Modified Maxwellian view augmented reality display with foveal gaze matching and wide field-of-view

Augmented reality (AR) display systems that conform to human visual characteristics can provide a more natural and comfortable visual experience. However, there is a lack of effective solutions to simultaneously satisfing the non-uniform visual characteristics of the human visual system and the gaze matching requirement during eye movements. This paper proposes a wide field-of-view (FOV) modified Maxwellian view foveated AR display system employing a single display engine, which includes a modified Maxwellian view (MMV) channel and a wide-field imaging display (WFID) channel. The MMV channel focuses parallel light rays onto the rotation center of the eyeball so that the region of interest (ROI) of the image is always sharply imaged on the retinal fovea with a large depth of field. The WFID channel images the scattered light rays onto a far plane to realize wide-field imaging in the peripheral region, thereby accommodating the non-uniform visual characteristics of the retina. In addition, by aligning the chief rays coaxially with the visual axis, the system can achieve robust gaze matching during saccadic eye movements. By adopting time division multiplexing (TDM) technology to combine the MMV channel and WFID channel, the system can simultaneously possess the advantages of wide FOV, free focusing of foveal images, and gaze matching. The experimental results showed that the proposed system provided an extended FOV of 50° and maintained sharp imaging over a depth range from 300 to 1900 mm. Within an eye rotation range of ±10°, the ROI of the image was consistently imaged on the retinal fovea. The proposed system provides a simple, feasible, and cost-effective solution for AR displays that conform to human visual perception and eye-movement characteristics.