Separated pupil optical systems for virtual and augmented reality and methods for displaying images using same

A method of operating an AR system to display an image viewable by a user's eyes, the method comprising:

• tracking, by an eye-tracking subsystem, positions of the user's eyes;
• determining, based on the positions, a focus depth of the user's eyes;
• providing a plurality of sub-light sources;
• activating a subset of sub-light sources of the plurality of sub-light sources based on the focus depth of the user's eyes, wherein activating a sub-light source causes the sub-light source to produce a light beam originating from the sub-light source, thereby producing a plurality of light beams;
• encoding the plurality of light beams with image data, thereby producing a plurality of encoded light beams;
• providing a plurality of light-guiding optical elements, wherein each of a subset of light-guiding optical elements of the plurality of light-guiding optical elements corresponds to one sub-light source of the subset of sub-light sources;
• focusing each of the plurality of encoded light beams onto a corresponding one of the subset of light-guiding optical elements of the plurality of light-guiding optical elements;
• and
• projecting, from the subset of light-guiding optical elements that correspond to the subset of sub-light sources, the plurality of encoded light beams into the user's eyes so that they appear to originate from a depth plane corresponding to the focus depth of the user's eyes.