Patent Grant
10139632
All of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
This invention relates to see-through computer display systems.
Head mounted displays (HMDs) and particularly HMDs that provide a see-through view of the environment are valuable instruments. The presentation of content in the see-through display can be a complicated operation when attempting to ensure that the user experience is optimized. Improved systems and methods for presenting content in the see-through display are required to improve the user experience.
Aspects of the present invention relate to methods and systems for the see-through computer display systems with conversion ability from augmented reality (i.e. high see-through transmission through the display) to virtual reality (i.e. low or no see-through transmission through the display).
In an aspect, a head-worn display may include a display panel sized and positioned to produce a field of view to present digital content to an eye of a user, and a processor adapted to present the digital content to the display panel such that the digital content is only presented in a portion of the field of view, the portion being in the middle of the field of view such that horizontally opposing edges of the field of view are blank areas. The processor may be further adapted to shift the digital content into one of the blank areas to adjust the convergence distance of the digital content and thereby change the perceived distance from the user to the digital content. The digital content may include augmented reality objects. The perceived distance may be within arm's reach by the user. The convergence distance may be adjusted in correspondence to the type of digital content being displayed or a use case associated with augmented reality objects. The convergence may be measured by an eye imaging system of the head-worn display. The eye imaging system images a front perspective of the user's eye.
In an aspect, a head-worn display may include a display panel sized and positioned to produce a field of view to present digital content to an eye of a user and a processor adapted to present the digital content to the display panel such that the digital content is only presented in a portion of the field of view, the portion being in the middle of the field of view such that horizontally opposing edges of the field of view are blank areas. The processor may be further adapted to shift the digital content into one of the blank areas to adjust the position of the digital content based on a focus distance of the digital content.
In an aspect, a head-worn display may include a display panel sized and positioned to produce a field of view to present digital content to an eye of a user and a processor adapted to present the digital content to the display panel such that the digital content is only presented in a portion of the field of view, the portion being in the middle of the field of view such that horizontally opposing edges of the field of view are blank areas. The processor may be further adapted to shift the digital content into one of the blank areas to adjust the position of the digital content based on a an indication that the user is looking towards an edge of the digital content. The indication that the user is looking towards an edge of the digital content may be based on an eye image captured by a camera in the head-worn display. The indication that the user is looking towards an edge of the digital content may be based on an indication that the user turned the user's head followed quickly by the user turning the user's eyes.
In an aspect, a head-worn display may include a display panel sized and positioned to produce a field of view to present digital content to an eye of a user and a processor adapted to present the digital content to the display panel such that the digital content is only presented in a portion of the field of view, the portion being in the middle of the field of view such that horizontally opposing edges of the field of view are blank areas, wherein each blank area comprises approximately 10% or greater of the field of view lateral area. The processor may be further adapted to shift the digital content into one of the blank areas to adjust the position of the digital content. A total amount of blank area in the field of view, including a combined left and right portion of the field of view, remains constant while the left and right portions are changed to position the digital content within the field of view. The digital content may be positioned to adjust a convergence distance associated with the digital content. The digital content may be positioned to adjust an interpupillary distance associated with the digital content.
These and other systems, methods, objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment and the drawings. All documents mentioned herein are hereby incorporated in their entirety by reference.
Embodiments are described with reference to the following Figures. The same numbers may be used throughout to reference like features and components that are shown in the Figures:
a illustrate structured eye lighting systems according to the principles of the present invention.
a and 103b illustrate optical systems in accordance with the principles of the present invention.
While the invention has been described in connection with certain preferred embodiments, other embodiments would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art and are encompassed herein.
Aspects of the present invention relate to head-worn computing (“HWC”) systems. HWC involves, in some instances, a system that mimics the appearance of head-worn glasses or sunglasses. The glasses may be a fully developed computing platform, such as including computer displays presented in each of the lenses of the glasses to the eyes of the user. In embodiments, the lenses and displays may be configured to allow a person wearing the glasses to see the environment through the lenses while also seeing, simultaneously, digital imagery, which forms an overlaid image that is perceived by the person as a digitally augmented image of the environment, or augmented reality (“AR”).
HWC involves more than just placing a computing system on a person's head. The system may need to be designed as a lightweight, compact and fully functional computer display, such as wherein the computer display includes a high resolution digital display that provides a high level of emersion comprised of the displayed digital content and the see-through view of the environmental surroundings. User interfaces and control systems suited to the HWC device may be required that are unlike those used for a more conventional computer such as a laptop. For the HWC and associated systems to be most effective, the glasses may be equipped with sensors to determine environmental conditions, geographic location, relative positioning to other points of interest, objects identified by imaging and movement by the user or other users in a connected group, and the like. The HWC may then change the mode of operation to match the conditions, location, positioning, movements, and the like, in a method generally referred to as a contextually aware HWC. The glasses also may need to be connected, wirelessly or otherwise, to other systems either locally or through a network. Controlling the glasses may be achieved through the use of an external device, automatically through contextually gathered information, through user gestures captured by the glasses sensors, and the like. Each technique may be further refined depending on the software application being used in the glasses. The glasses may further be used to control or coordinate with external devices that are associated with the glasses.
Referring to
We will now describe each of the main elements depicted on
The HWC 102 is a computing platform intended to be worn on a person's head. The HWC 102 may take many different forms to fit many different functional requirements. In some situations, the HWC 102 will be designed in the form of conventional glasses. The glasses may or may not have active computer graphics displays. In situations where the HWC 102 has integrated computer displays the displays may be configured as see-through displays such that the digital imagery can be overlaid with respect to the user's view of the environment 114. There are a number of see-through optical designs that may be used, including ones that have a reflective display (e.g. LCoS, DLP), emissive displays (e.g. OLED, LED), hologram, TIR waveguides, and the like. In embodiments, lighting systems used in connection with the display optics may be solid state lighting systems, such as LED, OLED, quantum dot, quantum dot LED, etc. In addition, the optical configuration may be monocular or binocular. It may also include vision corrective optical components. In embodiments, the optics may be packaged as contact lenses. In other embodiments, the HWC 102 may be in the form of a helmet with a see-through shield, sunglasses, safety glasses, goggles, a mask, fire helmet with see-through shield, police helmet with see through shield, military helmet with see-through shield, utility form customized to a certain work task (e.g. inventory control, logistics, repair, maintenance, etc.), and the like.
The HWC 102 may also have a number of integrated computing facilities, such as an integrated processor, integrated power management, communication structures (e.g. cell net, WiFi, Bluetooth, local area connections, mesh connections, remote connections (e.g. client server, etc.)), and the like. The HWC 102 may also have a number of positional awareness sensors, such as GPS, electronic compass, altimeter, tilt sensor, IMU, and the like. It may also have other sensors such as a camera, rangefinder, hyper-spectral camera, Geiger counter, microphone, spectral illumination detector, temperature sensor, chemical sensor, biologic sensor, moisture sensor, ultrasonic sensor, and the like.
The HWC 102 may also have integrated control technologies. The integrated control technologies may be contextual based control, passive control, active control, user control, and the like. For example, the HWC 102 may have an integrated sensor (e.g. camera) that captures user hand or body gestures 116 such that the integrated processing system can interpret the gestures and generate control commands for the HWC 102. In another example, the HWC 102 may have sensors that detect movement (e.g. a nod, head shake, and the like) including accelerometers, gyros and other inertial measurements, where the integrated processor may interpret the movement and generate a control command in response. The HWC 102 may also automatically control itself based on measured or perceived environmental conditions. For example, if it is bright in the environment the HWC 102 may increase the brightness or contrast of the displayed image. In embodiments, the integrated control technologies may be mounted on the HWC 102 such that a user can interact with it directly. For example, the HWC 102 may have a button(s), touch capacitive interface, and the like.
As described herein, the HWC 102 may be in communication with external user interfaces 104. The external user interfaces may come in many different forms. For example, a cell phone screen may be adapted to take user input for control of an aspect of the HWC 102. The external user interface may be a dedicated UI, such as a keyboard, touch surface, button(s), joy stick, and the like. In embodiments, the external controller may be integrated into another device such as a ring, watch, bike, car, and the like. In each case, the external user interface 104 may include sensors (e.g. IMU, accelerometers, compass, altimeter, and the like) to provide additional input for controlling the HWD 104.
As described herein, the HWC 102 may control or coordinate with other local devices 108. The external devices 108 may be an audio device, visual device, vehicle, cell phone, computer, and the like. For instance, the local external device 108 may be another HWC 102, where information may then be exchanged between the separate HWCs 108.
Similar to the way the HWC 102 may control or coordinate with local devices 106, the HWC 102 may control or coordinate with remote devices 112, such as the HWC 102 communicating with the remote devices 112 through a network 110. Again, the form of the remote device 112 may have many forms. Included in these forms is another HWC 102. For example, each HWC 102 may communicate its GPS position such that all the HWCs 102 know where all of HWC 102 are located.
The light that is provided by the polarized light source 302, which is subsequently reflected by the reflective polarizer 310 before it reflects from the DLP 304, will generally be referred to as illumination light. The light that is reflected by the “off” pixels of the DLP 304 is reflected at a different angle than the light reflected by the ‘on” pixels, so that the light from the “off” pixels is generally directed away from the optical axis of the field lens 312 and toward the side of the upper optical module 202 as shown in
The DLP 304 operates as a computer controlled display and is generally thought of as a MEMs device. The DLP pixels are comprised of small mirrors that can be directed. The mirrors generally flip from one angle to another angle. The two angles are generally referred to as states. When light is used to illuminate the DLP the mirrors will reflect the light in a direction depending on the state. In embodiments herein, we generally refer to the two states as “on” and “off,” which is intended to depict the condition of a display pixel. “On” pixels will be seen by a viewer of the display as emitting light because the light is directed along the optical axis and into the field lens and the associated remainder of the display system. “Off” pixels will be seen by a viewer of the display as not emitting light because the light from these pixels is directed to the side of the optical housing and into a light trap or light dump where the light is absorbed. The pattern of “on” and “off” pixels produces image light that is perceived by a viewer of the display as a computer generated image. Full color images can be presented to a user by sequentially providing illumination light with complimentary colors such as red, green and blue. Where the sequence is presented in a recurring cycle that is faster than the user can perceive as separate images and as a result the user perceives a full color image comprised of the sum of the sequential images. Bright pixels in the image are provided by pixels that remain in the “on” state for the entire time of the cycle, while dimmer pixels in the image are provided by pixels that switch between the “on” state and “off” state within the time of the cycle, or frame time when in a video sequence of images.
The configuration illustrated in
The configuration illustrated in
Critical angle=arc−sin(1/n) Eqn 1
Where the critical angle is the angle beyond which the illumination light is reflected from the internal surface when the internal surface comprises an interface from a solid with a higher refractive index (n) to air with a refractive index of 1 (e.g. for an interface of acrylic, with a refractive index of n=1.5, to air, the critical angle is 41.8 degrees; for an interface of polycarbonate, with a refractive index of n=1.59, to air the critical angle is 38.9 degrees). Consequently, the TIR wedge 418 is associated with a thin air gap 408 along the internal surface to create an interface between a solid with a higher refractive index and air. By choosing the angle of the light source 404 relative to the DLP 402 in correspondence to the angle of the internal surface of the TIR wedge 418, illumination light is turned toward the DLP 402 at an angle suitable for providing image light 414 as reflected from “on” pixels. Wherein, the illumination light is provided to the DLP 402 at approximately twice the angle of the pixel mirrors in the DLP 402 that are in the “on” state, such that after reflecting from the pixel mirrors, the image light 414 is directed generally along the optical axis of the field lens. Depending on the state of the DLP pixels, the illumination light from “on” pixels may be reflected as image light 414 which is directed towards a field lens and a lower optical module 204, while illumination light reflected from “off” pixels (generally referred to herein as “dark” state light, “off” pixel light or “off” state light) 410 is directed in a separate direction, which may be trapped and not used for the image that is ultimately presented to the wearer's eye.
The light trap for the dark state light 410 may be located along the optical axis defined by the direction of the dark state light 410 and in the side of the housing, with the function of absorbing the dark state light. To this end, the light trap may be comprised of an area outside of the cone of image light 414 from the “on” pixels. The light trap is typically made up of materials that absorb light including coatings of black paints or other light absorbing materials to prevent light scattering from the dark state light degrading the image perceived by the user. In addition, the light trap may be recessed into the wall of the housing or include masks or guards to block scattered light and prevent the light trap from being viewed adjacent to the displayed image.
The embodiment of
The embodiment illustrated in
The angles of the faces of the wedge set 450 correspond to the needed angles to provide illumination light 452 at the angle needed by the DLP mirrors when in the “on” state so that the reflected image light 414 is reflected from the DLP along the optical axis of the field lens. The wedge set 456 provides an interior interface where a reflective polarizer film can be located to redirect the illumination light 452 toward the mirrors of the DLP 402. The wedge set also provides a matched wedge on the opposite side of the reflective polarizer 450 so that the image light 414 from the “on” pixels exits the wedge set 450 substantially perpendicular to the exit surface, while the dark state light from the ‘off’ pixels 410 exits at an oblique angle to the exit surface. As a result, the image light 414 is substantially unrefracted upon exiting the wedge set 456, while the dark state light from the “off” pixels 410 is substantially refracted upon exiting the wedge set 456 as shown in
By providing a solid transparent matched wedge set, the flatness of the interface is reduced, because variations in the flatness have a negligible effect as long as they are within the cone angle of the illuminating light 452. Which can be f#2.2 with a 26 degree cone angle. In a preferred embodiment, the reflective polarizer is bonded between the matched internal surfaces of the wedge set 456 using an optical adhesive so that Fresnel reflections at the interfaces on either side of the reflective polarizer 450 are reduced. The optical adhesive can be matched in refractive index to the material of the wedge set 456 and the pieces of the wedge set 456 can be all made from the same material such as BK7 glass or cast acrylic. Wherein the wedge material can be selected to have low birefringence as well to reduce non-uniformities in brightness. The wedge set 456 and the quarter wave film 454 can also be bonded to the DLP 402 to further reduce Fresnel reflections at the DLP interface losses. In addition, since the image light 414 is substantially normal to the exit surface of the wedge set 456, the flatness of the surface is not critical to maintain the wavefront of the image light 414 so that high image quality can be obtained in the displayed image without requiring very tightly toleranced flatness on the exit surface.
A yet further embodiment of the invention that is not illustrated, combines the embodiments illustrated in
The combiner 602 may include a holographic pattern, to form a holographic mirror. If a monochrome image is desired, there may be a single wavelength reflection design for the holographic pattern on the surface of the combiner 602. If the intention is to have multiple colors reflected from the surface of the combiner 602, a multiple wavelength holographic mirror maybe included on the combiner surface. For example, in a three-color embodiment, where red, green and blue pixels are generated in the image light, the holographic mirror may be reflective to wavelengths substantially matching the wavelengths of the red, green and blue light provided by the light source. This configuration can be used as a wavelength specific mirror where pre-determined wavelengths of light from the image light are reflected to the user's eye. This configuration may also be made such that substantially all other wavelengths in the visible pass through the combiner element 602 so the user has a substantially clear view of the surroundings when looking through the combiner element 602. The transparency between the user's eye and the surrounding may be approximately 80% when using a combiner that is a holographic mirror. Wherein holographic mirrors can be made using lasers to produce interference patterns in the holographic material of the combiner where the wavelengths of the lasers correspond to the wavelengths of light that are subsequently reflected by the holographic mirror.
In another embodiment, the combiner element 602 may include a notch mirror comprised of a multilayer coated substrate wherein the coating is designed to substantially reflect the wavelengths of light provided by the light source and substantially transmit the remaining wavelengths in the visible spectrum. For example, in the case where red, green and blue light is provided by the light source to enable full color images to be provided to the user, the notch mirror is a tristimulus notch mirror wherein the multilayer coating is designed to reflect narrow bands of red, green and blue light that are matched to the what is provided by the light source and the remaining visible wavelengths are transmitted through the coating to enable a view of the environment through the combiner. In another example where monochrome images are provided to the user, the notch mirror is designed to reflect a single narrow band of light that is matched to the wavelength range of the light provided by the light source while transmitting the remaining visible wavelengths to enable a see-thru view of the environment. The combiner 602 with the notch mirror would operate, from the user's perspective, in a manner similar to the combiner that includes a holographic pattern on the combiner element 602. The combiner, with the tristimulus notch mirror, would reflect the “on” pixels to the eye because of the match between the reflective wavelengths of the notch mirror and the color of the image light, and the wearer would be able to see with high clarity the surroundings. The transparency between the user's eye and the surrounding may be approximately 80% when using the tristimulus notch mirror. In addition, the image provided by the upper optical module 202 with the notch mirror combiner can provide higher contrast images than the holographic mirror combiner due to less scattering of the imaging light by the combiner.
Light can escape through the combiner 602 and may produce face glow as the light is generally directed downward onto the cheek of the user. When using a holographic mirror combiner or a tristimulus notch mirror combiner, the escaping light can be trapped to avoid face glow. In embodiments, if the image light is polarized before the combiner, a linear polarizer can be laminated, or otherwise associated, to the combiner, with the transmission axis of the polarizer oriented relative to the polarized image light so that any escaping image light is absorbed by the polarizer. In embodiments, the image light would be polarized to provide S polarized light to the combiner for better reflection. As a result, the linear polarizer on the combiner would be oriented to absorb S polarized light and pass P polarized light. This provides the preferred orientation of polarized sunglasses as well.
If the image light is unpolarized, a microlouvered film such as a privacy filter can be used to absorb the escaping image light while providing the user with a see-thru view of the environment. In this case, the absorbance or transmittance of the microlouvered film is dependent on the angle of the light. Where steep angle light is absorbed and light at less of an angle is transmitted. For this reason, in an embodiment, the combiner with the microlouver film is angled at greater than 45 degrees to the optical axis of the image light (e.g. the combiner can be oriented at 50 degrees so the image light from the file lens is incident on the combiner at an oblique angle.
While many of the embodiments of the present invention have been referred to as upper and lower modules containing certain optical components, it should be understood that the image light and dark light production and management functions described in connection with the upper module may be arranged to direct light in other directions (e.g. upward, sideward, etc.). In embodiments, it may be preferred to mount the upper module 202 above the wearer's eye, in which case the image light would be directed downward. In other embodiments it may be preferred to produce light from the side of the wearer's eye, or from below the wearer's eye. In addition, the lower optical module is generally configured to deliver the image light to the wearer's eye and allow the wearer to see through the lower optical module, which may be accomplished through a variety of optical components.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to eye imaging. In embodiments, a camera is used in connection with an upper optical module 202 such that the wearer's eye can be imaged using pixels in the “off” state on the DLP.
In embodiments, the eye imaging camera may image the wearer's eye at a moment in time where there are enough “off” pixels to achieve the required eye image resolution. In another embodiment, the eye imaging camera collects eye image information from “off” pixels over time and forms a time lapsed image. In another embodiment, a modified image is presented to the user wherein enough “off” state pixels are included that the camera can obtain the desired resolution and brightness for imaging the wearer's eye and the eye image capture is synchronized with the presentation of the modified image.
The eye imaging system may be used for security systems. The HWC may not allow access to the HWC or other system if the eye is not recognized (e.g. through eye characteristics including retina or iris characteristics, etc.). The HWC may be used to provide constant security access in some embodiments. For example, the eye security confirmation may be a continuous, near-continuous, real-time, quasi real-time, periodic, etc. process so the wearer is effectively constantly being verified as known. In embodiments, the HWC may be worn and eye security tracked for access to other computer systems.
The eye imaging system may be used for control of the HWC. For example, a blink, wink, or particular eye movement may be used as a control mechanism for a software application operating on the HWC or associated device.
The eye imaging system may be used in a process that determines how or when the HWC 102 delivers digitally displayed content to the wearer. For example, the eye imaging system may determine that the user is looking in a direction and then HWC may change the resolution in an area of the display or provide some content that is associated with something in the environment that the user may be looking at. Alternatively, the eye imaging system may identify different user's and change the displayed content or enabled features provided to the user. User's may be identified from a database of users eye characteristics either located on the HWC 102 or remotely located on the network 110 or on a server 112. In addition, the HWC may identify a primary user or a group of primary users from eye characteristics wherein the primary user(s) are provided with an enhanced set of features and all other user's are provided with a different set of features. Thus in this use case, the HWC 102 uses identified eye characteristics to either enable features or not and eye characteristics need only be analyzed in comparison to a relatively small database of individual eye characteristics.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to the generation of peripheral image lighting effects for a person wearing a HWC. In embodiments, a solid state lighting system (e.g. LED, OLED, etc), or other lighting system, may be included inside the optical elements of an lower optical module 204. The solid state lighting system may be arranged such that lighting effects outside of a field of view (FOV) of the presented digital content is presented to create an emersive effect for the person wearing the HWC. To this end, the lighting effects may be presented to any portion of the HWC that is visible to the wearer. The solid state lighting system may be digitally controlled by an integrated processor on the HWC. In embodiments, the integrated processor will control the lighting effects in coordination with digital content that is presented within the FOV of the HWC. For example, a movie, picture, game, or other content, may be displayed or playing within the FOV of the HWC. The content may show a bomb blast on the right side of the FOV and at the same moment, the solid state lighting system inside of the upper module optics may flash quickly in concert with the FOV image effect. The effect may not be fast, it may be more persistent to indicate, for example, a general glow or color on one side of the user. The solid state lighting system may be color controlled, with red, green and blue LEDs, for example, such that color control can be coordinated with the digitally presented content within the field of view.
In the embodiment illustrated in
Another aspect of the present invention relates to the mitigation of light escaping from the space between the wearer's face and the HWC itself. Another aspect of the present invention relates to maintaining a controlled lighting environment in proximity to the wearer's eyes. In embodiments, both the maintenance of the lighting environment and the mitigation of light escape are accomplished by including a removable and replaceable flexible shield for the HWC. Wherein the removable and replaceable shield can be provided for one eye or both eyes in correspondence to the use of the displays for each eye. For example, in a night vision application, the display to only one eye could be used for night vision while the display to the other eye is turned off to provide good see-thru when moving between areas where visible light is available and dark areas where night vision enhancement is needed.
In embodiments, an opaque front light shield 1412 may be included and the digital content may include images of the surrounding environment such that the wearer can visualize the surrounding environment. One eye may be presented with night vision environmental imagery and this eye's surrounding environment optical path may be covered using an opaque front light shield 1412. In other embodiments, this arrangement may be associated with both eyes.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to automatically configuring the lighting system(s) used in the HWC 102. In embodiments, the display lighting and/or effects lighting, as described herein, may be controlled in a manner suitable for when an eye cover 1402 is attached or removed from the HWC 102. For example, at night, when the light in the environment is low, the lighting system(s) in the HWC may go into a low light mode to further control any amounts of stray light escaping from the HWC and the areas around the HWC. Covert operations at night, while using night vision or standard vision, may require a solution which prevents as much escaping light as possible so a user may clip on the eye cover(s) 1402 and then the HWC may go into a low light mode. The low light mode may, in some embodiments, only go into a low light mode when the eye cover 1402 is attached if the HWC identifies that the environment is in low light conditions (e.g. through environment light level sensor detection). In embodiments, the low light level may be determined to be at an intermediate point between full and low light dependent on environmental conditions.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to automatically controlling the type of content displayed in the HWC when eye covers 1402 are attached or removed from the HWC. In embodiments, when the eye cover(s) 1402 is attached to the HWC, the displayed content may be restricted in amount or in color amounts. For example, the display(s) may go into a simple content delivery mode to restrict the amount of information displayed. This may be done to reduce the amount of light produced by the display(s). In an embodiment, the display(s) may change from color displays to monochrome displays to reduce the amount of light produced. In an embodiment, the monochrome lighting may be red to limit the impact on the wearer's eyes to maintain an ability to see better in the dark.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a system adapted to quickly convert from a see-through system to a non-see-through or very low transmission see-through system for a more immersive user experience. The conversion system may include replaceable lenses, an eye cover, and optics adapted to provide user experiences in both modes. The lenses, for example, may be ‘blacked-out’ to provide an experience where all of the user's attention is dedicated to the digital content and then the lenses may be switched out for high see-through lenses so the digital content is augmenting the user's view of the surrounding environment. Another aspect of the invention relates to low transmission lenses that permit the user to see through the lenses but remain dark enough to maintain most of the user's attention on the digital content. The slight see-through can provide the user with a visual connection to the surrounding environment and this can reduce or eliminate nausea and other problems associated with total removal of the surrounding view when viewing digital content.
In embodiments, the eye cover may have areas of transparency or partial transparency to provide some visual connection with the user's surrounding environment. This may also reduce or eliminate nausea or other feelings associated with the complete removal of the view of the surrounding environment.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to an effects system that generates effects outside of the field of view in the see-through display of the head-worn computer. The effects may be, for example, lighting effects, sound effects, tactile effects (e.g. through vibration), air movement effects, etc. In embodiments, the effect generation system is mounted on the eye cover 1402. For example, a lighting system (e.g. LED(s), OLEDs, etc.) may be mounted on an inside surface 1420, or exposed through the inside surface 1420, as illustrated in
In embodiments, the effects generated by the effects system may be scripted by an author to coordinate with the content. In embodiments, sensors may be placed inside of the eye cover to monitor content effects (e.g. a light sensor to measure strong lighting effects or peripheral lighting effects) that would than cause an effect(s) to be generated.
The effects system in the eye cover may be powered by an internal battery and the battery, in embodiments, may also provide additional power to the head-worn computer 102 as a back-up system. In embodiments, the effects system is powered by the batteries in the head-worn computer. Power may be delivered through the attachment system (e.g. magnets, mechanical system) or a dedicated power system.
The effects system may receive data and/or commands from the head-worn computer through a data connection that is wired or wireless. The data may come through the attachment system, a separate line, or through Bluetooth or other short range communication protocol, for example.
In embodiments, the eye cover is made of reticulated foam, which is very light and can contour to the user's face. The reticulated foam also allows air to circulate because of the open-celled nature of the material, which can reduce user fatigue and increase user comfort. The eye cover may be made of other materials, soft, stiff, priable, etc. and may have another material on the periphery that contacts the face for comfort. In embodiments, the eye cover may include a fan to exchange air between an external environment and an internal space, where the internal space is defined in part by the face of the user. The fan may operate very slowly and at low power to exchange the air to keep the face of the user cool. In embodiments the fan may have a variable speed controller and/or a temperature sensor may be positioned to measure temperature in the internal space to control the temperature in the internal space to a specified range, temperature, etc. The internal space is generally characterized by the space confined space in front of the user's eyes and upper cheeks where the eye cover encloses the area.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to flexibly mounting an audio headset on the head-worn computer 102 and/or the eye cover 1402. In embodiments, the audio headset is mounted with a relatively rigid system that has flexible joint(s) (e.g. a rotational joint at the connection with the eye cover, a rotational joint in the middle of a rigid arm, etc.) and extension(s) (e.g. a telescopic arm) to provide the user with adjustability to allow for a comfortable fit over, in or around the user's ear. In embodiments, the audio headset is mounted with a flexible system that is more flexible throughout, such as with a wire-based connection.
