Near-to-eye displays within head mounted devices offer both users with and without visual impairments enhanced visual experiences either by improving or augmenting their visual perception. Unless the user directly views the display without intermediate optical elements then the designer must consider chromatic as well as other aberrations. Within the prior art the optical train is either complex through additional corrective elements adding to weight, cost, and size or through image processing. However, real time applications with mobile users require low latency to avoid physical side effects. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide near-to-eye displays mitigating these distortions and chromatic aberrations through pre-distortion based electronic processing techniques in conjunction with design optimization of the optical train with low weight, low volume, low complexity, and low cost. Further, it would be beneficial to exploit consumer grade low cost graphics processing units rather than application specific circuits.

The present invention has an object of providing a display that makes uniform brightnesses of a display image in a plane of a display panel according to a position of an observer. The display includes a display panel, a surface light source panel that emits light toward a back surface of the display panel, a sensor that senses a position of an observer with respect to the display panel, and a controller, wherein a brightness can be adjusted for each of areas of the surface light source panel, and the controller adjusts respective brightnesses of the areas of the surface light source panel so that brightnesses of a display image in a plane of the display panel are made uniform, when the display panel is observed from the position of the observer sensed by the sensor.

An optical power prism that may be used in folded lens systems that consists of a glass prism and a glass lens attached to a surface of the prism using a thin layer of optical glue or by optical contact. The glass lens does not have a flange and thus the prism can be smaller than prisms used in conventional power prisms with the same lens effective area, thus reducing the Z-height of the power prism when compared to conventional power prisms. An optical glass may be used for the lens that has a higher refractive index than can be provided by optical plastic which allows the lens to be thinner than plastic lenses. The lenses may be formed by molding a glass wafer to form lens shapes on a first surface of the wafer; the molded wafer is then ground from a second surface to singulate the lenses.

The present disclosure relates to an optical field and more particularly, to a multi-field of view (FOV) (zooming) optical assembly for a lens and may include an optical element provided in a form of a solid main optical element and including an integrated focal system with two mirrors and at least one integrated afocal system with two mirrors, a plurality of switching optical elements (SOEs) arranged on a front face of the optical element and configured to be switched between an open state in which light is transmitted and a closed state in which light is reflected and/or inhibited, and an image plane curvature correction element.

SMA actuators and related methods are described. One embodiment of an actuator includes a base; a plurality of buckle arms; and at least a first shape memory alloy wire coupled with a pair of buckle arms of the plurality of buckle arms. Another embodiment of an actuator includes a base and at least one bimorph actuator including a shape memory alloy material. The bimorph actuator attached to the base.

An image capturing lens system includes four lens groups which include eight lens elements. The four lens groups are, in order from an object side to an image side: first, second, third and fourth lens groups. The eight lens elements are, in order from the object side to the image side: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth lens elements. The first and second lens elements respectively have positive and negative refractive power. At least one lens element in the second through fourth lens groups has an inflection point. A focal length of the image capturing lens system is varied by changing axial distances between the four lens groups in a zooming process. The second lens group is moved relative to the first lens group along an optical axis in the zooming process. The image capturing lens system has a long-focal-length end and a short-focal-length end.

An optical zoom in a small form factor suitable for use in mobile devices such as cell phones, security cameras, and other small-scale imaging systems. One or more Alvarez lens pairs are provided, and moved transversely to the optical axis. The combination of one or more Alvarez lens pairs and the actuator permits a zoom power of at least 3× with a lateral displacement distance of the optical components of approximately five millimeters or less.

The invention relates to a projector module. In particular, the invention relates to a projector module for the use in mobile devices, wherein a most compact, stable and reliable module structure with high module efficiency can be achieved. A projector module according to the invention comprises a beam path with a laser source, designed to emit coherent electromagnetic radiation with a divergent beam profile; a collection optics, designed to collimate or focus the divergent radiation emitted by the laser source convergently into an image plane; and a diffractive optical element, DOE, designed to generate a projection pattern from the radiation collimated or focused by the collection optics; wherein a deflector, designed to deflect the divergent radiation emitted by the laser source from a first direction into a second direction deviating from the first direction, is arranged in front of the collection optics or is designed as a collection optics.

SMA actuators and related methods are described. One embodiment of an actuator includes a base; a plurality of buckle arms; and at least a first shape memory alloy wire coupled with a pair of buckle arms of the plurality of buckle arms. Another embodiment of an actuator includes a base and at least one bimorph actuator including a shape memory alloy material. The bimorph actuator attached to the base.

Single fold optical systems that include a power prism and a lens stack including two or more refractive lens elements. The single fold optical system may provide a long mechanical back focus without increasing the Z-height of the optical system. Providing power on the prism may reduce the optical total length and reduce the X-length of the optical system. The single folded optical systems may provide reduced Z-axis height and reduced X-axis length when compared to conventional double folded optical systems with similar optical characteristics. In addition, the optical systems may include an anamorphic lens that is oriented to correct for astigmatism caused by surface errors of the reflective surface of the prism.