Dual-Function Optic for Eye Display and Camera

A dual-function optical system for eye display and camera, the dual-function optic system comprising:

• a multi-pixel display screen disposed to emit visible spectrum light from a display screen surface as display light rays;
• a dual-function optic of a plastic substrate material disposed for eye display and camera, the dual-function optic of the plastic substrate material comprising:
• an entrance surface of the plastic substrate material having a convex curvature coated with a hot mirror coating disposed as an upper surface to face the display screen surface and receive the display light rays, wherein said hot mirror coating transmits a visible spectrum of said display light rays as a transmitted light beam, but reflects an infrared spectrum,
• a 50% beamsplitter surface formed in the plastic substrate material at an angle of 45° with respect to the transmitted light beam from the entrance surface to reflect 50% of all wavelengths of the transmitted light beam from the entrance surface, whereas light that is not reflected by the 50% beamsplitter surface is transmitted through the 50% beamsplitter surface as a further transmitted light,
• a bottom curved surface of the plastic substrate material coated with a cold mirror coating disposed at an opposite end of the entrance surface to receive said further transmitted light of said transmitted light beam, wherein the cold mirror coating transmits an infrared spectrum but reflects the visible spectrum such that the bottom curved surface behaves as a concave mirror to reflect the visible spectrum of said further transmitted light with positive optical power, resulting in a reflected light, wherein the resulting reflected light incident back on the 50% beamsplitter surface is deflected at a 90° angle, resulting in a deflected light,
• an exit portal surface of the plastic substrate material coated with the hot mirror coating to receive and transmit the deflected light as a visible light, wherein said exit portal surface is disposed for human eye viewing of the visible light, and
• an exterior side surface of the plastic substrate material disposed at an opposite end of the exit portal surface of the plastic substrate material and coated with a broad-spectrum anti-reflection coating that transmits both visible and infrared spectra of a real world image incident on the exterior side surface such that the real world image that is transmitted is also viewable through the exit portal surface for human eye viewing, and such that of the real world image reflected by the 50% beamsplitter surface, an infrared spectrum of the real world image is reflected by the upper surface, partially transmitted back through the 50% beamsplitter surface, and transmitted through the bottom curved surface;
• an infrared camera receiver pixel array disposed to face the bottom curved surface of the plastic substrate material, capture the infrared spectrum of the real world scene image as transmitted through the bottom curved surface, and output an electrical video signal;
• a digital signal processor to image process the electrical video signal to derive a mathematical matrix of pixel values representing a captured scene image;
• and
• a control interface to the digital signal processor to allow user shifting of pixel positions of the captured scene image to result in a processed electronic image, whereby a processed electrical video signal representing the processed electronic image is sent to the multi-pixel display screen to emit said display light rays of the processed electronic image as a display image.