In embodiments, the eye cover 1402 may be adapted to be removably mounted on a head-worn computer 102 with a see-through computer display. An audio headset 1422 with an adjustable mount may be connected to the eye cover, wherein the adjustable mount may provide extension and rotation to provide a user of the head-worn computer with a mechanism to align the audio headset with an ear of the user. In embodiments, the audio headset includes an audio wire connected to a connector on the eye cover and the eye cover connector may be adapted to removably mate with a connector on the head-worn computer. In embodiments, the audio headset may be adapted to receive audio signals from the head-worn computer through a wireless connection (e.g. Bluetooth, WiFi). As described elsewhere herein, the head-worn computer may have a removable and replaceable front lens. The eye cover may include a battery to power systems internal to the eye cover. The eye cover may have a battery to power systems internal to the head-worn computer.
In embodiments, the eye cover may include a fan adapted to exchange air between an internal space, defined in part by the user's face, and an external environment to cool the air in the internal space and the user's face. In embodiments, the audio headset may include a vibratory system (e.g. a vibration motor, piezo motor, etc. in the armature and/or in the section over the ear) adapted to provide the user with a haptic feedback coordinated with digital content presented in the see-through computer display. In embodiments, the head-worn computer includes a vibratory system adapted to provide the user with a haptic feedback coordinated with digital content presented in the see-through computer display.
In embodiments, the eye cover 1402 is adapted to be removably mounted on a head-worn computer with a see-through computer display. The eye cover may also include a flexible audio headset mounted to the eye cover, wherein the flexibility provides the user of the head-worn computer with a mechanism to align the audio headset with an ear of the user. In embodiments, the flexible audio headset is mounted to the eye cover with a magnetic connection. In embodiments, the flexible audio headset may be mounted to the eye cover with a mechanical connection.
In embodiments, the audio head set may be spring or otherwise loaded such that the head set presses inward towards the user's ears for a more secure fit.
Referring to
While the pen 1500 may follow the general form of a conventional pen, it contains numerous technologies that enable it to function as an external user interface 104.
The pen 1500 may also include a pressure monitoring system 1504, such as to measure the pressure exerted on the lens 1502. As will be described in greater detail herein, the pressure measurement can be used to predict the user's intention for changing the weight of a line, type of a line, type of brush, click, double click, and the like. In embodiments, the pressure sensor may be constructed using any force or pressure measurement sensor located behind the lens 1502, including for example, a resistive sensor, a current sensor, a capacitive sensor, a voltage sensor such as a piezoelectric sensor, and the like.
The pen 1500 may also include a communications module 1518, such as for bi-directional communication with the HWC 102. In embodiments, the communications module 1518 may be a short distance communication module (e.g. Bluetooth). The communications module 1518 may be security matched to the HWC 102. The communications module 1518 may be arranged to communicate data and commands to and from the microprocessor 1510 of the pen 1500. The microprocessor 1510 may be programmed to interpret data generated from the camera 1508, IMU 1512, and pressure sensor 1504, and the like, and then pass a command onto the HWC 102 through the communications module 1518, for example. In another embodiment, the data collected from any of the input sources (e.g. camera 1508, IMU 1512, pressure sensor 1504) by the microprocessor may be communicated by the communication module 1518 to the HWC 102, and the HWC 102 may perform data processing and prediction of the user's intention when using the pen 1500. In yet another embodiment, the data may be further passed on through a network 110 to a remote device 112, such as a server, for the data processing and prediction. The commands may then be communicated back to the HWC 102 for execution (e.g. display writing in the glasses display, make a selection within the UI of the glasses display, control a remote external device 112, control a local external device 108), and the like. The pen may also include memory 1514 for long or short term uses.
The pen 1500 may also include a number of physical user interfaces, such as quick launch buttons 1522, a touch sensor 1520, and the like. The quick launch buttons 1522 may be adapted to provide the user with a fast way of jumping to a software application in the HWC system 100. For example, the user may be a frequent user of communication software packages (e.g. email, text, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, and the like), and the user may program a quick launch button 1522 to command the HWC 102 to launch an application. The pen 1500 may be provided with several quick launch buttons 1522, which may be user programmable or factory programmable. The quick launch button 1522 may be programmed to perform an operation. For example, one of the buttons may be programmed to clear the digital display of the HWC 102. This would create a fast way for the user to clear the screens on the HWC 102 for any reason, such as for example to better view the environment. The quick launch button functionality will be discussed in further detail below. The touch sensor 1520 may be used to take gesture style input from the user. For example, the user may be able to take a single finger and run it across the touch sensor 1520 to affect a page scroll.
The pen 1500 may also include a laser pointer 1524. The laser pointer 1524 may be coordinated with the IMU 1512 to coordinate gestures and laser pointing. For example, a user may use the laser 1524 in a presentation to help with guiding the audience with the interpretation of graphics and the IMU 1512 may, either simultaneously or when the laser 1524 is off, interpret the user's gestures as commands or data input.
The domed cover lens, or other lens 1608 used to physically interact with the writing surface, will be transparent or transmissive within the active bandwidth of the camera 1602. In embodiments, the domed cover lens 1608 may be spherical or other shape and comprised of glass, plastic, sapphire, diamond, and the like. In other embodiments where low resolution imaging of the surface is acceptable. The pen 1500 can omit the domed cover lens 1608 and the ball lens 1604 can be in direct contact with the surface.
Another aspect of the pen 1500 relates to sensing the force applied by the user to the writing surface with the pen 1500. The force measurement may be used in a number of ways. For example, the force measurement may be used as a discrete value, or discontinuous event tracking, and compared against a threshold in a process to determine a user's intent. The user may want the force interpreted as a ‘click’ in the selection of an object, for instance. The user may intend multiple force exertions interpreted as multiple clicks. There may be times when the user holds the pen 1500 in a certain position or holds a certain portion of the pen 1500 (e.g. a button or touch pad) while clicking to affect a certain operation (e.g. a ‘right click’). In embodiments, the force measurement may be used to track force and force trends. The force trends may be tracked and compared to threshold limits, for example. There may be one such threshold limit, multiple limits, groups of related limits, and the like. For example, when the force measurement indicates a fairly constant force that generally falls within a range of related threshold values, the microprocessor 1510 may interpret the force trend as an indication that the user desires to maintain the current writing style, writing tip type, line weight, brush type, and the like. In the event that the force trend appears to have gone outside of a set of threshold values intentionally, the microprocessor may interpret the action as an indication that the user wants to change the current writing style, writing tip type, line weight, brush type, and the like. Once the microprocessor has made a determination of the user's intent, a change in the current writing style, writing tip type, line weight, brush type, and the like may be executed. In embodiments, the change may be noted to the user (e.g. in a display of the HWC 102), and the user may be presented with an opportunity to accept the change.
While a threshold value may be used to assist in the interpretation of the user's intention, a signature force event trend may also be used. The threshold and signature may be used in combination or either method may be used alone. For example, a single-click signature may be represented by a certain force trend signature or set of signatures. The single-click signature(s) may require that the trend meet a criteria of a rise time between x any y values, a hold time of between a and b values and a fall time of between c and d values, for example. Signatures may be stored for a variety of functions such as click, double click, right click, hold, move, etc. The microprocessor 1510 may compare the real-time force or pressure tracking against the signatures from a signature library to make a decision and issue a command to the software application executing in the GUI.
Generally, in the present disclosure, instrument stroke parameter changes may be referred to as a change in line type, line weight, tip type, brush type, brush width, brush pressure, color, and other forms of writing, coloring, painting, and the like.
Another aspect of the pen 1500 relates to selecting an operating mode for the pen 1500 dependent on contextual information and/or selection interface(s). The pen 1500 may have several operating modes. For instance, the pen 1500 may have a writing mode where the user interface(s) of the pen 1500 (e.g. the writing surface end, quick launch buttons 1522, touch sensor 1520, motion based gesture, and the like) is optimized or selected for tasks associated with writing. As another example, the pen 1500 may have a wand mode where the user interface(s) of the pen is optimized or selected for tasks associated with software or device control (e.g. the HWC 102, external local device, remote device 112, and the like). The pen 1500, by way of another example, may have a presentation mode where the user interface(s) is optimized or selected to assist a user with giving a presentation (e.g. pointing with the laser pointer 1524 while using the button(s) 1522 and/or gestures to control the presentation or applications relating to the presentation). The pen may, for example, have a mode that is optimized or selected for a particular device that a user is attempting to control. The pen 1500 may have a number of other modes and an aspect of the present invention relates to selecting such modes.
As with other examples presented herein, the microprocessor 1510 may monitor the contextual trend (e.g. the angle of the pen over time) in an effort to decide whether to stay in a mode or change modes. For example, through signatures, thresholds, trend analysis, and the like, the microprocessor may determine that a change is an unintentional change and therefore no user interface mode change is desired.
In embodiments, a confirmation selection may be presented to the user in the event a mode is going to change. The presentation may be physical (e.g. a vibration in the pen 1500), through a GUI, through a light indicator, etc.
Use scenario 1900 is a writing scenario where the pen 1500 is used as a writing instrument. In this example, quick launch button 122A is pressed to launch a note application 1910 in the GUI 1908 of the HWC 102 display 1904. Once the quick launch button 122A is pressed, the HWC 102 launches the note program 1910 and puts the pen into a writing mode. The user uses the pen 1500 to scribe symbols 1902 on a writing surface, the pen records the scribing and transmits the scribing to the HWC 102 where symbols representing the scribing are displayed 1912 within the note application 1910.
Use scenario 1901 is a gesture scenario where the pen 1500 is used as a gesture capture and command device. In this example, the quick launch button 122B is activated and the pen 1500 activates a wand mode such that an application launched on the HWC 102 can be controlled. Here, the user sees an application chooser 1918 in the display(s) of the HWC 102 where different software applications can be chosen by the user. The user gestures (e.g. swipes, spins, turns, etc.) with the pen to cause the application chooser 1918 to move from application to application. Once the correct application is identified (e.g. highlighted) in the chooser 1918, the user may gesture or click or otherwise interact with the pen 1500 such that the identified application is selected and launched. Once an application is launched, the wand mode may be used to scroll, rotate, change applications, select items, initiate processes, and the like, for example.
In an embodiment, the quick launch button 122A may be activated and the HWC 102 may launch an application chooser presenting to the user a set of applications. For example, the quick launch button may launch a chooser to show all communication programs (e.g. SMS, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, email, etc.) available for selection such that the user can select the program the user wants and then go into a writing mode. By way of further example, the launcher may bring up selections for various other groups that are related or categorized as generally being selected at a given time (e.g. Microsoft Office products, communication products, productivity products, note products, organizational products, and the like)
The watchband controller 2000 may have quick launch interfaces 2008 (e.g. to launch applications and choosers as described herein), a touch pad 2014 (e.g. to be used as a touch style mouse for GUI control in a HWC 102 display) and a display 2012. The clip 2018 may be adapted to fit a wide range of watchbands so it can be used in connection with a watch that is independently selected for its function. The clip, in embodiments, is rotatable such that a user can position it in a desirable manner. In embodiments the clip may be a flexible strap. In embodiments, the flexible strap may be adapted to be stretched to attach to a hand, wrist, finger, device, weapon, and the like.
In embodiments, the watchband controller may be configured as a removable and replacable watchband. For example, the controller may be incorporated into a band with a certain width, segment spacing's, etc. such that the watchband, with its incorporated controller, can be attached to a watch body. The attachment, in embodiments, may be mechanically adapted to attach with a pin upon which the watchband rotates. In embodiments, the watchband controller may be electrically connected to the watch and/or watch body such that the watch, watch body and/or the watchband controller can communicate data between them.
The watchband controller may have 3-axis motion monitoring (e.g. through an IMU, accelerometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes, etc.) to capture user motion. The user motion may then be interpreted for gesture control.
In embodiments, the watchband controller may comprise fitness sensors and a fitness computer. The sensors may track heart rate, calories burned, strides, distance covered, and the like. The data may then be compared against performance goals and/or standards for user feedback.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to visual display techniques relating to micro Doppler (“mD”) target tracking signatures (“mD signatures”). mD is a radar technique that uses a series of angle dependent electromagnetic pulses that are broadcast into an environment and return pulses are captured. Changes between the broadcast pulse and return pulse are indicative of changes in the shape, distance and angular location of objects or targets in the environment. These changes provide signals that can be used to track a target and identify the target through the mD signature. Each target or target type has a unique mD signature. Shifts in the radar pattern can be analyzed in the time domain and frequency domain based on mD techniques to derive information about the types of targets present (e.g. whether people are present), the motion of the targets and the relative angular location of the targets and the distance to the targets. By selecting a frequency used for the mD pulse relative to known objects in the environment, the pulse can penetrate the known objects to enable information about targets to be gathered even when the targets are visually blocked by the known objects. For example, pulse frequencies can be used that will penetrate concrete buildings to enable people to be identified inside the building. Multiple pulse frequencies can be used as well in the mD radar to enable different types of information to be gathered about the objects in the environment. In addition, the mD radar information can be combined with other information such as distance measurements or images captured of the environment that are analyzed jointly to provide improved object identification and improved target identification and tracking. In embodiments, the analysis can be performed on the HWC or the information can be transmitted to a remote network for analysis and results transmitted back to the HWC. Distance measurements can be provided by laser range finding, structured lighting, stereoscopic depth maps or sonar measurements. Images of the environment can be captured using one or more cameras capable of capturing images from visible, ultraviolet or infrared light. The mD radar can be attached to the HWC, located adjacently (e.g. in a vehicle) and associated wirelessly with the HWC or located remotely. Maps or other previously determined information about the environment can also be used in the analysis of the mD radar information. Embodiments of the present invention relate to visualizing the mD signatures in useful ways.
There are several traces 2108 and 2104 presented to the wearer in the embodiment illustrated in
In embodiments, certain user positions may be known and thus identified in the FOV. For example, the shooter of the friendly fire trace 2108 may be from a known friendly combatant and as such his location may be known. The position may be known based on his GPS location based on a mobile communication system on him, such as another HWC 102. In other embodiments, the friendly combatant may be marked by another friendly. For example, if the friendly position in the environment is known through visual contact or communicated information, a wearer of the HWC 102 may use a gesture or external user interface 104 to mark the location. If a friendly combatant location is known the originating position of the friendly fire trace 2108 may be color coded or otherwise distinguished from unidentified traces on the displayed digital content. Similarly, enemy fire traces 2104 may be color coded or otherwise distinguished on the displayed digital content. In embodiments, there may be an additional distinguished appearance on the displayed digital content for unknown traces.
In addition to situationally associated trace appearance, the trace colors or appearance may be different from the originating position to the terminating position. This path appearance change may be based on the mD signature. The mD signature may indicate that the bullet, for example, is slowing as it propagates and this slowing pattern may be reflected in the FOV 2102 as a color or pattern change. This can create an intuitive understanding of wear the shooter is located. For example, the originating color may be red, indicative of high speed, and it may change over the course of the trace to yellow, indicative of a slowing trace. This pattern changing may also be different for a friendly, enemy and unknown combatant. The enemy may go blue to green for a friendly trace, for example.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to mD radar techniques that trace and identify targets through other objects, such as walls (referred to generally as through wall mD), and visualization techniques related therewith.
mD target recognition methods can identify the identity of a target based on the vibrations and other small movements of the target. This can provide a personal signature for the target. In the case of humans, this may result in a personal identification of a target that has been previously characterized. The cardio, heart beat, lung expansion and other small movements within the body may be unique to a person and if those attributes are pre-identified they may be matched in real time to provide a personal identification of a person in the FOV 2202. The person's mD signatures may be determined based on the position of the person. For example, the database of personal mD signature attributes may include mD signatures for a person standing, sitting, laying down, running, walking, jumping, etc. This may improve the accuracy of the personal data match when a target is tracked through mD signature techniques in the field. In the event a person is personally identified, a specific indication of the person's identity may be presented in the FOV 2202. The indication may be a color, shape, shade, name, indication of the type of person (e.g. enemy, friendly, etc.), etc. to provide the wearer with intuitive real time information about the person being tracked. This may be very useful in a situation where there is more than one person in an area of the person being tracked. If just one person in the area is personally identified, that person or the avatar of that person can be presented differently than other people in the area.
An aspect of the present invention relates to suppression of extraneous or stray light. As discussed herein elsewhere, eyeglow and faceglow are two such artifacts that develop from such light. Eyeglow and faceglow can be caused by image light escaping from the optics module. The escaping light is then visible, particularly in dark environments when the user is viewing bright displayed images with the HWC. Light that escapes through the front of the HWC is visible as eyeglow as it that light that is visible in the region of the user's eyes. Eyeglow can appear in the form of a small version of the displayed image that the user is viewing. Light that escapes from the bottom of the HWC shines onto the user's face, cheek or chest so that these portions of the user appear to glow. Eyeglow and faceglow can both increase the visibility of the user and highlight the use of the HWC, which may be viewed negatively by the user. As such, reducing eyeglow and faceglow is advantageous. In combat situations (e.g. the mD trace presentation scenerios described herein) and certain gaming situations, the suppression of extraneous or stray light is very important.
The disclosure relating to
An example of the source for the faceglow light can come from wide cone angle light associated with the image light incident onto the combiner 602. Where the combiner can include a holographic mirror or a notch mirror in which the narrow bands of high reflectivity are matched to wavelengths of light by the light source. The wide cone angle associated with the image light corresponds with the field of view provided by the HWC. Typically the reflectivity of holographic mirrors and notch mirrors is reduced as the cone angle of the incident light is increased above 8 degrees. As a result, for a a field of view of 30 degrees, substantial image light can pass through the combiner and cause faceglow.
In embodiments, the combiner 602 may include a notch mirror coating to reflect the wavelengths of light in the image light and a notch filter 2620 can be selected in correspondence to the wavelengths of light provided by the light source and the narrow bands of high reflectivity provided by the notch mirror. In this way, image light that is not reflected by the notch mirror is absorbed by the notch filter 2620. In embodiments of the invention the light source can provide one narrow band of light for a monochrome imaging or three narrow bands of light for full color imaging. The notch mirror and associated notch filter would then each provide one narrow band or three narrow bands of high reflectivity and absorption respectively.
We now turn back to a description of eye imaging technologies. Aspects of the present invention relate to various methods of imaging the eye of a person wearing the HWC 102. In embodiments, technologies for imaging the eye using an optical path involving the “off” state and “no power” state, which is described in detail below, are described. In embodiments, technologies for imaging the eye with optical configurations that do not involve reflecting the eye image off of DLP mirrors is described. In embodiments, unstructured light, structured light, or controlled lighting conditions, are used to predict the eye's position based on the light reflected off of the front of the wearer's eye. In embodiments, a reflection of a presented digital content image is captured as it reflects off of the wearer's eye and the reflected image may be processed to determine the quality (e.g. sharpness) of the image presented. In embodiments, the image may then be adjusted (e.g. focused differently) to increase the quality of the image presented based on the image reflection.
For comparison, illuminating light rays 2973 from the light source 2958 are also shown being reflected by the partially reflective layer 2960. Where the angle of the illuminating light 2973 is such that the DLP mirrors, when in the “on” state, reflect the illuminating light 2973 to form image light 2969 that substantially shares the same optical axis as the light from the wearer's eye 2971. In this way, images of the wearer's eye are captured in a field of view that overlaps the field of view for the displayed image content. In contrast, light reflected by DLP mirrors in the “off” state form dark light 2975 which is directed substantially to the side of the image light 2969 and the light from eye 2971. Dark light 2975 is directed toward a light trap 2962 that absorbs the dark light to improve the contrast of the displayed image as has been described above in this specification.
In an embodiment, partially reflective layer 2960 is a reflective polarizer. The light that is reflected from the eye 2971 can then be polarized prior to entering the corrective wedge 2966 (e.g with an absorptive polarizer between the upper module 202 and the lower module 204), with a polarization orientation relative to the reflective polarizer that enables the light reflected from the eye 2971 to substantially be transmitted by the reflective polarizer. A quarter wave retarder layer 2957 is then included adjacent to the DLP 2955 (as previously disclosed in
In a further embodiment illustrated by
Alternately, the “no power” state can be applied to a subset of the DLP mirrors (e.g. 10% of the DLP mirrors) within while another subset is in busy generating image light for content to be displayed. This enables the capture of an eye image(s) during the display of digital content to the wearer. The DLP mirrors used for eye imaging can, for example, be distributed randomly across the area of the DLP to minimize the impact on the quality of the digital content being displayed to the wearer. To improve the displayed image perceived by the wearer, the individual DLP mirrors put into the “no power” state for capturing each eye image, can be varied over time such as in a random pattern, for example. In yet a further embodiment, the DLP mirrors put into the “no power” state for eye imaging may be coordinated with the digital content in such a way that the “no power” mirrors are taken from a portion of the image that requires less resolution.
In the embodiments of the invention as illustrated in
In the embodiment illustrated in
Eye imaging systems where the polarization state of the light from the eye 2971 needs to be opposite to that of the image light 2969 (as shown in
In a further embodiment shown in
In yet another embodiment shown in
In embodiments directed to capturing images of the wearer's eye, light to illuminate the wearer's eye can be provided by several different sources including: light from the displayed image (i.e. image light); light from the environment that passes through the combiner or other optics; light provided by a dedicated eye light, etc.
In an embodiment of the eye imaging system, the lens for the camera is designed to take into account the optics associated with the upper module 202 and the lower module 204. This is accomplished by designing the camera to include the optics in the upper module 202 and optics in the lower module 204, so that a high MTF image is produced, at the image sensor in the camera, of the wearer's eye. In yet a further embodiment, the camera lens is provided with a large depth of field to eliminate the need for focusing the camera to enable sharp image of the eye to be captured. Where a large depth of field is typically provided by a high f/# lens (e.g. f/#>5). In this case, the reduced light gathering associated with high f/# lenses is compensated by the inclusion of a dedicated eye light to enable a bright image of the eye to be captured. Further, the brightness of the dedicated eye light can be modulated and synchronized with the capture of eye images so that the dedicated eye light has a reduced duty cycle and the brightness of infrared light on the wearer's eye is reduced.
In a further embodiment,
In an illustration of another embodiment using eye imaging, in which the sharpness of the displayed image is determined based on the eye glint produced by the reflection of the displayed image from the wearer's eye surface. By capturing images of the wearer's eye 3611, an eye glint 3622, which is a small version of the displayed image can be captured and analyzed for sharpness. If the displayed image is determined to not be sharp, then an automated adjustment to the focus of the HWC optics can be performed to improve the sharpness. This ability to perform a measurement of the sharpness of a displayed image at the surface of the wearer's eye can provide a very accurate measurement of image quality. Having the ability to measure and automatically adjust the focus of displayed images can be very useful in augmented reality imaging where the focus distance of the displayed image can be varied in response to changes in the environment or changes in the method of use by the wearer.
An aspect of the present invention relates to controlling the HWC 102 through interpretations of eye imagery. In embodiments, eye-imaging technologies, such as those described herein, are used to capture an eye image or series of eye images for processing. The image(s) may be process to determine a user intended action, an HWC predetermined reaction, or other action. For example, the imagery may be interpreted as an affirmative user control action for an application on the HWC 102. Or, the imagery may cause, for example, the HWC 102 to react in a pre-determined way such that the HWC 102 is operating safely, intuitively, etc.
In embodiments, the digital content that is in line with the virtual target line may not be displayed in the FOV until the eye position is in the right position. This may be a predetermined process. For example, the system may be set up such that a particular piece of digital content (e.g. an advertisement, guidance information, object information, etc.) will appear in the event that the wearer looks at a certain object(s) in the environment. A virtual target line(s) may be developed that virtually connects the wearer's eye with an object(s) in the environment (e.g. a building, portion of a building, mark on a building, gps location, etc.) and the virtual target line may be continually updated depending on the position and viewing direction of the wearer (e.g. as determined through GPS, e-compass, IMU, etc.) and the position of the object. When the virtual target line suggests that the wearer's pupil is substantially aligned with the virtual target line or about to be aligned with the virtual target line, the digital content may be displayed in the FOV 3704.
In embodiments, the time spent looking along the virtual target line and/or a particular portion of the FOV 3708 may indicate that the wearer is interested in an object in the environment and/or digital content being displayed. In the event there is no digital content being displayed at the time a predetermined period of time is spent looking at a direction, digital content may be presented in the area of the FOV 3708. The time spent looking at an object may be interpreted as a command to display information about the object, for example. In other embodiments, the content may not relate to the object and may be presented because of the indication that the person is relatively inactive. In embodiments, the digital content may be positioned in proximity to the virtual target line, but not in-line with it such that the wearer's view of the surroundings are not obstructed but information can augment the wearer's view of the surroundings. In embodiments, the time spent looking along a target line in the direction of displayed digital content may be an indication of interest in the digital content. This may be used as a conversion event in advertising. For example, an advertiser may pay more for an add placement if the wearer of the HWC 102 looks at a displayed advertisement for a certain period of time. As such, in embodiments, the time spent looking at the advertisement, as assessed by comparing eye position with the content placement, target line or other appropriate position may be used to determine a rate of conversion or other compensation amount due for the presentation.
An aspect of the invention relates to removing content from the FOV of the HWC 102 when the wearer of the HWC 102 apparently wants to view the surrounding environments clearly.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to determining a focal plane based on the wearer's eye convergence. Eyes are generally converged slightly and converge more when the person focuses on something very close. This is generally referred to as convergence. In embodiments, convergence is calibrated for the wearer. That is, the wearer may be guided through certain focal plane exercises to determine how much the wearer's eyes converge at various focal planes and at various viewing angles. The convergence information may then be stored in a database for later reference. In embodiments, a general table may be used in the event there is no calibration step or the person skips the calibration step. The two eyes may then be imaged periodically to determine the convergence in an attempt to understand what focal plane the wearer is focused on. In embodiments, the eyes may be imaged to determine a virtual target line and then the eye's convergence may be determined to establish the wearer's focus, and the digital content may be displayed or altered based thereon.
An aspect of the present invention relates to controlling the HWC 102 based on events detected through eye imaging. A wearer winking, blinking, moving his eyes in a certain pattern, etc. may, for example, control an application of the HWC 102. Eye imaging (e.g. as described herein) may be used to monitor the eye(s) of the wearer and once a pre-determined pattern is detected an application control command may be initiated.
An aspect of the invention relates to monitoring the health of a person wearing a HWC 102 by monitoring the wearer's eye(s). Calibrations may be made such that the normal performance, under various conditions (e.g. lighting conditions, image light conditions, etc.) of a wearer's eyes may be documented. The wearer's eyes may then be monitored through eye imaging (e.g. as described herein) for changes in their performance. Changes in performance may be indicative of a health concern (e.g. concussion, brain injury, stroke, loss of blood, etc.). If detected the data indicative of the change or event may be communicated from the HWC 102.
Aspects of the present invention relate to security and access of computer assets (e.g. the HWC itself and related computer systems) as determined through eye image verification. As discussed herein elsewhere, eye imagery may be compared to known person eye imagery to confirm a person's identity. Eye imagery may also be used to confirm the identity of people wearing the HWCs 102 before allowing them to link together or share files, streams, information, etc.
