Switchable head-mounted display transition

#Reference is made to commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/862,978 filed Aug. 25, 2010, entitled “Head-Mounted Display Control by John N. Border et al; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/862,985 filed Aug. 25, 2010, entitled “Head-Mounted Display With Biological State Detection” by John N. Border et al; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/862,998 filed Aug. 25, 2010, entitled “Head-Mounted Display With Eye State Detection” by John N. Border et al, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/868,013 filed Aug. 25, 2010, entitled “Head-Mounted Display With Environmental State Detection” by John N. Border et al, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/862,994 filed Aug. 25, 2010, entitled “Switchable Head-Mounted Display” by John N. Border et al, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein.

#The present invention relates to a head-mounted display. More particularly, the present invention relates to a control method for reducing motion sickness when using such a display in response to an external stimulus.

#Head-mounted displays are widely used in gaming and training applications. Such head-mounted displays typically use electronically controlled displays mounted on a pair of glasses or a helmet with supporting structures such as ear, neck, or head pieces that are worn on a user's head. Displays are built into the glasses together with suitable optics to present electronic imagery to a user's eyes.

#The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent when taken in conjunction with the following description and drawings, wherein identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical features that are common to the figures, and wherein:

#FIG. 1 is an illustration of a prior-art heads-up display with a variable occlusion member in a transparent state;

#FIG. 2A is a schematic of a cross-section of a prior-art lens area of the heads-up display and the associated light from the microprojector and from the ambient environment with a variable occlusion member in a transparent state;

#Because the various layers and elements in the drawings have greatly different sizes, the drawings are not to scale.

#A wide variety of head-mounted displays 10 are known in the art. The head-mounted displays 10 include a microprojector 8 or image scanner to provide image information, for example digital information, relay optics to focus and transport the light of the image information to the display device and a display device that is viewable by the user's eyes 2. Head-mounted displays 10 can provide image information to one eye of the user or both eyes of the user. Head-mounted displays 10 that present image information to both eyes of the user can have one or two microprojectors 8. Monoscopic viewing in which the same image information is presented to both eyes is done with head-mounted displays 10 that have one or two microprojectors 8. Stereoscopic viewing typically requires a head-mounted display 10 that has two microprojectors 8.

#The microprojectors 8 include image sources to provide the image information to the head-mounted display 10. A variety of image sources are known in the art including, for example, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), or liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) displays.