Occlusion capable optical-see-through near-eye display using a single digital micromirror device

Occlusion of a real scene by displayed virtual images mitigates incorrect depth cues and enhances image visibility in augmented reality applications. In this Letter, we propose a novel optical scheme for the occlusion-capable optical-see-through near-eye display. The proposed scheme uses only a single spatial light modulator as both the real scene mask and virtual image display simultaneously. A polarization-based double-pass configuration is also combined, enabling a compact implementation. The proposed scheme is verified by optical experiments which demonstrate 60Hz RGB video display with 4-bit depth for each color channel and per-pixel dynamic occlusion of 90.6% maximum occlusion ratio.