A variety of use cases for eye imaging are possible based on technologies described herein. An aspect of the present invention relates to the timing of eye image capture. The timing of the capture of the eye image and the frequency of the capture of multiple images of the eye can vary dependent on the use case for the information gathered from the eye image. For example, capturing an eye image to identify the user of the HWC may be required only when the HWC has been turned ON or when the HWC determines that the HWC has been put onto a wearer's head, to control the security of the HWC and the associated information that is displayed to the user. Wherein, the orientation, movement pattern, stress or position of the earhorns (or other portions of the HWC) of the HWC can be used to determine that a person has put the HWC onto their head with the intention to use the HWC. Those same parameters may be monitored in an effort to understand when the HWC is dismounted from the user's head. This may enable a situation where the capture of an eye image for identifying the wearer may be completed only when a change in the wearing status is identified. In a contrasting example, capturing eye images to monitor the health of the wearer may require images to be captured periodically (e.g. every few seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc.). For example, the eye images may be taken in minute intervals when the images are being used to monitor the health of the wearer when detected movements indicate that the wearer is exercising. In a further contrasting example, capturing eye images to monitor the health of the wearer for long-term effects may only require that eye images be captured monthly. Embodiments of the invention relate to selection of the timing and rate of capture of eye images to be in correspondence with the selected use scenario associated with the eye images. These selections may be done automatically, as with the exercise example above where movements indicate exercise, or these selections may be set manually. In a further embodiment, the selection of the timing and rate of eye image capture is adjusted automatically depending on the mode of operation of the HWC. The selection of the timing and rate of eye image capture can further be selected in correspondence with input characteristics associated with the wearer including age and health status, or sensed physical conditions of the wearer including heart rate, chemical makeup of the blood and eye blink rate.
In embodiments, the sensor that assesses the wearer's movements may be a GPS sensor, IMU, accelerometer, etc. The content position may be shifted from a neutral position to a position towards a side edge of the field of view as the forward motion increases. The content position may be shifted from a neutral position to a position towards a top or bottom edge of the field of view as the forward motion increases. The content position may shift based on a threshold speed of the assessed motion. The content position may shift linearly based on the speed of the forward motion. The content position may shift non-linearly based on the speed of the forward motion. The content position may shift outside of the field of view. In embodiments, the content is no longer displayed if the speed of movement exceeds a predetermined threshold and will be displayed again once the forward motion slows.
In embodiments, the content position may generally be referred to as shifting; it should be understood that the term shifting encompasses a process where the movement from one position to another within the see-through FOV or out of the FOV is visible to the wearer (e.g. the content appears to slowly or quickly move and the user perceives the movement itself) or the movement from one position to another may not be visible to the wearer (e.g. the content appears to jump in a discontinuous fashion or the content disappears and then reappears in the new position).
Another aspect of the present invention relates to removing the content from the field of view or shifting it to a position within the field of view that increases the wearer's view of the surrounding environment when a sensor causes an alert command to be issued. In embodiments, the alert may be due to a sensor or combination of sensors that sense a condition above a threshold value. For example, if an audio sensor detects a loud sound of a certain pitch, content in the field of view may be removed or shifted to provide a clear view of the surrounding environment for the wearer. In addition to the shifting of the content, in embodiments, an indication of why the content was shifted may be presented in the field of view or provided through audio feedback to the wearer. For instance, if a carbon monoxide sensor detects a high concentration in the area, content in the field of view may be shifted to the side of the field of view or removed from the field of view and an indication may be provided to the wearer that there is a high concentration of carbon monoxide in the area. This new information, when presented in the field of view, may similarly be shifted within or outside of the field of view depending on the movement speed of the wearer.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to identification of various vectors or headings related to the HWC 102, along with sensor inputs, to determine how to position content in the field of view. In embodiments, the speed of movement of the wearer is detected and used as an input for position of the content and, depending on the speed, the content may be positioned with respect to a movement vector or heading (i.e. the direction of the movement), or a sight vector or heading (i.e. the direction of the wearer's sight direction). For example, if the wearer is moving very fast the content may be positioned within the field of view with respect to the movement vector because the wearer is only going to be looking towards the sides of himself periodically and for short periods of time. As another example, if the wearer is moving slowly, the content may be positioned with respect to the sight heading because the user may more freely be shifting his view from side to side.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to damping a rate of content position change within the field of view. As illustrated in
Another aspect of the present invention relates to simultaneously presenting more than one content in the field of view of a see-through optical system of a HWC 102 and positioning one content with the sight heading and one content with the movement heading.
Embodiments provide a process for determining the display heading that takes into account the way a user moves through an environment and provides a display heading that makes it easy for the user to find the displayed information while also providing unencumbered see-through views of the environment in response to different movements, speed of movement or different types of information being displayed.
In an embodiment, the display heading is determined based on speed of movement. At low speeds, the display heading may be substantially the same as the sight heading while at high speed the display heading may be substantially the same as the movement heading. In embodiments, as long as the user remains stationary, the displayed information is presented directly in front of the user and HWC. However, as the movement speed increases (e.g. above a threshold or continually, etc.) the display heading becomes substantially the same as the movement heading regardless of the direction the user is looking, so that when the user looks in the direction of movement, the displayed information is directly in front of the user and HMD and when the user looks to the side the displayed information is not visible.
Rapid changes in sight heading can be followed by a slower change in the display heading to provide a damped response to head rotation. Alternatively, the display heading can be substantially the time averaged sight heading so that the displayed information is presented at a heading that is in the middle of a series of sight headings over a period of time. In this embodiment, if the user stops moving their head, the display heading gradually becomes the same as the sight heading and the displayed information moves into the display field of view in front of the user and HMD. In embodiments, when there is a high rate of sight heading change, the process delays the effect of the time averaged sight heading on the display heading. In this way, the effect of rapid head movements on display heading is reduced and the positioning of the displayed information within the display field of view is stabilized laterally.
In another embodiment, display heading is determined based on speed of movement where at high-speed, the display heading is substantially the same as the movement heading. At mid-speed the display heading is substantially the same as a time averaged sight heading so that rapid head rotations are damped out and the display heading is in the middle of back and forth head movements.
In yet another embodiment, the type of information being displayed is included in determining how the information should be displayed. Augmented reality information that is connected to objects in the environment is given a display heading that substantially matches the sight heading. In this way, as the user rotates their head, augmented reality information comes into view that is related to objects that are in the see-through view of the environment. At the same time, information that is not connected to objects in the environment is given a display heading that is determined based on the type of movements and speed of movements as previously described in this specification.
In yet a further embodiment, when the speed of movement is determined to be above a threshold, the information displayed is moved downward in the display field of view so that the upper portion of the display field of view has less information or no information displayed to provide the user with an unencumbered see-through view of the environment.
In a further embodiment, in an operating mode such as when the user is moving in an environment, digital content is presented at the side of the user's see-through FOV so that the user can only view the digital content by turning their head. In this case, when the user is looking straight ahead, such as when the movement heading matches the sight heading, the see-through view FOV does not include digital content. The user then accesses the digital content by turning their head to the side whereupon the digital content moves laterally into the user's see-through FOV. In another embodiment, the digital content is ready for presentation and will be presented if an indication for it's presentation is received. For example, the information may be ready for presentation and if the sight heading or predetermined position of the HWC 102 is achieved the content may then be presented. The wearer may look to the side and the content may be presented. In another embodiment, the user may cause the content to move into an area in the field of view by looking in a direction for a predetermined period of time, blinking, winking, or displaying some other pattern that can be captured through eye imaging technologies (e.g. as described herein elsewhere).
In yet another embodiment, an operating mode is provided wherein the user can define sight headings wherein the associated see-through FOV includes digital content or does not include digital content. In an example, this operating mode can be used in an office environment where when the user is looking at a wall digital content is provided within the FOV, whereas when the user is looking toward a hallway, the FOV is unencumbered by digital content. In another example, when the user is looking horizontally digital content is provided within the FOV, but when the user looks down (e.g. to look at a desktop or a cellphone) the digital content is removed from the FOV.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to collecting and using eye position and sight heading information. Head worn computing with motion heading, sight heading, and/or eye position prediction (sometimes referred to as “eye heading” herein) may be used to identify what a wearer of the HWC 102 is apparently interested in and the information may be captured and used. In embodiments, the information may be characterized as viewing information because the information apparently relates to what the wearer is looking at. The viewing information may be used to develop a personal profile for the wearer, which may indicate what the wearer tends to look at. The viewing information from several or many HWC's 102 may be captured such that group or crowd viewing trends may be established. For example, if the movement heading and sight heading are known, a prediction of what the wearer is looking at may be made and used to generate a personal profile or portion of a crowd profile. In another embodiment, if the eye heading and location, sight heading and/or movement heading are known, a prediction of what is being looked at may be predicted. The prediction may involve understanding what is in proximity of the wearer and this may be understood by establishing the position of the wearer (e.g. through GPS or other location technology) and establishing what mapped objects are known in the area. The prediction may involve interpreting images captured by the camera or other sensors associated with the HWC 102. For example, if the camera captures an image of a sign and the camera is in-line with the sight heading, the prediction may involve assessing the likelihood that the wearer is viewing the sign. The prediction may involve capturing an image or other sensory information and then performing object recognition analysis to determine what is being viewed. For example, the wearer may be walking down a street and the camera that is in the HWC 102 may capture an image and a processor, either on-board or remote from the HWC 102, may recognize a face, object, marker, image, etc. and it may be determined that the wearer may have been looking at it or towards it.
The eye imaging system can also be used for the assessment of aspects of health of the user. In this case, information gained from analyzing captured images of the iris 5012 is different from information gained from analyzing captured images of the retina 5014. Where images of the retina 5014 are captured using light 5357 that illuminates the inner portions of the eye including the retina 5014. The light 5357 can be visible light, but in an embodiment, the light 5357 is infrared light (e.g. wavelength 1 to 5 microns) and the camera 3280 is an infrared light sensor (e.g. an InGaAs sensor) or a low resolution infrared image sensor that is used to determine the relative amount of light 5357 that is absorbed, reflected or scattered by the inner portions of the eye. Wherein the majority of the light that is absorbed, reflected or scattered can be attributed to materials in the inner portion of the eye including the retina where there are densely packed blood vessels with thin walls so that the absorption, reflection and scattering are caused by the material makeup of the blood. These measurements can be conducted automatically when the user is wearing the HWC, either at regular intervals, after identified events or when prompted by an external communication. In a preferred embodiment, the illuminating light is near infrared or mid infrared (e.g. 0.7 to 5 microns wavelength) to reduce the chance for thermal damage to the wearer's eye. In another embodiment, the polarizer 3285 is antireflection coated to reduce any reflections from this surface from the light 5357, the light 2969 or the light 3275 and thereby increase the sensitivity of the camera 3280. In a further embodiment, the light source 5355 and the camera 3280 together comprise a spectrometer wherein the relative intensity of the light reflected by the eye is analyzed over a series of narrow wavelengths within the range of wavelengths provided by the light source 5355 to determine a characteristic spectrum of the light that is absorbed, reflected or scattered by the eye. For example, the light source 5355 can provide a broad range of infrared light to illuminate the eye and the camera 3280 can include: a grating to laterally disperse the reflected light from the eye into a series of narrow wavelength bands that are captured by a linear photodetector so that the relative intensity by wavelength can be measured and a characteristic absorbance spectrum for the eye can be determined over the broad range of infrared. In a further example, the light source 5355 can provide a series of narrow wavelengths of light (ultraviolet, visible or infrared) to sequentially illuminate the eye and camera 3280 includes a photodetector that is selected to measure the relative intensity of the series of narrow wavelengths in a series of sequential measurements that together can be used to determine a characteristic spectrum of the eye. The determined characteristic spectrum is then compared to known characteristic spectra for different materials to determine the material makeup of the eye. In yet another embodiment, the illuminating light 5357 is focused on the retina 5014 and a characteristic spectrum of the retina 5014 is determined and the spectrum is compared to known spectra for materials that may be present in the user's blood. For example, in the visible wavelengths 540 nm is useful for detecting hemoglobin and 660 nm is useful for differentiating oxygenated hemoglobin. In a further example, in the infrared, a wide variety of materials can be identified as is known by those skilled in the art, including: glucose, urea, alcohol and controlled substances.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to collecting and using eye position and sight heading information. Head worn computing with motion heading, sight heading, and/or eye position prediction (sometimes referred to as “eye heading” herein) may be used to identify what a wearer of the HWC 102 is apparently interested in and the information may be captured and used. In embodiments, the information may be characterized as viewing information because the information apparently relates to what the wearer is looking at. The viewing information may be used to develop a personal profile for the wearer, which may indicate what the wearer tends to look at. The viewing information from several or many HWC's 102 may be captured such that group or crowd viewing trends may be established. For example, if the movement heading and sight heading are known, a prediction of what the wearer is looking at may be made and used to generate a personal profile or portion of a crowd profile. In another embodiment, if the eye heading and location, sight heading and/or movement heading are known, a prediction of what is being looked at may be predicted. The prediction may involve understanding what is in proximity of the wearer and this may be understood by establishing the position of the wearer (e.g. through GPS or other location technology) and establishing what mapped objects are known in the area. The prediction may involve interpreting images captured by the camera or other sensors associated with the HWC 102. For example, if the camera captures an image of a sign and the camera is in-line with the sight heading, the prediction may involve assessing the likelihood that the wearer is viewing the sign. The prediction may involve capturing an image or other sensory information and then performing object recognition analysis to determine what is being viewed. For example, the wearer may be walking down a street and the camera that is in the HWC 102 may capture an image and a processor, either on-board or remote from the HWC 102, may recognize a face, object, marker, image, etc. and it may be determined that the wearer may have been looking at it or towards it.
In embodiments, sight headings may be used in conjunction with eye headings or eye and/or sight headings may be used alone. Sight headings can do a good job of predicting what direction a wearer is looking because many times the eyes are looking forward, in the same general direction as the sight heading. In other situations, eye headings may be a more desirable metric because the eye and sight headings are not always aligned. In embodiments herein examples may be provided with the term “eye/sight” heading, which indicates that either or both eye heading and sight heading may be used in the example.
In embodiments, the process involves collecting eye and/or sight heading information from a plurality of head-worn computers that come into proximity with an object in an environment. For example, a number of people may be walking through an area and each of the people may be wearing a head worn computer with the ability to track the position of the wearer's eye(s) as well as possibly the wearer's sight and movement headings. The various HWC wearing individuals may then walk, ride, or otherwise come into proximity with some object in the environment (e.g. a store, sign, person, vehicle, box, bag, etc.). When each person passes by or otherwise comes near the object, the eye imaging system may determine if the person is looking towards the object. All of the eye/sight heading information may be collected and used to form impressions of how the crowd reacted to the object. A store may be running a sale and so the store may put out a sign indicating such. The storeowners and managers may be very interested to know if anyone is looking at their sign. The sign may be set as the object of interest in the area and as people navigate near the sign, possibly determined by their GPS locations, the eye/sight heading determination system may record information relative to the environment and the sign. Once, or as, the eye/sight heading information is collected and associations between the eye headings and the sign are determined, feedback may be sent back to the storeowner, managers, advertiser, etc. as an indication of how well their sign is attracting people. In embodiments, the sign's effectiveness at attracting people's attention, as indicated through the eye/sight headings, may be considered a conversion metric and impact the economic value of the sign and/or the signs placement.
In embodiments, a map of the environment with the object may be generated by mapping the locations and movement paths of the people in the crowd as they navigate by the object (e.g. the sign). Layered on this map may be an indication of the various eye/sight headings. This may be useful in indicating wear people were in relation to the object when then viewed they object. The map may also have an indication of how long people looked at the object from the various positions in the environment and where they went after seeing the object.
In embodiments, the process involves collecting a plurality of eye/sight headings from a head-worn computer, wherein each of the plurality of eye/sight headings is associated with a different pre-determined object in an environment. This technology may be used to determine which of the different objects attracts more of the person's attention. For example, if there are three objects placed in an environment and a person enters the environment navigating his way through it, he may look at one or more of the objects and his eye/sight heading may persist on one or more objects longer than others. This may be used in making or refining the person's personal attention profile and/or it may be used in connection with other such people's data on the same or similar objects to determine an impression of how the population or crowd reacts to the objects. Testing advertisements in this way may provide good feedback of its effectiveness.
In embodiments, the process may involve capturing eye/sight headings once there is substantial alignment between the eye/sight heading and an object of interest. For example, the person with the HWC may be navigating through an environment and once the HWC detects substantial alignment or the projected occurrence of an upcoming substantial alignment between the eye/sight heading and the object of interest, the occurrence and/or persistence may be recorded for use.
In embodiments, the process may involve collecting eye/sight heading information from a head-worn computer and collecting a captured image from the head-worn computer that was taken at substantially the same time as the eye/sight heading information was captured. These two pieces of information may be used in conjunction to gain an understanding of what the wearer was looking at and possibly interested in. The process may further involve associating the eye/sight heading information with an object, person, or other thing found in the captured image. This may involve processing the captured image looking for objects or patterns. In embodiments, gaze time or persistence may be measured and used in conjunction with the image processing. The process may still involve object and/or pattern recognition, but it may also involve attempting to identify what the person gazed at for the period of time by more particularly identifying a portion of the image in conjunction with image processing.
In embodiments, the process may involve setting a pre-determined eye/sight heading from a pre-determined geospatial location and using them as triggers. In the event that a head worn computer enters the geospatial location and an eye/sight heading associated with the head worn computer aligns with the pre-determined eye/sight heading, the system may collect the fact that there was an apparent alignment and/or the system may record information identifying how long the eye/sight heading remains substantially aligned with the pre-determined eye/sight heading to form a persistence statistic. This may eliminate or reduce the need for image processing as the triggers can be used without having to image the area. In other embodiments, image capture and processing is performed in conjunction with the triggers. In embodiments, the triggers may be a series a geospatial locations with corresponding eye/sight headings such that many spots can be used as triggers that indicate when a person entered an area in proximity to an object of interest and/or when that person actually appeared to look at the object.
In embodiments, eye imaging may be used to capture images of both eyes of the wearer in order to determine the amount of convergence of the eyes (e.g. through technologies described herein elsewhere) to get an understanding of what focal plane is being concentrated on by the wearer. For example, if the convergence measurement suggests that the focal plane is within 15 feet of the wearer, than, even though the eye/sight headings may align with an object that is more than 15 feet away it may be determined that the wearer was not looking at the object. If the object were within the 15 foot suggested focal plane, the determination may be that the wearer was looking at the object.
The three dimensionally positioned virtual target line can be recalculated periodically (e.g. every millisecond, second, minute, etc.) to reposition the environmentally position locked content 5912 to remain in-line with the virtual target line. This can create the illusion that the content 5912 is staying positioned within the environment at a point that is associated with the other person's location 5902 independent of the location of the first person 5908 wearing the HWC 102 and independent of the compass heading of the HWC 102.
In embodiments, the environmentally locked digital content 5912 may be positioned with an object 5904 that is between the first person's location 5908 and the other person's location 5902. The virtual target line may intersect the object 5904 before intersecting with the other person's location 5902. In embodiments, the environmentally locked digital content 5912 may be associated with the object intersection point 5904. In embodiments, the intersecting object 5904 may be identified by comparing the two person's locations 5902 and 5908 with obstructions identified on a map. In embodiments the intersecting object 5904 may be identified by processing images captured from a camera, or other sensor, associated with the HWC 102. In embodiments, the digital content 5912 has an appearance that is indicative of being at the location of the other person 5902, at the location of the intersecting object 5904 to provide a more clear indication of the position of the other person's position 5902 in the FOV 5914.
Presented object B 6020 is aligned with a different virtual target line then presented object A 6018. Presented object B 6020 is also presented at content position B 6004 at a different focal plane than the content position A 6012. Presented content B 6020 is presented at a further focal plane, which is indicative that the other person 5902 is physically located at a further distance. If the focal planes are sufficiently different, the content at position A will come into focus at a different time than the content at position B because the two focal planes require different focus from the eye 6002.
Continuing to refer to
BlueForce member 6108 is obscured from the primary BlueForce member's 6102 view by an obstacle that is in close proximity to the obscured member 6108. As depicted, the obscured member 6108 is in a building but close to one of the front walls. In this situation, the digital content provided in the FOV of the primary member 6102 may be indicative of the general position of the obscured member 6108 and the digital content may indicate that, while the other person's location is fairly well marked, it is obscured so it is not as precise as if the person was in direct view. In addition, the digital content may be virtually positionally locked to some feature on the outside of the building that the obscured member is in. This may make the environmental locking more stable and also provide an indication that the location of the person is somewhat unknown.
BlueForce member 6110 is obscured by multiple obstacles. The member 6110 is in a building and there is another building 6112 in between the primary member 6102 and the obscured member 6110. In this situation, the digital content in the FOV of the primary member will be spatially quite short of the actual obscured member and as such the digital content may need to be presented in a way that indicates that the obscured member 6110 is in a general direction but that the digital marker is not a reliable source of information for the particular location of obscured member 6110.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to predicting the movement of BlueForce members to maintain proper virtual marking of the BlueForce member locations.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to monitoring the health of BlueForce members. Each BlueForce member may be automatically monitored for health and stress events. For example, the members may have a watchband as described herein elsewhere or other wearable biometric monitoring device and the device may continually monitor the biometric information and predict health concerns or stress events. As another example, the eye imaging systems described herein elsewhere may be used to monitor pupil dilatations as compared to normal conditions to predict head trauma. Each eye may be imaged to check for differences in pupil dilation for indications of head trauma. As another example, an IMU in the HWC 102 may monitor a person's walking gate looking for changes in pattern, which may be an indication of head or other trauma. Biometric feedback from a member indicative of a health or stress concern may be uploaded to a server for sharing with other members or the information may be shared with local members, for example. Once shared, the digital content in the FOF that indicates the location of the person having the health or stress event may include an indication of the health event.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to virtually marking various prior acts and events. For example, as depicted in
Turning back to optical configurations, another aspect of the present invention relates to an optical configuration that provides digitally displayed content to an eye of a person wearing a head-worn display (e.g. as used in a HWC 102) and allows the person to see through the display such that the digital content is perceived by the person as augmenting the see through view of the surrounding environment. The optical configuration may have a variable transmission optical element that is in-line with the person's see-through view such that the transmission of the see-through view can be increased and decreased. This may be helpful in situations where a person wants or would be better served with a high transmission see-through view and when, in the same HWC 102, the person wants or would be better served with less see-through transmission. The lower see-through transmission may be used in bright conditions and/or in conditions where higher contrast for the digitally presented content is desirable. The optical system may also have a camera that images the surrounding environment by receiving reflected light from the surrounding environment off of an optical element that is in-line with the person's see-through view of the surrounding. In embodiments, the camera may further be aligned in a dark light trap such that light reflected and/or transmitted in the direction of the camera that is not captured by the camera is trapped to reduce stray light.
In embodiments, a HWC 102 is provided that includes a camera that is coaxially aligned with the direction that the user is looking.
In the optical system 6715 shown in
In embodiments, the combiner 6735 is planar with an optical flatness that is sufficient to enable a sharp displayed image and a sharp captured image, such as a flatness of less than 20 waves of light within the visible wavelengths. However, in embodiments, the combiner 6735 may be curved in which case the displayed image and the captured image will both be distorted and this distortion will have to be digitally corrected by the associated image processing system. In the case of the displayed image, the image is digitally distorted by the image processing system in a direction that is opposite to the distortion that is caused by the curved combiner so the two distortions cancel one another and as a result the user sees an undistorted displayed image. In the case of the captured image, the captured image is digitally distorted after capture to cancel out the distortion caused by the curved combiner so that the image appears to be undistorted after image processing.
In embodiments, the combiner 6735 is an adjustable partial mirror in which the reflectivity can be changed by the user or automatically to better function within different environmental conditions or different use cases. The adjustable partial mirror can be an electrically controllable mirror such as for example, the e-Transflector that can be obtained from Kent Optronics (http://www.kentoptronics.com/mirror.html) where the reflectivity can be adjusted based on an applied voltage. The adjustable partial mirror can also be a fast switchable mirror (e.g. a switching time of less than 0.03 seconds) wherein the perceived transparency is derived from the duty cycle of the mirror rapidly switching between a reflecting state and a transmitting state. In embodiments, the images captured by the camera 6739 can be synchronized to occur when the fast switchable mirror is in the reflecting state to provide an increased amount of light to the camera 6739 during image capture. As such, an adjustable partial mirror allows for the transmissivity of the partial mirror to be changed corresponding to the environmental conditions, e.g. the transmissivity can be low when the environment is bright and the transmissivity can be high when the environment is dim.
In a further embodiment, the combiner 6735 includes a hot mirror coating on the side facing the camera 6739 wherein visible wavelength light is substantially transmitted while a spectral wavelength band of infrared light is substantially reflected and the camera 6739 captures images that include at least a portion of the infrared wavelength light. In these embodiments, the image light 6750 includes visible wavelength light and a portion of the visible wavelength light is transmitted by the combiner 6735, where it is then absorbed by the absorptive polarizer 6737. A portion of the scene light 6760 is comprised of visible wavelength light and this is also transmitted by the combiner 6735, to provide the user with a see-through view of the environment. The light from the environment 6770 is comprised of visible wavelength light and infrared wavelength light. A portion of the visible wavelength light along with substantially all of the infrared wavelength light within the spectral wavelength band associated with the hot mirror, is reflected by the combiner 6735 toward the camera 6739 thereby passing through the absorptive polarizer 6737. In embodiments, the camera 6739 is selected to include an image sensor that is sensitive to infrared wavelengths of light and the absorptive polarizer 6737 is selected to substantially transmit infrared wavelengths of light of both polarization states (e.g. ITOS XP44 polarizer which transmits both polarization states of light with wavelengths above 750 nm: see http://www.itos.de/english/polarisatoren/linear/linear.php) so that an increased % of infrared light is captured by the camera 6739. In these embodiments, the absorptive polarizer 6737 functions as a light trap for the escaping image light 6750 and thereby blocking the image light 6750 that is in the visible wavelengths from the camera 6739 while simultaneously acting as a window for infrared wavelength light from the environment 6770 for the camera 6739.
By coaxially aligning the camera field of view with the displayed image and the user's view of the scene, augmented reality images with improved alignment to objects in the scene can be provided. This is because the captured images from the camera provide an accurate representation of the user's perspective view of the scene. In embodiments, the camera that is coaxially aligned with the user's view captures an image of the scene, the processor then identifies an object in the captured image and identifies a field of view position for the object, which can be compared to the displayed field of view correlated position so digital content is then displayed relative to the position of the object.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to an optical assembly that uses a reflective display where the reflective display is illuminated with a front light arranged to direct the illumination at angles around 90 degrees from the active reflective surface of the reflective display. In embodiments, the optical configuration is light weight, small and produces a high quality image in a head-worn see-through display.
In the upper optics, linearly polarized light is provided by the polarized light source 6850. Where the polarized light source 6850 can include one or more lights such as LEDs, QLEDs, laser diodes, fluorescent lights, etc. The polarized light source 6850 can also include a backlight assembly with light scattering surfaces or diffusers to spread the light uniformly across the output area of the polarized light source. Light control films or light control structures can be included as well to control the distribution of the light (also known as the cone angle) that is provided by the polarized light source 6850. The light control films can include, for example, diffusers, elliptical diffusers, prism films and lenticular lens arrays. The light control structures can include prism arrays, lenticular lenses, cylindrical lenses, Fresnel lenses, refractive lenses, diffractive lenses or other structures that control the angular distribution of the illumination light 6837. The output surface of the polarized light source 6850 is a polarizer film to ensure that the illumination light 6837 provided to the upper optics is linearly polarized.
