EAGER: Wide Field of View Augmented Reality Display with Dynamic Focus

Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to integrate computer graphics and the human visual system. The technology has been demonstrated to improve task performance in areas such as communication, accessibility, worker efficiency and medicine. However, use of AR technology is not yet widespread, and it is still viewed as a novelty. The PI believes this is partially due to the lack of adequate display technology to support compelling applications. The most advanced head-mounted devices available today present a flat image located at a fixed distance from the user's eyes, and optical see-through devices are often quite limited in coverage of the visual field. In this exploratory project, the PI and his team will design and implement a prototype of a novel see-through augmented reality display system that provides both wide field of view and variable focal depth. If successful, this device will lay the foundation for a new class of augmented reality display that enables virtual objects to have the same focal depth as real world objects at any location, creating better fusion of real and virtual, which will enable society to take advantage of the capabilities augmented reality can provide. Such a new class of display will open exciting research avenues; for example, by incorporating gaze tracking such devices could have even wider research applications by adapting to the user's gaze direction and fixation distance.

The PI's approach relies upon a deformable membrane optical combiner which can be shaped to change the optical depth of the virtual image. This single optical element solution also allows for the creation of virtual imagery that covers a large portion of the visual field. By employing a single reflective optical element as the vari-focal relay optics, this project will simplify the design of see-through vari-focal optical systems for near-eye displays. This technique also promises a large aperture size, leading to wide field of view near-eye display solutions for AR applications. In theory, this approach can provide a full field of view solution with a display and aperture in the proper configuration. Upon completion of a working prototype, many perceptual user studies which were previously difficult to perform will become easily available, enabling a deeper understanding of the human visual system.