Meta patents display light that adjusts to your eye size
Meta describes a display system that uses a switchable diffuser to change how wide a beam of light spreads before hitting the screen. This allows the device to match the size of the light entering your eye to your actual pupil size, while a tilting mirror can shift where that light lands.
In the filing’s own words
A directional illuminator for a display apparatus includes a switchable diffuser for tuning a divergence of a light beam illuminating a display panel of the display apparatus. The tunable divergence of the illuminating light beam translates into a tunable exit pupil size at the eyebox of the display apparatus, which may be matched to a pupil size of a user's eye, thus providing a configurable illumination of the eye pupil. A tiltable reflector in an optical path of the illuminating light beam may be used to shift the location of the exit pupil at the eyebox of the display apparatus.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method for displaying an image, the method comprising: providing an illuminating light beam; using a switchable diffuser to impart at least one of spatially variant amplitude or spatially variant phase delay to the illuminating light beam; conveying the illuminating light beam propagated through the switchable diffuser to a display panel, whereby the display panel provides an image light beam carrying the image; and conveying the image light beam to an eyebox.
Facts
- Company
- Meta (Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC)
- Official title
- DIRECTIONAL ILLUMINATOR AND DISPLAY APPARATUS WITH SWITCHABLE DIFFUSER
- Publication number
- US20260276984A1
- Application number
- 19534990
- Filed
- Feb 10, 2026
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Inventors
- 15
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G02B 27/0093 Physics & computingG01B 11/22 Physics & computingG01S 7/4865 Physics & computingG01S 17/10 Physics & computingG02B 6/0016 Physics & computingG02B 6/0031 Physics & computingMore from Meta in AR, VR & displays
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.