Crystal: an optical train for upscale VR
Compared to present devices, future, high-end, VR headsets need to feature higher resolution (in pixels per degree), wider field of view (FOV) and reduced size. Main display characteristics (size and pixel count) have a direct impact on the chances to get these three objectives. Along with the displays, the correct selection of the optical train that projects the images into users eyes and help creating the VR scene is critical. Crystal is an advanced optical train (Limbak patent pending), that tackles the resolution-FOV-size goal by using light folding free-form optics able to blend the images coming from two displays per eye, or alternatively a single curved display. As in the case of pancakes, CRYSTAL squeezes the displays beams with the use of light filters/polarized light, but the geometrical configuration allows for light transmission is 4x higher than that of the pancake.