Contact Lens See-Through Head Worn Display

This Phase II SBIR project will develop a full color, 720P, wide field of view (90), see-through head mounted display (HMD) prototype based on Innovegas eyeborne optic concept. This new eyewear architecture is a radical departure from traditional near eye displays. Rather than presenting the eye with collimated rays of light that appear to originate from a distant source, the performance of the eye is enhanced by sophisticated contact lenses to enable short focal length accommodation of non-collimated light rays. The special contact lenses add one additional focal accommodation distance to the wearers normal vision. This is done with no impact to the wearers normal sight other than a slight attenuation of ambient brightness. The result is that the eye is able to observe the near-eye imagery over its full field of view while simultaneously observing the surrounding environment. This eliminates all imaging optics from the eyewear resulting in a compact see-thru display. The HMD prototype will utilize an LCOS projector module to create an image directly onto the HMD spectacle lenses. In addition to making the LCOS projection HMD, research will be put into developing improved nano-wire polarizer and spectral filter fabrication processes for integration into contact lenses.