AUGMENTED REALITY GLASSES

A pair of augmented reality glasses including a projection device and a waveguide is provided. The projection device is configured to provide a collimated beam. The waveguide has a plurality of free form surfaces. Distances between each free form surface and the projection device are different from each other. The collimated beam progresses to and reflects off these free form surfaces in sequence, and then enters eyes of the user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 110147313, filed on Dec. 17, 2021. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

The disclosure relates to an optical apparatus, and more particularly relates to a pair of augmented reality glasses.

Description of Related Art

With the advancement of display technology, augmented reality display technology has gradually become popular, and has been widely used in people's lives, such as entertainment and medical surgery. Augmented reality technology allows a user to see not only a virtual image generated by an image light, but also an actual object. Moreover, the virtual image can interact with the actual object. However, different users have different interpupillary distances (IPDs). When a user wears augmented reality glasses, if a light beam cannot properly enter the user's pupils, it will cause the seen image to be twisted, distorted, blurred or even disappeared. In addition, augmented reality glasses further have the problem of vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC).

SUMMARY

The disclosure provides a pair of augmented reality glasses, capable of reducing or avoiding the problem of blurred images caused by different interpupillary distances and the problem of vergence-accommodation conflict.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a pair of augmented reality glasses is provided, including a projection device and a waveguide. The projection device is configured to provide a collimated beam. The waveguide has a plurality of free form surfaces. Distances between each free form surface and the projection device are different from each other. The collimated beam progresses to and reflects off these free form surfaces in sequence, and then enters eyes of a user.

According to another embodiment of the disclosure, a pair of augmented reality glasses is provided, including a projection device, a waveguide, and an adjustment mechanism. The projection device is configured to provide a collimated beam. The waveguide has a free form surface. The adjustment mechanism is configured to move the waveguide so that the free form surface can reflect the collimated beam into eyes of a user. The adjustment mechanism moves the waveguide on a direction parallel to an imaginary connection line connecting the user's two eyes.

Based on the above, the augmented reality glasses provided by the embodiments of the disclosure use at least one free form surface to achieve the function of adjusting an image beam so that the augmented reality glasses can be adapted to users with different IPDs, and the image beam can properly enter a user's two eyes to avoid the problem of blurred images. The augmented reality glasses further generate the collimated beam with the projection device, and use the characteristic of the small divergence angle of the collimated beam to reduce or avoid the VAC problem.

To make the aforementioned features and advantages of the disclosure more comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with drawings are described in detail as follows.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

FIG.1is a schematic diagram of augmented reality glasses according to an embodiment of the disclosure.FIG.2is a schematic diagram of a projection device ofFIG.1. Please refer toFIG.1. The augmented reality glasses1include a projection device10, a frame100, a waveguide101, a beam splitting device102, and an adjustment mechanism103. The projection device10may be arranged on the frame100. The adjustment mechanism103is configured to move the waveguide101and the beam splitting device102on the X direction parallel to an imaginary connection line connecting a user's two eyes. As shown inFIG.1, the adjustment mechanism103moves the waveguide101and the beam splitting device102by a distance X1.

Please refer toFIG.2. The projection device10includes a laser scanning projector10A and a collimator lens10B. The laser scanning projector10A includes a laser diode LD and a scanning mirror SM. The laser diode LD emits illumination light LS. The illumination light LS is reflected by the scanning mirror SM to generate image light IL. After passing through the collimator lens10B, the image light IL becomes a collimated beam PL, and the collimated beam PL is output from the projection device10.

Please refer toFIG.3A, which is a schematic diagram of augmented reality glasses according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The augmented reality glasses3A include a projection device10, a waveguide301, and an adjustment mechanism (not shown). The projection device10provides a collimated beam PL as shown inFIG.2. The waveguide301has a free form surface FC. The adjustment mechanism may be realized by the adjustment mechanism103inFIG.1. In the embodiment, the adjustment mechanism moves the waveguide301by a distance X2on the X direction parallel to the imaginary connection line connecting a user's two eyes so that the free form surface FC can reflect the collimated beam PL into eyes of the user.

To fully describe various implementation aspects of the disclosure, other embodiments of the disclosure are described in the following. It must be noted here that the following embodiments use the element numerals and part of the contents of the foregoing embodiments. The same numerals are used to denote the same or similar elements, and the description of the same technical content is omitted. For the description of the omitted parts, reference may be made to the foregoing embodiments, and thus the description is not repeated in the following embodiments.

Please refer toFIG.3B, which a schematic diagram of augmented reality glasses according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The augmented reality glasses3B include a projection device10, a waveguide301, an adjustment mechanism (not shown), and a beam splitter302. The beam splitter302is arranged on a path of a collimated beam PL. The embodiment is different from the embodiment shown inFIG.3Ain that the collimated beam PL progresses to a free form surface FC through the beam splitter302. Specifically, the collimated beam PL enters the waveguide301after being partially reflected by the beam splitter302. In addition, the adjustment mechanism moves the beam splitter302and the waveguide301on the X direction parallel to the imaginary connection line connecting a user's two eyes so that the free form surface FC can reflect the collimated beam PL into eyes of the user. Methods for moving the beam splitter302and the waveguide301are similar to methods for moving the beam splitting device102and the waveguide101inFIG.1.

In an embodiment of the disclosure, the beam splitter302may be a polarizing beam splitter. The s-polarization state (polarization in the Z direction inFIG.3B) in the collimated beam PL is reflected by the polarizing beam splitter302, enters the waveguide301, and reflects off the free form surface FC and enters eyes of the user.