The illumination light 6837 provided by the polarized light source 6850 is reflected by a reflective polarizer 6830. Where the polarizer on the output surface of the polarized light source 6850 and the reflective polarizer 6830 are oriented so that their respective transmission axes are perpendicular to one another. As a result, the majority of the illumination light 6837 provided by the polarized light source 6850 is reflected by the reflective polarizer 6830. In addition, the reflective polarizer 6830 is angled so that the illumination light 6837 is reflected toward the reflective image source 6810 thereby illuminating the reflective image source 6810 as shown in
The illumination light 6837 passes through a field lens 6820 and is then incident onto the reflective image source 6810. The illumination light 6837 is then reflected by the reflective image source (otherwise referred to as a reflective display herein elsewhere) 6810. Wherein the reflective image source 6810 can comprise a liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) display, a ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon (FLCSO) display, a reflective liquid crystal display, a cholesteric liquid crystal display, a bistable nematic liquid crystal display, or other such reflective display. The display can be a monochrome reflective display that is used with sequential red/green/blue illumination light 6837 or a full color display that is used with white illumination light 6837. The reflective image source 6810 locally changes the polarization state of the illumination light 6837 in correspondence to the pixel by pixel image content that is displayed by the reflective image source 6810 thereby forming image light 6835. Wherein if the reflective image source 6810 is a normally white display, the areas of the image light 6835 that correspond to bright areas of the image content end up with a polarization state that is opposite to the polarization state of the illumination light and dark areas of the image light 6835 end up with a polarization state that is the same as the illumination light 6837 (it should be noted that the invention can be used with normally black displays which provide an opposite effect on polarization in the image light). As such, the image light 6835 as initially reflected by the reflective image source 6810 has a mixed polarization state pixel by pixel. The image light 6835 then passes through the field lens 6820 which modifies the distribution of the image light 6835 while preserving the wavefront to match the requirements (such as for example, magnification and focus) of the lower optics. As the image light 6835 passes through the reflective polarizer 6830, the bright areas of the image light 6835 that have a polarization state that is opposite to the illumination light 6837 are transmitted through the reflective polarizer 6830 and the dark areas of the image light 6835 that have the same polarization state as the illumination light 6837 are reflected back toward the polarized light source 6850, as a result, the image light 6835 after passing through the reflective polarizer 6830 is linearly polarized with a single polarization state in all the pixels of the image but now with different intensities pixel by pixel. Thus the reflective polarizer 6830 acts first as a reflector for the illumination light 6837 and then second as an analyzer polarizer for the image light 6835.
As such, the optical axis of the illumination light 6837 is coincident with the optical axis of the image light 6835 between the reflective polarizer 6830 and the reflective image source 6810. The illumination light 6837 and the image light 6835 both pass through the field lens 6820, but in opposite directions. Wherein the field lens acts to expand the illumination light 6837 so it illuminates the entire active area of the reflective image source 6810 and also to expand the image light 6835 so it fills the eyebox 6882 after passing through the rest of the compact optical display system. By overlapping the portion of the compact optical display assembly associated with the illumination light 6837 with the portion of the compact optical display assembly associated with the image light 6835, the overall size of the compact optical display assembly is reduced. Given that the focal length associated with the field lens 6820 requires some space in the compact optical display assembly, the reflective polarizer 6830 and the polarized light source 6850 are located in space that would otherwise be unused so the overall size of the display assembly is more compact.
The reflective polarizer 6830 can be a relatively thin film (e.g. 80 microns) or thin plate (e.g. 0.2 mm) as shown in
The systems and methods described herein with respect to
In a preferred case, the light control structure in the polarized light source 6850 includes a positive lens, such as for example a positive Fresnel lens, a positive diffractive lens or a positive refractive lens. Wherein a positive Fresnel lens or a positive diffractive lens is preferred because they can be very thin. The illumination light 6837 is thereby focused to form a smaller area or pupil at the reflective polarizer 6830 that has a direct relationship to the area of an eyebox 6882 at the other end of the optics wherein image light 6835 is provided to the user's eye 6880 as shown in
It should be noted that while
In a further embodiment, the portion of the image light 6835 that is reflected back toward the polarized light source 6850 is recycled in the polarized light source 6850 to increase the efficiency of the polarized light source 6850. In this case, a diffuser and a reflective surface is provided behind the polarized light source 6850 so the polarization of the light is scrambled and reflected back toward the reflective polarizer 6830.
In yet another embodiment, another reflective polarizer is provided in the polarized light source 6850 and behind the linear polarizer previously disclosed. Wherein the respective transmission axes of the reflective polarizer and the linear polarizer are parallel to one another. The other reflective polarizer then reflects the light back into the backlight that has the polarization state that would not be transmitted by the linear polarizer. The light that is reflected back into the backlight passes through diffusers associated with the polarized light source 6850 where the polarization state is scrambled and reemitted thereby recycling the light and increasing efficiency.
In another embodiment, the system according to the principles of the present invention includes an eye imaging system.
In an alternative embodiment, the reflective and partially reflective surfaces can extend laterally to the sides of the areas used for displaying an image to the user. In this case, the eye imaging camera can be located adjacent to the field lens and pointed in a direction to image the user's eye after reflecting from the beam splitter and the rotationally curved partial mirror as shown in
In a yet another embodiment, the systems according to the principles of the present invention include a field lens with an internal reflective polarizer and one or more surfaces with optical power.
In another embodiment, the field lens 7121 of
In yet another embodiment, the curved surface(s) or the angled surface(s) illustrated in
In a further embodiment, polarization sensitive reflective coatings such as dielectric partial mirror coatings, can be used in place of reflective polarizers or beam splitters as shown in
In a further embodiment, the field lens 7121 shown in
Another aspect of the present invention relates to manufacturing and providing an optical element for use in a see-through computer display system. In embodiments, a lightweight low-cost and high optical quality optical element.
In a head mounted display, a beam splitter can be used to direct illuminating light from a light source toward a reflective image source such as an LCOS or a DLP. Where it is desirable to have a low weight beam splitter with a flat partially reflective surface to provide good image quality. The flat partially reflective surface is particularly important when an eye camera is provided for eye imaging that utilizes the flat partially reflective surface for directing the field of view of the eye camera toward the user's eye.
Systems and methods provide for a lightweight beam splitter comprised of molded plastic elements and an internal plate element to provide a flat partially reflective surface. Together the pieces form a triplet beam splitter optic including two molded elements and a plate element. By providing the plate element internal to the beam splitter, the matching surfaces of the molded elements do not have to be optically flat, instead the plate element provides the flat surface and an index matching material is used to join the plate element to the molded elements. All three elements can be plastic elements to reduce the weight and cost of the lightweight beam splitter. To provide a more uniform refractive effect, the molded elements and the plate element are preferentially made from plastic materials with similar refractive index and have low birefringence.
The molded elements 7210 and 7220 can include flat surfaces and surfaces with optical power, where the surfaces with optical power can include spherical or aspheric curved surfaces, diffractive surfaces or Fresnel surfaces. Flat surfaces, diffractive surfaces or Fresnel surfaces are preferred on the surfaces associated with light that illuminates the image source and flat surfaces, spherical surfaces or aspheric surfaces are preferred on the surfaces associated with image light. Molded element 7210 is shown with a spherical or aspheric surface 7215 and molded element 7220 is shown with a flat surface 7225, however, any of the surfaces shown can be molded as flat surfaces or surfaces with optical power.
After molding the molded elements 7210 and 7220 are machined to provide matching angled surfaces. Molded element 7210 is shown in
The partially reflective plate element 7560 can be a transparent plate with a partially reflective layer that is either a partially reflective coating or a laminated partially reflective film. The transparent plate is preferably a cast sheet such as cell cast acrylic that has low birefringence, or a molded plaque of a low birefringence material such as OKP4, Zeonex F52R, Zeonex K26R, Zeonex 350R or PanLite SP3810. In addition, the transparent plate should be optically flat (e.g. within 20 microns over the surface and with a surface finish of less than 15 nanometers), however optically flat surfaces are easily obtained in sheet stock. By using an index matching material at the interfaces between the beam splitter elements 7430 and 7440 and the partially reflective plate element 7560, the lack of optical flatness of the surface of the beam splitter elements 7430 and 7440 can be filled by the index matching material so that the flatness of the reflective surface is determined by the flatness of the more easily obtained partially reflective plate element 7560 thereby providing a manufacturing advantage. The partially reflective layer can be a partial mirror, a reflective polarizer or a wiregrid polarizer where the reflective polarizer can be a coating or a film and the wiregrid polarizer can be a film or a molded structure that is partially coated with a conductive layer. Where a suitable reflective polarizer film can be obtained from 3M available under the trade name of DBEFQ and a wiregird polarizer film can be obtained from Asahi-Kasei available under the trade name of WGF. In a preferred embodiment, the transparent plate of the partially reflective plate element 7560 has a refractive index that is very similar (e.g. within 0.1) to the refractive indices of the beam splitter elements 7430 and 7440
In another embodiment, beam splitter elements 7430 and 7440 are molded directly to shape using injection molding or casting. The molded beam splitter elements are then assembled as shown in
In further embodiments, surfaces of the beam splitter elements are molded or machined to have additional structures to provide further features.
In yet further embodiments, beam splitter element elements 7430 and 7440 are machined from a single molded element. Where the single molded element is designed to provide the desired optical surfaces. For example, the molded element 7210 as shown in
In another embodiment, a first molded optical element is molded in a geometry that enables improved optical characteristics including: low birefringence; more accurate replication of the optical surfaces of the mold (reduced power and irregularity deviation). The first molded optical element is then cut to a different shape wherein the cutting process leaves an optically rough surface finish. A second optical element with an optically smooth surface is then bonded to the optically rough surface of the first molded optical element using an index matched adhesive to provide a combined optical element. The index matched adhesive fills in the optically rough surface on the first molded optical element so that the optically rough surface is no longer visible and an optically smooth surface is provided in the combined optical element by the second optical element. The optical characteristics of the combined optical element are improved as compared to a directly molded optical element that has the geometry of the combined optical element. The cut surface can be flat or curved, as long as the cut surface of the first molded optical element is substantially similar to the bonding surface of the second optical element. In addition, both the first molded optical element and the second optical element can provide optical surface with independent optical features such as optical power, wedge, diffraction, grating, dispersion, filtering and reflection. For example, optically flat surfaces can be difficult to mold on plastic lenses. A lens can be molded to provide a spherically curved surface and another surface that is subsequently milled off to provide a flat surface with a rough surface finish. An optically flat sheet can then be bonded to the milled surface using an index matched adhesive to provide a combined optical element with an optically flat surface.
In yet further embodiments, surfaces of the beam splitter elements include molded or machined structures to collimate, converge, diverge, diffuse, partially absorb, redirect or polarize the illumination light 7674 or the image light 7672. In this way, the number of parts in the lightweight beam splitter is reduced and the cost and manufacturing complexity is reduced.
The multi-piece lightweight solid optic has been described in connection with certain embodiments; it should be understood that the multi-piece lightweight solid optic may be used in connection with other optical arrangements (e.g. other see-through head-worn display optical configuration described herein elsewhere).
In embodiments, the invention provides methods for aligning images, along with methods and apparatus for controlling light within the optics of the display assembly associated with a HMD to prevent scattering and also to trap excess light to thereby improve the image quality provided to the user.
In HMDs that provide images to both eyes of the user, it is desirable to provide the images so that they are aligned to one another. This is particularly important when the images are viewed as stereo images where the perceived alignment of the images seen with each eye is critical to achieving the perception of depth. To provide an accurate alignment of the images, an active alignment of the optics can be performed after the optics have been assembled into a rigid frame of the HMD. Where active alignment includes aligning the images for each eye to one another by moving portions of the display assembly and affixing the portions into position relative to one another. To this end,
However, by including the space 7952, in the illuminated area, visible artifacts can occur due to light scattering or reflecting from the edges of the reflective image source 7935 or from structures adjacent to the space 7952. Consequently, a mask 8055 is provided that extends from the edge of the active area of the reflective image source 7935 across the space 7952 to cover the edges of the reflective image source 7935 and structures adjacent to the space 7952 as shown in
In another embodiment, the image produced by the image source does not use all of the active display area of the image source so there is room to shift the image in an x and/or y perspective within the active display area for alignment of the content. For example, if a misalignment is observed (as indicated above) rather than physically moving the image source, or in addition to moving the image source, the image is digitally shifted in the x and/or y direction to create better combined content alignment. The originally inactive display area around the content may be referred to as a content shift buffer zone.
In a further embodiment for aligning images in a HMD with see-through, a first image containing features is provided to one eye of the user using a display assembly similar to that shown in
In the case where the first and second images are smaller in size than the active area of the reflective image source, thereby leaving a digital space adjacent to the images that can be used for digital shifting of the images for further alignment adjustment. This adjustment can be used in combination with physical movements of the reflective image sources to align the first image to the second image.
In
Segmented partially reflective layers can be used which a variety of geometries and makeups.
In a further embodiment, the reflective polarizer film is laminated to a flexible transparent carrier film to increase the flexibility and the absorptive polarizer film is a separate layer.
In yet another embodiment, the reflective polarizer film is modified to make the portions transparent and non-reflective where illumination light is incident that is not needed to illuminate the active area of the reflective image source and a separate absorptive polarizer is provided to absorb light that is transmitted through the non-reflective portions.
In a yet further embodiment, the partially reflective layer comprises a reflective polarizer film laminated to an absorptive polarizer and the partially reflective layer includes a flat portion and a curved portion.
In head mounted displays that provide a displayed image overlaid onto a see-through view of the environment, it is advantageous to have high see-through transmission both so the user can better interact with the environment and so that people in the environment can see the user's eyes so they feel more engaged with the user. It is also advantageous to have a thin optics module with low height to make the head mounted display more compact and thereby more attractive.
To enable the optics module to operate with a combiner 9320 as shown in
However, the orientation of the additional fold in the optical path of the image light 9360 in the optics module of
A further advantage that is provided by an optics module that includes multiply folded optics is that twists can be introduced at the fold surfaces to modify the orientation of different portions of the optics module relative to each other. This can be important when the optics module needs to fit into a thin curved glasses frame, a visor or a helmet where the increased width associated with the upper portion of the multiply folded optics module can make it more difficult to fit into structures that are not parallel to the combiner. In this case, the upper portion including for example (based on
a and 103b show illustrations of optics modules as seen from the position of the user's eye, that include multiply folded optics and digital light projector (DLP) image sources 10350. In this case, the illumination light 10364 is provided at an oblique angle to the image source 10350 as required by the micromirrors in the DLP, to reflect image light 9360 along the optical axis 934 of the lens 9930. Where, in the case of a DLP image source 10350, image light 9360 is comprised of on-state light reflected by on-state micromirrors in the DLP image source 10350 along optical axis 934, in correspondence to the brightness of pixels in the image to be displayed to the user's eye 9310 in the eyebox. The micromirrors in the DLP image source 10350 also reflect off-state light 10371 to the side of the optics module in correspondence to the dark image content and as a result, a light trap 10372 is provided in the optics module to absorb light 10371. The light trap 10372 can be a black absorptive surface or a textured black surface. The purpose of the light trap 10372 is to absorb incident light 10371 and thereby reduce stray light and subsequently improve the contrast of the image displayed to the user's eye 9310. As previously described in other embodiments herein, the light source 10340 is provided to the side of the optics module with a multiply folded optical path to reduce the overall thickness and height of the optics module.
In the embodiments shown in
In an alternative embodiment for the optics module shown in
In addition,
Head mounted displays provide the user with freedom to move their head while watching displayed information. See-through head mounted displays also provide the user with a see-through view of the environment whereupon the displayed information is overlaid. While head mounted displays can include various types of image sources, image sources that provide sequential color display typically provide higher perceived resolution relative to the number of pixels in the displayed images because each pixel provides image content for each of the colors and the image perceived by the user as a displayed full color image frame is actually the sum of a series of rapidly displayed sequential color subframes. For example, the image source can sequentially provide subframe images comprised of a red image, a green image and then a blue image that are all derived from a single full color frame image. In this case, full color images are displayed at an image frame rate that includes a series of at least three sequentially colored subframes that are displayed at a subframe rate which is at least 3× the image frame rate. Sequential color images sources include reflective image sources such as LCOS and DLP.
The color breakup that occurs with a sequential color display occurs because the different color subframe images that together provide the user with a full color frame image are displayed at different times. The inventors realized that with sequential color display in a head mounted display, when there is movement of the head-mounted display or movement of the user's eyes, such that the user's eyes do not move in synch with the displayed image that under such movement conditions the perceived locations of each of the sequential color image subframes are different within the user's field of view. This can happen when the user moves his head and the user's eyes do not follow the same trajectory as the head mounted display, which can be due to the user's eyes moving in a jerky trajectory as the eyes pause to look at an object in the see-through view of the environment. Another way this can happen is if an object passes through the see-through view of the environment and the user's eyes follow the movement of the object. Due to this difference in perceived locations within the user's field of view, the user sees the sequential color images slightly separated at the edges of objects. This separation of colors at the edge of objects is referred to as color breakup. Color breakup may be easily perceived during certain movements because the sequential colors are vividly colored in areas where they do not overlap one another. The faster the user moves their head or the faster the user's eyes move across the display field of view, the more noticeable the color breakup becomes, because the different color subframe images are separated by a greater distance within the field of view. Color breakup is particularly noticeable with see-through head mounted displays, because the user can see the environment and the user's eyes tend to linger on objects seen in the environment as the user turns his head. So even though the user may turn his head at a steady rotational rate, the user's eye movement tends to be jerky and this creates the conditions where color breakup is observed. As such there are two different conditions that tend to be associated with color breakup: rapid head movement and rapid eye movement.
It is important to note that when the user is not moving his head and the head mounted display is not moving on the user's head, color breakup will not be observed because the subframe images are provided at the same positions within the field of view of the user's eyes. Also, if the user were to move his head and the user moves his eyes in synch with the head movement, color breakup will not be observed. So movement of the head mounted display is indicative of conditions that can lead to color breakup and is also indicative of the degree of color breakup that can occur if the user moves his eyes relative to the movement of the head mounted display. Color breakup is less of an issue with head mounted displays that do not have see-through to the environment, because only the displayed image content is visible to the user and it moves in synch with the movement of the head mounted display. Color breakup is also not an issue if a monochrome image is displayed with a monochrome light source (i.e. there are no sequential color subframes, instead there are only single color frames) since all the displayed images are comprised of the same color. Thus, color breakup is an issue that is most noticeable with head mounted displays that provide a see-through view of the environment.
Systems and methods according to the principles of the present invention reduce color breakup and thereby improve the viewing experience provided by a head-mounted display with see-through when the user is moving through the environment.
In embodiments, systems and methods are provided where the head-mounted display detects the speed of movement of the head-mounted display and in response, the resolution of the image is reduced or the bit depth of the image is reduced, while the image frame rate at which the image is displayed and the associated subframe rate are correspondingly increased. In this way, the bandwidth associated with the display of the image can be maintained constant, in spite of the frame rate being increased. Where, by increasing the frame rate associated with the display of images, the time between the display of each sequential color subframe image is reduced and as a result the visually perceived separation between the sequential color images is reduced. Similarly the image frame rate can be reduced while the subframe rate is increased by increasing the number of subframes displayed for each image frame.
In further embodiments, systems and methods are provided where the sequential color subframe images are shifted laterally or vertically relative to one another by a number of pixels that corresponds to the detected movement of the head mounted display. In this way, the color sequential subframe images are displayed to the user such that they are visually overlaid on top of each other within the displayed field of view. This compensates for separation between subframes and thereby reduces color breakup.
In yet another embodiment, systems and methods are provided where an eye-imaging camera in the head-mounted display is used to track the movement of the user's eyes. The movement of the head-mounted display may be simultaneously measured. An accommodation in the presentation may then be made to reduce color breakup. For example, the resolution of the images and the frame rate may be changed or the image frame rate can be reduced while increasing the subframe rate, in correspondence to the difference in movement of the user's eyes and the movement of the head mounted display. As another example, the subframes may be shifted to align the subframes in correspondence to the determined difference in movement between the user′ eyes and the head mounted display. As a further example, the color saturation of the content may be reduced to reduce the perception of color breakup due to the fact that the colors, while positionally separated as perceived by the user, are not as separated in color space. In yet a further example, the content could be converted to monochrome imagery which is displayed as a single color image (e.g. white) during the detected movement so that color breakup is not visible.
If the subframe images are accurately aligned with each other, then the full color image perceived by the user will be full color out to the edges of the image and there will be no color breakup. This is what is typically seen by the user of a head-mounted display when the head-mounted display is stationary on the user's head and the user is not moving his eyes. However, if the user moves his head or the head-mounted display moves on the user's head (such as due to vibration) and the user's eyes are not moved in unison with the displayed image, the user will perceive the subframe images to be laterally (or vertically) offset relative to one another as shown by illustrations 10802 and 10804 in
Display frame rate in a head-mounted display is typically limited by either the bandwidth of the processor and associated electronics or by the power required to drive the processor and associated electronics, which translates into battery life. The bandwidth required to display images at a given frame rate is related to the number of frames displayed in a period of time and the number of pixels in each frame image. As such, simply increasing the frame rate to reduce color breakup is not always a good solution as it requires a higher bandwidth which the processor or associated electronics may not be able to support and power usage will be increased thereby reducing battery life. Instead, systems and methods in accordance with the principles of the present invention provide a method of display wherein the number of pixels in each subframe image is reduced thereby reducing the bandwidth required to display each subframe image while simultaneously increasing the subframe rate by a corresponding amount to maintain bandwidth while reducing color breakup. This embodiment is suitable for situations wherein subframe images can be provided with different numbers of pixels and different frame rates. For example, it would be suitable in camera and display systems where the capture conditions can be changed to provide images with a lower resolution that can then be displayed with a faster subframe rate. Static images such as text or illustrations can be displayed with a lower frame rate and a faster subframe rate to reduce color breakup since the image content doesn't change quickly. Alternatively, images can be modified to be displayed at lower resolution (fewer pixels) with a faster frame rate or subframe rate to reduce color breakup
Movement of the head-mounted display can be detected by an inertial measurement unit, which can include accelerometers, gyro sensors, magnetometers, tilt sensors, vibration sensors, etc. Where only the movements within the plane of the display field of view (e.g. x and y movements and not z movement) are important for detecting conditions where color breakup may occur. If the head-mounted display is detected to be moving above a predetermined threshold where color breakup is predicted to occur (e.g. greater than 9 degrees/sec), in embodiments, the resolution of the images may be reduced (thereby reducing the number of pixels in the images and effectively making each pixel larger within the display field of view) and the subframe rate may be correspondingly increased. Note that the subframe rate can be increased without changing the image frame rate by increasing the number of subframes that are displayed sequentially, for example six subframes could be displayed for each image frame wherein the sequential color subframe images are each displayed twice. By increasing the number of subframes displayed for each image frame, the subframe rate can be increased without having to increase the image frame rate, which can be more difficult to change because the image frame rate is typically provided by the source of the image content such as in a movie.
While reducing the resolution of the displayed subframe images in correspondence to an increase in the subframe rate may seem to degrade the image quality perceived by the user, the human eye is not capable of perceiving high resolution when there is substantial movement. As such, color breakup is more visible than a reduction in the resolution of the image when the eye is moving. Consequently, the systems and methods of the present invention trade reduced image resolution for increased image frame rate to reduce color breakup without a perceptible loss in resolution, and bandwidth is thereby maintained. This technique can be used, for example, to reduce color breakup by a factor of up to 16, where the resolution of the displayed image is reduced to 1/16th the original resolution and the frame rate of the displayed image is increased by 16×.
In another embodiment of the invention, when movement of the head-mounted display is detected, the subframe images associated with a full color frame image are digitally shifted relative to one another in a direction counter to the detected direction of movement and with an amount that corresponds to the detected speed of movement. This effectively compensates for the perceived offset between the displayed subframe images that causes color breakup. The digital shifting is applied only to the subframes that together comprise a full color frame image. This is different from typical digital image stabilization wherein full color frame images are digitally shifted relative to one another to compensate for movement as described, for example, in United States patent publication 2008/0165280. By applying the digital shifting to the subframes that constitute a single full color frame image, the amount of digital shifting required to reduce color breakup is typically only a few pixels even when the detected movement speed is high, this is in contrast to typical digital image stabilization where fast movements result in accumulating shifts of the frame image so that the image effectively moves outside of the display field of view or the amount of digital stabilization that can be applied is limited.
In embodiments, movement direction and speed of the head-mounted display is detected by the IMU sensor immediately prior to the display of each full color frame image. If the movement speed is above a predetermined threshold, the sequentially displayed color subframes associated with each full color frame are digitally shifted relative to one another so that they are displayed in an aligned position within the display field of view. The magnitude of the shift corresponds to the speed of the detected movement and the direction of the shift is counter to the detected direction of movement.
In an example, the movement of the head-mounted display is detected immediately prior to display of a first subframe associated with a full color frame image. The first subframe associated with the full color frame image can then be displayed without a shift. The second subframe can be shifted by an amount and direction that compensates for the movement that occurs between the display of the first and second subframes and then is displayed. The third subframe can be shifted by an amount and direction that compensates for the movement that occurs between the display of the first subframe and the third subframe and is then displayed. The movement of the head-mounted display is then detected again to determine the shifts to be applied to the subframes associated with the next full color frame image. Alternatively, the subframes can be shifted by an amount that compensates for a portion of the movement that occurs between the subframes.
In a further example, the direction and speed of movement of the head-mounted display is detected immediately prior to the display of a reference subframe. Subsequent subframes are then shifted to compensate for movement that occurs between the time the reference subframe is displayed and the time that the subsequent subframe is displayed. Wherein the time that the reference subframe is displayed and the time that the subsequent subframe is displayed may be up to 5 frame times.
An advantage of this embodiment is illustrated by examining the effective frame rates associated with the color breakup and the blur of the image. If the full color image is displayed with an image frame rate of 60 frames/sec, the subframes would typically be displayed at a subframe rate of 180 frames/sec to provide three subframes for each image frame. The described system and method effectively shifts the subframes so that they are positioned on top of one another, so the color breakup is reduced to an amount that corresponds to 180 frames/sec. At the same time, the blur perceived by the user between image frames corresponds to 60 frames/sec since each of the subframes is derived from the same full color frame image.
In further embodiments, the digital shifting of the subframes that is based on detected movement immediately prior to the display of each full color frame image can be combined with digital image stabilization that is applied between the full color frame images.
In yet further embodiments, the method of digital shifting of subframes is combined with the method of increasing frame rate with a simultaneous reduction in image resolution. These two methods of reducing color breakup operate on different aspects of the image processing associated with displaying an image in a head mounted display, as such they can be independently applied in either order in the image processing system associated with the processor.
In yet another embodiment, the head mounted display includes a camera for detecting the eye movements of the user (e.g. as described herein) relative to the movement of the head mounted display. The eye camera can be used to measure the speed of eye movement and the direction of eye movement. In embodiments, the resolution of eye cameras can be relatively low (e.g. QVGA or VGA) so that the frame rate can be relatively high (e.g. 120 frames/sec) without introducing bandwidth limitations. The detected eye movements relative to the head-mounted display can be used to determine when to apply methods to reduce color breakup including, for example, increasing the frame rate and digitally shifting the subframes as has been previously described herein. For example, if the detected eye movement is above a predetermined angular speed, the resolution of the displayed images can be reduced and the subframe rate can be increased. In another example, the detected eye movement can be used to determine the amount and direction of digital shifting applied to subframes within an image frame prior to display of the subframes. In yet another example, measured eye movements can be used in combination with detected movements of the head-mounted display to determine the amount and direction of digital shifting applied to subframes within an image frame prior to display of the subframes. The amount and direction of digital shifting applied to the subframes can be in correspondence to the difference between the detected movements of the head mounted display and the detected eye movements of the user. Where the detection of a condition where the user's eye is moving one direction and the head mounted display is moving in an opposing direction represents a situation where particularly bad color breakup can occur. In this case, combined methods for reducing color breakup are advantageous.
