Sensics - Panoramic Head-Mounted Displays


 

The effectiveness of VR solutions strongly depends on the fidelity of the experience and the degree of immersion. The good sense of space and mass, peripheral vision, high resolution, comfortable design have always been mentioned as critical requirements from head-mounted displays.

A primary limitation of older head-mounted displays (HMDs) is limited field of view. Humans have a total field of view around 200 degrees (about 140° for each eye) and a binocular overlap region of about 100°. Most available HMD are limited to about 40-60° diagonal field of view, essentially providing no peripheral vision. This "tunnel vision" effect prevents users from feeling visually immersed, lowers situational awareness and increases prevalence of "simulator sickness".

Another limitation of existing products is their low resolution, measured both in total pixel count as well as in the angular resolution (number of pixels per degree). Lower resolution means less information in the image and difficulty to observe fine details.

Traditionally, it has been very difficult to achieve both wide field of view and high resolution. HMDs using a single display element have faced a seemingly insurmountable problem: if a large image magnifier is used, the picture is noticeably "blocky" because of the low number of pixels per degree. If smaller image magnification is used, narrow field of view ("tunnel vision") results.

Sensics solved this problem, providing an upgradeable, high-resolution product line with both panoramic field of view (up to 180°), and HD-quality resolution. As can be seen in the diagram, the piSight field of view compares very favorably with the unobstructed human visual field (gray area in diagram - human visual field; red area - Sensics piSight; green area - other HMDs). Sensics delivers wide field of view, and the sensation of full immersion in the virtual world. Furthermore, there is no resolution trade-off; the piSight maintains a 20 pixel per degree resolution (2.9 arcmin/pixel) across the entire field.

The key to this breakthrough is the use of a microdisplay array, coupled with a patented optical design that seamlessly combines the individual displays into one large wrap-around image. Each display has a different orientation, forming a concave arrangement that wraps around the eye, and projecting a different perspective of the scene to be viewed. The net result is a true feeling of 3D immersion.