Dartmouth College

Tianxing Li

Xia Zhou

Xing-Dong Yang

Qiang Liu

Yichen Li

Ruchir A Patel

View-through sensors each locatable proximate to an eye of a user and for use while the user is engaged in viewing activity. Each view-through sensor has a view-through region that allows the user to view through the sensor. An active peripheral region at least partially surrounds the view-through region and includes multiple light-sensing regions for sensing light reflected from an eye. In some embodiments, the view-through sensor is configured to use environmental light for eye tracking. When the view-through sensor uses environmental light, spatial and temporal information about the intensity of the environmental light can be used to enhance eye-tracking performance. This information can be obtained, for example, from light-sensing regions on the reverse side of the view-through sensor, from an electronic display, or from a forward-facing camera. In some embodiments, the view-through sensor includes light-emitting regions that emit the light that the sensor uses to track eye movement.

View-through sensors and apparatuses for tracking eye movement, and methods and software therefor

A self-powered module for gesture recognition is presented that utilizes small, low-cost photodiodes for both energy harvesting and gesture sensing. Operating in the photovoltaic mode, photodiodes harvest energy from ambient light. In the meantime, the instantaneously harvested power from individual photodiodes is monitored and exploited as a clue for sensing finger gestures in proximity. Harvested power from all photodiodes is aggregated to drive the whole gesture-recognition module including a micro-controller running the recognition algorithm. A robust, lightweight algorithm is provided to recognize finger gestures in the presence of ambient light fluctuations. Two prototypes are fabricated to facilitate user's interaction with smart glasses and smart watches.

Growing community of inventors

Hanover, NH, United States of America

Tianxing Li