Google Inc.

Christie Digital Systems Usa, Inc.

The Boler Company

Christie Digital Systems Canada, Inc,

Daniel Robert Adema

Graham Hill

Timothy Paul Bodiya

Shreyas Potnis

Ian Andrews

Bryan Hemphill

Joseph Ma

Darren Pastrik

Stuart James Myron Nicholson

Jaehong Choi

Simon Guthrie

John Domm

Syed Moez Haque

Alexander Kyle Bauman

Ashley Thomas Dudding

Michael John Gottschalk

Eliezer Glik

Vance R Morrison

Andrew S Logan

Roger D Jable

Marc Lemieux

Kaveh Moussakhani

Maximilian Pfeifle

Dwayne A Wasylyshyn

Sangtak Park

Alyssa Bruulsema

David Cochrane

Christopher B Wall

Ali Karbasi

Josh Moore

Paul Groh

Bryan Russell Hemphill

Lightguide integrity monitoring in a head mounted display is facilitated by monitoring an elongated conductor disposed proximal a lightguide in an optical combiner. When a sufficient change in one or more electrical characteristics of the elongated conductor is detected, a signal indicating that the lightguide has been damaged may be generated, which may alert the user to the damage or disable one or more light sources in the HMD to prevent eye discomfort. The monitored electrical characteristics of the elongated conductor may include connectivity, impedance, and gain, among others. A sufficient change in the one or more electrical characteristics may be detected based on a percentage change in an electrical characteristic, a change in more than one electrical characteristic, or a change in a ratio of two electrical characteristics, among others.

Lightguide integrity monitoring in a head mounted display

There is provided an optical element including a light guide, an incoupler, and a beam splitter disposed in an optical path of a display beam between the incoupler and a light engine to generate the display beam. The display beam may comprise first and second beams. The beam splitter may split the display beam to form a first offspring beam including the first beam and a first portion of the second beam, and to form a second offspring beam including a second portion of the second beam. The first and second offspring beams may be incident upon the incoupler at first and second incidence positions respectively. The first incidence position may be different than the second incidence position. The incoupler may direct at least a portion of each of the first and second offspring beams into the light guide to form incoupled first and second offspring beams respectively.

Optical elements for displays

Improved techniques of detecting angular misalignment between a display and a waveguide of a smartglasses device includes providing a detection mechanism for the display such that the location of a misalignment can indicate how to compensate for the misalignment.

Alignment of waveguide and display in smartglasses

An illustrative method includes displacing an optical plate in accordance with an oscillating wobulation pattern along a single rotational axis, the optical plate being positioned in front of an array of pixels having a non-rectilinear pixel arrangement. The method also includes driving the array of pixels in connection with the oscillating wobulation pattern such that: the array of pixels displays a first image while the optical plate is in a first region of a period of the oscillating wobulation pattern, the array of pixels displays a second image while the optical plate is in a second region of the period of the oscillating wobulation pattern, and the array of pixels displays a third image while the optical plate is in a third region of the period of the oscillating wobulation pattern. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

Linear pixel shifting for a non-rectilinear pixel arrangement

A projector design for a microLED augmented reality (AR) display system. The AR display includes a light engine comprising a microLED panel and a set of plates that oscillate out of phase. The system also includes a waveguide with an input coupler (IC) having an entrance pupil. The entrance pupil of the IC is substantially coplanar with the exit pupil of the light engine. This configuration allows for coupling of light from the light engine into the waveguide, enabling the display of augmented reality content. A set of plates are configured to rotate either about a common axis or their individual axes. These rotations may be facilitated by actuators such as voice coils, piezo actuators, or others, each capable of linear or rotary movement. The plates may be either driven individually but synchronized for cohesive operation, or jointly propelled by a shared actuator for collective movement.

Augmented reality optical projector system

Systems and methods of separating the input light path from the output light path of a scanning mirror in a laser projector system while keeping the overall footprint of the laser projector system to a minimum. The system includes a scanning mirror, an optical engine, and an input/output (I/O) separator disposed between the optical engine and the scanning mirror to direct light from the optical engine towards the scanning mirror along an input path and to direct light reflected from the scanning mirror along an output path. The I/O separator, disposed to intersect both the input and output paths, can be implemented as a prism or a combination of a polarizing beam splitter and a quarter wave plate.

