A light guide member (10) includes three surfaces of a second surface (S12), a fourth surface (S14), and a fifth surface (S15) as two or more non-axisymmetric curved surfaces, and a projection lens (30) includes a lens surface (31a) as a non-axisymmetric aspheric surface. With this, on the light guide member side, even when there is a shape constraint that the first surface (S11) or the third surface (S13) which is a surface contributing to light guide is a flat surface, and correction of asymmetric aberration is limited, it becomes possible to perform sufficient aberration correction as the whole of an optical system including the projection lens. Therefore, the virtual image display apparatus can have a wide viewing angle and high performance, and can be made small and lightweight.

An asymmetric curved-surface prismatic image display optical system includes a first prism and second and third prisms respectively arranged in front of and behind the first prism. The first prism includes a light-exiting planar surface that is at an eye-adjacent side and is opposite to a light-entering planar surface of the second prism with an air gap therebetween and may serve as a reference for inspection of a free-form curved surface. The second prism has a light-exiting planar surface at the eye-adjacent side and parallel to a side planar surface of the third prism to allow an external-world image to be seen more clearly. Light from an image displaying panel first enters the first prism and is subjected to total internal reflection by the light-exiting planar surface toward the reflective curved surface to be reflected and re-directed to transmit through the second prism for image formation on a retina.

Methods for imaging a sample using fluorescence microscopy, systems for imaging a sample using fluorescence microscopy, and illumination systems for fluorescence microscopes. In some examples, a method includes positioning a dual convex paraboloidal mirror enclosure around the sample. The dual convex paraboloidal mirror enclosure includes an upper paraboloidal mirror and a lower paraboloidal mirror oriented antiparallel to each other. An aperture is defined in the lower paraboloidal mirror, a hemispherical dome is mounted in the aperture, and the sample is surrounded by the hemispherical dome. The method includes directing excitation light onto the sample to form a primary image at an upper vertex of the upper paraboloidal mirror and a secondary image at a lower vertex of the lower paraboloidal minor. The method includes imaging the sample through a detection objective of a microscope.

An optical subsystem of a near-eye display system provides for projecting light of a virtual image of image content to an eye location, and provides for collecting light of the virtual image onto an exit pupil on a surface proximate to an outer surface of an eye when at the eye location. A subpupil modulator within an aperture in cooperation with the optical subsystem provides for forming a plurality of subpupils within the exit pupil, and provides for less than all of the light of the virtual image associated with one or more less than all of the plurality of subpupils to be projected to the eye location. In various independent aspects: at least two subpupils overlap by at least 20 percent; and the intensities of the subpupils are individually and independently controlled.

The first optical element 10 and the second optical element 20 are spaced away from each other in an effective area through which a light beam passes, and satisfy the following condition (1):
0<D.sub.MAX/f≦0.3  (1)
where D.sub.MAX is the maximum value of a distance as measured in the effective area through which the light beam passes on a section including a center chief ray of the light beam in a direction parallel with the center chief ray between the second surface 12 of the first optical element 10 and the first surface 21 of the second optical element 20, and f is the focal length of the decentered optical system 1.

Provided is light flux controlling member for controlling a distribution of light emitted from a plurality of light emitting elements disposed on a substrate, which includes a plurality of incidence units for allowing incidence of the light emitted from the plurality of light emitting elements, respectively; and an emission unit which emits the light incident on the plurality of incidence units while guiding the light, and which is disposed between the plurality of incidence units in a direction along the substrate. The light flux controlling member has a rectangular shape with rounded corners in plan view, and includes four corner portions and four side portions, and the inclination angle of the corner portions is different from the inclination angle of the side portions.

Light deflection prism for altering a field of view of a camera of a device comprising a surface with a camera aperture region defining an actual light entrance angular cone projecting from the surface. A method comprises disposing a first surface of a light deflection prism on the surface so as to overlap the angular cone; internally reflecting a central ray, entering the prism under a normal incidence angle through a second surface, at a third surface of the prism towards the first surface under a normal angle of incidence such that the central ray enters the prism at an angle of less than 90° relative to a normal of the device surface and such that a ray at one boundary of an effective light entrance angular cone defined as a result of the light reflection at the third surface is substantially parallel to the device surface.

Eye-tracked head-mounted displays are provide which, in one aspect, may utilize the same optics for eyetracking and image viewing, with a selected portion of the optics used for an eyetracking optical path and a selected portion of the display optics used for an image viewing optical path.

An example is a lens mirror array in which a plurality of optical elements, which comprises a first lens surface formed at the top of convex portion protruding outwards for converging light, a protrusion which includes a first mirror surface that reflects the light emitted from the first lens surface at the top and a light-shielding surface that has side walls at two sides thereof with respect to a light advancing direction and prevents advance of the light through the side walls, a second mirror surface that reflects the light reflected by the first mirror surface of the protrusion and a second lens surface that images the light emitted from the second mirror surface on an image plane, is arranged in a horizontal scanning direction.

A compact, uniaxially-aligned series of lenses are shaped and coated to allow coaxial viewing of two different fields of view on the same focal-plane array by selecting a type of light. The selection can be, for example, by spectrum or polarization. Zonal coatings on the lens surfaces permit for a catadioptric narrow field-of-view light path. The lens assembly accomplishes simultaneous dual field-of-view in a durable package without respective motion of optical elements, without substantial gaps between the lenses, and at lower cost than other assemblies.