In another yet further embodiment, when movement of the head-mounted display or eye movement is detected above a predetermined threshold, the images are changed from color sequentially displayed full color images to monochrome images. The monochrome images can be comprised of combined image content from each of the color sequential subframes associated with each full color image frame. Where the monochrome images can be grey scale or luma images wherein the luma code values (Y) for each pixel can be calculated for example as given in Equation 1 below as taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayscale and as referenced to the CIE 1931 standard for digital photography:
Y=0.2126R+0.7152G+0.0722B Equation 1
Where R is the red code value for the pixel, G is the green code value for the pixel and B is the blue code value for the pixel. Alternatively, monochrome images can be comprised of single color images such as the green subframe image, and this image can be displayed either with a single color or preferably with simultaneous application of all the sequential colors (e.g. red, green and blue) so that the applied illumination onto the reflective image source is white light and as a result, the displayed image appears as a grey scale image.
Several more specific examples are provided below.
For a 26 deg display field of view and a 1280 pixel horizontally wide image, a pixel occupies 0.020 deg within the display field of view. If the frame rate of the full color images is 60 Hz, with three color sequential subframes images, the subframe time is 0.006 sec. The rotational speed of the head mounted display needed to produce one pixel of color breakup is then 3.6 deg/sec. If the number of horizontal pixels in the display field of view is reduced to 640 pixels and simultaneously the frame rate of the full color images is increased to 120 Hz, with three color sequential subframes images, the subframe time is reduced to 0.003, the size of a pixel is increased to 0.041 deg and the rotational speed to produce one pixel of color breakup is 14.6 deg/sec.
For a 26 deg display field of view and a 1280 pixel horizontally wide image, a pixel is 0.020 deg within the display field of view. If the smallest size that the user can detect for color breakup is one pixel wide, then a rotational speed of over 3.6 deg/sec is required if the subframe rate is 180 Hz, before color breakup is detected by the user. Even though the color breakup is an analog effect, the user's eye does not have the resolution to detect the color fringes that are present during movement below this speed. So below this rotational speed, color breakup management is not required.
For a 26 deg display field of view and a 1280 pixel horizontally wide image, a pixel is 0.020 deg within the display field of view. If the user can detect color breakup as small as one pixel wide, then a rotational speed of 3.6 deg/sec will require a shift of the subframes relative to each other of one pixel if the subframe rate is 180 Hz, to align the subframes so that color breakup is not visible to the user. If the user rotates their head at 15 deg/sec, then the subframes will require a shift of 4 pixels relative to one another to align the subframes so that color breakup is not visible. If the image frame begins with the display of the red subframe image, then no digital shifting is required for the red subframe image. A 4 pixel shift is required for the green subframe image. And, an 8 pixel shift is required for the blue subframe image. The next red subframe associated with the next image frame would then be effectively shifted 12 pixels relative to the previous red subframe within the field of view.
Each of the color breakup reduction technologies described herein may be used in combination with each of the other color breakup reduction technologies.
The inventors appreciated that fitting see-through computer displays into certain head-worn form factors is a challenge, even when reduced in size as described herein. A further advantage that is provided by an optics module that includes multiply folded optics is that twists can be introduced at the fold surfaces to modify the orientation of different portions of the optics module relative to each other. This can be important when the optics module needs to fit into a thin curved glasses frame, a visor or a helmet where the increased width associated with the upper portion of the multiply folded optics module can make it more difficult to fit into structures that are not parallel to the combiner. As such, another aspect of the present invention relates to twisting certain optical components within the see-through computer display such that the optical components better fit certain form factors (e.g. glasses) yet continue to perform as high quality image displays. In embodiments, optics systems with dual mirror systems to fold the optical path (e.g. optical systems described herein with respect to
Another aspect of the present invention relates to the configuration of the optics and electronics in a head-worn frame such that the frame maintains a minimal form factor to resemble standard glasses. In embodiments, a see through optical display with multiply folded optics to provide a reduced thickness (e.g. as described herein) may be mounted in the frame. In embodiments, the multiply folded optical configuration may be twisted at the fold surfaces (e.g. as described herein) to better fit the optics into the frame. In embodiments, the electronics that operate the displays, processor, memory, sensors, etc. are positioned between, above, below, on a side, etc. of the optical modules and oriented to provide a reduced thickness in the frame to match the thickness of the optics. Orienting the board can be particularly important when the board includes large components that limit the width of the board, such as for example the processor chip. For example, an electronics board or components on the electronics board may be mounted in a vertical orientation between and/or above the optical modules to reduce the thickness of the electronics board as mounted into the frame. In another configuration the board may be mounted between the optical modules at a height near the top of the optical modules to minimize the height of the glasses frame. In yet another configuration the board may be mounted such that it extends over the optical modules to minimize the thickness of the frame. In further embodiments, the board may be mounted in an angled configuration to enable the thickness and height of the frame to be reduced simultaneously. In embodiments, the electronics may be divided between multiple boards. For example, a longer board over a shorter board where the space between the optical modules is used for the lower board. This configuration uses some of the space between the eyes for some of the electronics.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to concealing the optical modules such that a person viewing the user does not clearly see the optical modules, electronics or boards. For example, in configurations described herein, the optical modules include lenses that hang below the top of the brow section of the head-worn device frame and the electronics board(s) hang down as well so that the see-through view is partially blocked. To conceal these features and thereby provide the head worn computer with the appearance of conventional glasses, an outer lens may be included in the glasses frame so that it covers a portion of the frame that contain the optical modules or electronics, and the outer lens may include a progressive tint from top to bottom. In embodiments, the tint may have less transmission at the top for concealment of a portion of the frame that includes the optical modules or electronics board while having higher transmission below the concealment point such that a high see-through transmission is maintained.
Aspects of the present invention provide multiply folded optics to reduce the thickness of the optics modules along with vertically oriented or angled electronics to reduce the mounted thickness of the electronics and progressively tinted outer lenses to conceal a portion of the optics or electronics. In this way, a head worn computer is provided with a thinner form factor and an appearance of conventional glasses.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to an intuitive user interface mounted on the HWC 102 where the user interface includes tactile feedback to the user to provide the user an indication of engagement and change. In embodiments, the user interface is a rotating element on a temple section of a glasses form factor of the HWC 102. The rotating element may include segments such that it positively engages at certain predetermined angles. This facilitates a tactile feedback to the user. As the user turns the rotating element it ‘clicks’ through it's predetermined steps or angles and each step causes a displayed user interface content to be changed. For example, the user may cycle through a set of menu items or selectable applications. In embodiments, the rotating element also includes a selection element, such as a pressure-induced section where the user can push to make a selection.
As discussed above, a specially designed lens may be used to conceal portions of the optics modules and/or electronics modules.
The lenses 11902 includes blind holes 11904 for the mounting of a magnetic attachment system (not shown). The magnetic attachment system may include magnets, magnetic material, dual magnets, opposite polarization magnets, etc. such that the lenses 11902 can be removed and remounted to the head-worn computer (e.g. HWC 102). In the magnetic attachment system, the lenses 11902 are held by magnetic force into the frame of the HWC. The magnets can be inserted into the blind holes 11904 or inserted into the frame of the HWC in corresponding matching positions. As long as either the lens 11902 or the matching position on the frame of the HWC includes a magnet and the other position has a similar sized piece of magnetic material or another magnet oriented to attract the lens 11902 and hold it in the frame of the HWC. To this end, the frame of the HWC can provide guidance features to position the lens 11902 in front of the optics modules in the HWC. Where the guidance features can be a ridge or flange that the lens is seated in so the lens 11902 cannot move laterally when held in place by the magnetic attachment system. In this way, the function of the magnetic attachment system is simply to hold the lenses 11902 in place, while the guidance features position the lenses 11902. The guidance features can be robustly made to hold the lenses 11902 in place when dropped or subjected to impact even when the force provided by the magnetic attachment system is relatively low, so that the lenses 11902 can be easily removed by the user for cleaning or replacement. Where easy replacement enables a variety of lenses with different optical features (e.g. polarized, photochromic, different optical density) or different appearance (e.g. colors, level of tinting, mirror coating) to be changed out by the user as desired.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to cooling the internal component through the use of micro-holes sized such they are large enough to allow gas to escape but small enough to not allow water to pass through (e.g. 25 μm, 0.2 mm, 0.3 mm, etc.). The micro-holes may be included in a heat sink, for example. The heat sink, or other area, may be populated with hundreds or thousands of such micro-holes. The micro-holes may be laser cut or CNC holes, for example, that are small enough to keep large droplets of water out of the device but allow air to exchange through the heat sink. Besides increasing surface area of the heat sink, they also have matching holes on the underside of the frame to enable convective cooling where cool air is pulled in from the bottom as the heat raises from the top, like a chimney and as such, the heat sink with the micro-holes is preferably located on the top or side of the frame of the HWC. In embodiments, the micro-holes are aligned in the troughs formed by the fins on the top of the heat sink. This causes the exiting air to flow through the troughs thereby increasing the heat transfer from the fins. In embodiments, the micro-holes may be angled such that the length of the hole in the heat sink material is increased and the air flow can be directed away from the head of the user. In addition, the micro-holes may be of a size to cause turbulence in the air flow as it passes through the micro-holes. Where, turbulence substantially increases the heat transfer rate associated with the air flow through the heat sink. In embodiments, the heat management system of the HWC 102 is passive, including no active cooling systems such as fans or other energized mechanical cooling systems to force air flow through the micro-holes. In other embodiments, the heat management system includes energized mechanical cooling, such as a fan or multiple fans or other systems to force air movement through the HWC and the micro-holes.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to finding items in the surrounding environment based on similarity to items identified. Augmented reality is often rigidly defined in terms of what is included and how it is used, it would be advantageous to provide a more flexible interface so people can use augmented reality to do whatever they want it to do. An example is to use the HWC camera, image analysis and display to designate items to be found.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to assisting a person in reading text that is presented in a physical form, such as a book, magazine, on a computer screen or phone screen, etc. In embodiments, the camera on the HWC can image the page and the processor in the HWC can recognize the words on the page. Lines, boxes, or other indicators may be presented in the HWC to indicate which words are being captured and recognized. The user would then be viewing the page of words through the see-through display with an indication of which words have been recognized. The recognized words can then be translated or converted from text that is then presented to the user in the see-through display. Alternately, the recognized words can be converted from text to speech, which is then presented to the user through the head worn speakers, headphones, visual displays, etc. This gives the user a better understanding of the accuracy associated with the text recognition relative to the translated text or converted speech.
In a further aspect of the invention, a magnetic attachment structure is provided for the combiner to enable the combiner to be removable. In the optics associated with a HWC 102 such as for example the optics shown in
In typical computer display systems, automatic brightness control is a one dimensional control parameter; when the ambient brightness is high, the display brightness or light source is increased, when the ambient brightness is low, the display brightness or light source is decreased. The inventors have discovered that this one-dimensional paradigm has significant limitations when using see-through computer displays. Aspects of the present invention relate to improving the performance of the head-worn computer by causing it to understand the relative brightness of the content to be presented in addition to understanding the brightness of the surrounding environment and to then adjust the brightness of the content, based on both factors, to create a viewing experience that has the appropriate viewability.
An aspect of the present invention relates to improving the viewability of content displayed in a see-through head-worn display. Viewability involves a number of factors. The inventor's have discovered that, in addition to image resolution, contrast, sharpness, etc., the viewability of an image presented in a see-through display is effected by (1) the surrounding scene that forms the backdrop for the image, and (2) the relative or apparent brightness of the image displayed. If the user, for example, is looking towards a bright scene, the viewability of the presented content may be washed out our or hard to see if the display settings are not altered and, in the event that the content itself is relatively low in brightness (e.g. the content has a lot of dark colors or black areas in it), it may continue to be washed out unless the content is also altered. In this situation, the brightness of the display may be increased even higher than what would normally be required in a dark environment in order to compensate for the dark content of the image. As an additional example, if the user is looking towards a dark scene, the presented content may be perceived by the user as overly bright and washing out the scene, or making it hard to interact with the scene if the display settings are not altered. In addition, if the content itself is relatively bright (e.g. mainly light colors or areas of white content), the content may require further alteration to obtain the proper viewability. In this situation, the display brightness may be decreased further than if it were only dependent on the environmental lighting conditions to make the viewablilty of the content appropriate. In embodiments, the head-worn computer is adapted to measure the scene that forms the backdrop for the presented content, understand the relative brightness of the content itself (i.e. the innate content brightness) to be presented and then adjust the presentation of the content based on the scene brightness and the innate content brightness to achieve a desired content viewability.
While embodiments herein use the terms “content brightness” and “display brightness” in the context of altering the viewability of the content, it should be understood that the step of making the alteration in content and/or display in response to meeting a viewability need may include causing the system to leave the image content alone and increase the light source brightness of the display, use the available light and increase the digital brightness of the image content by adjusting the parameters of the entire display using the display driver, adjust the actual content that is being displayed, etc. The viewability adjustment may be made by adjusting a lighting system used to illuminate a reflective display (e.g. changing the pulse width modulation duty cycle of the LEDs, changing the power delivered to the lighting system, etc.), changing the brightness settings of an emissive display, changing an aspect of how the display presents all content by adjusting settings in the display driver or changing an aspect of the content its self through image processing (e.g. changing brightness, hue, saturation, color value (e.g. red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, magenta, etc.) exposure, contrast, saturation, tint, etc.), of the all the content, select regions of the content, types of content which may be shown at the same time but have innate differences in visibility regardless of location, etc.
To improve the viewing experience for a user when viewing content in a see-through head-worn display, the visual interaction between the displayed image and the see-through view of the environment must be considered. The viewability of a given displayed image is highly dependent on a variety of attributes such as its size, color, contrast and brightness as well as the perceived brightness as seen by the user. Where the color and brightness of the displayed image can be determined by the pixel code values within the digital image (e.g. average pixel code). Alternatively, the brightness of the displayed image can be determined from the luma of the displayed image (see “Brightness Calculation in Digital Image Processing”, Sergey Bezryadin et. al., Technologies for Digital Fulfillment 2007, Las Vegas, Nev.). Other attributes of the displayed image can be calculated based the code value distributions in the image similar to the brightness. Depending on the mode of operation, the type of activity the user is engaged in and a perceived brightness of the image being displayed, it may be important for the displayed image to match the see-through view of the environment, contrast with the see-through view of the environment, or blend into the see-through view of the environment. The content adjustment may be based on the perceived user need in addition to the scene that will form the backdrop for the content. Embodiments provide methods and systems to automatically adjust viewability of the image depending on, for example:
1. the percent of the display field of view that is covered by displayed content, (where in a see-through head worn display the portions of the displayed image that are black are seen as portions with no displayed content and instead the user is provided with a see-through view of the environment in that portion);
2. a brightness metric of image being displayed (e.g. hue, saturation, color, individual color contribution (e.g. red content, blue content, green content) average brightness, highest brightness, lowest brightness, statistically calculated brightness (e.g. mean, median, mode, range, distribution concentration), etc.);
3. sensor feed back indicative of a user use scenario (e.g. the amount of motion measured by sensors in the IMU in the head-worn display used to determine that the user is stationary, walking, running, in a car, etc.);
4. the operating mode of the head-worn display (which can be selected by the user or automatically selected by the head-worn display based on for example: the environmental conditions, the GPS location, the time or date, indicated or determined user scenerion).
5. the type of content (e.g. still pictures (e.g. either high or low contrast, monochrome or color such as icons or markers), moving pictures (e.g. either high or low contrast, monochrome or color such as scrolling icons on our launcher or a bouncing marker), video content (e.g. where location and intensity of pixels are varying such as a bouncing and blinking marker, other normal types of video content like hollywood movies, step by step tutorials or your last run down the ski slope recorded on your glasses), text (e.g. small, large, monochrome, outlined, blinking, etc.), etc.; and/or
6. a user use scenario (e.g. a predicted scenario based on sensor feedback, based on an operating application, based on a user setting) such as sitting still in a safe location such as your living room and viewing a movie (e.g. where it might not need to defeat ambient), walking around and getting notifications or viewing turn by turn directions (e.g. where it might depend on the amount of display covered but probably best to match ambient), driving in a car and erasing the blind spots such as vertical pillars (e.g. where it may need to match ambient), driving in a car and trying to display HUD data over the external illumination (e.g. where it may need to defeat ambient), getting instructions on repairing and engine (e.g. where some areas need to defeat ambient such as pages in the service manual and some need to match such as augmented overlays where you still need to see what you're working on), etc.
For example, in a night vision mode using the camera with a live feed to the head-worn display, sensors associated with the head-worn display indicate that the user is moving at a speed and with an up and down movement that indicates jogging. As a result, the head-worn display can automatically determine that the displayed images should be provided with a brightness that provides good viewing without regard to the see-through view of the surrounding environment since it is too dark for the user to see a see-through view of the environment. In addition, the head-worn display may switch the displayed image from full color to a monochrome image such as green where the human eye is more sensitive and the human eye responds faster.
In another example of a mode, the brightness of the displayed image is increased relative to the see-through view of the surrounding environment when eye tracking is being used in a user interface. In this embodiment, the type of user interface being used determines the brightness of the displayed image relative to the brightness of the see-through view of the surrounding environment. In this way, the see-through view is made to be dimmer than the displayed image so that the see-through view is made less noticeable to the user. By making the see-through view less noticeable to the user, the user can more easily move his eyes to control the user interface without being distracted by the see-through view of the surrounding environment. This approach reduces the jittery eye movement that is typically encountered when using eye tracking in a head mounted display that also provides the user a see-through view of the environment.
Further, the displayed image can be changed in response to the average color, hue or spatial frequency of the environment surrounding the user. In this case, a camera in the head-worn display can be used to capture an image of the environment that includes a portion of the see-through field of view as seen by the user. Attributes of the captured image of the environment can then be digitally analyzed as previously described herein to calculate attributes for the displayed image. In this case, the attributes of the captured image of the environment can include an average brightness, a color distribution or spatial frequency of the see-through view of the environment. The calculated attribute of the environment can then be compared relative to attributes of the image being displayed to determine how distracting the see-through view will be versus the type of displayed image being displayed. The attributes of the displayed image can then be modified in terms of color, hue or spatial frequency to improve the viewability in the head-worn display with see-through. This comparison of image content versus see-through view and the associated modification of the displayed image can be applied within large blocks of the field of view or within small localized blocks of the field of view comprised of only a few pixels each such as may be required for some types of augmented reality objects. Wherein the captured image of the environment that is used to calculate the attributes of at least a portion of the see-through view of the environment provided to the user does not have to be the same resolution as the displayed image. In a further embodiment, a brightness sensor or a color sensor included in the head-worn display can be used to measure the average brightness or average color within a portion of the see-through field of view of the environment. By using a dedicated sensor for measuring brightness or color, the calculation of the attribute in the see-through view of the environment can be provided with little processing power thereby reducing the power required and increasing the speed of the calculation.
It has often been said that color is very subjective and there are several reasons for this including things like dependencies on ambient lighting of the environment, the proximity of other colors and whether you are using one eye or two. To compensate for these effects, the head-worn display may measure the color balance and intensity of the ambient light either with a light sensor or with a camera to infer how colors of objects in the environment will appear, then the color of the displayed image can be modified to improve viewability in the head-worn display with see-through. In the case of augmented reality objects, viewability can be improved by rendering the augmented reality object so that it better contrasts with the environment for example for a marker, or the so that it blends into the environment for example when viewing architectural models. To this end, light sensors can be provided to determine the brightness and color balance of the ambient lighting in front of the user or from other directions in the environment such as above the user. In addition, objects in the environment can be identified that typically have standard colors (e.g. stop signs are red) and these colors can be measured in a captured image to determine the ambient lighting color balance.
Color perception by the human eye gets even more complicated at the extremes of very bright and very dark, because the human eye responds non-linearly. For example in direct sunlight, colors begin to wash out as nerves in the brain begin to saturate and lose the ability to detect subtle differences in color. On the other hand, when the environment is dim, the contrast perceived by the human eye decreases. As such, when bright conditions are detected, colors can be enhanced in the displayed image. When dim conditions are detected, the contrast in the displayed image can be enhanced to provide a better viewing experience for the user. Where contrast can be enhanced by digitally sharpening the image, increasing the code value differences between adjacent areas in the digital image or by adding a narrow line comprised of a complimentary color around the edge of displayed objects.
In dim conditions, color sensitivity of the human eye varies by color as well, so that blue colors look brighter than red colors. As a result, in dim viewing conditions, the color of objects changes toward the blue. Consequently, when the displayed image is provided as a dim image such as for example when using the head-worn display in dim lighting where viewbility of both the displayed image and the see-through view are important, the color balance of the image can be shifted to be more red to provide a more accurate color rendition of the displayed image as perceived by the user. If the image is displayed as a very dim image, the image can be further changed to a monochrome red to better preserve the user's night vision.
In embodiments, the head-worn display uses sensors or a camera to determine the brightness of the surrounding environment. The type of image to be displayed is then determined and the brightness of the image is adjusted in correspondence with the type of image and the operating mode of the head-worn display. The combined brightness, comprised of the brightness of the see-through view in combination with the brightness of the displayed image, is determined. The operating zone of the human eye is then determined based on the combined brightness and the known sensitivity of the human eye as shown in
Zone 1: Top end of Photopic vision (glare limit) where relative differences in brightness are less noticeable and colors shift to red. Sharpness of focus is good with contracted pupil but glare inside the eye starts to obscure details.
To improve viewability, the displayed image is modified to increase contrast and increase green and/or blue.
Zone 2: Standard range of color vision where cones dominate in the human eye. Color perception is basically uniform and brightness perception follows a standard Gamma curve. Maximum sharpness possible due to small pupil and manageable levels of brightness. Viewability is good with standard brightness and color.
Zone 3: Transition zone from cones to rods for primary sensitivity. Color perception becomes non-linear as the red cones lose sensitivity faster than blue and green. Contrast perception is reduced due to flattening response to changes in brightness. Focus sharpness also begins to reduce with larger pupils, especially in older eyes that aren't as capable of adapting freely. Viewability is improved by increasing font and object sizes for legibility and reducing blue and green colors while increasing red and increasing contrast.
Zone 4: Bottom end of scotopic vision where rods dominate for sensitivity and motion is more apparent than content. Viewability is improved by changing the displayed images to eliminate high spatial frequency such as small text and instead provide iconography and use motion or blinking to increase visibility of critical items.
In a further embodiment, changes in operating mode are considered. So that if the user changes operating mode, the displayed image is modified in correspondence to the mode change and the environmental conditions to improve viewability. This can be a temporary state as the user's eyes adapt to the new operating mode and the associated change in viewing conditions. For example, if the display settings were based on darker ambient conditions than are detected when the head-worn display wakes up, the brightness of the displayed image is modified to match the environmental conditions to avoid hurting the user's eyes. In another example, an entertainment mode is used and the brightness of the displayed image is slowly increased from the environmental conditions up to level for best viewability of a video with saturated color and high sharpness (Zone 2). In yet another example, if the displayed image includes a limited area of icons or white on black text for nighttime viewing, the brightness is reduced before showing a photo or white background page to account for the increased perception of brightness.
In a yet further embodiment, an eye camera is used to determine which portion of the displayed image that the user is directly looking at and attributes of the displayed image are adjusted in correspondence to the brightness of that portion of the displayed image. In this way, the attributes of the image are adjusted in correspondence to the portion of the image that the user's eye is reacting to. This approach recognizes that the human eye adapts very quickly to local changes in brightness within the area that the eye is looking. When the brightness increases rapidly such as when a light is turned ON in a dark room, the pupil diameter can decrease by 30% in 0.4 sec as shown in studies by Pamplona (Pamplona, V. F., Oliveira, M. M., and Baranoski, G. V. G. 2009, Photorealistic models for pupil light reflex and iridal pattern deformation, ACM Trans. Graph. 28, 4, Articles 106 (August 2009), 12 pages). As a result, the user's eye can rapidly adapt to local changes in brightness as the user moves his eye to look at different portions of the displayed image or different portions of the see-through view of the surrounding environment. In order to provide a more consistent perceived brightness for different portions of the displayed image, systems or methods in accordance with the principles of the present invention adjust the overall brightness of the displayed image in correspondence to the local brightness of the portion of the displayed image or the local brightness of the portion of the see-through view that the user's eye is looking at. In this way, changes in the size of the pupil of the user's eye are reduced and the user is then provided with a more consistent brightness distribution within a displayed image. Wherein the portion of the displayed image or the portion of the see-through view that the user's eye is looking at is determined by analyzing images of the user's eye that have been captured by the eye camera. The eye camera can be used in a video mode to capture images of the user's eye continuously and the captured images are then analyzed continuously to track the position of the user's eye over time. The position of the user's eye within the captured images of the eye is correlated to the portion of the displayed image or the portion of the see-through view that the user is looking at. The overall brightness of the displayed image can then be adjusted in correspondence to the local brightness of the portion of the displayed image or the portion of the see-through view that the user's eye is looking at. The rate of adjustment of the overall brightness of the displayed image can be further correlated to the measured diameter of the pupil of the user or to the measured change in diameter of the pupil of the user as determined from analysis of the captured images of the user's eye.
In a yet further embodiment, adjustments to attributes of the overall image can be made based on the local attributes of the portion of the displayed image or the portion of the see-through view that the user's eye is looking at. The adjusted attributes of the displayed image can include: color, color balance, contrast, sharpness, spatial frequency and resolution. Where the eye camera is used to capture images of the user's eye, which are then analyzed to determine the portion of the displayed image or the portion of the see-through view that the user's eye is looking at. The portion of the displayed image or the portion of the see-through view that the user's eye is looking at is then analyzed to determine the relative intensity of the attribute. Adjustments are then made to the overall displayed image in correspondence to the local intensity of the attribute in the area that the user's eye is looking at to improve viewability. Where a camera in the head-worn display can be used to capture images of the surrounding environment that at least partly correspond to the see-through view provided to the user's eye.
In embodiments, the head-worn computer has an outward facing camera to capture a scene in front of the person wearing the head-worn computer. The camera and image processing used to determine the area in the surrounding scene that will be used for brightness and/or color consideration in the process of adjusting the displayed content may take a number of forms. For example:
In a further embodiment, the present invention provides a method for improving the alignment of a displayed image to the see-through view of the surrounding environment. The method can also be used for correlating eye tracking to where the user is looking in the see-through view of the surrounding environment. This is an important feature for making adjustments to attributes in the displayed image when the adjustments are based on local attributes in the portion of the see-through view that the user is looking at. The adjustment process can be used for each user using the head-worn display to improve the viewing experience for different individuals and compensate for variations in eye position or head shape between individuals. Alternatively, the adjustment process can be used to fine-tune the viewing experience for a single individual to compensate for different positioning of the head-worn display on the user head each time the user uses the head-worn display. The method can also be important for improving the accuracy of positioning of augmented reality objects. The method includes using an externally facing camera in the head-worn display to capture an image of the surrounding environment that includes at least a portion of then user's field of view of the see-through view of the surrounding environment. A visible marker such as for example, a cross, is provided in a corner of the captured image to provide a first target image. The first target image is then displayed to the user so the user simultaneously sees the displayed image of the surrounding environment from the first target image overlaid onto the see-through view of the surrounding environment. The user looks at the visible marker and then uses eye tracking control to move the displayed image to the position where the portion of the displayed image adjacent to the visible marker is aligned with objects in the see-through view of the environment. Where eye tracking controls include an eye camera to determine the movements of the user's eye and blinks of one or both eyes (head movements can be used in conjunction with eye controls in the user interface) which are used to in a user interface to input control inputs. A second image of the surrounding environment is then captured and a visible marker is provided in a corner to provide a second target image wherein the visible marker in the second target image is positioned in a corner that is opposite to the visible marker in the first target image. The second target image is then displayed to the user. The user then looks at the visible marker in the second target and uses eye control to move the displayed image to align objects in the second target image that are adjacent to the visible marker with objects in the see-through view of the environment. During the period when the user is viewing the first and second target images, it is important that the user not move their head relative to the environment. The displayed image is then adjusted in correspondence with the relative amounts that the first and second target images had to be moved to align portions of the displayed image with corresponding portions of the see-through view of the surrounding environment.
