Personal Displays
Dyoptyka's Dynamic Optics technology can be used to avoid vision system conflicts that make it uncomfortable to use a stereoscopic 3-D display for long periods.
To understand these vision system conflicts we need first to define some terms. The process through which both eyes are directed to single 3-D position is called "convergence". The process through which the focal length of the eyes' crystalline lenses are changed to focus light from various distances is termed "accommodation".
Under natural viewing conditions, accommodation is coupled to, or correlated with, convergence. This means that when the eyes converge to view an object at a certain distance, the focal length of the eyes' lenses is changed accordingly. Hence a clear image of the object is formed on the retina. When using a conventional stereoscopic 3-D display device, the optical distance from the eye to the display plane does not change. Hence the image on the retina is not automatically kept in focus. This results in an "accommodation-convergence mismatch". Focus must be achieved through a separate process not experienced in natural vision. This is believed to be the source of visual discomfort in stereoscopic 3-D visualization.
Dyoptyka overcomes this conflict using its Dynamic Optics technology. Our solution to the accommodation-convergence mismatch is achieved with low-cost, off-the-shelf, deformable membrane mirrors. Our system presents scene objects to the eye at appropriate optical distances. The pixels for a single depth only are displayed at one instant with the dynamic optics system in a state corresponding to that depth. At the next instant the pixels for the next depth are displayed, the dynamic optics system having changed accordingly. And so on.
