Electronic Devices With Rearward-Facing Sensors

    公开(公告)号:US20240027753A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-01-25

    申请号:US18335671

    申请日:2023-06-15

    申请人: Apple Inc.

    摘要: A head-mounted device may have a housing with a frame that supports lenses. Each lens may have a positive bias lens element and a negative bias lens element. A waveguide may overlap the lens. During operation, images from the waveguide may be provided to an eye box through the negative bias lens element. An eye sensor such as a gaze tracking camera may operate through the negative bias lens element. The negative bias lens element may have a protruding portion through which the sensor operates, may have a surface facing the sensor that has a curved surface to provide a desired lens characteristic, may have a prism for helping to couple light from the eye box to the eye sensor, and/or may have other features to facilitate use of the eye sensor to monitor the eye of a user in the eye box.

    Infrared Coatings for Gaze Tracking Systems
    2.
    发明公开

    公开(公告)号:US20240184118A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-06-06

    申请号:US18444284

    申请日:2024-02-16

    申请人: Apple Inc.

    摘要: A head-mounted device may include near-eye displays and gaze tracking components to track a user's gaze. The head-mounted device may include an optical system, including a waveguide and optional lenses to guide images produced by display modules to an eye box. The gaze tracking components may include infrared emitters that emit infrared light toward the user's eyes and infrared sensors that detect infrared light that has been reflected from the user's eyes. To reduce interference with the gaze tracking components from environmental infrared light, the optical system may include an infrared-reflective coating and an infrared-absorptive coating. The infrared-reflective and infrared-absorptive coatings may be formed on the optional lenses or on other transparent structures in the optical system. Together, the infrared-reflective and infrared-absorptive coatings may reduce an amount of environmental infrared light that reaches the gaze tracking components and reduce a thermal load on internal components within the head-mounted device.

    Electronic Devices With Sensors
    3.
    发明公开

    公开(公告)号:US20240027772A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-01-25

    申请号:US18334999

    申请日:2023-06-14

    申请人: Apple Inc.

    IPC分类号: G02B27/01 H03K17/96

    摘要: Electronic devices such as head-mounted electronic devices may include displays for presenting images to users. To accommodate variations in the interpupillary distances associated with different users, a head-mounted device may have actuators that move left-eye and right-eye optical modules with respect to each other. To hide internal structures from view, the rear of a head-mounted device may be provided with a cover. Capacitance sensor circuitry and/or switch-based sensor circuitry may use electrodes to measure nose contact arising from movement of the optical modules towards each other against the sides of a user's nose. The actuators may be halted or may otherwise be moved in response to sensor measurements, thereby avoiding undesired nose pressure as the optical modules are moved towards each other to accommodate a user's interpupillary distance.

    Head-mounted display systems with gaze tracker alignment monitoring

    公开(公告)号:US11520152B1

    公开(公告)日:2022-12-06

    申请号:US17365815

    申请日:2021-07-01

    申请人: Apple Inc.

    IPC分类号: G02B27/01 G02B6/10 H04N13/383

    摘要: A head-mounted device may have displays that provide images. Waveguides may be used in conveying the images to eye boxes. The waveguides may overlap lenses in a glasses frame or other head-mounted support structure. The waveguides and lenses may be transparent. This allows real-world objects to be viewed from the eye boxes. Infrared-light reflectors may overlap the lenses. Gaze tracking system light sources may supply infrared light that reflects from the infrared-light reflectors to the eye boxes to illuminate a user's eyes. Gaze tracking system cameras capture gaze tracking images of the eyes from the eye boxes to track the user's gaze. Fiducials associated with the infrared-light reflectors may be monitored using the gaze tracking system cameras. This allows components such as the gaze tracking system cameras to be calibrated.

    Head-Mounted Display Systems With Gaze Tracker Alignment Monitoring

    公开(公告)号:US20240219735A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-07-04

    申请号:US18604849

    申请日:2024-03-14

    申请人: Apple Inc.

