Today, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to a head-mounted device (HMD) with an optical module positioning system. The specific mechanism is designed to adapt to users with different interpupillary distances. Pupil distance (PD) is a measure of the distance between the centers of two eyes. This measurement is used to correctly align the center of the lens with the center of the eye. If the lens centers are not aligned correctly, you may experience eye strain, headaches, distortion of vision, double vision, and/or blurred vision. The patent applies to both mixed reality headsets and future smart glasses.

Electronic devices such as head-mounted devices may have displays for displaying images. The display can be housed in the optical module. The lens can be installed in the optical module. The image on the monitor can be viewed through the lens.

The head-mounted device may have an optical module that presents the image to the user's eyes. Each optical module may have a lens barrel with a display and a lens that presents the image from the display to the corresponding eye box.

In order to accommodate users with different interpupillary distances, the optical module may be slidably coupled to a guide member such as a guide rod. The actuators can slide the optical modules toward or away from each other along the guide rod to accommodate different interpupillary distances.

The guide rod may be formed of a fiber-reinforced composite tube, with one or more end caps, and the end caps are fixed to the frame of the head-mounted device. If necessary, a pair of guide rods can be connected using a common end cover. The end cap may be formed as a separate piece attached to the end of the fiber composite tube or other guide rod structure and/or may be an integral part of the fiber composite tube or other guide rod structure.

The guide rod may include a left guide rod or a left pair of guide rods slidably engaged with the left optical module and a right guide rod or a right guide rod pair slidably engaged with the right optical module. The left guide bar and the right guide bar may be at a non-zero angle relative to each other to help guide the optical module parallel to the surface of the user's face.

Apple's patent map. Figure 1 is a top view of an illustrative head mounted device (HMD); fig. Figure 4 is a rear view of the internal portion of the illustrative HMD.

In the example of the figure. In Figure 4 above, the cover #12C has been removed to expose the internal housing structure, such as frame #12FC. The frame #12FC may be formed of a polymer support structure, a support structure formed of carbon fiber composite materials and/or other fiber composite materials, a metal support structure, a glass shell structure, and/or other support structures for the main shell part #12M.

Apple's patent map. Figure 5 below is a side view of an illustrative portion of an optical module configured to receive a rail and a threaded actuator rod.

Apple gave a comprehensive overview of the sensors that may be included in future HMDs, as follows:

"Sensors in input-output devices may include force sensors (e.g. strain gauges, capacitive force sensors, resistive force sensors, etc.), audio sensors (e.g. microphones), touch and/or proximity sensors (e.g. capacitive sensors, such as Touch sensors) form buttons, trackpads or other input devices) and other sensors.

HMD may also include depth sensors (for example, structured light sensors and/or depth sensors based on stereoscopic imaging devices that capture three-dimensional images), humidity sensors, humidity sensors, gaze tracking sensors, electromyography sensors that sense muscle activation, facial sensors, And/or other sensors. In some arrangements, device 10 may use sensors 16 and/or other input-output devices to collect user input. For example, buttons can be used to collect button press inputs, touch sensor overlay displays can be used to collect user touch screen input, touch pads can be used to collect touch inputs, microphones can be used to collect audio inputs (for example, voice commands), and accelerometers can be used to monitor finger input. When touching the input surface, it can be used to collect finger press input, etc.

Optical sensors may include sensors that emit and detect light, ultrasonic sensors, optical touch sensors, optical proximity sensors and/or other touch sensors and/or proximity sensors, monochrome and color ambient light sensors, image sensors, fingerprint sensors, iris scanning sensors , Retinal scanning sensors and other biometric sensors, temperature sensors, sensors for measuring three-dimensional non-contact gestures ("air gestures"), pressure sensors, sensors for detecting position, direction, and/or movement (e.g., accelerometers, Magnetic sensors, such as compass sensors, gyroscopes and/or inertial measurement units containing some or all of these sensors). HMDs may also include optical sensors, such as self-mixing sensors, and light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors that collect time-of-flight measurements.

The health sensor may include a blood oxygen sensor, a heart rate sensor, a blood flow sensor and/or other health sensors, and a radio frequency sensor.

Apple's patent application number 20210333506 is very detailed. To view Apple's inventions, click here.

Aidan Zimmerman: Senior Product Design Engineer

Ivan Marić: Product Design Engineer

Zack Feinberg: Product Design Manager

Samuel Resnick: Product Design Engineer

Posted by Jack Purcher on October 28, 2021 at 05:06 AM in 1A. Patent application, HMD, smart glasses | Permalink | Comments (0)

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