Color Correction for Occlusion-Capable Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Displays by Using Phase-Modulation

Occlusion-capable optical see-through head-mounted displays (OC-OSTHMDs) overcome the deficiency of semi-transparent virtual images by selectively cutting off light emitted from the physical background, considerably improving the graphics performance of augmented reality (AR). Existing OC-OSTHMDs achieve compact form factors by compressing the optical system based on the modulation of light polarization. However, the wavelength sensitivity of polarizing optical elements (POEs) causes color aberration in the see-through view. In this paper, we propose the spectrum- tuning method that mitigates color aberration of the see-through view caused by the wavelength sensitivity of OC-OSTHMDs. The methods operate on a spectrum-based color perception model that formulates the variation of the visible spectrum through OC-OSTHMDs. The optimization is performed globally, requiring minimal computation at runtime. A bench-top prototype of the OC-OSTHMD was built to validate these methods. Experimental results demonstrate that the spectrum-tuning method reduces the color difference by 18.1%. Additionally, the advantages of OC-OSTHMDs in presenting fluid animations in AR scenarios are demonstrated based on the prototype and a multi-buffer mask synthesis method.