Facebook Technologies, LLC

Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC

Gregory Olegovic Andreev

Andrew John Ouderkirk

Robin Sharma

Karol Constantine Hatzilias

Qi Zhang

Barry David Silverstein

Tanya Malhotra

Christopher Yuan Ting Liao

Erik Shipton

Christopher Yuan-Ting Liao

Gang Li

Kenneth Alexander Diest

Lu Lu

Wanli Chi

Fenglin Peng

Babak Amirsolaimani

Sheng Ye

Mengfei Wang

Yun-Han Lee

Junren Wang

Maik Andre Scheller

Garam Young

Yingfei Jiang

Paul Armen Tchertchian

Ying Geng

Changwon Jang

Pablo Francisco Faundez Hoffmann

Guohua Wei

Sang-Ik Cho

Karol Constantine Hatzillias

The disclosure includes near-eye optical elements configured to suppress stray infrared light. Infrared light sources illuminate an eyebox area. A combiner layer may receive reflected infrared light and direct the reflected infrared light to a camera.

Beam shaping optic for light sources

A system includes a diffractive optical element including at least one substrate and a grating structure. The grating structure is configured to diffract a first light having an incidence angle within a predetermined range, and the at least one substrate is configured to reflect a second light. The system also includes a polarization selective mechanism configured to generate images based on the first light and the second light, respectively.

Optical system for multi-view eye-tracking

Techniques disclosed herein relate generally to eye-tracking in near-eye display systems. One example of an eye illuminator for eye-tracking includes a substrate transparent to visible light, an array of light sources immersed in the substrate and configured to emit infrared light, and a holographic optical element conformally coupled to a surface of the substrate and encapsulated by an encapsulation layer. The holographic optical element is configured to transmit the visible light and diffract the infrared light emitted by the array of light sources to the eye of a user for eye-tracking.

Holographic optical elements for eye-tracking illumination

An example device may include a light source, an optical element, and, optionally, an encapsulant layer. A light beam generated by the light source may be received by the optical element and redirected towards an illumination target, such as an eye of a user. The optical element may include a material, for example, with a refractive index of at least approximately 2 at a wavelength of the light beam. The light source may be a semiconductor light source, such as a light-emitting diode or a laser. The optical element may be supported by an emissive surface of the light source. Refraction at an exit surface of the optical element, and/or within a metamaterial layer, may advantageously modify the beam properties, for example, in relation to illuminating a target. In some examples, the light source and optical element may be integrated into a monolithic light source module.

Optical elements for beam-shaping and illumination

Systems and method for eye tracking are provided. In some embodiments, the eye tracking system includes a light source configured to generate light and project the light toward an object in a field of view, a detector configured to receive reflected portions of the light from the field of view in order to image the object, and a combiner including a volume grating configured to direct light reflected from different points in a field of view to the light detector. The volume grating includes a plurality of portions along a first area and each of the portions comprising a unique k-vector that is dependent on a respective portion of the field of view.

Systems and methods for eye tracking with spatially varying k-vectors

Techniques disclosed herein relate to a near-eye display system. One example of an eye-tracking system includes a substrate transparent to visible light and infrared light and a reflective holographic grating conformally coupled to a surface of the substrate. The reflective holographic grating is configured to transmit the visible light and reflectively diffract infrared light in a first wavelength range for eye tracking. The refractive index modulation of the reflective holographic grating is apodized in a direction along a thickness of the reflective holographic grating to reduce optical artifacts in the visible light.

Apodized reflective optical elements for eye-tracking and optical artifact reduction

A plurality of light sources such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are configured to emit non-visible light through emission apertures. Optics are formed over the emission apertures of the plurality of light sources. The optics may provide different tilt angles or divergence angles to the non-visible light emitted by the light sources in the plurality of light sources.

