Apparatuses, methods and systems for pre-warping images for a display system with a distorting optical component

A virtual reality or augmented reality head mounted display (HMD) system;

• the system comprising:
• an image source configured to display an image for viewing by a user of the HMD system;
• an optical element having an optical geometry, wherein the optical element is positioned relative to the image source to reflect light projected from the image source of the HMD system to an eye of a user the HMD system;
• and
• one or more processing devices configured to execute instructions that cause the one or more processing devices to:
• receive data corresponding to an image for display by the HMD system;
• map the image data to pixels of the image source to create an image having a distortion;
• and
• render the mapped image data to the image source to project the image having the distortion, wherein the user of the HMD system perceives a virtual image corresponding to the distorted image that is substantially free of optical distortion.

A computer implemented method of configuring a virtual reality or augmented reality head mounted display (HMD) including an optical element reflecting light of an image presented by the HMD system to the eye of a viewer of the HMD system;

• the method comprising:
• determining, by a processing device, a model of a geometry of a surface of the optical element of the HMD system reflecting the image;
• determining, by the processing device, a location of the eye of the viewer of the HMD system relative to the optical element;
• determining the location of a source of the image relative to the optical element;
• mapping, by the processing device, an optical distortion of the image derived from the model, the eye location, and image source location;
• mapping, by the processing device, an inverse of the mapped optical distortion;
• and
• configuring the HMD system to apply the inverse mapping when rendering image data for display by the image source to present a distorted image by the image source.