Patent ID: 8619005

Claim:
A method of operating a switchable head-mounted display apparatus, including the steps of: providing a head-mounted display, the head-mounted display including a switchable viewing area having independently controllable portions that is switched between a transparent viewing state and an information viewing state, wherein: i) the transparent viewing state is transparent so that a user of the head-mounted display views at least a portion of the scene outside the head-mounted display in the user's line of sight; and ii) the information viewing state is opaque and the user views information displayed in the switchable viewing area; and switching the viewing state to an intermediate state from the transparent viewing state or the information viewing state by successively switching spatially adjacent independently controllable portions; switching the intermediate state to the transparent viewing state or the information viewing state by successively switching spatially adjacent independently controllable portions; and wherein the intermediate state is a state in which a portion of the switchable viewing area is in the information viewing state and a different portion of the switchable viewing area is in the transparent viewing state and in which information is displayed in the switchable viewing area over a smaller spatial area than the same information presented in the information state or the transparent viewing state.