An optical forming device includes a light source to emit light for causing liquid photocurable resin to undergo curing and an optical modulator to modulate the light for causing the liquid photocurable resin to undergo curing in a pattern based on a shape of a three-dimensional object, and irradiate the liquid photocurable resin with the modulated light. The optical modulator includes a liquid crystal device to modulate the light for causing the liquid photocurable resin to undergo curing in the pattern, and emit the modulated light as linearly polarized light and an optical retardation device to impart a phase difference to the linearly polarized light emitted from the liquid crystal device, and emit the light imparted with the phase difference.

A liquid crystal display panel of the present invention includes, sequentially from the viewer side: a first linearly polarizing plate; a first /4-wavelength layer; a first substrate including a color filter, a black matrix, and a second /4-wavelength layer; a liquid crystal layer; a second substrate; and a second linearly polarizing plate, the liquid crystal display panel further including a sealing material disposed so as to surround the liquid crystal layer in a plan view, wherein the second /4-wavelength layer is disposed closer to the liquid crystal layer than the color filter and the black matrix are and such that an outer edge of the second /4-wavelength layer lies inside an arrangement region of the sealing material, and the first /4-wavelength layer and the second /4-wavelength layer are disposed such that their slow axes are perpendicular to each other.

A Pancharatnam Berry Phase (PBP) color corrected structure is presented that comprises a plurality of switchable gratings and a plurality of PBP active elements. Each switchable grating has an inactive mode when reflects light of a specific color channel, of a set of color channels, and transmits light of other color channels in the set of color channels, wherein the specific color channel is different for each of the plurality of switchable gratings, and to have an active mode to transmit light that is inclusive of the set of color channels. The PBP active elements receive light output from at least one of the plurality of switchable gratings. Each of the PBP active elements is configured to adjust light of a different color channel of the set of color channels by a same amount to output light corrected for chromatic aberration for the set of color channels.

The liquid crystal display panel includes in the following order from a viewing surface side to a back surface side: a first polarizer; a first /4 retardation layer; a first substrate; a second /4 retardation layer; a liquid crystal layer; a second substrate; and a second polarizer, the liquid crystal display panel being in a transverse electric field mode, the first substrate including a color filter layer in a display region, the second /4 retardation layer being a single layer covering the color filter layer and including a first retardation portion in an end region of the display region and a second retardation portion in a central region of the display region, the first retardation portion having a greater thickness than the second retardation portion, and the first retardation portion and the second retardation portion differing from each other in in-plane retardation by 10 nm or less.

A first type of stacked LC structure includes at least two liquid crystal (LC) cells arranged in optical series that share a common substrate between adjacent LC cells. A second type of stacked LC structure includes at least two LC cells arranged in optical series that share a common electrode layer between adjacent LC cells. An optical assembly for use in a head mounted display (HMD) may include one or more stacked LC structures configured to transmit light in successive optical stages to provide a varifocal optical display assembly having adjustable optical power. By sharing a common substrate or a common electrode layer between adjacent LC cells, the total thickness of a stacked LC structure may be reduced, which may lead to a corresponding reduction in size and weight and improvement in user comfort for an HMD.

An optical system may include equipment with a housing that is configured to receive external equipment such as a cellular telephone. The external equipment may include a display. To control the persistence of the display, the optical system may include a light modulating layer. The light modulating layer may switch between a transparent state in which display image light is passed through the light modulating layer to reach the viewer and an opaque state in which display image light is blocked by the light modulating layer from reaching the viewer. The light modulating layer may be placed in the transparent state for a portion of each display frame and the opaque state for the remaining portion of each display frame. The light modulating layer may be formed in the housing of the equipment that receives the external equipment or may be formed with the external equipment directly.

A head-mounted apparatus include an eyepiece that include a variable dimming assembly and a frame mounting the eyepiece so that a user side of the eyepiece faces a towards a user and a world side of the eyepiece opposite the first side faces away from the user. The dynamic dimming assembly selectively modulates an intensity of light transmitted parallel to an optical axis from the world side to the user side during operation. The dynamic dimming assembly includes a variable birefringence cell having multiple pixels each having an independently variable birefringence, a first linear polarizer arranged on the user side of the variable birefringence cell, the first linear polarizer being configured to transmit light propagating parallel to the optical axis linearly polarized along a pass axis of the first linear polarizer orthogonal to the optical axis, a quarter wave plate arranged between the variable birefringence cell and the first linear polarizer, a fast axis of the quarter wave plate being arranged relative to the pass axis of the first linear polarizer to transform linearly polarized light transmitted by the first linear polarizer into circularly polarized light, and a second linear polarizer on the world side of the variable birefringence cell.

A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel and a circularly polarizing plate disposed on a viewing side of the liquid crystal panel. The circularly polarizing plate sequentially includes, from a viewing side, a linearly polarizing plate and an out-cell retarder. The liquid crystal panel includes a thin-film transistor substrate, a color filter substrate facing the thin-film transistor substrate and including black matrix, a horizontal alignment liquid crystal layer disposed between the thin-film transistor substrate and the color filter substrate, and an in-cell retarder disposed in one substrate disposed on the viewing side selected from the thin-film transistor substrate and the color filter substrate. The in-cell retarder is disposed outside a region between the black matrix and the horizontal alignment liquid crystal layer.

A display device may include a substrate, a plasmonic aluminum reflector layer over the substrate, and a conducting oxide layer over the plasmonic aluminum reflector layer. The display device may have a circular polarizer over the conducting oxide layer and configured to receive incident visible radiation. The incident visible radiation may cause plasmon resonance within the plasmonic aluminum reflector layer. The display device may include a circuit configured to apply a voltage between the conducting oxide layer and the plasmonic aluminum reflector layer to cause the plasmonic aluminum reflector layer to selectively reflect the incident visible radiation based on the voltage.

An image quality improving member comprising: a uniaxial anisotropic optical lens having a refractive index distribution in a first direction orthogonal to an optical axis of incident light, the optical lens condensing light vibrating in the first direction in the incident light; a translucent first substrate in which a black matrix including a plurality of first openings transmitting light output from the optical lens is formed; and a first polarizing plate disposed on the first substrate, the first polarizing plate having an absorption axis in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction when viewed from a direction of the optical axis.