Anamorphic near-eye display apparatus

An anamorphic near-eye display apparatus comprising:

• an illumination system comprising a spatial light modulator, the illumination system being arranged to output light;
• and
• an optical system arranged to direct light from the illumination system to an eye of a viewer, wherein the optical system has an optical axis and has anamorphic properties in a lateral direction and a transverse direction that are perpendicular to each other and perpendicular to the optical axis, wherein the spatial light modulator comprises pixels distributed in the lateral direction, and
• the optical system comprises:
• a transverse anamorphic component having positive optical power in the transverse direction, wherein the transverse anamorphic component is arranged to receive light from the spatial light modulator and the illumination system is arranged so that light output from the transverse anamorphic component is directed in directions that are distributed in the transverse direction;
• an extraction waveguide arranged to receive light from the transverse anamorphic component;
• a lateral anamorphic component having positive optical power in the lateral direction, the extraction waveguide being arranged to guide light from the transverse anamorphic component to the lateral anamorphic component along the extraction waveguide in a first direction;
• and
• a light reversing reflector that is arranged to reflect light that has been guided along the extraction waveguide in the first direction so that the reflected light is guided along the extraction waveguide in a second direction opposite to the first direction;
• wherein:
• the extraction waveguide comprises an array of extraction features, the extraction features being arranged to transmit light guided along the extraction waveguide in the first direction and to extract light guided along the extraction waveguide in the second direction such that the extracted light is output light that is directed towards the eye of the viewer, the array of extraction features being distributed along the extraction waveguide so as to provide exit pupil expansion;
• and
• the extraction features have tilts that vary along the extraction waveguide in the second direction such that the output light from each point of the spatial light modulator has vergence in the transverse direction and, when the output light is viewed by the eye of the viewer, the vergence allows the eye of the viewer to focus the output light from a finite viewing distance in the transverse direction.