Apple Inc.

Other

Brian S Lau

David A Kalinowski

Cameron A Harder

Michael J Oudenhoven

Jeremy C Franklin

Marinus Meursing

Michael L McGinley

David A Schmuck

Fletcher R Rothkopf

Vikrant Bhakta

Hyungryul J Choi

Guolin Peng

Eric J Hansotte

Jonathan C Moisant-Thompson

Eric N Vergo

Dominic P Cincione

Depeng Wang

Christopher Patton

Chih Jen Chen

Bradley C Steele

A wearable electronic device can include displays and/or cameras that can be calibrated for accurate recording and visual output. Whereas some aspects of a wearable electronic device can be calibrated at the time of production, usage and wear of the wearable electronic device can result in certain components becoming misaligned. A calibration device can provide an output that serves as a reference for each of a pair of displays of the wearable electronic device. Each of the displays can be independently adjusted so their corresponding outputs are properly aligned with the view of the external environment.

Optical calibration

A head-mounted device may have a housing with a frame that supports lenses. Each lens may have a positive bias lens element and a negative bias lens element. A waveguide may overlap the lens. During operation, images from the waveguide may be provided to an eye box through the negative bias lens element. An eye sensor such as a gaze tracking camera may operate through the negative bias lens element. The negative bias lens element may have a protruding portion through which the sensor operates, may have a surface facing the sensor that has a curved surface to provide a desired lens characteristic, may have a prism for helping to couple light from the eye box to the eye sensor, and/or may have other features to facilitate use of the eye sensor to monitor the eye of a user in the eye box.

Electronic devices with rearward-facing sensors

A head-mounted device may have a head-mounted support structure with a left side portion, a right side portion, and a transparent front portion forming a lens. The lens may extend across the front of a user's face between the left and right side portions. The lens may have a mirror coating or other optical coating that helps obscure objects on the inner side of the lens when viewed from an exterior region surrounding the head-mounted device. Left and right forward-facing cameras with overlapping fields of view may be used to capture visible-light images through the lens. The cameras may also be used for gaze tracking. Left and right light sources may provide eye illumination that reflects from the lens into left and right eye boxes. Images from the eye boxes may reflect from the lens towards the left and right forward-facing cameras.

Head-mounted devices with forward facing cameras

An electronic device may include an optical combiner with a waveguide. The waveguide may have an output coupler that directs high resolution light towards an eye box within a field of view. Peripheral light sources may provide low resolution peripheral light to the eye box about a periphery of the field of view. The peripheral light sources may be mounted to a frame for the waveguide, to an additional substrate mounted to the frame and overlapping the waveguide, in a low resolution projector that projects the peripheral light towards reflective structures in the additional substrate, or in a display module that produces the high resolution light. The optical combiner may overlay real world light with the high resolution light and the low resolution peripheral light.

Optical systems with low resolution peripheral displays

A system can include head-mounted devices that collaborate to process views from cameras of the respective head-mounted devices and identify objects from different perspectives and/or objects that are within the view of only one of the head-mounted devices. Sharing sensory input between multiple head-mounted devices can complement and enhance individual units by interpreting and reconstructing objects, surfaces, and/or an external environment with perceptive data from multiple angles and positions, which also reduces occlusions and inaccuracies. As more detailed information is available at a specific moment in time, the speed and accuracy of object recognition, hand and body tracking, surface mapping, and/or digital reconstruction can be improved. Such collaboration can provide more effective and efficient mapping of space, surfaces, objects, gestures and users.

Shared data and collaboration for head-mounted devices

A head-mounted device may have a left display and a right display that provide respective left and right images. Left and right optical combiner systems may be configured to pass real-world light to left and right eye boxes while directing the left and right images respectively to the left and right eye boxes. Misalignment of the left and right images with respect to the left and right eye boxes may be detected using gaze tracking systems, using cameras such as front-facing cameras in conjunction with a database of known real-world object properties, using visual inertial odometry systems formed from cameras and inertial measurement units, or using one or more sensors in a portable head-mounted device case or other item with a receptacle configured to receive a head-mounted device. Compensating adjustments may be made to the images based on the measured misalignment.

Head-mounted display systems with alignment monitoring

A head-mounted device may have a head-mounted support structure. Gaze tracking systems may be supported by the support structure so that the gaze of a user may be monitored. Lenses may be supported by the support structure. Display systems may provide computer-generated images to the user while the user is viewing real-world objects through the lenses. The gaze tracking systems may include image-sensor-based systems such as glint-based systems. A glint-based gaze tracking system may include light-emitting devices that emit light beams that create eye glints on the surface of a user's eyes and may include an image sensor that measures the eye glints to gather information on the user's gaze. A low-power gaze tracking system may be included in the head-mounted device. The low-power gaze tracking system may use light detectors to measure the magnitudes of respective light reflections of the light beams.

Head-mounted devices with dual gaze tracking systems

A head-mounted device may have displays that provide images. Waveguides may be used in conveying the images to eye boxes. The waveguides may overlap lenses in a glasses frame or other head-mounted support structure. The waveguides and lenses may be transparent. This allows real-world objects to be viewed from the eye boxes. Infrared-light reflectors may overlap the lenses. Gaze tracking system light sources may supply infrared light that reflects from the infrared-light reflectors to the eye boxes to illuminate a user's eyes. Gaze tracking system cameras capture gaze tracking images of the eyes from the eye boxes to track the user's gaze. Fiducials associated with the infrared-light reflectors may be monitored using the gaze tracking system cameras. This allows components such as the gaze tracking system cameras to be calibrated.

Head-mounted display systems with gaze tracker alignment monitoring

Head-mountable devices can provide comfortable securement to a head of a user while also providing operative connections for communication across a hinge of the head-mountable device. The securement can be based on an arrangement of spring elements that have biased configurations and allow gentle retraction against a head of the user. Head-mountable devices of the present disclosure can provide adjustable securement against a head of a user by allowing custom fitting, for example with a tensioner.

Head-mountable device with head securement mechanism

A head-mounted device can be operated with another device and/or object for which information is gathered to facilitate visual display of a representation thereof. An object can be provided with indicators that allow a head-mounted device to determine both an identity and a characteristic (e.g., position, orientation, distance, etc.) of the object. Additionally or alternatively, the head-mounted device can determine both an identity and a characteristic (e.g., position, orientation, distance, etc.) of an electronic device attached to an object for producing a virtual representation of the object. Additionally or alternatively, the head-mounted device can receive data from an electronic device attached to an object for producing a virtual representation of the object. The virtual representation of the object can resemble the physical object, even where the object itself is not independently analyzed.

Object tracking for head-mounted devices

A container or pitcher is provided having a flexible side wall portion and rim portion of the container which can conform to the shape of an object to which the pitcher is applied to thereby direct fluid flow from the pitcher over a broader area and to prevent fluid from flowing from the pitcher and underneath the rim of the pitcher and onto portions of the object to which it is not desirable to apply the fluid.

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Sacramento, CA, United States of America

Brian S Lau