Currently available screen and retinal head mounted displays have insufficient field of view to fully exploit many virtual and augmented reality applications. Screen based displays suffer from weight and size restrictions as the image sources, electronics, and viewing optics need to be head mounted. Retinal displays need only the scanning and optical delivery components to be head mounted, but current retinal displays suffer from a small field of view. This paper proposes a novel, non-linear, non-paraxial optical design that enables an ultra-wide field of view display using existing small scan angle MOEMS scanners. A model of the design and estimated specifications is presented. The retinal display has an estimated 100°H by 90°V field of view at the pupil of each eye. The display will have XVGA resolution, and a 15-20mm exit aperture, and estimated 4cm eye relief.
Thomas A. Furness III