In a yet further embodiment, eye tracking controls are used by the user to adjust the size of the displayed image and adjust the position of the displayed image to match the see-through view of the surrounding environment. In this method, an image of the surrounding environment is captured by the externally facing camera in the head-worn display. The image of the surrounding environment is then displayed to the user within the displayed image field of view 12723 so the user simultaneously sees the displayed image of the surrounding environment overlaid onto the see-through view of the surrounding environment. The user then uses eye tracking controls to perform two adjustments to the displayed image to improve the alignment of the displayed image of the surrounding environment with the see-through view of the surrounding environment. The first adjustment is to adjust the size of the displayed image of the surrounding environment in relation to the size of the see-through view of the surrounding environment. This adjustment can be performed by the user, for example by a long blink of the eye to begin the adjustment, followed by a sliding movement of the eye to increase or decrease the size of the displayed image. Another long blink ends the resizing process. The second adjustment is to position the displayed image to improve the alignment of the displayed image of the surrounding environment with the see-through view of the surrounding environment. This adjustment can be performed by the user for example, by a long blink of the eye to begin the adjustment followed by a sliding directional movement of the eye to indicate the movement to align the displayed image to the see-through view of the environment. This adjustment process can be performed for one eye at a time so that the displayed images for the left and right eyes can be positioned independently for improved viewing of stereo images. The determined adjustments are then used with other displayed images to improve the alignment of the other displayed images to the see-through view of the environment and to determine the mapping of the see-through view as seen behind the displayed image in the head-worn display. The determined adjustments can also be used to map the movements of the user's eye to areas in the see-through view of the environment as captured in images of the surrounding environment from the externally facing camera, so that it can be determined where the user is looking in the surrounding environment. Further, by analyzing a captured image of the environment, it can be determined what the user is looking at in the surrounding environment.
While some of the embodiments above have been described in connection with the use of eye tracking input for display content control and adjustment, it should be understood that an external user interface may be used in conjunction with or instead of eye-tracking control. For example, when the displayed content is presented in the field of view of the head-worn display, a touch pad, joy stick, button arrangement, etc. may be used to align the content with the surrounding environment.
In embodiments, the displayed content may be color adjusted depending on the scene background that will be behind the displayed content in the see-through display to compensate for the color of the scene background such that the displayed content appears to be properly color balanced. For example, if the scene background over which the displayed content will be overlaid is red (e.g. a red brick wall), the displayed content may be adjusted to reduce its red content because some of the scene's red content will be seen through the displayed content and hence contribute to the red content in the displayed content.
In embodiments, the displayed content may be adjusted as described herein (e.g. to blend or be distinguished from the scene as viewed through the see-through display) by adjusting a color and/or intensity of light produced by a lighting system adapted to light a reflective display, adjusting the image content through software image processing, adjusting an intensity of one or more colors of an emissive display, etc.
In embodiments, the see-through scene brightness and/or color may be based on an average see-through brightness and/or color of the scene as viewed through the display or otherwise proximate the head-worn display, a brightness and/or color of an object apparently in view through the see-through display, an eye heading (e.g. eye position based on eye imaging as described herein), compass heading, etc.
The inventors have discovered that, in head-worn displays that include multiply folded optics, it can be advantageous to use a solid prism with an included fold surface to improve image quality and enable a more compact form factor. They have also discovered that manufacturing of the solid prism by molding can be challenging due to sink marks, which often appear on planar surfaces. In addition, providing the illumination light into the solid prism at the required angle requires special considerations. Imaging of the user's eye can be an important feature in head-worn displays for user identification and as a user interface. Eye imaging apparatus are provided herein for a variety of head-worn displays.
An aspect of the present invention relates to a solid prism with improved manufacturability along with design modifications that enable illumination light to be effectively supplied into the solid prism at the required angle to illuminate the image source.
An aspect of the present invention relates to a solid prism with a fold surface platform, wherein an optically flat fold surface is mounted on the prism's fold surface platform such that the fold surface maintains a high optical flatness that minimizes aberrations in the prism's fold surface platform.
An aspect of the present invention relates to providing additional optical features in the solid prism that are used for capturing images of the user's eye with an eye imaging camera.
An aspect of the present invention relates to providing a solid prism with a fold surface, wherein the solid prism includes shaped input and/or output surfaces that act as optical power producing optical systems.
An aspect of the present invention relates to a solid prism with optical power producing surfaces with an additional power lens above the combiner such that the physical size of the power lens above the combiner is reduced thereby reducing the overall size of the optical system.
An aspect of the present invention relates to a solid prism with an optically powered surface at the image light-receiving end of the optical path from the display, wherein an additional optically powered field lens is positioned between the display and the optically powered surface to further increase the optical power of the optical system.
An aspect of the present invention relates to a solid prism with a fold surface that includes optically powered input and/or output surfaces and material selection amongst related optical materials that are adapted to reduce lateral color aberrations and thereby improve image quality provided to the user.
An aspect of the present invention relates to an angled backlight assembly that redirects illumination light toward an image source through the inclusion of a prism film, wherein the prism is positioned on the side of the backlight so that it acts like a Fresnel wedge.
An aspect of the present invention relates to a stray light management system adapted to manage stray light produced by a prism film used in a backlighting system, wherein the prism film causes significant stray light and an analyzer polarizer film is positioned in an image light optical path to absorb such stray light.
An aspect of the invention relates to an emissive display system that projects image light into a solid prism with a fold surface for delivery of the image light to the user's eye.
An aspect of the present invention relates to projecting illuminating light through a portion of the display optics and towards a combiner surface, wherein the illuminating light reflects off the combiner surface and directly towards an eye of the user to thereby illuminate the eye for eye imaging. In embodiments, the display optics includes a solid prism and a light source is mounted above the fold surface of the solid prism.
An aspect of the present invention relates to capturing eye images directly from the combiner, wherein the eye-imaging camera is mounted above the combiner. In embodiments, an eye light is positioned at the top edge of the combiner so the eye is illuminated directly.
An aspect of the present invention relates to a surface applied to the combiner, wherein the surface is applied outside of the field of view of the see-through display and adapted to reduce stray light reflections from reflecting off the combiner and towards an eye of the user.
An aspect of the present invention relates to a surface applied to the combiner, wherein the surface is adapted to reflect infrared light and pass visible light such that visible stray light reflections towards the user's eye are minimized and such that infrared light from an infrared light source is reflected towards the user's eye. The infrared reflections may then be used for eye imaging.
An aspect of the present invention relates to eye imaging through a waveguide optic adapted to transmit image light and to be see-through for a user's view of the surroundings, wherein the eye imaging camera is positioned to receive eye images through the waveguide optic such that the image is captured from a position in front of the user's eye.
An aspect of the present invention relates to eye imaging by capturing reflected light off of an outer surface of a waveguide optic adapted to transmit image light and to be see-through for a user's view of the surroundings.
In addition to folding the optical axis 13235 by reflecting off the planar surface 13254, the solid prism 13250 can also provide optical power since the input and output surfaces 13252 can be curved.
In the multiply folded optics, the surfaces (13254 and 13210) that fold the optical axis 13235 are preferentially optically flat (e.g. flatness better than 10 microns) to maintain the wavefront of the image light 13230 and thereby provide a high quality image to the user. These surfaces can be tilted relative to the optical axis 13235 to compensate for twists of the upper portion of the optics (extending from the image source 13260 to the bottom surface of the solid prism) relative to the lower portion of the optics (extending from the power lens to the eyebox) as has been described previously herein.
Manufacturing of a plastic solid prism 13250 by molding can be difficult, because the solid prism 13250 has non-uniform thickness and it can include curved surfaces and flat surfaces. Injection molding of curved surfaces requires a different process setup than that required for injection molding flat surfaces. In particular, optically flat surfaces can be very difficult to injection mold without sink marks when the thickness of plastic under the flat surface is not uniform as is the case for the solid prism 13250. To overcome this difficulty, the present disclosure provides a separate reflective plate 13275 that is used to establish an improved flat surface 13254. The reflective plate 13275 can be manufactured using a sheet manufacturing process so that a high degree of optical flatness is provided. In a preferred embodiment, the reflective plate 13275 is a glass plate that has been coated to provide reflectivity. Where the coating can be a full mirror if the image source 13260 is a self-luminous display or it can be a partial mirror if the image source 13260 is a reflective display. In a further preferred embodiment, the reflective plate 13275 includes a glass plate with a reflective polarizer such as a Proflux wire grid polarizer by Moxtek (Orem, Utah) so that light of one polarization state is reflected and light of the opposite polarization state is transmitted.
The reflective plate 13275 can be bonded to the planar surface 13254 of the solid prism 13250 using a transparent adhesive that has a refractive index that is very similar (within for example +/−0.05) to that of the solid prism material (also known as index matched). By matching the refractive index of the adhesive to the refractive index of the solid prism 13250, the interface between the solid prism material and the adhesive becomes optically invisible. In this way, the adhesive can fill in any spaces between the reflective plate 13275 and the planar surface 13254 of the solid prism 13250 that are caused by sink marks, scratches, grooves or other non-flatness of the planar surface of the solid prism. The flatness of the planar surface as molded on the solid prism 13250 is then not important to the optical performance of the multiply folded optic, and instead the flatness of the reflective plate 13275 determines the a new flat surface 13254 with improved flatness. In this way, the manufacturing of the solid prism 13250 becomes easier and less expensive because the planar surface 13254 does not have to be an optically flat surface as molded (or otherwise manufactured) and the manufacturing process used to make the solid prism 13250 can be optimized for the powered surfaces 13252. In addition, by bonding the reflective surface of the reflective plate 13275 to the planar surface 13254, the optically flat reflective surface is protected from being damaged during the further assembly process of the multiply folded optics.
In a solid prism 13250, the angle that the illumination light 13432 can be provided at is limited by refraction effects at the interface where the light enters the solid prism 13250. As an example, following Snell's law for refraction across an interface
n1 sin θ1=n2 sin θ2
to provide illumination light 13432 inside the solid prism with the approximately 30 degree angle from the interface normal that is shown in
In multiply folded optics with a solid prism, additional optical elements can be added for imaging the eye of the user for the purpose of eye tracking in a user interface or eye identification for security purposes.
In a further embodiment, eye imaging is included for the multiply folded optics shown in
In embodiments, the combiner 14010 includes a surface that prevents visible light reflections outside of the field of view. The surface may include an anti-reflective coating and it may only be applied outside of the field of view. This arrangement can be useful in preventing environmental stray light from reflecting into the user's eyes. Without such a surface, light from the environment may reflect off of the combiner surface and into the user's eye.
When using a head-worn display for augmented reality applications, particularly when the head-worn display provides a see-through view of the surrounding environment, it can be important to be able to change the focus depth that the displayed image is presented at. It is also important to present stereo images at the proper vergence distance to provide the intended perception of depth to the user. Where focus distance is the distance the user's eye must be focused at to view a sharp image and vergence distance is the distance the user's two eyes come together to view the same spot in an image or on a real object. Within a stereo image, objects intended to be perceived to be at different depths are presented with a rendered lateral shift between the relative locations of the object within the left and right images, which is know as disparity. The rendering of typical stereo imagery as viewed in theaters or on televisions is mostly directed at disparity mapping of objects to create the 3D effect because the focus distance is limited to the theater screen or television (see the paper “Nonlinear disparity mapping for stereoscopic 3D”, M. Lang, A. Hornung, O. Wang, S. Poulakos, A. Smolic, M. Gross, ACM Transactions on Graphics (Impact Factor: 3.73). 07/2010; 29. DOI: 10.1145/1833349.1778812). To make the stereo viewing experience more comfortable for the user, the vergence distance associated with viewing an augmented reality object should closely match the focus distance associated with the same augmented reality object thereby enabling the augmented reality object to more closely resemble a real object as seen by the user of the head-worn display. The systems and methods in accordance with the principles of the present invention provide methods of changing the focus distance and vergence distance associated with augmented reality objects and imagery viewed in a head-worn display in ways that more closely match real objects in a see-through view of the surrounding environment.
The focus distance of an image displayed in any head-worn display is determined by the elements in the optics of the head-worn display. The focus distance of the image can be changed by changing the elements in the optics, or by changing the relative positioning of some of the elements in the optics. The vergence distance associated with stereo images is determined by the lateral positioning of the images within the field of view of the user's left and right eyes. The vergence distance can be changed by laterally shifting the left and right images relative to one another within the user's fields of view either by repointing the left and right optics thereby establishing a different point of convergence between the left and right optics or by digitally shifting the displayed images within the display fields of view. To provide a stereo viewing experience of augmented reality objects that more closely resemble the viewing experience associated with a real object, it is important that the focus distance match the vergence distance for augmented reality objects in displayed stereo images in a head-worn display within the limitations of the user's eyes. Given that augmented reality objects are often positioned at different distances within stereo images and as different augmented reality activities are conducted at different distances, the inventors have discovered that methods are needed to change focus distance with a corresponding change in vergence distance within all types of head-worn displays.
For the case where the user's eyes are not capable of focusing at the focus distance associated with the displayed image, a corrective lens element can be provided behind the optics module to improve the sharpness of the displayed image as perceived by the user. In this case, the corrective lens element is based on the user's ophthalmic prescription and the corrective lens element improves the view for the user of both the displayed image and the see-through view of the surrounding environment.
While lenses with fixed optical power are shown for the focus shift elements 14625 and the corrective lens element 14624, lenses with adjustable optical power can also be used. Adjustable lenses using sliding lens elements (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,305,294) or liquid injection can be obtained for example from Adlens located in Oxford, United Kingdom: https://www.adlens.com/. Electrically adjustable lenses can also be used as corrective lenses such as: liquid crystal lenses available from LensVector (Sunnyvale, Calif.) or liquid lenses available from Varioptic (Lyon, France).
In addition, the optical modules can be mounted in the frame of the head-worn display such that they are slightly pointed toward one another (also known as toe-in) to provide a convergence distance. Thus, the convergence distance is established by the structural setup of the optics in the head-worn display and vergence distance can be adjusted by lateral digital shifting of similar portions of the left and right images that are displayed to create disparity for a portion of an image. The convergence distance then establishes the baseline vergence distance perceived by the user for stereo images that are rendered without disparity. To provide an improved stereo viewing experience, the convergence distance associated with the structural setup of the optics must be taken into account when rendering the disparity associated with displayed objects in stereo images. This is particularly important in a head-worn display system wherein the focus distance and vergence distance are matched for augmented reality objects in stereo images. As such the rendering of stereo images that were originally rendered for viewing in a theater, may need to be adjusted for improved viewing in a head-mounted display. The convergence distance can also be used to establish the perceived distance to the entire image if the stereo image is rendered without disparity, this can be useful for applications such as a head-worn computer wherein the desktop screen associated with the computer is perceived to be at a distance that is established by the convergence distance. However, the convergence distance cannot be too close to the user since the left and right images will experience opposing versions of keystone distortion. For example, a convergence distance of 2.4 meters can be provided by pointing the optics modules towards' each other by 0.75 degrees if the user's eyes are separated by approximately 63.5 mm. The inventors have discovered that 0.75 degrees of toe-in results in a negligible level of keystone distortion. Closer convergence distances require larger angles of toe-in and as such the keystone distortion between the left and right images degrades the perceived sharpness in the corners of a stereo image. This keystone distortion can be compensated for by rendering the left and right images with matching and opposite levels of keystone predistortion.
In the simplest form, a mode change associated with changing the focus distance and vergence distance, can be accomplished by the user inputting information and selecting options through a user interface such as buttons or a graphical user interface. Confirmation of the mode change can then be provided to the user on the displayed image such as for example a colored box around the edge of the display field of view or a message stating “Mode change initiated for arm's length display”. In a more automatic mode change, a sensor 14730 can be provided that senses the focus shift element pair 14731 so that the images can be automatically presented with a lateral shift that provides a different vergence distance that matches the focus distance provided by the focus shift elements 14625. The sensor 14730 can simply sense whether a focus shift element pair 14731 is present or not. Alternatively, the sensor 14730 can detect a code (e.g. a barcode) on the focus shift element pair 14731 that corresponds to the optical power or focus distance provided by the focus shift elements 14625 so that the displayed images can be automatically digitally shifted laterally to provide a matching vergence distance. The sensor can be located in the center as shown in
As previously mentioned herein, changes in focus distance can also be provided by changing the relative positioning of some of the elements in the optics.
In an alternate embodiment (not shown) the mechanism for moving the image source 15040 is positioned above the image source 15040 and then the wedges (15042 and 15043) can be solid wedges or have portions of the center removed to enable wires to connect to the image source 15040. The advantage of positioning the wedges and other pieces of the mechanism above the image source 15040 is that the image source can be positioned closer to the lens elements 15012 which can be important in some optical designs.
In another embodiment, the wedges (15042 and 15043) can be transparent and can cover the entire aperture of the image source 15040. The transparent wedges (f15042 and 15043) can operate as previously described to move the image source 15040. In addition, as the wedges move laterally, the combined optical thickness of the two wedges is a function of the relative wedge position in the area that covers the active area of the image source 15040. This is due to the fact that the transparent wedges have a higher index of refraction than the air that they are replacing. Because the wedges are matched in slope, the combined optical thickness of the area where the wedges are overlapped is uniform. As such, changes in the combined optical thickness of the overlapped wedges contributes to changes in the focus distance.
To further improve the repeatability of the movement of the image source 15040 and the upper wedge 15042 when the lower wedge 15043 moves, spring clips can be used to apply a force to the image source 15040 or the upper wedge 15042 to insure contact is maintained between the surfaces.
In another embodiment, the movement of the lower wedge 15043 is controlled by an electric motor and a lead screw instead of solenoids. Where the electric motor is connected to the housing of the optics module and a lead screw or core is connected to the lower wedge 15043. The electric motor can be a conventional rotating motor, a linear motor, a vibrating piezoelectric motor, an induction motor, etc. The electric motor can also be controlled to move the lower wedge 15043 different distances to provide various focus distances. The electric motor can be a stepper motor in which the number of steps determines the distance of movement. Sensors can also be provided to detect the movement of the lower wedge, lead screw or core to improve the accuracy of the movement and associated accuracy of the focus distance change.
In yet another embodiment, the movement of the lower wedge 15043 is provided by a manually operated knob (not shown). The knob is connected to a lead screw that is threaded into the lower wedge 15043. The user turns the knob to move the lower wedge and thereby affect a change in the focus distance. This can be used for fine tuning of the sharpness of the displayed image as well for changing the focus distance to match a given vergence distance or to match the focus distance to the distance to a real object in the see-through view of the surrounding environment.
In a further embodiment, the corrective lens element 14624 can include a mechanism (not shown) to enable the corrective lens element 14624 to slide upward or swing to the side, to thereby move out of the display field of view while still being attached to the head-worn display. In this way, the corrective lens element 14624 can be readily available for use with the head-worn display. This can be useful as the corrective acts simultaneously on both the displayed image and the see-through view of the surrounding environment. There can be times when the user would want to be able to change the focus distance of the displayed image or change the focus of the see-through view of the surrounding environment depending on the activity that he is engaged in and having a readily available corrective lens element 14624 would enable that. In particular, a corrective lens may be needed by the user when operating at extreme focus distance such as arm's length or nearer, or at infinity. In embodiments, the corrective lens 14624 may be manually or automatically shifted into position.
In a yet further embodiment, eye cameras are included in the left and right optics modules to determine where the relative direction the user's eyes are looking. This information can then be used to determine the portion of the displayed image the user is looking at. The focus distance can then be adjusted to match the vergence distance associated with augmented reality objects in that portion of the displayed image. The focus distance is then automatically adjusted as the user moves his eye to different augmented reality objects or different portions of augmented reality objects within the displayed image. Alternatively the eye cameras can be used to determine the vergence of the user's eyes and thereby determine the distance that the user is looking at in the see-through view of the surrounding environment. The focus distance or vergence distance can then be adjusted in correspondence to the distance the user is looking at. Where the focus distance or vergence distance can be automatically adjusted to either match the distance the user is looking at in the see-through view of the surrounding environment or to be at a different distance so the displayed image doesn't interfere with the user's view of the surrounding environment.
To improve the efficiency of the eye imaging systems shown in
The eye camera (15364 or 15464) can include autofocus to automatically adjust a focus setting of the eye camera when the user's eye is in a different positions such as when the head-worn display is positioned differently on the user's head or when a different user is using the head-worn display. Where the autofocus adjusts the relative position of lens elements or adjusts the optical power associated with adjustable lens elements in the optics associated with the eye camera to provide a higher contrast in the images of the user's eye. In addition, the autofocus can automatically adjust focus when corrective lenses 14624 are present and thereby compensate for the corrective lenses 14624. In this case, metadata saved with the images of the user's eye records the relative focus setting of the eye camera (15364 or 15464) and changes in the metadata can be used to determine whether a corrective lens 14624 is present or not. If a corrective lens 14624 is present, adjustments to the focus distance of the display optics can be made that take into account the presence of the corrective lens 14624.
Images of the user's eyes can be used to determine the viewing direction the user is looking by determining the relative position of the user's pupil within the eyebox or within the field of view of the eye camera 15364. From this information the relative direction that the left and right eyes are looking can be determined. This relative direction information can be used to identify which portion of the displayed image the user is looking at. By comparing the relative direction of the user's left and right eyes within simultaneously captured images, the difference in relative direction between the left and right eyes and the interpupillary distance between the user's eyescan be used to determine the vergence viewing distance that the user is looking at. The vergence viewing distance can be used to determine the focus distance and vergence distance needed in the displayed image to provide the user with a sharply focused augmented reality object in the displayed image. The determined vergence viewing distance can also be compared to the vergence distance associated with the portion of the displayed image that the user is looking at, to determine whether the user is looking at the displayed image or the see-through view of the surrounding environment. Adjustments can be made to the focus distance and vergence distance for different portions of the displayed image to present the user a sharply focused image in the portion of the image that the user is looking at or present the user with a blurry image in the portion of the image that the user is looking at as needed for the mode of operation or use case. Where digital blurring of portions of the image can be used to make portions of the image appear to have a focus distance that is closer or farther away than the portions of the image that left with sharp imagery. In addition, the vergence viewing distance can be compared with the disparity associated with the portion of a stereo image that the user is looking at. The disparity of the stereo image can then be adjusted locally at the portion of the image the user is looking at or scaled over the entire stereo image to present the user with adjusted stereo depth over the entire image.
The head-worn display can include an inertial measurement unit to determine the location, movement and gaze direction of the head-worn display. Where the inertial measurement unit can include: a location determining system such as GPS, an electronic compass to determine gaze direction in the compass directions, accelerometers and gyroscopes to determine movements and a tilt sensor to determine a vertical gaze direction. Comparing the viewing direction determined from the images of the user's eyes to the gaze direction determined by the inertial measurement unit can allow a compass heading to be determined for the direction the user is looking. Combining the determined location with the compass heading of the direction the user is looking can allow objects in the surrounding environment to be identified that the user is looking at. This identification can be further improved by comparing the vergence viewing distance and the compass heading for the direction the user is looking with objects in the surrounding environment known to be that distance and direction from the user. This type of determination can be important for augmented reality and the display of augmented reality objects relative to real objects.
To enable the focus distance to be adjusted as the user moves his eyes around the field of view, the focus viewing distance must be determined rapidly and a fast focus adjustment system is required. Vergence and disparity within the stereo images must be adjusted in correspondence to the determined changes in focus viewing distance. A response time of 0.033 sec or less is typically required for imaging modifications within head-worn display systems to prevent the user's viewing experience from being adversely affected by latency such as the user experiencing nausea (see the paper “Tolerance of Temporal Delay in Virtual Environments” R. Allison, L. Harris, M. Jenkin, U, Jasiobedzka, J. Zacher, I149E Virtual Reality 2001, 3/2001, p 247-254, ISBN 0-7695-0948-7). When a person's gaze changes from a far object to a near object, the human eye can change vergence viewing distance quickly while the focus adjusts more slowly. To enable this, a fast frame rate (e.g. 60 frames/sec or greater) is needed for capture of images of the user's eyes and the images need to have high contrast to enable fast image analysis to determine the relative positions of the user's eyes. The user's viewing direction and the focus viewing distance can then be determined to further determine where and what the user is looking at. A fast focus distance adjustment system is then needed to adjust the focus distance in 0.5 sec or less as the user moves his eyes.
In a preferred embodiment, to provide a change in focus distance without changing the size of the displayed image, display optics are provided that are telecentric at the image source. Where telecentric display optics provide parallel light ray bundles so that the area of the image source that is imaged by the display optics remains constant regardless of changes in the distance between the image source and the remaining optics as required to change the focus distance for the displayed image. In certain embodiments the image source is reflective and the illumination light provided by the illumination source may be telecentric as well. Where, telecentric illumination light can be provided by an illumination source that is at least the same size as the image source and provides a wider cone of light where only the telecentric portion of the cone is reflected by the image source. Thus, telecentric display optics at the image source provide an improved viewing experience for augmented reality, particularly when rapid changes to focus distance are being provided as the user moves their eyes around the field of view. Under this use case scenario, using non-telecentric display optics at the image source would result in displayed augmented reality objects that changed slightly in size each time the user moved their eyes and nausea would likely result. In contrast, by using telecentric display optics, focus distance can be comfortably changed continuously as the user moves their eyes around the field of view.
A position measurement device (not shown) can be added to any of the focus adjustment modules 15360 shown in
In a yet further embodiment, the position of the image sources 15040 in the left and right optics modules can be adjusted in alignment step to provide a reliable convergence distance. Where the alignment step includes positioning the chassis C27 in a jig that is aligned with a target located in front of the jig and at the desired convergence distance. A matched image is then displayed on the image source 15040 and the image source 15040 is moved to align the displayed to the target as viewed through the optics module. The advantage of adjusting the position of the image source 15040 in an alignment step is that the effects of variations in the dimensions of the chassis 14727, upper optics 14510 and combiner 14520 can be compensated for to provide a reliable convergence distance in a manufacturing environment.
In another embodiment, one or more of the following elements can be connected to provide a removeable assembly, including: the focus shift element, the combiner and the corrective lens element. This can provide a more easily replaceable assembly which can be changed when damage occurs, when the use case changes or the user changes. In particular, it is useful to change the focus shift element and the corrective lens element at the same time when changing from a use case where the vergence viewing distance changes from a longer distance to a shorter distance and vice versa. As in this use case, one or the other of the vergence viewing distances may be beyond what the user's eyes can comfortable focus at. For example, if the user is near sighted then a corrective is needed when the vergence viewing distance is longer and not needed when the vergence viewing distance is shorter.
