Portable wide-field optical system with microlenses and fiber-optic image transfer element

摘要

An optical system converts a planar image display to a spherical image display focused for close proximity to a human eye, in order to provide a wide viewing field. The optical system includes an array of image source pixels provided by a flat panel display, such as a high resolution liquid crystal display. The image source pixels are received by an array of optical fibers which transfer light from the image source pixels to an image plane section where the optical fibers terminate in a curved surface configuration. The curved surface image projection emanating from the array of optical fibers is received by an array of micro-lenses. Each of the micro-lenses is configured to focus a portion of the light from the curved image plane section onto an eye for viewing the image.