Distinguished Seminar Series: "Optical technologies
paving the road from Helmet Mounted Displays to Virtual and Augmented Reality
consumer headsets, Smart Glasses and Smart Eyewear." by Bernard Kress,
PhD.
Friday, October 10, 2014 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
CREOL Room 103
CREOL Room 103
Bernard Kress, PhD.
Principal Optical Architect
Google Glass Project
Google [X] Labs.
Abstract:
Helmet Mounted Displays (HMDs) and Head Up Displays (HUDs)
have been used extensively over the last decades in the defense sector. The
complexity of the design and the fabrication of high quality see-through
combiner optics to achieve high resolution over a large FOV have prevented
their use in consumer electronic devices.
Occlusion Head Mounted Displays (HMD) have also been used in
the defense sector for simulation and training purposes, over similar large
FOV, packed with custom head tracking and eye gesture sensors.
Recently, a paradigm shift to consumer electronics has
occured as part of the wider wearable computing effort. Technologies developed
for the smart phone industry have been used to build smaller, lower power,
cheaper, electronics. Similarly, novel integrated sensors and micro-displays
have enabled the development of consumer electronic smart glasses and smart
eyewear, professional AR (Augmented Reality) HMDs as well as VR (Virtual Reality)
headsets.
Reducing the FOV while addressing the needs for an increased
exit pupil alongside stringent industrial design constrains have been pushing
the limits of the design techniques available to the optical engineer
(refractive, catadioptric, micro-optic, segmented Fresnel, waveguide,
diffractive, holographic, …).
However, the integration of the optical combiner within
conventional meniscus prescription lenses is a challenge that has yet to be
solved.
We will review how various optical design techniques have
been applied to such tasks, as well as the various head-worn devices developed
to date. Finally, we will review additional optical technologies applied as
input mechanisms (eye and head gesture sensing, gaze tracking and hand gesture
sensing).
Biography:
For over 20 years, Bernard has made significant scientific
contributions as a researcher, professor, consultant, advisor, instructor, and
author, in the field of micro-optics, diffractive optics and holography for
research, industry and consumer electronics. He has been involved in half a
dozen start-ups in the Silicon Valley on optical data storage, optical telecom,
optical position sensors and display (picos, HUDs and HMDs). Bernard holds 28
international granted patents and 30 patents applications. He has published
more than 100 proceeding papers and 18 refereed journal papers. He is a short
course instructor for the SPIE on micro-optics, diffractive optics and wafer
scale optics. He has published three books edited by John Wiley and Sons and Mac
Graw Hill and a field guide by SPIE. He has been chairman of the SPIE
conference “Photonics for Harsh Environments” for the past three years. He is
currently with Google [X] working on the Google Glass project as principal
Optical Architect.
For more information:
Dr. Bahaa Saleh
Dean & Director, Professor of Optics
407-823-6834
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