FAST ELECTROACTIVE LENS SWITCHING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• Main Authors: JIANG, Yingfei, VAN HEUGTEN, Anthony
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 09.11.2022
• Subjects: CONTACT LENSES; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; SPECTACLES; SUNGLASSES OR GOGGLES INSOFAR AS THEY HAVE THE SAME FEATURESAS SPECTACLES

A conventional liquid crystal lens switches on and off so slowly that a person can perceive the lens's gradual transition from high to low optical power. This makes a conventional liquid crystal lens unsuitable for focusing virtual images quickly in an augmented, mixed, or virtual reality system. Conversely, an inventive fast-switching electroactive lens system can switch so fast (e.g., in 35 milliseconds or less) that a person perceives its optical power to change instantaneously. The system accomplishes this fast switching with using an electroactive wave plate in series with slower liquid-crystal lenses. The wave place can be switched quickly between emitting vertically or horizontally polarized light. Each lens focuses either vertically or horizontally polarized light and transmits orthogonally polarized light. By switching between polarization states, the wave plate effectively turns one lens on and the other lens off much faster than either lens could be switched by itself.