Oscillating fluid lens in coherent retinal projection displays for extending depth of focus

See-through head-mounted displays, which allow to overlay virtual information over the user's real view, suffer normally from a limited depth of focus (DOF). To overcome this problem we discuss in this paper the use of a fast oscillating, variable-focus lens in a retinal projection display. The evaluation is based on a schematic eye model and on the partial coherence simulation tool SPLAT which allows us to calculate the projected retinal images of a text target. Objective image quality criteria demonstrate that the use of an oscillating lens is promising provided that partially coherent illumination light is used. In this case, psychometric measurements reveal that the depth of focus for reading text can be extended by a factor of up to 2.2. For fully coherent and incoherent illumination, however, the retinal images suffer from structural and contrast degradation effects, respectively.