Systems and methods to separate scanning mirror input and output light

Systems, devices, and methods for accommodating multiple sets of laser light sources in an optical engine of a display system such as a laser projection system are described. Laser light beams may be combined via wavelength-, polarization-, and/or angular-separation-based techniques. First and second sets of laser light beams may be angularly separated such that different sets of partially overlapping pixels are projected by the system, thereby increasing the display pixel density and/or an expanding the field of view of the display. One or more laser die may be mounted to each submount of the optical engine. For embodiments with two laser dies on each submount, collimating lenses may introduce angular separation between laser light beams output by each pair of commonly mounted laser dies. A retroreflector prism may be disposed at a beam combiner to provide a compact extension of the optical path through the beam combiner.

Beam combining architectures for scanning display systems

A near-eye display system employs a low-amplitude, low-frequency micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) mirror in series with a higher-amplitude, higher-frequency resonant MEMS mirror to rotate at a reduced amplitude and frequency with respect to the resonant MEMS mirror redistribute illumination pulses or pixels at the extents of a sinusoidal angular scan pattern of the resonant MEMS mirror.

MEMS mirror in series with resonant MEMS mirror to redistribute dense pixels

Multiple laser light source sets for scanning display systems

A head-mounted display (HMD) system includes a lens element supported by a support structure. The lens element includes a waveguide that includes an incoupler, an outcoupler, and an exit pupil expander. The incoupler is disposed within a first area of the waveguide. The outcoupler is disposed within a second area of the waveguide. The exit pupil expander is disposed within a third area of the waveguide. An anti-reflection coating is formed via fabrication used to form the incoupler, the outcoupler, and the exit pupil expander. The anti-reflection coating is disposed within a fourth area of the waveguide different than the first, second, and third areas of the waveguide.

Waveguide with anti-reflection properties

Systems and methods to reduce diffraction-angle effects, such as instances of double-bounces and bounce separation spacing effects in a laser projection system including an optical engine with laser diodes configured to emit light beams of different wavelengths and a beam combiner having a reflective surfaces each configured to receive one of the light beams from one of the laser diodes and to reflect the received light beam such that an edge of the reflected light beam lies on a tangent common to the other light beams reflected from the other reflective surfaces. The laser projection system may be implemented in head-mounted display (HMD) including a waveguide having an incoupler to receive the combined light beam, where an edge of the incoupler corresponds to the tangent on which the edges of the plurality of light beams are aligned.

Systems and methods to minimize double-bounce in waveguides

An optical engine of a display system includes first and second sets of laser light sources, which may be independently controllable, with laser light from each set of laser light sources being respectively combined to form first and second elliptical laser light beams. The first and second elliptical laser light beams may propagate along parallel or angularly separated optical paths prior to incidence at a scan mirror of an optical scanner of the system. In some embodiments, the first and second elliptical laser light beams are incident on separate regions of the reflective surface of the scan mirror. In some embodiments, the first and second elliptical laser light beams are incident on partially overlapping regions of the reflective surface of the scan mirror.

A head-mounted display (HMD) system including a lens element supported by a support structure, the lens element having a waveguide with an incoupler configured to receive light from an optical scanner of the HMD. The incoupler is configured with multiple features varying in at least one of height, spacing, angle, or density. The features may be separated into discrete zones along the incoupler such that at least one of height, spacing, angle, or density of the plurality of features is varied over the incoupler and constant within a given zone or the features may be varied continuously across the incoupler.

Spatial variance along waveguide incoupler

A display system employs multiple micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) mirrors in series to receive collimated light and direct the light to provide light having input angles corresponding to a desired field of view at a point or line at an incoupler (IC) of a waveguide without an optical relay. An initial one or more MEMS mirrors accepts collimated light and generates the scan angles. A last MEMS mirror in the series scans at a range of angles proportional to the scan angles generated by the initial MEMS mirror(s) and directs the scanned light back to a spot or a line at the IC.

Time-sequential MEMS projector

Illustrative systems and methods for performing extended reality projection using monochrome pixel panels in inverted arrangements are described herein. For example, an extended reality projection system may include a binocular head-mounted display having a left side and a right side, a first set of monochrome pixel panels distributed in a first arrangement and collectively configured to produce a color image for presentation on the left side, and a second set of monochrome pixel panels distributed in a second arrangement and collectively configured to produce the color image for presentation on the right side. In this extended reality projection system, the second arrangement may be inverted from the first arrangement such that a color non-uniformity associated with the presentation on the right side is inverted from a color non-uniformity associated with the presentation on the left side. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

Growing community of inventors

Kitchener, Canada

Daniel Robert Adema