Automatically adjusting head-mounted display

• US 10,545,573 B1
• Filed: 07/13/2018
• Issued: 01/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Realwar, Inc.
• Original Assignee: RealWear, Inc.
• Inventors: Parkinson, Christopher Iain, Pombo, Stephen A., Lustig, Kenneth
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Premal R
• Application Number:
  US16/035,382
• Publication Number:
  US 20200019236A1
• Time in Patent Office: 564 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for automatically positioning a head-mounted display. The head-mounted display allows for hands-free engagement between a user and a wearable display. The automatic positioning may align the display with a landmark on the user, such as the user'"'"'s eye or the user'"'"'s iris, or with other components of the wearable display. User preferences for the position of the display may be saved for recall during later use.

Claims

1. A head mounted display system, comprising:

a display portion;

a body portion housing at least one processor, the body portion housing at least one of a gyroscope and an accelerometer operable to communicate generated orientation data and/or position data corresponding to a detected orientation and/or position of at least one of the body portion and the display portion to the at least one processor;

at least one input device coupled to the at least one processor;

a display boom having a first end adjustably coupled to the body portion to form a first joint, and a second end adjustably coupled to the display portion to form a second joint, the adjustably coupled first and second ends facilitating adjustability of the display portion relative to the body portion;

at least one actuator electronically coupled the at least one processor, each actuator being mechanically coupled to at least one of the display portion and the display boom to facilitate automated adjustment of the display portion relative to the body portion based at least in part on a portion of generated input data communicated from the at least one input device to the at least one processor and on the communicated orientation data and/or position data.

2. The head mounted display system of claim 1, further comprising at least one computer storage media storing computer-usable instructions that, when used by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to generate adjustment instructions for communication to the at least one actuator based at least in part on the portion of communicated input data.

3. The head mounted display system of claim 2, wherein an input device includes an audio input device or an optical input device.

4. The head mounted display system of claim 3,

wherein the optical input device is operable to detect visual information to generate the portion of input data,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine a measure of displacement from a defined preferred position based at least in part on the detected visual information, and

wherein the automated adjustment of the display portion is facilitated based further in part on the determined measure of displacement.

5. The head mounted display system of claim 4, wherein the audio input device includes a microphone, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to define the preferred position based on a voice command received via the microphone, the received voice command causing the at least one processor to detect at least one fixed reference point of a wearer based on additional detected visual information.

6. The head mounted display system of claim 5, wherein a fixed reference point corresponds to a facial feature of the wearer.

7. The head mounted display system of claim 4,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to detect a predefined head gesture based on the communicated orientation data and/or position data, and is further configured to generate additional adjustment instructions for communication to the at least one actuator to cause movement of at least one of the display portion and the display boom from a current position to a retracted position.

8. A computer-implemented method for positioning a head-mounted display, comprising:

identifying, by the wearable computing device, at least one facial feature of a wearer of the head-mounted display based on optical data received from an optical input device secured to a display portion of the wearable computing device, the display portion being adjustably secured to a display boom extending away from a body of the wearable computing device;

determining, by the wearable computing device, a set of relative displacement values corresponding to the identified at least one facial feature based at least in part on additional optical data received from the optical input device;

generating, by the wearable computing device, instructions to activate at least one actuator coupled to at least one of the display portion and the display boom, the at least one actuator being activated to move at least one of the display portion and the display boom to a position and/or orientation determined based at least in part on the determined set of relative displacement values.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein a facial feature includes an iris, a nose, an eyebrow, an ear, a jaw line, or a facial marking.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the position and/or orientation is determined based further in part on motion data received from at least one of an accelerometer and a gyroscope of the wearable computing device.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein at least one of the accelerometer and the gyroscope is disposed in an enclosure of the display portion.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the additional optical data is live optical data.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the identifying, determining, and generating are performed based on a received voice command determined to correspond to a selective readjustment of the display portion.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the optical input device is an eye-tracking device.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the at least one facial feature is identified based on a first received voice command, and the set of relative displacement values is determined to generate the instructions based on a second received voice command.

16. A computer-implemented method for hands-free readjustment of a head-mounted display, the method comprising:

receiving, by a wearable computing device, audible input data from an audio input device coupled to the wearable computing device when a body portion of the wearable computing device is donned on a head of a user;

determining, by the wearable computing device, that the received audible input data corresponds to a voice instruction for defining a preferred orientation and/or position of an adjustable display portion of the wearable computing device;

identifying, by the wearable computing device, the facial landmark of the user in response to the determination that the received audible input data corresponds to the voice instruction, the facial landmark being identified in a first portion of optical data received via an optical input device coupled to the adjustable display portion;

defining, by the wearable computing device, a preferred orientation and/or position of the adjustable display portion based at least in part on a determined set of features corresponding to the identified facial landmark, the preferred orientation and/or position being defined relative to the identified facial landmark; and

generating, by the wearable computing device, at least one instruction to move one or more actuators, coupled at least in part to the display portion, an amount that repositions the adjustable display portion back to the defined preferred orientation and/or position based on a calculated set of displacement values, the set of displacement values being calculated based at least in part on another determined set of features corresponding to the facial landmark identified in further optical data received via the optical input device.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the preferred orientation and/or position is defined further in part on position data received from at least one of a gyroscope and accelerometer coupled to the display portion, and wherein the set of displacement values is calculated based further in part on additional position data received from at least one of the gyroscope and accelerometer.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the at least one instruction is generated in response to another determination that additional received audible input data corresponds to another voice instruction for repositioning the adjustable display portion.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the at least one instruction is generated at a pre-defined time interval.