The inventors have discovered that when world-locked digital content shifts out of the field of view of a user's head-worn see-through computer display it can create a less than optimal experience. When the user's turns his head away from the point in the world where the digital content is locked, for instance, the digital content shifts towards the side of the field of view. As the user turns his head even further, the content shifts out of the field of view and abruptly cuts off at the edge of the field of view. The abruptness of the change in appearance and the ultimate complete loss of the content once the head turns far enough does not create a natural impression of the content being fixed in the real world. Normally, when viewing an actual object in our environment, the object stays visually present, even if slightly present, until we shift our vision completely away from the object. An object that is shifted to the side of our direct line of sight vision may be slightly blurry do to the nature of our vision (i.e. foviated vision), but it remains present to some extent. In a typical see-through head-worn display the field of view has a limited area (e.g. width and height). Typically, one can see through to the environment outside of the field of view so it seems odd when the content begins and ultimately disappears from the user's vision when the user can still see into the environment where the content was once present and locked.
An aspect of the present invention relates to generating a smooth transition of world-locked augmented reality content that is shifting out of a see-through field of view. In embodiments, the world-locked content is modified to appear less apparent to the user as the content shifts towards the edge of the field of view. This may take the form of de-focusing, blurring, reducing the resolution, reducing the brightness, reducing the sharpness, reducing the contrast, etc. of the content as it is shifted towards the edge. The content may decrease in appearance gradually as it approaches the edge such that as it shifts past the edge it's appearance is minimal or non-existent such that it appears to have gradually disappears from the user's sight. This may work particularly well in a system that has a field of view that is large enough to accommodate sharp content in the middle of the field of view but large enough such that the user does not use the edges very much. For example, in a system with a horizontal field of view of 60 degrees, the outer 10 degrees on both sides may be used as a transitional area where world-locked content is managed to reduce its appearance in preparation for its disappearance from the field of view.
In one embodiment of a system for generating a smooth transition of world-locked augmented reality content that is shifting out of a see-through field of view, a head-worn see-through display that includes a see-through optical element mounted such that it is positioned in front of a user's eye when the head-worn see-through display is worn by the user also includes a processor that is adapted to present digital content in a field of view on the see-through optical element. The digital content may have a position within the field of view that is dependent upon a position in the surrounding environment. The processor may be further adapted to modify an appearance of the content as the content approaches an edge of the field of view such that the content appears to disappear as the content approaches the edge of the field of view. The appearance modification may be a change in the content's brightness, a change in the content's contrast, a change in the content's sharpness, or a change in the content's resolution. The processor may include a display driver or an application processor. The processor may be further adapted to generate a secondary field of view (e.g. through an additional optical system as described herein) in which the user views presented digital content and through which the user sees the surrounding environment, the processor further adapted to transition the content from the field of view to the secondary field of view. In this further adaptation, the appearance of the content in the secondary field of view may be diminished as compared to the appearance of the content in the field of view. In this further adaptation, the secondary field of view may have a lower resolution than a resolution of the field of view, and may be generated by one of reflecting image light onto a combiner that directs the image light directly to an eye of the user or towards a culminating partial mirror that reflects the image light to an eye of the user, an OLED that projects light onto a combiner, an LED array that projects light onto a combiner, or an edge lit LCD that projects light onto a combiner. In this further adaptation, the secondary field of view may be presented by a see-through panel positioned directly in front of an eye of the user, wherein the see-through panel is mounted on a combiner and/or vertically. The see-through panel may be an OLED or an edge lit LCD. The processor may be further adapted to predict when the content is going to approach the edge of the field of view and to base the appearance transition at least in part on the prediction. The prediction may be based at least in part on an eye-image.
In embodiments, the prediction that the content is going to approach and/or go past the edge of the field of view may be determined based on a compass in the head-worn computer (e.g. monitoring the compass heading as compared to the world-locked position for the content), movement of the content within the field of view (e.g. monitoring where the content is within the field of view and monitoring a direction and speed of it's movement towards an edge), eye position (e.g. monitoring eye position and movement as an indication of how the head-worn computer may move. There are times when the eyes shift prior to the head turning and the eye shift may provide the indication that the content appearance should be managed), and/or a combination of these techniques.
In one embodiment of a system for prediction based transition of world-locked content, a head-worn see-through display may include a see-through optical element mounted such that it is positioned in front of a user's eye when the head-worn see-through display is worn by the user and a processor adapted to present digital content in a field of view on the see-through optical element, wherein the digital content has a position within the field of view that is dependent upon a position in the surrounding environment. The processor may be further adapted to predict when the digital content is going to shift out of the field of view due to a positional change of the head-worn see-through display and to modify the appearance of the content as the content approaches an edge of the field of view such that the content appears to disappear as the content approaches the edge of the field of view. The prediction may be based on a compass heading indicative of a forward facing direction of the head-worn see-through display or a tracked eye movement of the user, wherein the tracked eye movement is indicative that the user is going to turn the user's head. The appearance modification may be a change in the content's brightness, a change in the content's contrast, a change in the content's sharpness, or a change in the content's resolution. The processor may include a display driver or an application processor. The processor may be further adapted to generate a secondary field of view in which the user views presented digital content and through which the user sees the surrounding environment, the processor further adapted to transition the content from the field of view to the secondary field of view. In this further adaptation, the appearance of the content in the secondary field of view may be diminished as compared to the appearance of the content in the field of view. In this further adaptation, the secondary field of view may have a lower resolution than a resolution of the field of view, and may be generated by one of reflecting image light onto a combiner that directs the image light directly to an eye of the user or towards a culminating partial mirror that reflects the image light to an eye of the user, an OLED that projects light onto a combiner, an LED array that projects light onto a combiner, or an edge lit LCD that projects light onto a combiner. In this further adaptation, the secondary field of view may be presented by a see-through panel positioned directly in front of an eye of the user, wherein the see-through panel is mounted on a combiner and/or vertically. The see-through panel may be an OLED or an edge lit LCD. The processor may be further adapted to predict when the content is going to approach the edge of the field of view and to base the appearance transition at least in part on the prediction. The prediction may be based at least in part on an eye-image.
An aspect of the present invention relates to a hybrid see-through display system where a high quality display system presents content to a field of view that is centered on the user's straight forward line of sight and another lower quality system is used to present content outside of the straight forward line of sight. The content appearance transition may then be managed in part in the center field of view and in the extended field of view. The extended field of view may have more than one section as well, such that imagery may be presented in a near edge portion and lighting effects are presented further out.
To illustrate, a front lit reflective display, emissive display, holographic display (e.g. as described herein) may be used to present high quality content in a 40 degree field of view and another display system may be used to present content or visually perceptive effects from the edge of the 40 degree point (or overlapping or with a gap) out to some other point (e.g. 70 degrees). In embodiments, the outer field of view coverage (generally referred to as the “outer display”) may operate through an optical system in an upper module, proximate the main field of view display system, and the optical path may include folds (e.g. as generally described herein). In other embodiments, the outer display may be a direct system where, for example, the image light or effects light is generated and directed to the combiner. For example, a display may be mounted above the combiner and arranged to direct lighting effects directly to the combiner.
In embodiments, the outer display may be included within the main display. For example, the lensing system in the upper module may be adapted to generate high quality content in the middle but then lower quality toward the edges of a larger field of view. In this system, there may be only one display (e.g. LCoS, OLED, DLP, etc.) and the content towards the edge of the display may be managed to effect the appearance transition.
In yet other embodiments, the extended field of view area may be created by mounting a see through display on the combiner. For example, a see-through OLED display, edge lit LCD, etc. may be mounted in the extended field of view area and controlled to produce the transitional images and/or lighting effects.
In embodiments, a head-worn see-through display may be adapted to transition content to an extended FOV with reduced display resolution. The head-worn see-through display may include a see-through optical element mounted such that it is positioned in front of a user's eye when the head-worn see-through display is worn by the user and a processor adapted to present digital content in a main field of view on the see-through optical element in which a user views presented digital content and through which the user sees a surrounding environment, the processor further adapted to present digital content in an extended field of view in which the user views presented digital content and through which the user sees the surrounding environment. The main field of view may have a higher resolution than the extended field of view; and the processor further adapted to present a world-locked positioned digital content in the main field of view and transition the presentation of the world-locked positioned digital content to the extended field of view as the head-worn display changes position causing the world-locked positioned digital content to transition out of the main field of view. The processor may include display driver or an application processor. The extended field of view has a resolution that generates a substantial blur to content as compared with the content as presented in the main field of view. The extended field of view may be generated by reflecting image light onto a combiner that directs the image light directly to an eye of the user, by reflecting image light onto a combiner that directs the image light towards a culminating partial mirror that reflects the image light to an eye of the user, by an OLED that projects light onto a combiner, by an LED array that projects light onto a combiner, by an edge lit LCD that projects light onto a combiner, or by a see-through panel positioned directly in front of the eye of the user. The panel may be mounted on a combiner or vertically and may be an OLED or edge lit LCD. The processor may be further adapted to predict when the content is going to approach the edge of the field of view and to base the appearance transition at least in part on the prediction. The prediction may be at least in part based on an eye-image.
In yet further embodiments, the extended field of view display may be provided by a see-through display positioned in front of the user's eye such that the user looks directly through the see-through display. For example, a see-through OLED display or edge lit transparent LCD display may be positioned on either side of the combiner as illustrated in figures C and E or on either side of a waveguide or other display system (e.g. as illustrated in
In embodiments, a head-worn see-through display may be adapted to provide an extended FOV for large content. The head-worn see-through display may include a see-through optical element mounted such that it is positioned in front of a user's eye when the head-worn see-through display is worn by the user, and a processor adapted to present digital content in a main field of view on the see-through optical element in which a user views presented digital content and through which the user sees a surrounding environment, the processor adapted to present digital content in an extended field of view in which the user views presented digital content and through which the user sees the surrounding environment. The main field of view may have a higher resolution than the extended field of view. The processor may be further adapted to present a first portion of the digital content in the main field of view and a second portion of the digital content in the extended field of view. For example, when the digital content is too large to fit in the main field of view, the processor may create a soft transition between the first portion of the digital content in the main field of view and the second portion of the digital content in the extended field of view such that it does not appear to be abruptly cut off at the edge of the main field of view. The processor may be adapted to generate a soft appearance towards the edges of the main field of view. The processor may modify how pixels towards an edge of the display render content. The head-worn display of may further include a display driver that modifies how pixels towards an edge of the head-worn display render content. The head-worn display may have pixels towards an edge of the head-worn display that render content differently than pixels towards a center portion of the head-worn display. The pixels towards the edge may have less gain than the pixels towards the center portion of the head-worn display. The pixels towards the edges of the main field of view may be altered digitally through a content transition algorithm. The extended field of view may be generated by reflecting image light onto a combiner that directs the image light directly to an eye of the user, by reflecting image light onto a combiner that directs the image light towards a culminating partial mirror that reflects the image light to an eye of the user, by an OLED that projects light onto a combiner, by an LED array that projects light onto a combiner, by an edge lit LCD that projects light onto a combiner, or by a see-through panel positioned directly in front of the eye of the user. The panel may be mounted on a combiner or vertically. The see-through panel may be an OLED or an edge lit LCD. The processor may be further adapted to predict when the content is going to approach an edge of the field of view and to base the appearance transition at least in part on the prediction. The prediction may be at least in part based on an eye-image.
In embodiments, a head-worn see-through display may be adapted to adjust content for transition to an extended FOV. The head-worn see-through display may include a see-through optical element mounted such that it is positioned in front of a user's eye when the head-worn see-through display is worn by the user and a processor adapted to present digital content in a main field of view in which a user views presented digital content and through which the user sees a surrounding environment. The processor may be further adapted to present digital content in an extended field of view in which a user views presented digital content and through which the user sees the surrounding environment. The main field of view may have a higher resolution than the extended field of view. The processor may be further adapted to present digital content in the main field of view and reduce an appearance of the content as the content approaches an edge of the main field of view. The processor may yet be further adapted to further reduce the appearance of the content when the content is presented in the extended field of view. The processor may gradually reduce the appearance of the content in the extended field of view the closer the content gets to an edge of the extended field of view. The content may be substantially not apparent when the content is at the edge of the extended field of view. The appearance reduction may be a reduction in the content's brightness, a reduction in the content's contrast, a reduction in the content's sharpness, or a reduction in the content's resolution. The extended field of view may be generated by reflecting image light onto a combiner that directs the image light directly to an eye of the user, by reflecting image light onto a combiner that directs the image light towards a culminating partial mirror that reflects the image light to an eye of the user, by an OLED that projects light onto a combiner, by an LED array that projects light onto a combiner, by an edge lit LCD that projects light onto a combiner, or by a see-through panel positioned directly in front of the eye of the user. The panel may be mounted on a combiner or vertically. The see-through panel may be an OLED or an edge lit LCD. The processor may be further adapted to predict when the content is going to approach an edge of the field of view and to base the appearance transition at least in part on the prediction. The prediction may be at least in part based on an eye-image.
While the configurations described herein with respect to the extended field of view have been illustrative of creating a system where smooth transitioning of world-locked content, these configurations may further be used to create additional lighting effects and or shadowing effects for content displayed in the main field of view. For example, in a configuration where the extended field of view see-through display overlaps the main field of view, the extended field of view system may provide a backdrop for content displayed in the main field of view. The backdrop may be a lighting effect, for example, that is behind the content or near the content to provide context to the content. The backdrop may be a non-lighting effect where the pixels of the see-through display (e.g. the pixels of a see-through LCD) are changed to be opaque or less transparent to provide a dark back drop behind the content or adjacent the content (e.g. to form the appearance of a shadow). In such embodiments, the extended field of view system may overlap the main field of view and the extended field of view system may or may not extend past the edges of the main field of view.
In embodiments, a head-worn see-through display may be adapted to provide a hybrid multi-FOV display. In an aspect, an optical system of a head-worn see-through display may include a main image content optic for the production of center-eye image content, an extended image content optic for the production of off-center-eye image content, and a combiner positioned to present content to a user and through which the user views a surrounding environment, wherein each of the main image content optic and extended image content optic are positioned to project their respective image light to the combiner, which reflects the respective image light to a user's eye. The combiner may directly reflect the respective image light to the user's eye. The combiner may indirectly reflect the respective image light to the user's eye, wherein the combiner may reflect the respective image light towards a collimating partial mirror. The center-eye image content and the off-center-eye image content may pass through at least one fold in the optical system before reflecting off of the combiner. The extended image content optic may be mounted directly above the combiner such that the off-center-eye image content is directly projected to the combiner. The optical system may further include a processor adapted to coordinate a smooth disappearing transition of world-locked content as the content moves from a field of view of the main image content optic to a field of view of the extended image content optic and to an edge of the field of view of the extended image content optic. The extended image content optic may be an OLED, an LCD display, an array of LEDs, linear, two-dimensional, or curved. The extended image content optic may generate lighting effects corresponding to image content. The extended image content optic may include a lens system to modify the projection. The lens system may include an array of micro lenses.
In embodiments, a head-worn see-through display may be a hybrid display with a see-through panel. In an aspect, a head-worn see-through display may include a main image content display adapted to produce image light and project the image light in a direction to be reflected by a see-through combiner such that it reaches an eye of a user, and a secondary image content display, wherein the secondary image content display is a see-through panel positioned directly in front of the eye of the user and used to augment the visual experience delivered by the main image content display. The secondary display may provide content or effects in an area outside of a main field of view that is produced by the main image display. The area outside may be adjacent to the main field of view, surrounding the main field of view, or overlapping with the main field of view. The secondary display may provide content or effects in an area overlapping a main field of view produced by the main image display. The secondary display may be mounted on a combiner adapted to reflect image light to an eye of the user or may be mounted vertically outside of an image light optical path established by the main image display. The head-worn display may further include a processor that is adapted to track an eye position of the user, the processor further adapted to alter a position of content as presented in the secondary display. The altered position may substantially maintain an alignment of the main image display and the secondary image display from the user's perspective as the user's eye moves. The see-through panel may be an OLED or an edge lit LCD.
In embodiments, a head-worn see-through display may be adapted to blend types of content. In an aspect, a head-worn see-through display may include a field of view generated by an image display, wherein a user views digital content in the field of view and sees through the field of view to view a surrounding environment, and a processor adapted to generate two types of content, wherein the two types of content are presented in the field of view. The first type of content may be world-locked content with a field of view position that is dependent on a place in the surrounding environment, wherein an appearance of the first type of content is diminished as it approaches an edge of the field of view. The second type of content may not be world-locked, wherein the second type of content maintains a substantially constant appearance as it approaches the edge of the field of view. The diminished appearance may include a reduction in resolution, a reduction in brightness, a reduction in contrast, regulated by a display driver, regulated by an application processor, or regulated by altered pixels of a display that generates the field of view. The head-worn display may further include a secondary field of view generated by the image display in which the user views presented digital content and through which the user sees the surrounding environment, the processor further adapted to transition the content from the field of view to the secondary field of view. The appearance of the content in the secondary field of view is diminished as compared to the appearance of the content in the field of view. The secondary field of view may have a lower resolution than a resolution of the field of view. The secondary field of view may be generated by reflecting image light onto a combiner that directs the image light directly to an eye of the user, reflecting image light onto a combiner that directs the image light towards a culminating partial mirror that reflects the image light to an eye of the user, an OLED that projects light onto a combiner, an LED array that projects light onto a combiner, an edge lit LCD that projects light onto a combiner, or a see-through panel positioned directly in front of the eye of the user. The panel is mounted on a combiner or vertically. The see-through panel is an OLED or an edge lit LCD. The processor may be further adapted to predict when the content is going to approach the edge of the field of view and to base the appearance transition at least in part on the prediction. The prediction may be at least in part based on an eye-image.
In embodiments, a head-worn see-through display may be adapted to adjust an FOV alignment. The head-worn see-through display may include a hybrid optical system adapted to produce a main see-through field of view for the presentation of content with high resolution and a secondary see-through field of view for the presentation of content with lower resolution, wherein the main and secondary fields of view are presented proximate one another, a processor adapted to adjust the relative proximity of the main and the secondary fields of view, and an eye position detection system adapted to detect a position of an eye of a user, wherein the processor adjusts the relative proximity of the main and secondary fields of view based on the position of the eye of the user. The secondary field of view may be produced on a see-through OLED panel positioned directly in front of the eye of the user, on a see-through edge lit LCD panel positioned directly in front of the eye of the user, or on a see-through combiner positioned directly in front of the eye of the user. The relative proximity may be a horizontal proximity or a vertical proximity. The relative proximity may define a measure of overlap between the main and secondary fields of view or a measure of separation between the main and secondary fields of view. The eye position detection system may image the eye from a perspective substantially in front of the eye, as a reflection off a see-through optic in a region including the main field of view, or as a reflection off a see-through optic in a region including the secondary field of view.
When using head mounted displays (HMDs) (e.g. as part of an HWC 102) for purposes such as augmented reality imaging, it is desirable to provide a wide field of view (e.g. 60 degrees). However, in viewing a wide field of view with a head mounted display it should be recognized that viewing an image with a head mounted display is different than viewing an image on a rigidly mounted screen in the environment (e.g. a television mounted on the wall or a movie theater screen). With a head mounted display, as the user moves their head, the head mounted display and it's associated display field of view moves as well in relation to the surrounding environment. This makes it difficult for the user of an HMD to view the edge or corner of an image that is displayed with a wide field of view because head movements do not assist the user, eye movements alone must be used to view the corner of the image. To improve the viewing experience when using an HMD to view images displayed with a wide field of view, the relationship between eye movement and head movement that a person uses when viewing the surrounding environment should be substantially replicated. For example, a viewer would normally turn his head, at least somewhat, when viewing an image with a wide field of view on a rigidly mounted screen such as in a movie theater when looking towards an edge of the movie screen, as opposed to only moving his eyes towards the edge. The inventors have discovered that certain accommodations have to be made to provide comfortable and intuitive viewing of the areas towards the outer edges of a wide field of view in an HMD system. In embodiments, the content being displayed in the wide field of view may not necessarily be world-locked (i.e. where the position of the content in the field of view is dependent on an object's position in the environment such that the content appears to the user as positionally connected to the environment) but may still include a process that shifts a position of the presented content based on a position or motion of the user's eye or head.
Because a head mounted display is worn on the head of the user, compactness is important to provide a comfortable viewing experience. Compact optical system typically include short focal length optics with low f# to reduce the physical size. Optics with these characteristics generally require a wide cone angle of light from the image source. Where wide cone angles are associated with image sources that emit image light from their front surfaces as, for example, in small displays or microdisplays such as: OLED, backlit LCD, etc. These displays can emit unpolarized or polarized image light. The optical system receives the image light from the image source and then manipulates the image light to form a converging cone of image light that forms an image at the eye of the user with an associated wide field of view. To enable the user to simultaneously interact with the displayed image and the surrounding environment, it is advantageous to provide an undistorted and bright see-thru view of the surrounding environment along with a bright and sharp displayed image. However, providing an undistorted and bright see-thru view and a bright and sharp displayed image can be competing requirements, especially when a wide field of view image is being provided.
For the purpose of viewing augmented reality imagery, it can be desirable to provide a wide field of view of 50 degrees or greater. However, the design of compact optics with a wide field of view that is suitable for use in a compact head mounted display can be challenging. This is further complicated by the fact that the human eye is only capable of high resolution in a very narrow portion of the field of view know as the fovea and a much lower resolution at the periphery of the field of view. To observe the whole area of a high resolution image, a person must move their eyes over a wider field of view.
The inventor's have discovered that optical systems are needed that provide high transparency to the surrounding environment to provide an undistorted and bright view of the surrounding environment while also displaying bright and sharp images over a wide display field of view. To provide a comfortable viewing experience, the optical system should take into account how the user moves their eyes and their head to view the environment. This is particularly important when the user is viewing augmented reality imagery.
Systems and methods in accordance with the principles of the present invention provide an HMD which displays images with wide fields of view overlaid onto a see-through view of the surrounding environment, with an improved see-through view and a high contrast displayed image. An optical system is provided that includes upper optics comprised of an emissive image source (e.g. OLED, backlit LCD, etc.), one or more lenses and a stray light trap, and non-polarized lower optics comprised of a planar angled beam splitter and a curved partial mirror. The emissive image source provides image light comprised of one or more narrow spectral bands of image light. Wherein, one or more of the reflective surfaces on the beam splitter and the curved partial mirror is treated to reflect a majority of incident light within the narrow spectral bands and transmit a majority of incident light within the visible band thereby providing a bright displayed image and a bright see-through view of the surrounding environment (e.g. using a tri-stimulus mirror on the beam splitter).
A stray light trap is also provided to enable higher contrast images to be displayed in concert with a high transmission view of the surrounding environment. Where the stray light can come from various sources including: see-through light from the surrounding environment; image light that has been reflected back into the optics by the curved partial mirror; or light from below that has passed through the beam splitter. By trapping this stray light, the contrast of the displayed image as seen by the user is greatly improved.
A display operating mode is also provided for improved viewing of wide field of view images wherein the displayed image is laterally shifted within the display field of view in correspondence to movements of the user's head. Wherein the lateral shifting of the displayed image is triggered by detecting an eye movement followed by a head movement in the same direction. The displayed image is then laterally shifted in correspondence to and in an opposite direction to ensuing head movements. The purpose of this mode is to enable the user to view peripheral portions of the image without having to move their eyes to the full extent of the wide displayed field of view. Thereby the user views the wide field of view of the displayed image through a combination of eye movement and head movement to obtain a more comfortable viewing experience.
Systems and methods in accordance with the principles of the present invention provide a head worn display with a high transmission see-through view of the surrounding environment and a high contrast displayed image that is overlaid onto the see-through view of the surrounding environment. In this way, the systems and methods provide a head worn display that is well suited for use with augmented reality imagery because the user is provided with a bright and sharp displayed image while still being able to easily view the surrounding environment. The systems and methods also provide a wide field of view with a sharpness that corresponds to the acuity distribution of the human eye when typical eye movement and head movement is taken into consideration. Where the wide field of view head mounted display can provide a displayed field of view for example at least +/−25 degrees (50 degree included angle). In addition, compact optics are provided with reduced thickness to improve a compact form factor of the head worn display. Operating modes are provided that take into account the viewing conditions of the head worn display where the display is attached to the user's head.
The emissive image source 16910 can be any type of luminous display that doesn't require supplemental light to be applied (e.g. a transmissive front light as described herein elsewhere) within the upper optics 16903 including: an OLED, a backlit LCD, a micro-sized LED array, a laser diode array, edgelit LCD or a plasma display. Typically an emissive display provides image light with narrow wavelength bands of light within the visible range. For example, for a full color display the bands can include a red, green and blue band with full width halfmax (FWHM) wavelengths of 615-635, 510-540 and 450-470 nm respectively. In addition, the emissive image source 16910 provides a wide cone of image light (e.g. 100 or more degrees). There are a number of advantages associated with using an emissive image source 16910 that has a wide cone angle in that, the optical system can be designed with a shorter focal length and a faster f# (e.g. 2.5 or faster) which enables the optics to be much more compact. In addition, by eliminating the need for an illumination system to apply light to the front surface of the image source such as is typically required for a reflective image source like an LCOS or a DLP, the overall size of the upper optics can be reduced substantially.
In embodiments, to provide a high transmission (e.g. greater than 50% transmission of scene light to the eye) see-through view of the surrounding environment, the lower optics are a non-polarized design, wherein the optical surfaces allow some portion of unpolarized visible light to be transmitted. This is to avoid the greater than 50% losses of light that occur when an absorptive polarizer or reflective polarizer is used in transmission along the optical path of scene light 16973. Instead, the reflective surfaces on the angled beam splitter 16950 and the curved partial mirror 16960 are treated to be partially reflective. Where the partially reflective treatment can be a base partial mirror that has a relatively uniform level of reflectivity across the entire visible range, or the partially reflective treatment can be a notch mirror that provides higher levels of reflectivity in one or more narrow wavelength bands within the visible range that have been selected to match the output bands of the emissive image source and higher levels of transmission in the wavelengths between the narrow wavelength bands (e.g. as described herein elsewhere). The partially reflective treatment can be a coating such as a multilayer coating, a phase matched nanostructure or a film such as a multilayer film or a coated film that has partial mirror properties or notch mirror properties.
By using non-polarized lower optics 16907 in the portion of the optics where a see-through view of the surrounding environment is provided, there is an added benefit in that chromatic abberations are avoided when viewing a polarized image source in the environment such as a liquid crystal television or computer monitor or natural sources like clouds and reflections that could be very distracting to the user. These chromatic abberations typically take the form of rainbow patterns with bright colors that can be very distracting to the head worn experience. The chromatic abberations are caused by interference between the polarized light of the polarized image source and any polarizers or circular polarizers that are present in the see-through portion of the optics. As a result, the systems and methods described provide non-polarized optics in the see-through portion of the optics to enable the user to view polarized image sources such as liquid crystal computer monitors without being exposed to rainbow patterns while wearing a head worn display.
