display with Angled Inner Face for Virtual Content
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current augmented reality experiences in hand-held devices like smartphones and tablets lack improvements in apparatus design, particularly in providing seamless interaction between real-world and virtual content rendering, with existing solutions often requiring complex sensor systems and limited user input methods.
Innovation Solution
A transparent touch-sensitive display with a projector system that allows real-world content to be viewed through the display while rendering virtual content, utilizing a specific optical substrate design with angled inner faces to reflect projected images, enabling direct user input and enhanced interaction with virtual content.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If a transparent display is used to allow viewing of real world content, then visibility of real-world objects is improved, but rendering of virtual content becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The optical substrate is segmented into distinct functional regions: a transparent region for viewing real-world content and a reflective region for displaying virtual content. This segmentation allows each region to perform its specific function optimally without interfering with the other, resolving the contradiction between transparency and virtual content rendering capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the optical substrate are assigned different optical properties: the first region is made transparent to allow real-world visibility, while the second region is made reflective to display virtual content. This local differentiation of properties enables both functions to coexist in a single display device.
2Illumination intensity
If an angled inner face is added to reflect projector light, then virtual content rendering is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The reflective region with the angled inner face is integrated directly into the optical substrate as a unified structure rather than being a separate component. This merging of the reflective surface into the substrate itself simplifies manufacturing by reducing the number of assembly steps and components, despite the added geometric complexity.
3Measurement precision
If a pocket structure is formed in the optical substrate, then projector positioning is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The pocket structure is formed as an integral part of the optical substrate during the initial manufacturing process, rather than being added as a subsequent assembly step. This preliminary formation of the positioning structure ensures precise projector alignment is built into the device architecture from the start.
4Ease of operation
If touch-sensitive display is used for user input, then ease of operation is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The optical substrate serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a transparent window for real-world visibility, a reflective surface for virtual content display, and a touch-sensitive interface for user input. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate components for each function, reducing overall system complexity despite the advanced capabilities.
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
Enables intuitive user interaction through physical touch and improved rendering of virtual content spatially associated with real-world objects, enhancing the augmented reality experience by allowing users to see actual objects while interacting with virtual information.
Implementation Method 1
the second inner face reflective of light incident thereon at a second set of angles relative to the second inner face
Implementation Method 2
the at least one optic transparent to light incident on at least one of the first major outer-most face or the second major outer-most face at a first set of angles relative to the respective one of the first or the second major outer-most faces
Data Source
AI summary
A transparent display can allow viewing of real world content through the display, while rendering virtual content to the display. A display may take the form of a touch-sensitive display, allowing user input directly through physical interaction with the display. A display may include a pair of major outer-most faces and a pair of inner faces, one of the inner faces angled to reflect light from a projector, outward via one of the major outer-most faces. The gap may advantageously be formed via a pocket extending inwardly from an edge of an optical substrate that comprises the display.