Provided is a projection optical system that is a monofocal lens or a zoom lens that includes a first and a second optical system. The second optical system forms an intermediate image and the first optical system enlarges and projects the intermediate image. The first optical system includes a first-A optical system and a first-B optical system and includes a reflecting optical element. In response to the monofocal lens or the zoom lens, conditional formulas (1) and (2) are satisfied in an infinity in-focus state, 0.18<Ta/Tw<0.4 . . . (1), 1<fa/|fw|<15 . . . (2). In the conditional formulas (1) and (2), Ta is an on-axis distance in the first-A optical system, Tw is an on-axis distance in the projection optical system, fa is a focal length of the first-A optical system, and fw is a focal length of an entirety of the projection optical system.

Reflective imager sub-systems that have a non-circular entrance pupil and provide substantially increased throughput to a detecting component of a system are disclosed.

The eyeball-projection display apparatus 1 includes an image display device 5 for showing an image, and a virtual image projection optical system 10 in which an image shown by the image display device is optically guided into the eyeball of a viewer for projection of a virtual image, wherein the virtual image projection optical system 10 includes an eyepiece optical system 2 having an eyepiece optical element 20 including an eyepiece transmitting surface 21 and an eyepiece reflecting surface 22 for reflecting off a light ray incident from the eyepiece transmitting surface 21 and again guiding the light ray back into the same eyepiece transmitting surface 21, having a medium filled in between the eyepiece transmitting surface 21 and the eyepiece reflecting surface 22, the medium having a refractive index of greater than 1, and further including a back-surface reflecting mirror capable of only one reflection in an effective optical path and having a positive power;

a relay optical system 4 having a positive power, and including a prism optical element 40 having a curved, internal-reflecting surface that is decentered with respect to a center chief ray Lc, being filled in with a medium having a refractive index of greater than 1 and being capable of plural internal reflections, and receiving light from the image display device 5 for projection of an intermediate image of an image onto an exit side of the display apparatus 1; and
a reflecting element 3 that is positioned in an optical path between the eyepiece optical system 2 and the relay optical system 4 and includes an intermediate reflecting surface 30 to reflect a light beam incident obliquely from a side of the display apparatus, on which the relay optical system 4 is located, toward a side of the display apparatus 1, on which the eyepiece optical system 2 is located, thereby deflecting an optical path.

Methods and apparatus for capturing or generating images using multiple optical chains operating in parallel are described. Pixel values captured by individual optical chains corresponding to the same scene area are combined to provide an image with at least some of the benefits which would have been provided by capturing an image of the scene using a larger lens than that of the individual lenses of the optical chain modules. By using multiple optical chains in parallel at least some benefits normally obtained from using a large lens can be obtained without the need for a large lens. Furthermore in at least some embodiments, a wide dynamic range can be supported through the use of multiple sensors with the overall supported dynamic range being potentially larger than that of the individual sensors. Some lens and/or optical chain configurations are designed for use in small handheld devices, e.g., cell phones.

An embodiment of a wearable display device may comprise: a base having a receiving space formed therein; a prism placed in front of an eye of a user, and adjusting the path of light, at least a part of which is incident, to allow a displayed virtual image to arrive at the eye; and a fastening unit for making a part of the prism and a part of the base be fastened to each other, thereby limiting the motion of the prism with respect to the base.

A relay system brings a beam output from a first image plane into focus at a second image plane. The relay system includes a first lens element, a reflection member, and a second lens element sequentially arranged in the direction in which the beam travels. The first lens element has positive power. The reflection member has a transmissive surface that is a concave surface on which the beam is incident and via which the beam exits, and a reflective surface that is a concave surface that reflects the beam from the transmissive surface. The second lens element has positive power. The beam output from the reflection member passes through the second lens element and is brought into focus at the second image plane.

Described are two mirror scanning projectors employing a collimated laser beam directed to a first mirror that scans in one direction, an optical relay system, and a second mirror that scans in a perpendicular direction from the first mirror to provide two dimensional scanning of the laser beam.

A laser projection system utilizes a waveguide having a narrow incoupler for double-bounce mitigation and form factor reduction. An optical scanner includes an optical relay positioned in between two scan mirrors. The first scan mirror scans laser light into the optical relay in a first dimension, and the optical relay and converges the scanned laser light towards a second scan mirror. The second scan mirror scans laser light along a second dimension substantially perpendicular to a path over which the laser light is scanned across the second scan mirror, and the convergence introduced by the optical relay causes the laser light to be scanned as a line or arc path of an exit pupil plane that is coincident with the incoupler. The optical relay may include one or more lenses or may be a monolithic molded structure, which may be an Offner-style relay or a molded reflective relay.

An apparatus includes a wavefront sensor configured to receive coherent flood illumination that is reflected from a remote object and to estimate wavefront errors associated with the coherent flood illumination. The apparatus also includes a beam director optically coupled to the wavefront sensor and having a telescope and an auto-alignment system. The auto-alignment system is configured to adjust at least one first optical device in order to alter a line-of-sight of the wavefront sensor. The wavefront errors estimated by the wavefront sensor include a wavefront error resulting from the adjustment of the at least one first optical device. The beam director could further include at least one second optical device configured to correct for the wavefront errors. The at least one second optical device could include at least one deformable mirror.

A five-mirror all-reflective afocal anastigmat. In one example, a five mirror afocal anastigmat includes five mirrors arranged to sequentially reflect from one another electromagnetic radiation received via a system entrance pupil to produce a collimated output beam of the electromagnetic radiation at a system exit pupil, the five mirrors consisting of three positive-powered mirrors and two negative-powered mirrors, wherein optical powers of the five mirrors are balanced to achieve a flat field condition at the system exit pupil.