Synthetic Holographic Guided Light Angular-Scanning Flat Head Mounted Display

To address the need for a flat head-mounted display, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Synthetic Holographic Guided Light Angular-Scanning (HOLOGLAS) flat helmet-mounted display (HMD) that effectively projects out-of-the-screen images like those seen in holograms. The proposed HOLOGLAS HMD is based on the principle of the holographic "virtual window," and is implementable in a compact single piece eye-glass-like configuration. The device uniquely integrates available solid state lasers or light emitting diodes and high speed liquid crystal spatial light modulators with POC's novel planar waveguide electro-optical elements. This frees the HOLOGLAS system from the need to handle the enormous amount of redundant data associated with a pure electroholographic system. In Phase I POC will demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed concept through modeling and simulation, and system design, culminating in a proof-of-concept demonstration. System characteristics such as information bandwidth and encoding method, and device performance requirements in terms of resolution, distortion, color, and visual artifacts will be analyzed. In Phase II, POC will develop a prototype HOLOGLAS flat HMD system displaying text and discrete iconic information and visible/non-visible sensor imagery, all in real time.