Provide are an optical element that can improve a utilization efficiency of light while increasing an optical path length, an image display unit, and a head-mounted display. The optical element includes, in the following order: a first absorptive linearly polarizing plate; a first reflective linearly polarizing plate; a first retardation plate; a partially reflecting mirror that allows transmission of a part of incident light and reflects a part of the incident light; a second retardation plate; and a second reflective linearly polarizing plate, in which a turning direction of circularly polarized light that is reflected from the first reflective linearly polarizing plate in a case where light transmits through the first retardation plate and is incident into the first reflective linearly polarizing plate is opposite to a turning direction of circularly polarized light that is reflected from the second reflective linearly polarizing plate in a case where light transmits through the second retardation plate and is incident into the second reflective linearly polarizing plate.

The invention is directed to a microdisplay of an optical device, comprising: a light source; an optical element, disposed on the light exit side of the light source to adjust the light path of the light source; an LCoS substrate, a shape of which exhibits a notch in at least one dimension, the light source projected onto the LCoS substrate, the LCoS substrate reflects the light source entering the notch; and a spatial light modulator, after an outgoing light reflected by the LCoS substrate, the outgoing light enters the spatial light modulator; the spatial light modulator adjusts an azimuth angle of a liquid crystal layer to eliminate noise of the outgoing light; wherein, the outgoing light adjusted by the spatial light modulator is projected onto a eyepieces to display images without the fringe field effects.

Systems and methods for a multi-primary color system for display. A multi-primary color system increases the number of primary colors available in a color system and color system equipment. Increasing the number of primary colors reduces metameric errors from viewer to viewer. A six-primary color system includes Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta primaries. The systems of the present invention maintain compatibility with existing color systems and equipment and provide systems for backwards compatibility with older color systems.

A liquid crystal device includes a reflection-type liquid crystal panel in which a first substrate provided with a reflective layer and a second substrate having light-transmissivity face each other via a liquid crystal layer. In the liquid crystal device, a λ/4 phase difference plate is arranged in an optical path in which light incident from the second substrate side is reflected by the reflective layer and emitted from the second substrate side, and a phase difference compensation layer such as a C plate and O plate provided integrally with the liquid crystal panel is provided in the optical path. The λ/4 phase difference plate is an inorganic material film provided on a second end surface facing the second substrate in the polarized light separating element. The phase difference compensation layer is an inorganic material film provided on a surface of the second substrate opposite to the liquid crystal layer.

A device for combining light beams which interact with adjacently arranged pixels of a light modulator, having a beam splitting component, a beam combining component, and a beam superposition component. The beam splitting component is configured such that incident light beams are split into a first subbeam and a second subbeam so that the first subbeam propagates toward a first pixel of the light modulator and the second subbeam propagates toward a second pixel of the light modulator. The beam combining component is configured and arranged so that the first subbeam and the second subbeam are combined after interaction with pixels of the light modulator. The beam splitting component and the beam combining component are configured and arranged in such a way that a sum of optical path lengths of the first subbeam and the second subbeam is respectively constant for different angles of incidence.

A backlight module and a display device are provided. The backlight module includes a polarizing light guide plate configured to convert incident light into first polarized light and second polarized light, a polarization direction of the first polarized light being perpendicular to a polarization direction of the second polarized light.

A light engine including polarization splitting lens unit comprises an illumination subsystem to create an entrance pupil and a polarization splitting lens unit including an angled polarized beam splitter (PBS) and including an entry face, a double pass face, and an exit face, the polarization splitting lens unit positioned in proximity to the illumination subsystem. The light engine further comprising imaging and illumination optics receiving the light from the polarization splitting lens unit, and a display element modulating the light received from the imaging and illumination optics, and reflecting the light back through the imaging and illumination optics. Wherein the polarization splitting lens unit receives the modulated light from the imaging and illumination optics, and outputs the modulated light through the exit face forming an exit pupil.

To provide an image display device capable of remediation of color breakup, and an electronic device including the image display device. An image display device includes: a first display panel whose transmittance or reflectance of light is controlled on the basis of a first video signal; a second display panel whose transmittance or reflectance of light is controlled on the basis of a second video signal; a light irradiation unit configured to irradiate the first display panel with color light according to the first video signal for driving the first display panel, and to irradiate the second display panel with color light according to the second video signal for driving the second display panel; and a control unit configured to generate the first video signal corresponding to first color light that is one among red color light, green color light, and blue color light, and generate the second video signal that causes emission of second color light that brings the first color light close to white light.

Bright ambient light can wash out a virtual image in a conventional augmented reality device. Fortunately, this problem can be prevented with a variable electro-active beam splitter whose reflect/transmit ratio can be varied or switched on and off rapidly at a duty cycle based on the ambient level. As the ambient light gets brighter, the beam splitter's transmit/reflect ratio can be shifted so that the beam splitter reflects more light from the display and transmits less ambient light to the user's eye. The beam splitter can also be switched between a highly reflective state and a highly transmissive state at a duty cycle selected so that the eye spends more time integrating reflected display light than integrating transmitted ambient light. The splitting ratio and/or duty cycle can be adjusted as the ambient light level changes to provide the optimum experience for the user.

A backlight module and a display device are provided. The backlight module includes a polarizing light guide plate configured to convert incident light into first polarized light and second polarized light, a polarization direction of the first polarized light being perpendicular to a polarization direction of the second polarized light.