Please refer toFIG.4, which is a schematic diagram of augmented reality glasses according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The augmented reality glasses4include a projection device10and a waveguide401. The augmented reality glasses4are different from the augmented reality glasses3A shown inFIG.3Ain that the waveguide401has free form surfaces FC1, FC2, and FC3arranged in a linear manner along the X direction. The embodiment takes three free form surfaces as an example, but the number of free form surfaces is not limited thereto.

The free form surfaces FC1, FC2, and FC3may be curved surfaces with the same surface shape, or may be curved surfaces with different surface shapes. Distances between the free form surfaces FC1, FC2, and FC3and the projection device10are different from each other, and a collimated beam progresses to the free form surfaces FC1, FC2, and FC3in sequence. Specifically, after entering the waveguide401, the collimated beam PL output by the projection device10partially penetrates the free form surface FC1, and partially reflects off the free form surface FC1to enter the eye EY1. The aforementioned collimated beam PL partially penetrating the free form surface FC1progresses to the free form surface FC2, partially penetrates the free form surface FC2, and partially reflects off the free form surface FC2to enter the eye EY2. The aforementioned collimated beam PL partially penetrating the free form surface FC2progresses to the free form surface FC3, and reflects off the free form surface FC2to enter the eye EY3. The above-mentioned eyes EY1, EY2, and EY3respectively represent the positions of eyes of users when the users with different interpupillary distances wear the augmented reality glasses4. In other words, the arrangement of a plurality of free form surfaces in the embodiment enables the augmented reality glasses4to be adapted to the users with different interpupillary distances.

Distances between the adjacent free form surfaces FC1and FC2and the adjacent free form surfaces FC2and FC3fall within a range of 3 mm to 5 mm so that the eyes in use do not receive collimated beams PL from the different free form surfaces at the same time.

In an embodiment of the disclosure, the augmented reality glasses4may further include an adjustment mechanism (not shown) for moving the waveguide401along the X direction so that one of the free form surfaces FC1, FC2, and FC3can reflect the collimated beam PL into eyes of the user.

Please refer toFIG.5, which is a schematic diagram of augmented reality glasses according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The augmented reality glasses5include a projection device10, a beam splitter502, and a waveguide501. The augmented reality glasses5are different from the augmented reality glasses3B shown inFIG.3Bin that the waveguide501has free form surfaces FC1, FC2, and FC3arranged in a linear manner along the Y direction.

The same as the augmented reality glasses3B shown inFIG.3B, the augmented reality glasses5may further include an adjustment mechanism. The beam splitter502may be a polarizing beam splitter. The adjustment mechanism moves the beam splitter502and the waveguide501on the X direction parallel to the imaginary connection line connecting a user's two eyes so that one of the free form surfaces FC1, FC2, and FC3can reflect a collimated beam PL into eyes of the user. Methods for moving the beam splitter502and the waveguide501are similar to methods for moving the beam splitting device102and the waveguide101inFIG.1.

Please refer toFIG.6, which is a schematic diagram of augmented reality glasses according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The augmented reality glasses6include a projection device10, a beam splitting device602, and a waveguide601. The beam splitting device602has beam splitters6021,6022,6023, and6024, arranged in a linear manner along the X direction and arranged on a path of a collimated beam PL. After entering the beam splitting device602, the collimated beam PL partially penetrates the beam splitter6021, and is partially reflected by the beam splitter6021to enter the waveguide601. The aforementioned collimated beam PL partially penetrating the beam splitter6021progresses to the beam splitter6022, partially penetrates the beam splitter6022, and is partially reflected by the beam splitter6022to enter the waveguide601. The aforementioned collimated beam PL partially penetrating the beam splitter6022progresses to the beam splitter6023, partially penetrates the beam splitter6023, and is partially reflected by the beam splitter6023to enter the waveguide601. The aforementioned collimated beam PL partially penetrating the beam splitter6023progresses to the beam splitter6024and is reflected by the beam splitter6024to enter the waveguide601. In the embodiment, the beam splitting device602has four beam splitters, but the number of beam splitters is not limited thereto.

In the embodiment, each beam splitter corresponds to four free form surfaces. Taking the beam splitter6021as an example, the above-mentioned beam reflected by the beam splitter6021continues to progress to the four free form surfaces FC corresponding to the beam splitter, and the beam reflected by the beam splitter6022progresses to another four free form surfaces FC corresponding to the beam splitter. Similarly, the beams reflected by the beam splitter6023and the beam splitter6024progress to the four free form surfaces FC corresponding to the beam splitters, respectively. The same as the above-mentioned embodiment, the arrangement of a plurality of free form surfaces in the embodiment enables the augmented reality glasses6to be adapted to users with different interpupillary distances.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the augmented reality glasses6may further include an adjustment mechanism. The adjustment mechanism moves the beam splitting device602and the waveguide601on the X direction parallel to the imaginary connection line connecting a user's two eyes so that one of the plurality of free form surfaces can reflect a collimated beam PL into eyes of a user. Methods for moving the beam splitter602and the waveguide601are similar to methods for moving the beam splitting device102and the waveguide101inFIG.1.

In summary, the augmented reality glasses provided by the embodiments of the disclosure use at least one free form surface to achieve the function of adjusting an image beam so that the augmented reality glasses can be adapted to users with different IPDs, and the image beam can properly enter eyes of a user to avoid the problem of blurred images. The augmented reality glasses further generate a collimated beam with a projection device, and use the characteristic of the small divergence angle of the collimated beam to reduce or avoid the VAC problem.