Apple Inc.

Patrick R Gill

Yu Horie

Jeffrey G Koller

Miikka M Kangas

Ehsan Arbabi

Alexander A Miles

Richard John Topliss

James H Foster

James E Pedder

Paul G Puskarich

Eric G Smith

Thomas M Gregory

Louis Luh

Avery L Wang

A pair of eyeglasses may include one or more adjustable lenses. An adjustable lens may include a stack of liquid crystal cells with passive matrix electrode arrays. Each passive matrix electrode array may include a pair of orthogonal electrodes that are rotated relative to other pairs of orthogonal electrodes in the stack. Control circuitry may apply different voltage profiles to the passive matrix electrode arrays to create the desired lens characteristics in the adjustable lens. The voltage profiles may be based on a stored look-up table that maps different target lens characteristics to different voltage profiles for the passive matrix electrode arrays. The target lens characteristics may include at least one of a target lens power and a target optical aberration correction. The look-up table may be based on information gathered during design and manufacturing using numerical optimization techniques.

Tunable lens systems with passive matrix electrode arrays

A pair of eyeglasses may include one or more adjustable lenses that are each configured to align with a respective one of a user's eyes. The adjustable lenses may each include electrically modulated optical material such as one or more liquid crystal cells. The liquid crystal cells may include arrays of electrodes that extend along one, two, three, four, or more than four directions. Control circuitry may apply control signals to the array of electrodes in each liquid crystal cell to produce a desired phase profile. Each lens may be foveated such that portions of the lens within the user's gaze exhibit a different phase profile than portions of the lens outside of the user's gaze. The control circuitry may adjust the location of the optically distinct area so that it remains aligned with the user's gaze.

Tunable and foveated lens systems

Ultrasonic transducers may be used to track the position of an object. For example, eyewear such as a pair of glasses or other head-mounted device may use ultrasonic transducers to track a user's eye position and gaze direction. To increase positioning accuracy over short-range distances, an array of ultrasonic transducers with different center frequencies may be formed on a common substrate. The closely spaced ultrasonic transducers with relatively small individual bandwidths may be used to simulate a single transducer with a larger bandwidth. Control circuitry may adjust the phases of the transducers in the array to steer the ultrasonic signal beam towards the user's eye and/or to receive an ultrasonic signal beam from the direction of the user's eye. The control circuitry may use time delay and/or phase delay measurement techniques to determine a distance and/or direction to the user's eye using the ultrasonic transducer arrays.

Ultrasonic transducers for position tracking

A pair of eyeglasses may include one or more adjustable lenses that are each configured to align with a respective one of a user's eyes. The adjustable lenses may each include electrically modulated optical material such as one or more liquid crystal cells, each having a phase profile that is adjusted using patterned electrodes. Analog voltages may be provided to the patterned electrodes through variable-resistance conductive paths that are each coupled to a subset of the patterned electrodes. Digital voltage selection circuitry may be used to select which analog voltage to apply to each of the variable-resistance conductive paths from a predetermined set of analog voltages that are generated off of the lens. The digital voltage selection circuitry may include an array of multiplexers, each of which selects a desired voltage based on control signals received from digital control circuitry such a shift register and/or a decoder.

Tunable lens systems with voltage selection circuitry

An electronic device may have back-to-back displays. A user-facing display may have microlenses, tunable lens structures, holograms, lasers, and other structures for displaying images in multiple eye boxes while the electronic device is being worn on the head of a user. In some configurations, a switchable diffuser may be incorporated into the user-facing display. In one mode, the switchable diffuser allows microlenses of the pixels of the user-facing display to provide images to eye boxes in which images from the display are viewable. In another mode, the switchable diffuser diffuses light from the pixels so that the user-facing display may be used while the device is being held in the hand of the user.

Electronic device with back-to-back displays

A pair of eyeglasses may include one or more adjustable lenses that are each configured to align with a respective one of a user's eyes. The adjustable lenses may include a foveated liquid crystal adjustable lens stacked with a non-liquid-crystal adjustable lens such as a fluid-filled lens or an Alvarez lens. The foveated adjustable lens may include electrically modulated optical material such as one or more liquid crystal cells. The liquid crystal cells may include arrays of electrodes that extend along one, two, three, four, or more than four directions. Control circuitry may apply control signals to the array of electrodes in each liquid crystal cell to produce a desired phase profile. Each lens may be foveated such that portions of the lens within the user's gaze exhibit a different phase profile than portions of the lens outside of the user's gaze.

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Patrick R Gill