    IPC分类号: G02B27/01 G02B6/10 H04N13/383

    摘要: A head-mounted device may have displays that provide images. Waveguides may be used in conveying the images to eye boxes. The waveguides may overlap lenses in a glasses frame or other head-mounted support structure. The waveguides and lenses may be transparent. This allows real-world objects to be viewed from the eye boxes. Infrared-light reflectors may overlap the lenses. Gaze tracking system light sources may supply infrared light that reflects from the infrared-light reflectors to the eye boxes to illuminate a user's eyes. Gaze tracking system cameras capture gaze tracking images of the eyes from the eye boxes to track the user's gaze. Fiducials associated with the infrared-light reflectors may be monitored using the gaze tracking system cameras. This allows components such as the gaze tracking system cameras to be calibrated.

    Wear Detection
    7.
    发明公开
    Wear Detection 审中-公开

    公开(公告)号:US20240036360A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-02-01

    申请号:US18219230

    申请日:2023-07-07

    申请人: APPLE INC.

    IPC分类号: G02C11/00 G01D5/24 G02B27/01

    摘要: A head-mounted device includes a frame and a sensor coupled to the frame. The sensor includes a first conductive plate coupled to the frame and a first contact pad coupled to the frame and electrically coupled to the first conductive plate. The first contact pad includes an electrically conductive material embedded in a non-electrically conductive material, and the first contact pad is resiliently flexible and is configured for facial engagement. The sensor is configured to generate a signal that indicates a change in a capacitance of the sensor, and a controller is configured to change a power state of the head-mounted device based on the signal.

    Head-Mounted Devices With Dual Gaze Tracking Systems

    公开(公告)号:US20240219715A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-07-04

    申请号:US18603462

    申请日:2024-03-13

    申请人: Apple Inc.

    IPC分类号: G02B27/00 G02B27/01

    摘要: A head-mounted device may have a head-mounted support structure. Gaze tracking systems may be supported by the support structure so that the gaze of a user may be monitored. Lenses may be supported by the support structure. Display systems may provide computer-generated images to the user while the user is viewing real-world objects through the lenses. The gaze tracking systems may include image-sensor-based systems such as glint-based systems. A glint-based gaze tracking system may include light-emitting devices that emit light beams that create eye glints on the surface of a user's eyes and may include an image sensor that measures the eye glints to gather information on the user's gaze. A low-power gaze tracking system may be included in the head-mounted device. The low-power gaze tracking system may use light detectors to measure the magnitudes of respective light reflections of the light beams.

    Device With Molded Polymer Structures
    9.
    发明公开

    公开(公告)号:US20240192506A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-06-13

    申请号:US18444114

    申请日:2024-02-16

    申请人: Apple Inc.

    IPC分类号: G02B27/01

    CPC分类号: G02B27/0176 G02B2027/0178

    摘要: A head-mounted device may have a head-mounted frame with lens openings. The head-mounted device may have left and right lenses mounted in the lens openings. The lenses may include waveguides that help guide images from projectors to eye boxes for viewing by a user. The frame may include a metal frame member that supplies the frame with structural support. Circuitry such as strain gauge circuitry and cabling may be coupled to the metal frame member. A protective polymer such as thermoset epoxy may be used to encapsulate and protect the circuitry. The protective polymer may encapsulate the strain gauge, the cabling, and/or other circuitry so that this circuitry need not be exposed to elevated temperatures during subsequent injection molding operations. Injection molding may be used to apply one or more shots of thermoplastic polymer to the metal frame member to form the head-mounted frame.

    Display System Circuitry
    10.
    发明公开

    公开(公告)号:US20240184122A1

    公开(公告)日:2024-06-06

    申请号:US18444151

    申请日:2024-02-16

    申请人: Apple Inc.

    IPC分类号: G02B27/01

    摘要: A head-mounted device may have projectors that provide images. Waveguides in lenses may be used in conveying the images to eye boxes. A head-mounted frame in the head-mounted device may have lens openings that receive the lenses. The frame may include a frame member such as an elongated metal member that extends across the frame above the left and right lenses. The frame may include frame structure such as polymer structures that cover the frame member and that are configured to form the lens openings. The frame member may have a cable channel. Cabling may be used to route signals between the projectors, strain gauge circuitry, control circuitry, and other circuits in the head-mounted device. The cabling may be received within the cable channel and encapsulated in a protective polymer. Additional polymer may be molded over the protective polymer to form the frame.