Near-eye light field displays

We propose a light-field-based approach to near-eye display that allows for thin, lightweight head-mounted displays capable of depicting accurate accommodation, convergence, and binocular disparity depth cues. Our near-eye light field displays depict sharp images from out-of-focus display elements by synthesizing light fields corresponding to virtual scenes located within the viewer's natural accommodation range. While sharing similarities with existing integral imaging displays and microlens-based light field cameras, we optimize performance in the context of near-eye viewing. Near-eye light field displays support continuous accommodation of the eye throughout a finite depth of field; as a result, binocular configurations provide a means to address the accommodation-convergence conflict occurring with existing stereoscopic displays. We construct a binocular prototype and a GPU-accelerated stereoscopic light field renderer.