Unobtrusive eye mounted display

• US 10,649,233 B2
• Filed: 11/27/2017
• Issued: 05/12/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tectus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Tectus Corporation
• Inventors: Miller, Gregory David, Lemoff, Brian Elliot, Tuan, Kuang-mon Ashley, Kniess, Herbert John, Opris, Ion, Wiemer, Michael West, Perkins, Drew Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Hanidu, Ganiyu A
• Application Number:
  US15/822,913
• Publication Number:
  US 20180149884A1
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A44C 15/005 Necklaces ornamental chains A44C11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/015 involving arrangement aiming to get less bulky devices
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0152 involving arrangement aiming to get lighter or better balanced devices
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/01 Head-up displays
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted
• CPC Class Codes: G02C 7/04 Contact lenses for the eyes disinfection or sterilisation of contact lenses A61L12/00
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/14 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 2206/00 Systems for exchange of information between different pieces of apparatus, e.g. for exchanging trimming information, for photo finishing
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer

Abstract

An unobtrusive augmented reality (AR) system can be used to assist the wearer in every day interactions by projecting information from the contact lens display onto the retina of the wearer'"'"'s eye. The unobtrusive augmented reality system includes a necklace and a contact lens display that are unobtrusive to the wearer and the wearer'"'"'s surrounding environment. The necklace of the unobtrusive augmented reality system generates power and data for the contact lens displays. The necklace and contact lens display include conductive coils inductively coupled by a magnetic field. The inductive coupling allows data and power generated by the necklace to be transferred to the contact lens display. A projector in the contact lens display projects images generated from the data onto the retina of the wearers eye.

Claims

1. An augmented reality system comprising:

a contact lens display capable of projecting one or more images onto a user'"'"'s retina; and

a necklace to deliver power to the contact lens display wirelessly using inductive coupling via a first conductive coil extended along a perimeter of the necklace;

wherein the contact lens display comprises;

a second conductive coil to inductively couple to the first conductive coil to receive the power wirelessly,

a transmitter circuit to transmit data wirelessly to the necklace by changing an impedance across the second conductive coil, and

wherein the necklace further comprises a receiver circuit to receive the data by sensing the change in impedance across the second conductive coil.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the contact lens display is configured to receive image data wirelessly and project one or more images based on the image data.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the necklace is configured to transmit the image data to the contact lens wirelessly via the first conductive coil.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the contact lens display includes an inner surface and an outer surface and a projector between the inner surface and the outer surface.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the contact lens display further comprises:

power recovery electronics to receive the power from the second conductive coil.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first conductive coil includes a plurality of turns.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the power is transmitted at a frequency of an industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) radio band.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the necklace is capable of transmitting the power wirelessly while hidden under clothing of a wearer of the necklace.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the necklace is less than 150 cm in circumference.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the first conductive coil is configured to be worn around a neck of a wearer of the necklace.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the necklace further comprises a first fastener and a second fastener, the first fastener adapted to removably couple to the second fastener, and the delivery of power enabled when the first fastener is coupled to the second fastener and being disabled when the first fastener is decoupled from the second fastener.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein coupling the first fastener to the second fastener completes the first conductive coil such that power can be delivered and decoupling the first fastener and the second fastener breaks the first conductive coil such that power cannot be delivered.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the necklace further comprises:

a direct current (DC) power supply to provide a DC power to the first conductive coil; and

a protection circuit configured to disable components of the necklace when the first fastener is decoupled from the second fastener.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first fastener and the second fastener are configured as a clasp of opposing ends of the necklace.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the necklace includes a pendant comprising hardware elements configured for delivering power via the first conductive coil.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the system further comprises a microphone and a processor, the processor configured to:

receive an audio signal from the microphone;

recognize speech in the audio signal; and

generate data representing text of the speech for transmission to the contact lens display such that the contact lens display includes the text of the speech in the one or more images.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the system further comprises a camera and a processor, the processor configured to:

receive one or more captured images from the camera;

recognize manual communication in the one or more captured images; and

generate data representing text of the manual communication for transmission to the contact lens display such that the contact lens display includes the text of the manual communication in the one or more images.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the necklace comprises a communication interface for communicating with a mobile computing device, the necklace configured to communicate data with the mobile computing device via the communication interface and to communicate the data wirelessly with the contact lens display.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the contact lens display comprises a scleral contact lens.

17. An augmented reality system comprising:

a contact lens display capable of projecting one or more images onto a user'"'"'s retina;

a necklace to deliver power to the contact lens display wirelessly using inductive coupling via a conductive coil extended along a perimeter of the necklace;

a microphone; and

a processor, the processor configured to;

receive an audio signal from the microphone;

determine a source of the audio signal; and

generate data identifying the source of the audio signal for transmission to the contact lens display such that the contact lens display includes text identifying the source of the audio signal in the one or more images.

18. An augmented reality system comprising:

a contact lens display capable of projecting one or more images onto a user'"'"'s retina;

a necklace to deliver power to the contact lens display wirelessly using inductive coupling via a conductive coil extended along a perimeter of the necklace;

a microphone; and

a processor, the processor configured to;

receive an audio signal from the microphone;

recognize speech in a first language in the audio signal; and

,

generate data representing text of the speech in a second language different than the first language for transmission to the contact lens display such that the contact lens display includes, in the one or more images, the text of the speech in the second language different than the first language.

22. An augmented reality system comprising:

a contact lens display; and

a necklace to deliver first data to the contact lens display wirelessly using inductive coupling via a first conductive coil extended along a perimeter of the necklace, the contact lens display capable of projecting one or more images onto a user'"'"'s retina based on the first data;

wherein the contact lens display comprises;

a second conductive coil to inductively couple to the first conductive coil to receive the first data wirelessly,

a transmitter circuit to transmit second data wirelessly to the necklace by changing an impedance across the second conductive coil, and

wherein the necklace further comprises a receiver circuit to receive the second data by sensing the change in impedance across the second conductive coil.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the contact lens display includes an inner surface and an outer surface and a projector between the inner surface and the outer surface.