Work

Gaze-adaptive neural pre-correction for mitigating spatially varying optical aberrations in near-eye displays

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Near-eye display (NED) technology constitutes a fundamental component of head-mounted display (HMD) systems. The compact form factor required by HMDs imposes stringent constraints on optical design, often resulting in pronounced wavefront aberrations that significantly degrade visual fidelity. In addition, natural eye movements dynamically induce varying blur that further compromises image quality. To mitigate these challenges, a gaze-contingent neural network framework has been developed to compensate for aberrations within the foveal region. The network is trained in an end-to-end manner to minimize the discrepancy between the optically degraded system output and the corresponding ground truth image. A forward imaging model is employed, in which the network output is convolved with a spatially varying point spread function (PSF) to accurately simulate the degradation introduced by the optical system. To accommodate dynamic changes in gaze direction, a foveated attention-guided module is incorporated to adaptively modulate the pre-correction process, enabling localized compensation centered on the fovea. Additionally, an end-to-end trainable architecture has been designed to integrate gaze-informed blur priors. Both simulation and experimental validations confirm that the proposed method substantially reduces gaze-dependent aberrations and enhances retinal image clarity within the foveal region, while maintaining high computational efficiency. The presented framework offers a practical and scalable solution for improving visual performance in aberration-sensitive NED systems.

Source: Array

DOI: 10.1016/j.array.2025.100654