ThinVR: VR displays with wide FOV in a compact form factor

Abstract

We demonstrate ThinVR as a new approach to simultaneously address the bulk and limited FOV of today’s head-worn VR displays. ThinVR enables a VR display to provide 180 degrees horizontal FOV in a thin, compact form factor. Our approach is to replace traditional large optics with a curved microlens array of custom-designed heterogeneous lenslets and place these in front of a curved display. Custom-designed heterogeneous optics were crucial to make this approach work, since over a wide FOV, many lenslets are viewed off the central axis. We show the viability of the ThinVR approach through two demonstrations, using both dynamic and static displays.