Diffractive optical element with undiffracted light expansion for eye safe operation

A system comprising:

• a projection mechanism, the projection mechanism configured to output a pattern of diffracted light spots and to defocus non-diffracted light output therefrom, the projection mechanism comprising optically coupled components including:
• a laser light source;
• a collimating lens;
• a diffractive optical element set comprising at least one diffractive element with an encoded diffractive lens, the diffractive optical element configured to output the pattern of the diffracted light spots and pass the non-diffracted light that is not diffracted;
• and
• a refractive optical element (ROE) configured to defocus the non-diffracted light received from the diffractive optical element set and to cancel or substantially cancel the defocusing of the diffracted light spots received from the diffractive lens.

A system comprising:

• a diffractive optical element (DOE) set;
• a refractive optical element (ROE) optically coupled with the DOE set, the ROE configured to:
• receive, from the DOE set, non-diffracted light that was not diffracted by the DOE set;
• defocus the non-diffracted light;
• and
• cancel or substantially cancel aberration of diffracted light received from the DOE set.