A compact, wide-FOV optical design for head-mounted displays

Abstract

We present a new optical design for head-mounted displays (HMD) which has an exceptionally wide field of view (FOV). It can cover even the full human FOV. It is based on seamless lenses and screens curved around the eyes. The proof-of-concept prototypes are promising, and one of them far exceeds the human FOV, although the effective FOV is limited by the anatomy of the human head. The presented optical design has advantages such as compactness, light weight, low cost and super-wide FOV with high resolution. Even though this is still work-in-progress and display functionality is not yet implemented, it suggests a feasible way to significantly expand the FOV of HMDs.