High‐Performance Electrochromic Optical Shutter Based on Fluoran Dye for Visibility Enhancement of Augmented Reality Display

Abstract In this paper, a high‐performance electrochromic optical shutter (ECOS) based on fluoran dye and an augmented reality (AR) display system comprising of ECOS are proposed. The electrochromic reactions of the fluoran dye that transmit or absorb visible light depending on its redox state are activated by the protons generated from hydroquinone derivatives, thereby significantly improved visible light absorption and decreased driving voltage. The visible light‐absorbing function of ECOS is a sole solution for overcoming the main issue of low visibility of displayed images under strong ambient light conditions in optical see‐through head‐mounted displays (OST‐HMDs) implementing augmented reality. The proposed AR display effectively solves the problem by significantly increasing the ambient contrast ratio and color gamut of the displayed image on OST‐HMD even in the strong ambient light condition due to the excellent visible light‐absorbing function of ECOS.