Optical display, image capturing device and methods with variable depth of field

A method of displaying images using an optical projection system,

• wherein the optical projection system comprises an eye tracking sensor arranged to generate eye convergence data by sensing movements of the eyes of a user thereby defining an attention depth by determining the distance and direction at which the user's eyes are focusing,
• wherein the optical projection system comprises a controller comprising one or more processors configured to control the optical projection system,
• wherein the optical projection system comprises a pixelated illumination source and a fiber bundle having backward ends coupled to the pixelated illumination image source, forward ends and an optical arrangement comprising lenses and reflectors, the optical arrangement having a back focal plane which is located between the forward ends and a viewer,
• wherein the fiber bundle is formed of a plurality of parallel optical fibers extending forward from the source,
• wherein the fibers are of at least two different lengths and are arranged in a first spatially sequential pattern in a first region of the at least one fiber bundle and a second spatially sequential pattern in a second region of the at least one fiber bundle different from the first region, wherein the spatially sequential patterns of the first region and the second region have different repeating patterns of fibers, and
• wherein the shortest fibers are located with their forward ends at the back focal plane and the longest fibers are located with their forward ends closer to the optical arrangement,
• the method comprising, at the controller:
• receiving data of one or more images to be displayed to a user;
• determining a measure of the user's attention depth based on the eye convergence data from the eye tracking sensor;
• and
• controlling the projection system to selectively illuminate pixels of the pixelated illumination image source corresponding to fibers of certain lengths, based on said received image data to control the apparent depth at which an image corresponding to the received image data appears to the user, wherein fibers of corresponding lengths to the attention depth are illuminated to display an image to the user at the user's attention depth.

An image capturing device comprising a lens, a fiber bundle a pixelated capturing array and an eye tracking sensor,

• wherein the fiber bundle is situated between the lens and the pixelated capturing array, the fiber bundle having backward ends coupled to the pixelated capturing array and forward ends,
• wherein the lens has a back focal plane which is located between the forward ends and a scenery,
• wherein the fiber bundle is formed of a plurality of parallel optical fibers extending forward from the source, thereby forming a virtual image at said back focal plane,
• wherein the fibers are of at least two different lengths and are arranged in a first spatially sequential pattern in a first region of the at least one fiber bundle and a second spatially sequential pattern in a second region of the at least one fiber bundle different from the first region, wherein the spatially sequential patterns of the first region and the second region have different repeating patterns of fibers,
• wherein the shortest fibers are located with their forward ends at the back focal plane and the longest fibers are located with their forward ends closer to the optical arrangement, and
• wherein a measure of a user's attention depth is determined based on the eye convergence data from the eye tracking sensor, and wherein fibers of corresponding length to the attention depth are illuminated to display an image to the user at the user's attention depth.

A method of capturing images using an image capturing device, wherein the device comprises a lens, a fiber bundle, a pixelated capturing device array, an eye tracking sensor, and a controller comprising at least one processor, wherein the fiber bundle is formed of a plurality of parallel optical fibers extending forward from the source, and situated between the lens and the array, the fiber bundle having backward ends coupled to the pixelated capturing array and forward ends, wherein the lens has a back focal plane which is located between the forward ends and a scenery,

• wherein the fibers are of at least two different lengths and are arranged in a first spatially sequential pattern in a first region of the at least one fiber bundle and a second spatially sequential pattern in a second region of the at least one fiber bundle different from the first region, wherein the spatially sequential patterns of the first region and the second region have different repeating patterns of fibers, and
• wherein the shortest fibers are located with their forward ends at the back focal plane and the longest fibers are located with their forward ends closer to the optical arrangement,
• the method comprising, at the processor:
• receiving image capture data corresponding to an image captured by the pixelated capturing device array;
• generating, by the eye tracking sensor, eye convergence data by sensing eye movements of the eyes of a user and defining an attention depth by determining the distance and direction at which the user's eyes are focusing;
• constructing from said image capture data a set of two or more images, wherein each image is constructed from pixels of said capturing array corresponding to fibers of the same length;
• and
• performing comparative spatial contrast analysis on each image to determine the distance of one or more objects in the image from the image capturing device;
• determining a measure of the user's attention depth based on the eye convergence data from the eye tracking sensor;
• constructing a depth map of the captured image based on the contrast analysis;
• and
• illuminating the fibers based on the determining, thereby forming a virtual image at said back focal plane, wherein fibers of corresponding length to the attention depth are illuminated to display the image to the user at the user's attention depth.