A novel class of imaging systems that combines diffractive optics with 1D line sensing is disclosed. When light passes through a diffraction grating or prism, it disperses as a function of wavelength. This property is exploited to recover 2D and 3D positions from line images. A detailed image formation model and a learning-based algorithm for 2D position estimation are disclosed. The disclosure includes several extensions of the imaging system to improve the accuracy of the 2D position estimates and to expand the effective field-of-view. The invention is useful for fast passive imaging of sparse light sources, such as streetlamps, headlights at night and LED-based motion capture, and structured light 3D scanning with line illumination and line sensing.

Illuminations systems that separate different colors into laterally displaced beams may be used to direct different color image content into an eyepiece for displaying images in the eye. Such an eyepiece may be used, for example, for an augmented reality head mounted display. Illumination systems may be provided that utilize one or more waveguides to direct light from a light source towards a spatial light modulator. Light from the spatial light modulator may be directed towards an eyepiece. Some aspects of the invention provide for light of different colors to be outcoupled at different angles from the one or more waveguides and directed along different beam paths.

An optical system includes a first optical system, a second optical system, and a third optical system. The first optical system divides an input beam into a first light and a second light. The second optical system includes a concave reflective surface which reflects the first light. The third optical system directs at least one of the first light reflected from the second optical system and the second light from the first optical system to an output optical path of the third optical system.

A display assembly includes: a display module including a plurality of pixel islands; and a plurality of lens arrays laminated at a light-exiting side of the display module. Each lens array includes a substrate, a cover plate, a first transparent electrode, a second transparent electrode, and a liquid crystal layer and a diffraction lens grating arranged between the first and second transparent electrodes. The diffraction lens grating includes a plurality of diffraction lens grating units corresponding to the plurality of pixel islands. A voltage is applied to each of the first and the second transparent electrodes in such a manner that a refractive index of a liquid crystal molecule in the liquid crystal layer is equal to or not equal to a refractive index of the diffraction lens grating.

A structured-light projector, a camera assembly, and an electronic device are provided. The structured-light projector includes: a first light source, configured to emit a first light beam; a diffractive optical element, provided on a light-emitting side of the first light source and configured to generate structured light based on the first light beam incident on the diffractive optical element; an optical steering element, provided between the first light source and the diffractive optical element; and a second light source, wherein the second light source includes a light emitter, configured to emit a second light beam, the second light beam comprising infrared light. Via the structured-light projector, a scattered image and an infrared image of the target object can be acquired simutaneously.

A waveguide illuminator includes an input waveguide, a waveguide splitter coupled to the input waveguide, and a waveguide array coupled to the waveguide splitter. The waveguide array includes an array of out-couplers out-coupling portions of the split light beam to form an array of out-coupled beam portions for illuminating a display panel. To reduce optical interference, the waveguide illuminator may have two interlaced waveguide arrays energized by two different light sources. Output polarizations of neighboring light pixels of a display illuminated with such waveguide illuminator may be orthogonal to each other. The frames to be displayed may be broken down into sequentially displayed sub-frames with interleaved pixels.

A method for providing spectral beam combining (SBC) including generating a plurality seed beams each having a central wavelength and a low fill factor profile, where the wavelength of all of the seed beams is different; amplifying the seed beams; causing the amplified beams to expand as they propagate so as to be converted from the low fill factor profile to a high fill factor profile where the high fill factor profile tapers to a lower value at a perimeter of each beam; causing a wavefront of the converted beams to flatten to provide a plurality of adjacent SBC beams having different wavelengths with minimal overlap and a minimal gap between the beams; collimating the SBC beams; and directing the collimated SBC beams onto an SBC element that spatially diffracts the individual beam wavelengths and directing the beams in the same direction as a combined output beam.

A display device includes a light guide plate; an input grating on a first surface of the light guide plate and configured to generate a diffracted transmission beam; an output grating on the first surface of the light guide plate and spaced apart from the input grating, wherein the output grating is configured to generate a first output beam emitted from the light guide plate; and an optical efficiency enhancement layer on a second surface of the light guide plate and overlapping at least one of the input grating and the output grating in a traveling direction of the input beam, the second surface being opposite to the first surface.

An optical device for exit pupil expansion (EPE) for improving a field of view (FOV) and luminance uniformity, and a display apparatus including the same are provided. The optical device includes: an input part into which a virtual image is input; and an EPE part configured to receive the virtual image from the input part, perform one-dimensional (1D) EPE and two-dimensional (2D) EPE to combine the virtual image with an external real image, and output the combined image.

A dot pattern projector includes a light source array, a lens and a diffracting unit. The light source array includes a plurality of light sources that emit light beams. The lens is configured to collimate the light beams. The diffracting unit is configured to diffract the collimated light beams thereby to project an illumination pattern, wherein the illumination pattern is formed by overlapping multiple dot patterns that are projected by different light sources or interlacing multiple dot patterns that are projected by different light sources.