Beaming Displays

TL;DR

This paper introduces beaming displays, a novel near-eye display system that uses a projector and passive headset to project images from a distance, overcoming traditional trade-offs in size, weight, and power.

Contribution

The work presents a new display paradigm by removing the display from near-eye devices and using a projector with a passive headset to achieve high-resolution augmented reality.

Findings

Prototype demonstrates resolutions comparable to consumer near-eye displays.

System can accurately project distortion-free images with correct perspectives.

Design space analysis provides insights for future development.

Abstract

Existing near-eye display designs struggle to balance between multiple trade-offs such as form factor, weight, computational requirements, and battery life. These design trade-offs are major obstacles on the path towards an all-day usable near-eye display. In this work, we address these trade-offs by, paradoxically, \textit{removing the display} from near-eye displays. We present the beaming displays, a new type of near-eye display system that uses a projector and an all passive wearable headset. We modify an off-the-shelf projector with additional lenses. We install such a projector to the environment to beam images from a distance to a passive wearable headset. The beaming projection system tracks the current position of a wearable headset to project distortion-free images with correct perspectives. In our system, a wearable headset guides the beamed images to a user's retina, which are then perceived as an augmented scene within a user's field of view. In addition to providing the system design of the beaming display, we provide a physical prototype and show that the beaming display can provide resolutions as high as consumer-level near-eye displays. We also discuss the different aspects of the design space for our proposal.