Optical system for near-eye displays

(canceled)

An optical system for use in a near-eye display device for projecting a virtual image, the system comprising:

• first and second light guiding elements, each configured for guiding input light indicative of the virtual image through a substrate of the light guiding element by total internal reflections from major surfaces of the substrate, the first and second light guiding elements being accommodated in a cascaded fashion such that the second guiding element is optically coupled to an output of the first guiding element;
• and
• a masking optical element accommodated at an optical interface between the first and second light guiding elements for optically coupling the light outputted from the first guiding element with a certain field of view to an input of the second light guiding element, wherein said masking optical element has a spatially varying transmission profile across said element configured in accordance with a predetermined non-uniform intensity profile of the light output of the first light guiding element across said field of view, said spatially varying transmission profile affecting regions of relatively high light intensity within said non-uniform intensity profile, thereby applying intensity modulation to the light passing through the masking optical element to improve intensity uniformity of light being input to the second light guiding element.

An optical system for use in a near-eye display device for projecting a virtual image, the system comprising:

• an optical unit having an optical pupil, and configured to define a light guiding channel for guiding light through said channel to be output from the optical unit in one or more output directions;
• and
• a masking optical element accommodated upstream of the optical unit with respect to a general propagation direction of light through the optical system, said masking optical element projecting input light indicative of the virtual image onto said optical pupil of the optical unit, wherein said masking optical element has a spatially varying transmission profile across said element configured in accordance with a predetermined non-uniform intensity profile of the input light, to affect regions of relatively high light intensity within said non-uniform intensity profile, thereby applying intensity modulation to the light passing through the masking optical element to improve intensity uniformity of light being input to the optical pupil of the optical unit.

A method for improving intensity uniformity of light, indicative of a virtual image in a near-eye display device, the method comprising:

• providing data indicative of a non-uniform intensity profile of input light indicative of the virtual image across a certain field of view;
• and
• analyzing said data indicative of the non-uniform intensity profile of the input light, and determining a spatially varying transmission profile to be applied to the input light across said certain field of view to apply intensity modulation to the input light to affect regions of relatively high light intensity within said intensity profile and thereby improve intensity uniformity of said light.

21-22. (canceled)