According to one embodiment, a display device includes a display panel, a holographic element which reflects light having a specific incident angle and transmits light having an incident angle different from the specific incident angle, a retardation film provided between the display panel and the holographic element, a transflective element which reflects, of the light which passed through the holographic element, first circularly polarized light, and transmits second circularly polarized light rotating in an opposite direction of the first circularly polarized light, and a lens element which has a lens effect of condensing the second circularly polarized light which passed through the transflective element.

Exemplary arrangements relate to methods for recording and reproducing holograms. A method of recording a hologram in a thresholded opto-magnetic medium (7) includes producing a collimated recording beam (1) with a pulsed laser. The intensity of the recording beam is selectively modulated by passage through a modulator (2). The recording beam is spatially shaped by passage through a shaping element (15). The shaped modulated recording beam is made convergent by passage through an aspheric lens (4). The convergent beam is deflected bidirectionally with a MEMS mirror (6) that is in operative connection with the modulator, such that multiple disposed locations on a surface of the medium are exposed to a constriction of the convergent shaped recording beam, causing a change in the medium in the locations. Reconstructing the hologram is carried out by illuminating the medium with a collimated laser beam and focusing with a lens, light from the illuminated medium onto a detection matrix. Additional methods of recording and reproducing holograms utilize alternative steps.

A display system (300) comprising an optical system and a processing system. The optical system comprising a spatial light modulator (380), a light source, a Fourier transform lens, a viewing system (320, 330) and a processing system. The spatial light modulator is arranged to display holographic data in the Fourier domain, illuminated by the light source. The Fourier transform lens is arranged to produce a 2D holographic reconstruction in the spatial domain (310) corresponding to the holographic data. The viewing system is arranged to produce a virtual image (350) of the 2D holographic reconstruction. The processing system is arranged to combine the Fourier domain data representative of a 2D image with Fourier domain data representative of a phase only lens to produce first holographic data, and provide the first holographic data to the optical system to produce a virtual image.

An optical assembly is provided for use in holographic display of a replay image. The optical assembly may be of particular use is an augmented reality headset. The optical assembly includes a light-modulation element arranged to be illuminated off-axis by a light beam. The light-modulation element modulates the incident light to generate a replay image and generates a zero-order light beam. A focusing system is arranged after the light-modulation element. A light remover is positioned after the focussing system and is configured to remove the zero-order light beam from the light focussed by the focussing system. The focussing system is configured to focus zero-order light from the light-modulation element in a first plane different from a second plane which is the plane of focus of parallel light of the replay image. The light remover removes the zero-order light in the first plane.

An optical assembly comprises a light source, a light-modulation element for modulating light from the light source, and a terminal optical element for directing modulated light from the optical assembly. Optical elements are provided to guide the light in a first path from the light source to the light-modulation element and to guide the modulated light in a second path from the light-modulation element to the terminal optical element. The first and second paths are of similar shape, for example a c-shape, and are arranged in a nested configuration.

Systems and methods of determining a hologram of an image for a system comprising a display device and viewing system are disclosed. Some embodiments implement a multi-stage procedure comprising (i) determining a first complex light field at an entrance pupil of the viewing system, (ii) determining a second complex light field at a sensor plane of a sensor of the viewing system, (iii) determining a third complex light field at the entrance pupil, and (iv) determining a fourth complex light field at the display plane. Some embodiments include extracting a hologram from a data set corresponding to the fourth complex light field.

In described examples, a system (e.g., a projection system) can include a diffractive optical element adapted to be illuminated by at least one coherent light beam. A lens array is coupled to receive a diffracted beam of light from the diffractive optical element. The lens array includes a first and a second array lens. The first array lens is coupled to receive a first sector of a pattern of illumination of the diffracted beam of light, and the second array lens is coupled to receive a second sector of the pattern of illumination of the diffracted beam of light. A spatial light modulator is coupled to receive overlapping diffracted beams of light from the first and second array lenses to form an image beam.

A display device includes an image source, a holographic relay, and a holographic image combiner in an off-axis configuration. The holographic relay may include a pair of freeform holographic reflectors relaying light of the image source to an intermediate image plane. The holographic image combiner receives and redirects the relayed light from the holographic relay, forming an image in angular domain at an eyebox of the display device, the image in angular domain corresponding to the image in linear domain generated by the image source.

A display system for a vehicle includes a display unit mounted to the vehicle and is selectively operable in a first mode as a holographic display and in a second mode as a mirror. Holographic images may include rear view images obtained from a camera or computer generated graphics. Holographic images are displayed at a virtual image plane behind the display to reduce the operator's eyes accommodation.

A holographic system comprises an image processor, a hologram calculator and a display driver. The image processor is arranged to determine first and second secondary images by sampling the pixel values of a primary image at a regular array of sampling positions. The hologram calculator is arranged to determine a hologram of each secondary image. The display driver is arranged to display each hologram in rapid succession on a display device, first and second times, so as to reconstruct each secondary image from the respective hologram such that respective first and second arrays of image pixels corresponding to the primary image are perceivable. Image pixels of the reconstruction of the second secondary image are interposed between image pixels of the reconstruction of the first secondary image in the first direction.