Fundamentals of Head‐Mounted Displays for Virtual and Augmented Reality

Summary

Head‐mounted display (HMD) technology along with the emerging virtual reality and augmented reality technologies has been seen as a key enabler for a broad range of applications in many disciplines. This chapter focuses on the fundamentals of HMD technology along with a review of recent developments. It provides a brief introduction which introduces the optical principles, defines key terminologies, and overviews historical developments. The chapter also provides a concise summary of the human visual system parameters relevant to the design of an HMD system. It also focuses on the fundamentals of HMD technology, including paraxial optical specifications, miniature display sources, optical principles and architectures, and optical combiner technologies. The chapter reviews optical design methods and optical performance specifications. It also reviews a few emerging HMD technologies with advanced capabilities, such as eyetracking, addressable focus cues, occlusion capability, high dynamic range, and light field rendering.