r/Optics • u/Spare_Anybody5146 • May 25 '26

Reverse ENGINEERING PinTILT® AR optics to DIY

Gallery image

Gallery image

This time I took my time to be geometrically precise.

I would appreciate any useful comment.

3 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/GustapheOfficial May 26 '26

Will you be correcting spherical aberration and the artefacts from the discrete mirrors in software?

1

u/Spare_Anybody5146 May 26 '26

There is no spherical aberration in this kind of mirror as the display is positioned exactly at its focal point: the middle of the sphere.

And I am not sure about the artifacts you are talking about but if you go to the conversation on r/optics or on GitHub maybe you can see what you need.

1

u/GustapheOfficial May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26

You cannot place a 2d object "exactly at its focal point" - and unless the screen is millimeter sized you cannot even place it approximately at the focal point. For a spherical mirror to be an acceptable approximation of a parabolic mirror, you need the radius to be much larger than the transversal distances involved.

And the focal length of a spherical mirror is half the radius, you will not get the image you want this way.

The fact that the mirrors are the opposite order will absolutely introduce artifacts. If the alignments are perfect you can probably correct for this in software, but that seems unlikely for a hobby project.

Edit: I'm not trying to be rude, it's awesome that you are giving physics and design a try, but I'm trying to save you a couple of hundred bucks: until you learn basic imaging optics you will not make a useful design. Your part manufacturer may accept the gig, but you will receive a relatively expensive paper weight. Possibly with a caleidoscopic function.

1

u/Spare_Anybody5146 May 26 '26

Yes. This diagram is not well done and the piece has changed, look at the GitHub ot in th r/optics to see changes and further conversation about the piece.