Patent ID: 8467133

Claim:
A system, comprising: an interactive head-mounted eyepiece worn by a user, wherein the eyepiece includes an optical assembly through which the user views a surrounding environment combined with displayed content, an integrated processor for handling content for display to the user, and an integrated image source for introducing the content to the optical assembly, wherein the optical assembly comprises a planar illumination facility including a light transmissive wedge with angle selective reflective and transmissive coatings and an LED lighting system coupled to the wedge, and wherein light from the LED lighting system undergoes multiple internal reflections from surfaces of the wedge and the coatings until the light reaches an angle where the coatings become transmissive and a portion of the light is transmitted to uniformly irradiate a reflective image display to produce an image that is reflected through the planar illumination facility to provide the displayed content to the user.