Optical collimating apparatus

Details Optical collimating apparatus Optical collimating apparatus

1987-08-03

1989-08-22

Corbin, John K.

350172, 350320, 350352, 350370, G02B 2714, G02B 530, G02F 113

Patent

active

048590312

ABSTRACT:
An optical collimating apparatus employs a semi-reflective concave mirror and cholesteric liquid crystal element. In one embodiment, the optical collimating apparatus is used as a heads-up display device. Images in the line of sight of an observer substantially pass through a transmitter/combiner, semi-reflective concave mirror, and cholesteric liquid crystal element to an observer. Images generated by an image source are focussed on the transmitter/combiner such that the transmitter/combiner reflects the images into the line of sight of the observer. The generated images are transmitted by the primarily transmissive (convex) side of the semi-reflective concave mirror to the cholesteric liquid crystal element. The cholesteric liquid crystal element reflects the generated images back toward the primarily reflective (concave) side of the semi-refective concave mirror, which in turn reflects the images back toward the cholesteric liquid crystal element, which transmits the generated images to the observer. In an alternative embodiment, such as in a flight simulator or similar device, an image source projects images upon the primarily transmissive (convex) side of a semi-reflective concave mirror which transmits the images to a cholesteric liquid crystal element. The images are reflected by the cholesteric liquid crystal element back toward the primarily reflective (concave) side of the semi-reflective concave mirror. The images are then reflected by the semi-reflective concave mirror back toward the cholesteric liquid crystal element which transmits the images to the observer.

REFERENCES:
patent: Re27356 (1972-05-01), La Russa
patent: 3848974 (1974-11-01), Hosking et al.
patent: 3915548 (1975-10-01), Opittek et al.
patent: 3940203 (1976-02-01), La Russa
patent: 4093347 (1978-06-01), La Russa
patent: 4589735 (1986-05-01), Saunders
Xerox Disclosure Journal, vol. 1, No. 3, Mar. 1976, pp. 85-86.
Physical Review Letters, Dependence of Pitch on Composition in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals, by Adams et al., vol. 22, Jan. 20, 1969, pp. 92-94.
James Adams et al., "Cholesteric Films as Optical Filters", J. Applied Phys., vol. 42, No. 10, Sep. 1971.

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