Apple Inc.

Kenichi Saito

Noah Denis Bedard

Yoshikazu Shinohara

Kathrin Berkner-Cieslicki

Ricardo Jansson Motta

Branko Petljanski

Ting Sun

Christopher F Griffo

Emanuele Mandelli

Scott M DeLapp

Se Baek Oh

Brett D Miller

Kathrin Berkner Cieslicki

Bradley Charles Steele

Daniel R Hennigan

Pierre-Jean Y Parodi-Keravec

Jason C Sauers

Minwoong Kim

Se Hoon Lim

An eye tracking system for detecting position and movements of a user's eyes in a head-mounted display (HMD). The eye tracking system includes at least one eye tracking camera, an illumination source that emits infrared light towards the user's eyes, and diffraction gratings located at the eyepieces. The diffraction gratings redirect or reflect at least a portion of infrared light reflected off the user's eyes, while allowing visible light to pass. The cameras capture images of the user's eyes from the infrared light that is redirected or reflected by the diffraction gratings.

Eye tracking system

An imaging system including a front aperture, two or more refractive lens elements mounted in a lens barrel, and a photosensor. One or more of the components of the imaging system (e.g., the aperture, lenses, lens groups, and/or photosensor) are tilted with respect to each other and/or with respect to a center (or mechanical) axis of the imaging system to compensate for effects including but not limited to keystone distortion, resolution non-uniformity, and gradient blur that result from tilt of an object in the field of view of the camera with respect to the center axis of the camera.

Imaging system

A device for MR/VR systems that includes a two-dimensional array of cameras that capture images of respective portions of a scene. The cameras are positioned along a spherical surface so that the cameras have adjacent fields of view. The entrance pupils of the cameras are positioned at or near the user's eye while the cameras also form optimized images at the sensor. Methods for reducing the number of cameras in an array, as well as methods for reducing the number of pixels read from the array and processed by the pipeline, are also described.

Camera system

An apparatus for image viewing and eye tracking in virtual or mixed reality systems that includes two or more display panels (e.g., a top display panel and a bottom display panel) for each eye with left and right prisms located between the display panels and the user's eyes. S- and P-polarizing filters are located between the display panels and first and second surfaces of the prism. For each eye, the polarized light from the top and bottom display panels is redirected by a respective prism to form exit pupils for top and bottom images at a plane at or near the eye. At least one eye-tracking camera is located in front of each prism and between the top and bottom display panels so that the cameras have a direct or near-direct view of the user's eyes through the eyepieces.

Display system

An eye tracking system for detecting position and movements of a user's eyes in a head-mounted display (HMD). The eye tracking system may include at least one near-IR (NIR) eye tracking camera positioned at each side of the user's face and pointed towards eye-facing surfaces of eyepieces of the HMD, an illumination source that emits NIR light towards the user's eyes, and hot mirrors located between the eye-facing surfaces of the eyepieces and the user's eyes. The hot mirrors reflect at least a portion of NIR light, while allowing visible light to pass. The cameras capture images of the user's eyes reflected by the hot mirrors. Positioning the hot mirrors at or near the eye-facing surfaces of the eyepieces allows the cameras to be placed at the sides of the user's face without having to image through the eyepieces.

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Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Kenichi Saito