An optically or mechanically anisotropic polymer thin film is characterized by compound curvature, where a maximum variation of an angle of orientation of an extraordinary axis of the polymer thin film is at most 2% greater than an orientation variation associated with an initially planar polymer thin film formed to the same compound curvature.

A see-through display device includes an image generator configured to emit image light, a combiner which is arranged off-axis with respect to the image light and is configured to generate an off-axis aberration with respect to the image light, and a free-form optical element which is disposed on an optical path of the image light between the image generator and the combiner and is configured to generate a correction aberration with respect to the image light, the correction aberration being opposite to the off-axis aberration.

A Head Mounted Display (HMD) includes a pixel array having multiple pixels configured in a two-dimensional surface, each pixel providing multiple light beams forming an image provided to a user. The HMD also includes a first optical element configured to provide a central portion of a field of view for the image through an eyebox that limits a volume including a pupil of the user, and a second optical element configured to provide a peripheral portion of the field of view for the image through the eyebox, wherein the peripheral portion of the field of view comprises at least one steradian of a user's field of view at a resolution of at least fifteen arcminutes.

A virtual image display device includes a display element that emits an image light, a prism on which the image light from the display element is incident, a first mirror that reflect the image light from the prism, a second mirror that reflects the image light reflected by the first mirror, and a third mirror that guides the image light reflected by the second mirror to a position of an exit pupil, wherein the prism includes an incident portion on which image light from the display element is incident, the incident portion includes a first incident region and a second incident region, and a distance from the first incident region to the display element is greater than a distance from the second incident region to the display element.

A virtual image display system includes: a light source for projecting an image; a first beamsplitter including a first free-form curved surface; and a second beamsplitter including a second free-form curved surface facing the first free-form surface of the first beamsplitter, in which the first free-form curved surface is separated from the second-free form curved surface of the second beamsplitter by free space, and in which the first beamsplitter and the second beamsplitter are arranged to redirect light emitted from the light source toward a user to form a virtual image.

A curved reflective has at least one location having a radius of curvature in a range from about 6 mm to about 1000 mm. Each location on the reflective polarizer has a maximum reflectance greater than about 70% for a block polarization state, a maximum transmittance greater than about 70% for an orthogonal pass polarization state, and a minimum transmittance for the block polarization state. For a continuous first portion of the reflective polarizer extending between different first and second edges of the reflective polarizer and defining disjoint second and third portions of the reflective polarizer, the minimum transmittance of the reflective polarizer for the block polarization state is higher at each location in at least 70% of the first portion than at each location in at least 70% of the second portion and at each location in at least 70% of the third portion.

A combined display system includes a plurality of displays which are each configured to generate a partial beam of a combined projection light beam having an associated partial display content, the display surfaces of which are adjacent to one another and offset with respect to one another in the beam propagation direction and/or have different spatial orientations; and a combiner screen which is continuously contiguous, is reflective on the user side and preferably transparent on the rear, and is mountable or mounted in the beam path of the combined projection light beam in the vehicle in front of the windscreen such that behind the latter, a virtual image is generated, which is displayed in the user's field of view and is composed of the partial display contents of the plurality of displays.

An optical system includes a display including an active display region having a maximum lateral dimension D and configured to emit an image for viewing by an eye of a viewer, the active display region including a display center and a predetermined region including the display center, the predetermined region having a largest lateral dimension d, such that d/D≤0.25; a windshield of a vehicle; and an optical film configured to receive the image emitted by the active display region and reflect or transmit at least a portion of the received image toward the windshield, the windshield configured to receive the image reflected or transmitted by the optical film and reflect at least a portion of the received image toward the eye, such that for at least one first location within the predetermined area of the active display region, the emitted image includes a first emitted image cone emitted from the first location, the first emitted image cone including a first emitted central image ray emitted from the first location, wherein the optical film is so oriented as to cause the first emitted central image ray to be substantially polarized in a plane of incidence when incident on the windshield.

A head-wearable display device is configured to support a plurality of combiners (e.g., at least two combiners) to expand an eyebox associated with the head-wearable display device. The plurality of combiners may expand the pupil and the head-wearable display device may be configured to align the magnification between the plurality of combiners, such that a single magnified virtual image with an expanded eyebox may be delivered to the user.

Techniques are described for operating an optical system. In some embodiments, light associated with a world object is received at the optical system. Virtual image light is projected onto an eyepiece of the optical system. A portion of a system field of view of the optical system to be at least partially dimmed is determined based on information detected by the optical system. A plurality of spatially-resolved dimming values for the portion of the system field of view may be determined based on the detected information. The detected information may include light information, gaze information, and/or image information. A dimmer of the optical system may be adjusted to reduce an intensity of light associated with the world object in the portion of the system field of view according to the plurality of dimming values.