This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is aimed at developing a new head mounted display in which a stereo pair of images is propagated by total internal reflection inside a visor or lens. The proposed technology provides a new method for projecting an image, in which a guided light wave propagates entirely within a thin transparent plate, exiting to travel directly to the eye of the user. The source of the image will be a row of light-emitting diodes mounted at the edge of the plate outside the range of vision of the user. The device will be transparent like ordinary eyeglasses, permitting the user to see through the displayed image if necessary. The new guided-wave head mounted display will be a major improvement over currently available systems, which are too bulky because all of them depend upon the propagation of light through a volume of space. If successful, the proposed Phase I effort will lead to extremely compact systems which display computer generated imagery or remotely sensed visual data in three dimensions. The proposed technology can be used to make large flat panel displays and 2D or 3D eye glass displays. The technology is likely to find wide use as a primary display device for small notebook computers, virtual reality games, augmented reality systems for military and medical applications, heads-up displays for aircraft and automobiles, and telerobotics systems.
