Pinhole Occlusion: Enhancing Soft-Edge Occlusion Using a Dynamic Pinhole Array

Systems with occlusion capabilities have gained interest in augmented reality, vision augmentation, and image processing. To address the challenge of creating a precise yet lightweight occlusion system, we introduce a novel architecture to tackle occlusion blurriness due to defocusing. Our approach, utilizing a dynamic pinhole array on a transmissive spatial light modulator (SLM) positioned between the eye and the occlusion layer, offers adaptive pinhole patterns, gaze-contingent functionality, and the potential to reduce visual artifacts. Our preliminary result demonstrates that, with the focal plane at 1.8 m, an occlusion placed at 4cm can be observed sharply through a 4.3 mm aperture.