There is disclosed herein a waveguide including an optical slab and an optical wedge. The optical slab has a first refractive index, n.sub.1>1. The optical slab includes: a pair of opposing surfaces and an input port. The pair of opposing surfaces are arranged in a parallel configuration. The input port is arranged to receive light into the optical slab at an angle such that the light is guided between the first and second opposing surfaces. The optical wedge has a second refractive index, n.sub.2, wherein 1<n.sub.2<n.sub.1. The optical wedge includes a pair of opposing surfaces arranged in a wedge configuration. A first surface of the optical wedge abuts the second surface of the optical slab to form an interface. The angle of the wedge allows light received at the interface to escape through the second surface of the optical wedge such that the exit pupil of the waveguide is expanded.

Implementations of various computer methods to couple a computerized ball device which acts as a mobile computing device to record the users environment and project light towards waveguide eyeglasses or contacts which then allows a user to view imbedded light structure holograms in the waveguide while viewing the actual world. The computer ball device additionally has the ability to be docked in a drone cradle which creates a database map of the user's environment while not being utilized by the user for an immediate task. The device may also attach to a wrist band for mobility. The device also has the ability to couple the projected light structures so that a plurality of users may view the same light structure content to build an environment of trust. The device decouples the traditional design of head mounted virtual and mixed reality that place together the camera with the head mounted device.

Embodiments include systems and methods for operating a head-up display for a vehicle. Embodiments include a first light engine, a second light engine, at least one waveguide, an eye-box for a viewer, and a light detector. The first light engine is arranged to form a first wavefront (e.g., a first holographic wavefront) formed by illuminating a first hologram of a picture, and the second light engine is arranged to form a second wavefront. The waveguide includes an input, pair of opposing reflective surfaces, and an output. The input is arranged to receive the first and second holographic wavefronts. The pair of opposing reflective surfaces is arranged to waveguide the first holographic wavefront and second wavefront therebetween by internal reflection. A first surface of the pair of opposing reflective surfaces is partially transmissive thereby forming an output port for a plurality of replicas of the first and second holographic wavefronts.

A holographic projection system includes a SLM that receives a light beam and generates a modulated beam projected at an eyebox, where: the modulated beam includes multiple versions of a test image; and the test image includes bright objects and transparent regions, which are selected dark areas of interest for measuring luminance. A control module runs a test to characterize contrast in each of multiple virtual image planes including: controlling the SLM to generate the modulated beam; measuring luminance levels of each of the versions of the test image displayed in the virtual image planes; calculating contrast ratios based on the luminance levels of each of the versions of the test image; determining whether the contrast ratios are within predetermined ranges of predetermined contrast ratios; and adjusting operation of the SLM in response to one of the contrast ratios not being within a corresponding one of the predetermined ranges.

A system for displaying, to viewers who do not need to wear special eyewear, static three dimensional (3D) images that are dynamically augmented with two dimensional (2D) images. The system includes a holographic print with a front surface and a back opaque layer. The system includes a projector projecting light onto the front surface. The projected light includes first light reconstructing a hologram from the front surface of the holographic print and second light displaying 2D content on the front surface. The projector is positioned to cause the first light to strike the front surface within a range of hologram reconstruction angles. The projector is a video projector, and the first light is even illumination in the form of white light while the second light includes the displayed 2D content. The displayed 2D content includes animation or video content.

A holographic, single-unit, augmented sight has a housing containing a see-through holographic eyepiece; at least one of a visible light digital camera and an LWIR digital camera; a display to display an image from the camera(s); a shutter presenting the display; a red dot fiber-coupled LED reticle assembly using a spherical ball configuration sandwiched between two matching seats which are compressed together to contain the spherical ball configuration optical position; and a lever attached to the spherical ball configuration to rotate the ball by moving the lever up/down, left/right to adjust windage and elevation; a lower coupling prism presenting the reticle of the reticle assembly.

There is provided a near-eye device for augmenting a real world view. The near-eye device comprises a spatial light modulator comprising an array of phase modulating elements arranged to apply a phase delay distribution to incident light. The device further comprises a beam combiner comprising a first optical input arranged to receive spatially modulated light from the spatial light modulator and a second optical input having a field of view of the real world.

A display device including a flat display unit configured to output a planar image, a hologram generation unit configured to output a hologram image, and a controller for acquiring the holographic image with respect to at least a portion of the planar image.

There is provided a head-up display for a vehicle having a window. The head-up display comprises a picture generating unit (410) and an optical system (420). The picture generating unit is arranged to output pictures. The optical system is arranged to receive the pictures output by the picture generating unit and project the pictures onto the window (430) of the vehicle to form a virtual image (450, 707) of each picture within a virtual image area (605). The picture generating unit is arranged to output pictures within a cropped picture area such that the virtual image area (605) has a corresponding cropped shape. FIG. 7 illustrates a perspective view of a three lanes road (501,502,503) onto which a virtual image (707) within a cropped virtual image area (605) is overlaid.

A method of manufacturing a holographic element used in a projection device is provided. The projection device has a light source configured to emit light conforming to a non-uniform light intensity distribution function. The method includes: multiplying the non-uniform light intensity distribution function by a diffraction intensity and angle function of a grating to obtain a product function; determining whether the product function is substantially equal to 1 in a predetermined range of angle or wavelength; if the the determination result is yes, determining a pair of incident angles respectively of a reference beam and a signal beam according to the diffraction intensity and angle function; and recording a holographic material with the reference beam and the signal beam respectively at the pair of incident angles, so as to manufacture a holographic element with the grating therein.