Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Christopher Francis Reidy

Raymond Kirk Price

Michael Bleyer

Kai Zang

Shiva Shahin

Systems and methods are provided for controlling and/or modifying operation of a red, green, blue (RGB) laser assembly for creating images in mixed-reality environments. Initially, the lasers in the RGB laser assembly operate in a low power or non-emitting state. Then, the lasers emit laser light to illuminate a pixel or a group of pixels. This illumination occurs for a period of time spanning less than 15 nanoseconds. By causing the lasers to emit laser light only during this short period of time, the resulting laser light is structured with a reduced spatial coherence level. Once the time period elapses, then the lasers again return to the non-emitting state. This process repeats for each pixel such that the lasers generate pulsed emissions. By operating the lasers with a reduced spatial coherence, undesired visual artifacts can be reduced or eliminated within the target display area.

Fringe mitigation using short pulsed laser diodes

Multi-section laser systems are configured with a gain/modulation section and a pre-bias section. Both sections are electrically connected to a diode laser resonator and both sections are independently controllable via laser driver circuitry. The multi-section laser can be used to provide pulsing optimizations that include reducing the turn-on delay of the laser while also ensuring that the resulting laser light's spectral linewidth satisfies a threshold linewidth requirement. During use, a pre-bias current is applied to the pre-bias section. This current causes some photons to be spontaneously emitted. During this time, a gain current is refrained from being applied to the gain section until the resonator is seeded with a spectrum of photons from the pre-bias section. Once the resonator is sufficiently seeded, the gain current is applied to the gain section, thereby producing a seeded pulse of laser light having a desired spectral linewidth.

Multi-section laser for fast modulation and broad spectral linewidth

A head-mounted device (HMD) is configured to perform depth detection in conjunction with movement tracking. The HMD includes a stereo camera pair comprising a first camera and a second camera, both of which are mounted on the HMD. The fields of view for both of the cameras overlap to form an overlapping field of view. These cameras are configured to detect both visible light and infrared (IR) light. The HMD also includes an IR dot-pattern illuminator that is configured to emit an IR dot-pattern illumination. The HMD uses the IR dot-pattern illumination to determine an object's depth. The HMD also includes one or more flood IR light illuminators that emit a flood of IR light. The HMD uses the flood of IR light to track at least its own movements, and sometimes even hand movements, in various environments, even low light environments.

Hybrid depth detection and movement detection

A head-mounted device (HMD) is configured to perform head tracking, even in low light environments. The HMD includes a stereo camera pair that includes a first camera and a second camera having overlapping fields of view. Both cameras are mounted on the HMD and are configured to detect both visible light and infrared (IR) light. The HMD also includes a flood IR light illuminator that is configured to emit a flood of IR light that spans an illumination area that overlaps with the cameras' fields of view. The intensity of the IR light is sometimes modified to accommodate low light environmental conditions. The cameras obtain images of reflected IR light. These images are then used to track movements of the HMD, even in low light environments.

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Christopher Francis Reidy