The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 04, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 24, 1996
Richard D Gallery, Horley, GB;
U.S. Philips Corporation, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A collision warning system is for a head mounted display (HMD) (10) worn by a user, for example as the interface to a virtual reality system, to warn of nearby objects in the physical environment. A motion detector (30,32) detects positional changes of the HMD, which changes are reflected in changes of a displayed image viewpoint, and a comparator stage (38,40) determines whether the movement takes the user into a 'prohibited' area. If so, a visual and/or audible warning is provided to the user via the HMD (10). In an embodiment, the display screens (18) of the HMD include liquid crystal display shutters (20) which are switched to a transparent state in the event of an imminent collision such that the user is not only warned of the danger but also able to see it without having to remove or adjust the HMD.