Systems, apparatus, computer implemented methods, and computer program products to enhance the operation of a vehicle. A HUD apparatus includes a laser light source to generate laser light to be reflected an optical member, one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members, and one or more UV light sources. The elastically deformable position adjustment members are operable to adjust a spatial orientation of the optical member, and include one or more photochromatic regions to facilitate movement of the one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members from a contracted state to an expanded state in response to exposure to UV light emitted by the U light source(s). In that way, adjustments in the spatial orientation of the optical member and a change in direction of laser light reflected by the optical member as obtained.

A near-eye display for displaying an image to a viewer has enhanced laser efficiency and enhanced eye-safety features. The display includes a laser source which generates one or more laser spots and a scan driver which scans the laser spots across an image field. The electrical energy consumption is minimized by modulating the laser source at 3 power levels —a near-zero level, a near-threshold level, and a lasing level—and by synchronizing the modulation with the scan driver. In another embodiment, the laser module generates two or more laser spots which scan non-overlapping lines on the image field. The scanning is configured to prevent the light intensity at the eye of a viewer from exceeding eye-safety levels, even in the event of a scanning malfunction.

A laser beam scanning (“LBS”) display device is configured with an optical system that includes a laser beam emitter configured to emit a laser beam. The optical system also includes a driver configured to generate a driving signal for controlling a mirror, such as a microelectromechanical systems (“MEMS”) mirror. The optical system also includes a controller configured to generate a driving signal while rejecting a system disturbance response.

A near-eye display device comprises a pupil-expansion optic, first and second lasers, a drive circuit coupled operatively to the first and second lasers, a beam combiner, a spatial light modulator (SLM), and a computer. The first and second lasers are configured to emit in respective first and second wavelength bands. The beam combiner is configured to geometrically combine emission from the first and second lasers into a collimated beam. The SLM is configured to receive the collimated beam and to direct the emission in spatially modulated form to the pupil-expansion optic. The computer is configured to parse a digital image, trigger the emission from the first and second lasers by causing the drive circuit to drive current through the first and second lasers, and control the SLM such that the spatially modulated form of the emission projects an optical image corresponding to the digital image.

A head-mounted device (HMD) is configured to perform depth detection with a stereo camera pair comprising a first camera and a second camera, both of which are configured to detect/capture visible light and IR light. The fields of view for both of the cameras overlap to form an overlapping field of view. The HMD also includes an IR dot-pattern illuminator that is mounted on the HMD with the cameras and that is configured to emit an IR dot-pattern illumination. The IR dot-pattern illuminator emits a dot-pattern illumination that spans at least a part of the overlapping field of view. The IR dot-pattern illumination adds texture to objects in the environment and enables the HMD to determine depth for those objects, even if they have textureless/smooth surfaces.

The techniques disclosed herein provide apparatus, methods and systems that adaptively adjust the signal waveform (or waveshape) of the drive signal to a slow-scan mirror to compensate for non-linearities observed in the slow-scan feedback signal from a slow-scan mirror. Over large scan angles and high temperatures, the slow-scan mirror in a laser beam scanning device may exhibit a nonlinear response to the drive signal that results in poor image quality issues such as bright lines, bands in the display image, and image distortion. The presently disclosed technologies track the linearity performance of the overall system by detecting non-linearities in waveform of the slow-scan feedback signal real time, and consequently apply a pre-distortion to the drive waveform to compensate for these detected non-linearities. The parameters, logic and blocks of the control may be implemented in hardware, software or combinations thereof.

A near-eye display for displaying an image to a viewer has enhanced laser efficiency and enhanced eye-safety features. The display includes a laser source which generates one or more laser spots and a scan driver which scans the laser spots across an image field. The electrical energy consumption is minimized by modulating the laser source at 3 power levels—a near-zero level, a near-threshold level, and a lasing level—and by synchronizing the modulation with the scan driver. In another embodiment, the laser module generates two or more laser spots which scan non-overlapping lines on the image field. The scanning is configured to prevent the light intensity at the eye of a viewer from exceeding eye-safety levels, even in the event of a scanning malfunction.

A laser projection device that includes at least one laser diode for generating at least one laser beam, and at least one movable mirror element for deflecting the at least one laser beam. The laser projection device includes at least one control and/or regulation unit that is designed to control and/or regulate a brightness of the at least one laser beam as a function of a relative deflection speed of the at least one laser beam.

A laser projection device includes at least one first reflector element, which is linearly movable. A period of the at least one first reflector element corresponds to a period of time for reproducing a single. The laser projection device includes at least one second reflector element, which is movable in a sinusoidal manner, a semiperiod of a sine corresponding to one line. The at least one first reflector element and the at least one second reflector element are movable about two axes at least substantially perpendicular to each other. The laser projection device includes at least one control and/or regulating unit, which is configured to control and/or regulate the at least one first reflector element.

Examples are disclosed herein related to controlling a scanning mirror system. One example provides a display device, comprising a light source, a scanning mirror system configured to scan light from the light source in a first direction at a first, higher scan rate, and in a second direction at a second, lower scan rate, and a drive circuit configured to control the scanning mirror system to display video image data by providing a control signal to the scanning mirror system to control scanning in the second direction, and for each video image data frame of at least a subset of video image data frames, combining the control signal with an adjustment signal to adjust the scanning in the second direction, the adjustment signal comprising a low pass filtered signal with a cutoff frequency based on a lowest resonant frequency of the scanning mirror system in the second direction.