Wafer level optic and zoned wafer

The disclosure includes optical systems and near-eye optical elements configured to suppress stray infrared light. Infrared illuminators illuminator an eyebox area with narrow-band infrared illumination light for eye-tracking. A combiner layer receives reflected infrared light reflected of an eye of the user and directs the reflected infrared light to a camera configured to capture eye-tracking images of an eye of a user. An anti-reflection (AR) coating may be disposed on a base curvature to reduce Fresnel reflections that generate stray light. A ghost suppression component may be paired with the infrared illuminators to reduce stray light becoming incident on the camera.

Stray light suppression in eye-tracking imaging

An example device may include a light source, an optical element, and an encapsulant layer. A light beam generated by the light source may be received by the optical element, and redirected into the encapsulant layer. The optical element may include a high-index material, for example, with a refractive index of at least approximately 1.5 at the wavelength of the light beam. The light source may be a semiconductor light source, such as a light emitting diode or a laser. The optical element may be embedded in the encapsulant layer, and the optical element may have a curved exit surface. Refraction at the exit surface of the optical element may redirect the light beam towards a target. In some examples, the curvature of a freeform exit surface may be configured to improve the uniformity of target illumination

Illumination device with encapsulated lens

An audio system (e.g., of an artificial reality headset) determines a position of the headset relative to a position of a head of a user wearing the headset. The determination is based in part on an image of a portion of the head from a tracking camera (e.g., eye tracking and/or face tracking) on the headset. The audio system adjusts an acoustic parameter based in part on the determined position of the headset. The audio system performs an action that uses the adjusted acoustic parameter.

Adjusting acoustic parameters based on headset position

A form birefringent optical element includes a structured layer and a dielectric environment disposed over the structured layer. At least one of the structured layer and the dielectric environment includes a nanovoided polymer, the nanovoided polymer having a first refractive index in an unactuated state and a second refractive index different than the first refractive index in an actuated state. Actuation of the nanovoided polymer can be used to reversibly control the form birefringence of the optical element. Various other apparatuses, systems, materials, and methods are also disclosed.

Nanovoided tunable birefringence

An optical element includes a nanovoided polymer layer having a first refractive index in an unactuated state and a second refractive index different than the first refractive index in an actuated state. Compression or expansion of the nanovoided polymer layer, for instance, can be used to reversibly control the size and shape of the nanovoids within the polymer layer and hence tune its refractive index over a range of values, e.g., during operation of the optical element. Various other apparatuses, systems, materials, and methods are also disclosed.

Nanovoided tunable optics

Embodiments of the disclosure are generally directed to systems and methods for switchable electroactive devices for head-mounted displays (HMDs). In particular, a method may include (1) applying an electric field to an electroactive element of an electroactive device via electrodes of the electroactive device that are electrically coupled to the electroactive element to compress the electroactive element, which comprises a polymer material defining nanovoids, such that an average size of the nanovoids is decreased and a density of the nanovoids is increased in the electroactive element, wherein the electroactive device is positioned at a distance from a user's eye, and (2) emitting image light from an emissive device positioned such that at least a portion of the image light is incident on a surface of the electroactive device facing the user's eye.

Switchable electroactive devices for head-mounted displays

Techniques disclosed herein relate to a near-eye display system. One example of an optical device of a near-eye display includes a substrate and holographic grating conformally coupled to a surface of the substrate. The substrate is transparent to visible light and infrared light and is configured to be placed in front of an eye of a user of the near-eye display. A refractive index modulation of the holographic grating is apodized in a surface-normal direction of the substrate to reduce optical artifacts in the visible light.

Apodized optical elements for optical artifact reduction

An optical system includes a grating including at least one substrate and a grating structure coupled to the at least one substrate. The grating structure is configured to diffract a first light having an incidence angle within a predetermined range. The optical system also includes a polarizer configured to transmit the first light diffracted by the grating structure and block a second light reflected by a surface of the at least one substrate.

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Kirkland, WA, United States of America

Gregory Olegovic Andreev