Head-mounted projection display system featuring beam splitter and method of making same

Claim 1

A head-mounted projection display system for providing a display to the eyes of an observer, comprising: a retro-reflective screen; and a head-mounted projector for use with said retro-reflective screen, further comprising: a head mount to be worn by the observer; a head position sensor means coupled to said head mount for providing angular position signals indicative of the angular position of the observer's head; an image generator means providing display signals representative of binocular dynamic displays for the observer and connected to receive said angular position signals to control said display signals; at least one pair of binocular image means affixed to said head mount and connected to receive said display signals for projecting a pair of binocular images; and a beam splitter means including a pair of beam splitters affixed to said head mount and positioned at different angles over each of the observer's eyes for separately reflecting said pair of binocular images onto said retro-reflective viewing screen, said beam splitter means optically co-locating said pair of binocular images reflected onto said retro-reflective viewing screen and diverging with limited binocular overlap with the eyes of the observer by passing said pair of binocular images from said retro-reflective viewing screen back to the observer through said beam splitter means to provide a substantially unlimited field of view, where a right one of said pair or binocular images appears to the observer as an image projected directly onto a right pupil of the observer's eyes and a left one of said pair of binocular images appears to the observer as an image projected directly onto a left pupil of the observer's eyes such that a right one of the observer's eyes only sees a right one of the pair of binocular images and a left one of the observer's eyes only sees a left one of the pair of binocular images.