With a high transmission see-through view of the surrounding environment, a high level of scene light 16973 passes through the lower optics on the way to the eyebox 16970. This opens up the possibility for a loss of contrast in the displayed image due to stray light from a portion of the scene light 16973 being reflected by the angled beam splitter 16950 back to the emissive image source 16910, and also from a portion of the image light 16940 being reflected by the angled beam splitter 16950 back toward the emissive image source 16910. The combined stray light from the portions of the scene light 16973 and the image light 16940 being reflected back to the emissive image source 16910 is then scattered off of the sidewalls in the upper optics 16903 and reflected by the surface of the emissive image source 16910 so that it joins the image light 16940 that is presented to the eyebox 16970 for viewing by the user. Since this stray light does not have image content, the net effect is that the contrast in the displayed image is reduced. To reduce the stray light from these two sources, a light trap 16930 is provided.
Scene light 17045 is unpolarized and is transmitted by the curved beam splitter 16960. When the unpolarized scene light 17045 encounters the angled beam splitter 16950, a portion is transmitted toward the eyebox 16970 to provide a see-through view of the environment and a portion is reflected toward the emissive image source 16910. The unpolarized scene light 17045 passes through the quarterwave film 17034 unchanged. As the scene light passes through the polarizer 17033 it becomes polarized light. The scene light then becomes circularly polarized scene light 17046 as it passes through quarterwave film 17032. The circularly polarized scene light 17046 is reflected by the surface of the emissive image source 16910. This returning circularly polarized scene light 17046 is transformed into polarized scene light with an opposite polarization state when it passes back through quarterwave film 17032, which is then absorbed by the polarizer 17033.
The net effect of the light trap 16930 is that stray light from returning image light and scene light is essentially eliminated and as a result, the contrast in the displayed image is greatly increased. This is particularly important when using the head worn display in a bright environment where the incoming scene light 17045 can be substantial. By using a light trap 16930 with a sandwich structure comprised of quarterwave films 17032 and 17034 on either side of a linear polarizer film 17033, stray light from unpolarized light 17025 and 17045 coming in opposing directions can be effectively trapped. The effect on the portion of the image light 17025 that is reflected by the angled beam splitter 16950, is reflected by the curved partial mirror 16960 and is transmitted by the angled beam splitter 16950 so that it becomes the displayed image that is viewed by the user, is that this image light 16940 is circularly polarized light. In addition, since the image light 17025 passes through a polarizer film 17033, there is a reduction in brightness of approximately 50%. However the increase in contrast is much higher, so that the perceived image quality of the displayed image is greatly improved especially in a bright environment. The inventors have performed measurements of the effectiveness of such a light trap positioned above an OLED display surrounded by a black textured plastic frame. Wherein the quarter wave film was selected to have a retardation level that provides excellent extinction of the stray light after it passes through the quarterwave film twice without imparting a color bias to the remaining stray light. The result was that light reflected from the OLED display surface was reduced by 117× and light reflected from the black textured plastic was reduced by 6×.
The light trap 16930 can also be simplified to be a circular polarizer by eliminating one of the quarter wave films. In this case, the light trap 16930 works on only one of the unpolarized stray light sources. If quarterwave film 17032 is eliminated, the light trap 16930 traps only stray light from the image light 17025 and the scene light 17046 reflected back toward the image source 16910 is then polarized. Alternately, if quarterwave film 17034 is eliminated, the light trap 16930 traps only stray light from the scene light 17045 and the image light 17026 is then polarized.
In an alternative embodiment, the light trap 16930 can be positioned on the surface of the image source 16910. The light trap can be a polarizer 17033 sandwiched between quarter wave films 17032 and 17034 to trap stray light from both scene light 17045 and image light 17025 that is reflected back toward the image source 16910. By positioning the light trap 16930 directly on the surface of the image source 16910, stray light from scene light 17045 is trapped very efficiently because birefringence in the lenses 16920 don't affect the polarization state of the circularly polarized scene light 17046. As such, the light trap 16930 can be a circular polarizer that is positioned on the image source 16910 with the quarter wave film of the circular polarizer against the surface of the image source 16910 to trap just the stray light associated with the scene light 17045 as previously described herein. The light trap 16930 can be sized to cover the surface of the image source 16910 in addition to covering adjacent reflective portions of the image source package or the adjacent housing to trap stray light associated with reflected light from these surfaces.
To trap stray light from image light 17025 that is reflected back toward the image source 16910, a second circular polarizer (e.g. comprised of polarizer 17033 and quarter wave film 17034) can be positioned between the lenses 16920 and the lower optics, wherein the quarter wave film 17034 of the second circular polarizer is positioned to face the lower optics. The polarization axis of the first circular polarizer should be aligned with the polarization axis of the second circular polarizer to transmit the most image light 17025. This second circular polarizer provides an efficient light trap for stray light from image light 17025 that is reflected by the partial mirror 16960 and the angled beam splitter 16950 back toward the image source 16910. However, if a first and second circular polarizer are included, birefringence in the lenses 16920 in the upper optics will affect the brightness uniformity and contrast uniformity of the image seen by the user. This is because the image light 17025 will be polarized by the first circular polarizer, the image light will then pass through the lenses 16920 where any birefringence present will cause portions of the image light to become elliptically polarized. The elliptically polarized image light will then pass through the second circular polarizer where the elliptically polarized portions of the image light will be filtered in correspondence to the degree of elliptical polarization present. If the lenses 16920 have low birefringence (e.g. <50 nm retardation), using two circular polarizers will provide an image with barely noticeable degradation of brightness uniformity and contrast uniformity, however if the birefringence is high then the brightness uniformity and contrast uniformity will be noticeably degraded.
Table 1, below, shows a comparative analysis of a variety of non-polarized partially reflective treatments for the angled beam splitter 16950 and the curved partial mirror 16960 where all the numbers are presented in terms of % of the image light 17025 emitted by the image source 16910. This analysis shows the effects of using notch mirror treatments compared to base partial mirror (i.e. a partial mirror that reflects all visible wavelengths substantially equally) treatments on the angled beam splitter 16950 and the curved partial mirror 16960 along with the effects of the light trap 16930. Phase matched nano-structures that reflect narrow wavelength bands of light can be provided as an embossed film or as a molded in structure on an optical surface, to provide a notch mirror treatment, but they are not shown in Table 1. In this analysis, the reflectivities of the angled beam splitter 16950 and the curved partial mirror 16960 have been chosen to deliver at least 50% “See-through light to the eye” (this is scene light 16973 that reaches the eyebox 16970) with at least 20% “See-through light at the wavelengths of the image light”, which takes into account the narrow band of reflectivity provided by any notch mirror treatments on the reflective surfaces. Case 1 includes triple notch mirror treatments (also known as a tristimulus notch mirror for reflecting narrow bands of red, green and blue light) to the angled beam splitter 16950 and the curved partial mirror 16960 and it does not include a light trap 16930. In this analysis, the notch mirror was assumed to reflect at a selected reflectivity % within a 20 nm wide band for each color (for example the triple notch mirror can provide high reflectivity in the following bands: 450-470 nm for blue, 515-535 nm for green, 615-635 nm for red) and transmit the remaining visible light at 95%. Case 2 includes triple notch mirror treatments to the angled beam splitter 16950 and the curved partial mirror 16960 along with a light trap 16930. Case 3 includes a base partial mirror treatment on the curved partial mirror 16960 and a triple notch mirror treatment on the angled beam splitter 16950 along with a light trap 16930. Case 4 includes a base partial mirror treatment on the angled beam splitter 16950 and a triple notch mirror treatment on the curved partial mirror 16960 along with a light trap 16930. Case 5 includes base partial mirror treatments on both the angled beam splitter 16950 and the curved partial mirror 16960 along with a light trap 16930.
The effects of the light trap 16930 on image contrast can be seen in the two rows at the bottom of Table 1 that relate to image contrast as shown by ratios of the “Image light to the eye”, which represents the displayed image brightness, divided by the “light back to the image source” where the light back to the image source comes from either the image light being reflected back to the image source or from scene light being reflected back to the image source. In both sets of numbers, the ratio is dramatically higher (1000× or more) in Cases 2-5 where there is a light trap 16930 compared to Case 1 where there is not a light trap. The light loss produced by having a light trap can also be seen in the numbers for the “Image light to the eye” wherein Case 1 shows approximately 2× higher numbers indicating a brighter displayed image.
The effects of the notch mirror treatments on the numbers for the “Image light to the eye” (image light 16940) and “See-through light to the eye” (scene light 16973) can be seen by comparing Cases 2-4 which have various combinations of tristimulus notch mirror treatments to Case 5 which has base partial mirror treatments on the angled beam splitter 16950 and the curved partial mirror 16960. The tristimulus notch mirror treatment on one or both reflective surfaces increases the portion of image light 16940 that is delivered to the eyebox 16970 while also increasing the portion of scene light 16973 that is provided to the eye. Using base partial mirror treatments on both the angled beam splitter 16950 and the curved partial mirror 16960 reduces the efficiency of the optics to deliver image light to the user's eye by a factor of approximately 2× to 4.5×. It should be noted that if either the angled beam splitter 16950 or the curved partial mirror 16960 included a polarizer (absorptive or reflective), only about 42% of the scene light would be transmitted to the user's eye based on typical transmission % of unpolarized light by polarizers. And if one of the surfaces is a polarizer and the other is a 50% partial mirror, only about 21% of the scene light would be transmitted to the user's eye.
Other light losses are also shown by the numbers in Table 1. “Eyeglow” is the portion of image light 16940 that is transmitted by the curved partial mirror 16960. “Faceglow” is the portion of image light that is transmitted downward by the angled beam splitter 16950. The determination of which Case is better in terms of eyeglow and faceglow for a given head worn display will depend on whether there are other controls present to mitigate eyeglow or faceglow. If there are eyeglow controls present, then Case 3 may be the best choice because the faceglow is lower. If there are faceglow controls present than Case 4 may be the best choice because it has lower eyeglow.
In general, Case 2 with tristimulus notch mirror treatments on both the angled beam splitter 16950 and the curved partial mirror 16960 has a good combination of characteristics for providing a bright and high contrast image to the user's eye along with a high see-through transmission. This is because Case 2 has relatively good numbers for efficiency for delivering image light to the eye, high transmission see-through, low eyeglow, low faceglow, acceptable see-through at the wavelengths of the image light and excellent contrast.
Tristimulus notch mirror treatments can be obtained that reflect S polarized light more than P polarized light. However, given the narrow bands of reflection provided by the tristimulus notch mirror treatment, the transmitted portion of the light can be substantially non-polarized and as such still provide transmission of scene light that is over 50% and provide a view of polarized light sources that do not contain chromatic aberrations such rainbows. Under this scenario, Case 4 can be more efficient for delivering image light to the eye and providing high see-through transmission.
In many uses cases, such as for example augmented reality imaging, it is desirable to use a head mounted display that provides a wide field of view, e.g. greater than 40 degrees. However it can be difficult to design any type of optics that provide uniformly high MTF for a uniformly sharp image over the entire wide field of view. As a result, the optics can be very complicated and the physical size of the optics can become unsuitably large for use in a head mounted display. To avoid this problem, it is important to understand the acuity of the human eye in the peripheral portions of the field of view and to understand the angular range of eye movement typically used before a person moves their head.
However, the acuity of the eye that is experienced by the user has to take into account the rapid movements of the eye within the field of view. These rapid movements of the eye effectively expand the high acuity portion of the field of view seen by the user. In an augmented reality application, movement of the head by the user must also be taken into account. When the user perceives an object near the edge of the eye's field of view, the user first moves their eyes toward the object and then moves their head. These combined movements enable the user to view a wider field of view while also making it more comfortable to view an object at the edge of the field of view by reducing the angular movement of the eyes. Human's tend to only move their eyes a limited amount before they move their head.
As an example,
As a result, the systems and methods described herein in accordance with the principles of the present invention can be used to design any type of optics for head mounted displays with a wide field of view including optics with a beam splitter, optics with a waveguide or projected optics with a holographic optical element, wherein a central sharp zone is provided that delivers a level of MTF that corresponds to the acuity of the fovea and a peripheral zone adjacent to the central sharp zone that provides a reduced level of sharpness in correspondence to the acuity of the human eye when limited movement of the eye is considered. In embodiments, the central sharp zone comprises a +/−15 degrees about the optical axis (30 degree included angle) and the peripheral zone extends beyond the central sharp zone to the edge of the field of view of the displayed image. The MTF in the central sharp zone should be above 20% at the Nyquist level of the display to provide a sharp image. The MTF in the peripheral zone can reduce with increasing angle at a rate that is less than the decrease in acuity of the human eye as the eccentricity increases. For example, if the peripheral zone extends from +/−15 degrees to +/−30 degrees (60 degree included angle), the MTF can be as low as 10% of the Nyquist spatial modulation at 20% MTF. By limiting the angular zone where high MTF is required and reducing the design MTF in the peripheral zone, the optics can include fewer elements and simpler elements with lower cost materials, thereby reducing the overall cost of the optics, in addition, the optics can be made more compact to enable the wide field of view optics to better fit into the head mounted display. This effect is shown by the compact optics shown in
The systems and methods described herein in accordance with the principles of the present invention can be used for making compact optics for a head mounted display with a wide display field of view that has improved contrast and has a high transparency for the see-through view of the surrounding environment. By using an emissive display, the need for a frontlight is eliminated thereby reducing the space between the emissive image source and the lower optics. By limiting the high MTF zone to a central sharp zone surrounded by a lower MTF peripheral zone, the number of lens elements required to display a wide field of view is reduced, thereby also reducing the size of the optics. As shown in
In embodiments, the emissive image source 16910 and the angular size of the display field of view are selected so that a single pixel in the emissive image source 16910 subtends an angle in the displayed image that is smaller than the achromatic acuity of the fovea of the human eye, so that black and white portions of displayed images don't have a pixelated look when viewed by the user. This provides the user with an image that has smooth lines and curves without the jagged look produced when individual black and white pixels can be resolved. For example, based on the data shown in
In embodiments, the emissive image source 16910 and the angular size of the display field of view are selected so that a single pixel in the emissive image source 16910 subtends an angle in the displayed image that is smaller than the chromatic acuity of the human eye, so that colored portions of displayed images don't have a pixelated look when viewed by the user. This provides the user with an image that has smooth lines and curves on colored areas without the jagged look produced when individual colored pixels can be resolved. For example, based on the data shown in
In embodiments, the emissive image source 16910 and the angular size of the display field of view are selected so that the subpixels (typically each full color pixel includes adjacent red, green and blue subpixels, and the relative brightness of the subpixels together determine the perceived color of the pixel) that makeup each pixel in the emissive image source subtend an angle that is smaller than can be resolved by the human eye so that each pixel appears to be comprised of a single color and the subpixels are not visible to the user. This provides the user with an image is comprised of consistent blocks of colors without the speckled look that can be perceived when individual subpixels can be resolved. For example, based on the data shown in
In embodiments, the optics include a telecentric zone in the image light optical path wherein lens elements can be moved relative to one another to affect a change in focus distance without changing the magnification of the displayed image. Changes in focus distance can be accomplished in a variety of ways in a head mounted display by changing the spacing between optical elements. For example, focus adjustments can be accomplished by moving the image source in relation to the remainder of the optical system. However, in a display system with a wide field of view, the image light 16940 emitted by the emissive image source 16910 must be expanded in area to fill the area of the curved partial mirror 16960 which establishes the angular size of the display field of view as seen from the eyebox 16970 as shown in
Manual mechanisms such as screws or cams can be positioned to change the space in the telecentric zone by moving the relevant optical elements. Where manual adjustments are useful for adjusting focus during manufacturing or to enable user's to fine tune focus for their ophthalmic power prescription. Electronic actuators can be mounted to automatically adjust the spacing in the telecentric zone for augmented reality applications or for mode changes that include a change in focus distance.
In embodiments, a telecentric zone may not be provided or it may be only nearly telecentric and focal plane adjustments may be made by moving optical elements and also adjusting, digitally, the content to compensate for a magnification effect caused by the shifting elements in the non-telecentric zone.
In embodiments, a mode for viewing a wide angle displayed image (e.g. greater than 50 degrees included angle) with a head mounted display of any type is provided wherein the image is moved laterally within the display field of view in correspondence to a detected eye movement followed by a head movement by the user. This mode mimics the experience of sitting in the front row of a movie theater where to view the wide angle movie image, the viewer cannot comfortably view the whole movie screen with eye movement alone and instead must move their eyes along with their head to see the peripheral areas of the movie screen. To enable this mode, the head worn display requires apparatus for detecting eye movements that are associated with the optics assembly 16900, along with an inertial measurement unit to detect head movement. As such, the mode detects the desire of the user to view a peripheral portion of the displayed image with the portion of the eye's field of view that has higher acuity, by detecting a movement of the eye followed by a movement of the head in the same direction.
The displayed image is then moved laterally across the display field of view in a direction that is opposite to the detected movements of the eye and head, wherein the magnitude and speed of the lateral movement correspond to the magnitude and speed of the detected movements of the eye and head. This lateral movement of the displayed image within the display field of view provides the user with an improved view of the peripheral portion of the displayed image by moving the peripheral portion of the displayed image into the central sharp zone of the display field of view and moving the peripheral portion of the displayed image into a position where the user's eye is relatively centered. In addition, the lateral movement of the displayed image within the display field of view can be limited to that needed to center the edge of the displayed image within the display field of view. This mode addresses the fact that it is uncomfortable for a user to move their eyes beyond an angle of approximately 15 to 20 degrees relative to their head for more than a short period of time and since head mounted displays are attached to the user's head, eye movement is the only way to visually look at different portions of the display field of view. This makes it difficult for a user of a head worn display to comfortably view an image that has a visual size of larger than a 30 to 40 degrees included angle. The disclosed mode overcomes this limitation, by detecting when the user would like to view a peripheral portion of a displayed image and then laterally moving the displayed image within the display field of view to a position where the peripheral portion of the displayed image can be more comfortably viewed and where the peripheral portion of the displayed image is displayed with improved sharpness and higher contrast.
By triggering the lateral movement of the displayed image within the display field of view based on the detection of a combined eye movement in a direction followed by a head movement in the same direction, the mode is different from a world locked or body locked presentation of the displayed image in which lateral movement of the image occurs in correspondence to head movement regardless of eye movement. A description of body locking of virtual objects in a head worn display is provided for example in US Patent Publication 2014204759. In embodiments, the lateral movement of the displayed image is limited within the display field of view to that required to position the edge of the displayed image in the center of the display field of view or some other comfortable point within the field of view. Another example wherein lateral movement of the image would not be wanted is when the user only momentarily looks towards an edge or corner (e.g. a warning light is blinking in the corner of the image and the user simply moves their eye momentarily to verify the blinking light). In this case, the user does not move their head and as a result lateral movement of the image is not triggered and the displayed image remains stationary within the display field of view.
After an eye movement above a predetermined threshold has been detected followed by a head movement in the same direction, the displayed image is laterally moved (note that the method can also be used in a corresponding way for transverse or radial movements of the displayed image within the display field of view) across the display field of view in correspondence to and in an opposite direction to the detected angular movement of the user's head. Eye movements can be detected for example with an eye camera (e.g. as disclosed herein elsewhere) that captures images of the user's eye while viewing the displayed image or by detecting changes in electric fields associated with the eye. Angular movements of the user's head can be detected relative to the world, relative to the user's body through a motion sensor (e.g. IMU), etc. Fixing the displayed image in relation to the environment is good for viewing a wide angle image when the user is sitting or standing still. Fixing the displayed image in relation to the user's body is good for viewing a wide angle image when the user is walking, running or riding in a vehicle. Angular movements of the user's head relative to the environment can be measured by, for example, either an inertial measurement unit in the head worn display or by image tracking of objects in the environment with a camera in the head worn display. Angular movement of the user's head relative to the user's body can be measured by a downward facing camera that can for example, capture images of a portion of the user's body. The images of the portion of the user's body are then analyzed to detect relative changes that can be used to detect movements of the user's head relative to the user's body. Alternatively, two inertial measurement units can be used to detect movements of the user's head relative to the user's body, wherein one is attached to the head worn display and one is attached to the user's body and differential measurements are used to determine movements of the user's head relative to the user's body. After an eye movement above the threshold has been detected and a movement of the user head above a threshold has been detected as following the eye movement, lateral movement of the displayed image across the display field of view is begun. The speed of the lateral movement of the displayed image is in correspondence to and in an opposite direction to the ensuing detected head movement. The lateral movement of the displayed image continues until either the edge of the displayed image reaches the center of the display field of view or the eye is detected to be looking at the center of the display field of view (or within a predetermined threshold of the center of the display field of view) thereby indicating that the peripheral portion of the image that the user wanted to look at has been reached.
In embodiments, the user of a wide field of view head mounted display is provided with an option to select the size (e.g. angular size) of displayed images associated with different images or applications. The displayed image is then resized to provide the selected angular image size for display to the user. For instance in a movie viewing mode, the user may choose the displayed image to be approximately 30 degrees in size which mimics the experience of sitting in the back row of a movie theater where it is comfortable for the user to view the entire displayed image with eye movements alone. Alternately, the user may choose the displayed image to be 50 degrees in size which mimics the experience of sitting in the front row of a movie theater where the displayed image needs to be viewed with a combination of eye movements and head movements with image shifting as previously described herein to comfortably view the entire displayed image.
In embodiments, the display format is selected to have a narrow vertical field of view relative to the horizontal field of view to enable the thickness of the optics to be reduced as measured across the lower optics. Due to the angled orientation of the angled beam splitter 16950 in the lower optics, the vertical field of view in the displayed image is directly proportional to the thickness of the optics assembly. For a given display field of view as measured along the diagonal of the display field of view, reducing the vertical field of view and thereby increasing the format ratio of the displayed image enables the thickness of the optics assembly to be reduced. For example, for a 16:9 format image with a 50 degree diagonal field of view the thickness 18410 of the optical assembly 18415 can be approximately 17 mm as shown illustratively in
In another embodiment, the central sharp zone of the display can be used to display different types of images than the outer peripheral zone. For example, the central sharp zone can be used to display 22:9 or 16:9 movie images that are resized to fit the number of pixels contained in the central sharp zone. The outer peripheral zone can then be used like a second display where other types of information are displayed that can be viewed at a lower resolution for a short period of time so that the uncomfortable eye position required is acceptable.
In yet another embodiment, the information displayed in the outer peripheral zone is rendered differently compared to the central sharp zone. This can include using larger font letters, higher contrast settings or different colors to make the information presented in the outer peripheral zone more easily viewable.
In a further embodiment, the displayed image is adjusted in correspondence to changes in the focus distance. To enable a measurement of the focus distance, a sensor may be provided to measure the distance between optical elements that are used to change the focus distance such as between the image source 16910 and the lens elements 16920 or between the lens elements 16920 and the lower optics. Wherein the displayed image can be digitally adjusted to be larger or smaller to compensate for magnification that may occur if the light rays between optical elements is not telecentric. The displayed image can also be digitally adjusted for distortion that may occur as the optical elements are moved to change the distance between the optical elements in accomplishing a change in focus distance. Where the change in focus distance may be associated with an augmented reality operating mode such as a mode where the focus distance needs to be at a specific distance such as for example at arm's length to allow the user to interact with displayed augmented reality objects.
In a yet further embodiment, the optical assembly is designed to provide telecentric light to an optical surface that includes a triple notch mirror treatment to reduce the angular extent of the incident light and thereby improve the performance of the triple notch mirror. Where the telecentric light can be incident onto the angled beam splitter or onto the curved partial mirror. This embodiment can be particularly important when the head worn display provides a wide field of view because triple notch mirror are designed to be used at a specific angle with a limited angular distribution around the specific angle. By providing telecentric light to the triple notch mirror, the color uniformity and brightness uniformity can be improved. In a further improvement, the wide angle displayed image can be rendered to compensate for radially based color and brightness rolloff by radially increasing the digital brightness (e.g. radially increase the code values and associated luma in the image) and radially changing the color balance (e.g. color rendering) in the image. In this way, the user is provided with an image that is perceived to have uniform brightness and uniform color in spite of angular limitations of the triple notch mirror treatment affecting the displayed image over the wide display field of view.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to including a display panel in the head-worn computer that has an ability to present an image that is wider than needed for a use scenario such that the edges of the panel can be left blank to allow for a shift in the displayed content. The displayed content can then be fully presented even when shifted because the content can be shifted into the normally blank areas of the panel. For example, a panel may be selected such that it can produce a 50 degree field of view but the digital content may only consume 45 degree field of view such that the whole content can still be viewed if it is shifted by 2.5 degrees in either direction. As illustrated herein elsewhere, in a wide field of view head-worn display system, the content may need to be shifted if the user is trying to look towards a far edge of the content. In such situations, the system may begin with a reserved blank area on the edge(s) of the field of view to allow for a whole content shift. In other embodiments, the shifting into the reserved edge(s) may be used when compensating the content for focal plane, convergence, etc.
In embodiments, the content presented in the field of view is of a content type that is intended to take up all of the field of view, such as when watching a movie. When the movie is presented, it is intended to take up as much of the field of view as can comfortably be viewed. In embodiments, it is this type of full display content that is presented within a middle section of the field of view with edges that are left intentionally blank. This arrangement allows for the full display content to be shifted into the unused edges to make the accommodations illustrated herein.
In embodiments, the wide field of view display is used to enable the displayed image to be shifted laterally through digital shifting of the image on the image source 110 to change the convergence distance associated with viewing of stereo images and thereby change the perceived distance to the displayed image. Where the convergence distance can be changed in correspondence with the type of image being displayed, the type of use case associated with augmented reality objects being displayed or in response to detected characteristics of the user's eyes (e.g. such as can be detected with eye cameras) in the head-worn display such as convergence distance or focus distance of the user's eyes.
In yet another embodiment, the wide field of view display is used to enable the displayed image to be shifted laterally through digital shifting of the image on the image source 110 to change the interpupillary distance between the displayed images.
In a preferred embodiment, the portions of the display field of view that are used for lateral shifting of the image amount to 10% or greater of the display field of view. As such, while these portions of the display field of view are unused for displaying an image, they are used for positioning the image for the purpose of providing a desired convergence distance or adjusting the interpupillary distance of the displayed left and right images. As can be seen in
Although embodiments of HWC have been described in language specific to features, systems, computer processes and/or methods, the appended claims are not necessarily limited to the specific features, systems, computer processes and/or methods described. Rather, the specific features, systems, computer processes and/or and methods are disclosed as non-limited example implementations of HWC.
All documents referenced herein are hereby incorporated by reference.
This application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/884,598, entitled “SEE-THROUGH COMPUTER DISPLAY SYSTEMS”, filed Oct. 15, 2015 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/813,969, entitled “SEE-THROUGH COMPUTER DISPLAY SYSTEMS”, filed Jul. 30, 2015. U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/813,969, filed Jul. 30, 2015 is a continuation-in-part of the following: U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/741,943, filed Jun. 17, 2015, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/163,646, filed Jan. 24, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/160,377, filed Jan. 21, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/172,901, filed Feb. 4, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/181,459, filed Feb. 14, 2014, which is a continuation-in-part of, among others, U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 14/178,047, filed Feb. 11, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/296,699, filed Jun. 5, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/325,991, filed Jul. 8, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/457,853, filed Aug. 12, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/489,706, filed Sep. 18, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/498,765, filed Sep. 26, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/504,723, filed Oct. 2, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/561,146, filed Dec. 4, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/554,044, filed Nov. 26, 2014; U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/635,390, filed Mar. 2, 2015; and U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/670,677, filed Mar. 27, 2015.
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