Temporal vision modification

• US 20070028931A1
• Filed: 07/24/2006
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gearbox LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Searete LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Jung, Edward, Hyde, Roderick, Tegreene, Clarence, Myhrvold, Nathan, Wood, Lowell, Ishikawa, Muriel, Hillis, W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,470,027 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 128/898
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/24 Detecting, measuring or recording bioelectric or biomagnetic signals of the body or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G02C 7/02 Lenses; Lens systems ; Methods of designing lenses
• CPC Class Codes: G02C 7/083 Electrooptic lenses
• CPC Class Codes: G02C 7/085 Fluid-filled lenses, e.g. electro-wetting lenses
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0002 Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection

Abstract

Various embodiments of methods and systems for improving and enhancing vision are disclosed. Adjustable lenses or optical systems may be used to provide adaptive vision modification. In some embodiments, vision modification may be responsive to the current state of the user'"'"'s visual system. Certain embodiments provide correction of the subject'"'"'s near and far vision. Other embodiments provide enhancement of vision beyond the physiological ranges of focal length or magnification.

Claims

1-43. -43. (canceled)

44. A method of controlling a lens system, comprising the steps of:

a) Receiving an image signal representing a time-varying image detected from an eye of a subject;

b) Determining at least one quality of said image from said image signal;

c) Generating a lens system control signal in response to said at least one quality of said image; and

d) Sending said lens system control signal to an adjustable lens system, wherein said control signal is utilized to cause adjustment of said adjustable lens system to modify said at least one quality of said image.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein said quality of said image is determined from at least a portion of said image detected from at least a portion of the fovea of the retina of said eye of said subject.

46. The method of claim 44, comprising the further step of detecting at least one feature in said image, and wherein said step of determining at least one quality of said image comprises determining a sharpness of said at least one feature.

47. The method of claim 44, wherein determining at least one quality of said image comprises detecting at least one landmark in said image.

50. The method of claim 44, comprising the further step of tracking the position of at least a part of the fovea of the retina of said eye.

51. The method of claim 44, wherein determining said quality of said image comprises performing a spatial frequency analysis of at least a portion of said image signal within a spectral waveband.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein said spatial frequency analysis includes at least one form of mathematical functional analysis.

53. The method of claim 52, in which the form of mathematical functional analysis includes Fourier transformation analysis.

54. The method of claim 52, comprising determining a peak spatial frequency content of said image signal.

55. The method of claim 53 wherein said Fourier transformation analysis includes determining a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).

56. The method of claim 44, wherein said image signal represents a time-varying image detected from a first position in said eye of said subject, and wherein determining said quality of said image signal comprises comparing said image signal with at least one reference image signal.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein said at least one reference signal corresponds to an at least one image detected from a different spacetime location than the location corresponding to said image signal.

58. The method of claim 56, wherein said at least one reference signal comprises at least one previous instance of said image signal.

67. The method of claim 44, wherein said step of generating a lens system control signal comprises determining a transfer function representing the optical system of said eye of said subject over some visible spectral waveband and some field-of-view centered on the fovea of said eye.

68. The method of claim 58, including determining at least one quality of said previous instance of said image signal and comparing said at least one quality of said image signal quality to said at least one quality of said reference signal.

69. The method of claim 68, further including generating a lens system control signal to adjust said lens system in the opposite direction of an immediately preceding lens system adjustment if said at least one quality of said reference signal is better than said at least one quality of said image signal.

70. The method of claim 68, further including generating a lens system control signal to adjust said lens system in the same direction as an immediately preceding lens system adjustment if said at least one quality of said reference signal is worse than said at least one quality of said image signal.

90. The method of claim 47 wherein said at least one landmark is in the foveal region of said image or is at least a portion of an optic nerve of said eye.

91. The method of claim 44, including repeating steps a) through d) at a rate faster than at least one of the intrinsic accommodation time of the lens of said eye or the visual pigment reversal-rate of the highest reversal-rate visual pigment found in the photoreceptors of said eye.

92. The method of claim 44, including repeating steps a) through d) at a frequency selected from least about once every 3 seconds, at least about once per second, and at least about three times per second.

93. The method of claim 44, including repeating steps a) through d) with an update rate selected from between about 1/3 Hz and about 10 Hz, between about 1 Hz and about 10 Hz, and between about 1 Hz and about 3 Hz.

48. (canceled)

49. (canceled)

59-66. -66. (canceled)

71. A system for modifying the vision of a subject, comprising:

a) An adjustable optical system adapted to modify an input image impinging on the retina of an eye of the subject;

b) An image detector adapted to detect an image reflected from the retina;

c) An image analyzer for determining the quality of said reflected image; and

d) A controller for providing ongoing control of said adjustable optical system responsive to said quality of said reflected image.

72. The system of claim 71, wherein said controller generates a control signal for updating the setting of said adjustable optical system at a preset update rate.

73. The system of claim 72, wherein said controller comprises a device including a microprocessor, and wherein said update rate is controlled by a timer chip.

74. The system of claim 72, wherein said controller comprises a device including a microprocessor, and wherein said update rate is controlled by a software loop.

75. The system of claim 72, wherein said controller comprises digital hardware, and wherein said update rate is under hardware control.

78. The system of claim 71, comprising a second image detector adapted to detect a reference image.

94. The system of claim 71, wherein said adjustable optical system is adjusted faster than at least one of the intrinsic accommodation time of the lens of said eye or the visual pigment reversal-rate of the highest reversal-rate visual pigment present in the photoreceptors of said eye.

95. The system of claim 71, wherein said image analyzer comprises at least one of a device including a microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit, or a digital signal processing chip.

76. (canceled)

77. (canceled)

79-81. -81. (canceled)

82. A system for providing adaptive vision modification, comprising:

a) An image detector for detecting a time-varying image from at least a portion of a retina of an eye of a subject;

b) An image analyzer for determining the quality of said detected image;

c) An image modulator for modulating an input image impinging on at least a portion of said retina; and

d) A modulation controller for providing ongoing control of said image modulator in response to said quality of said detected image.

83. The system of claim 82, wherein said image modulator modifies the focal length of said input image.

84. The system of claim 82, wherein said image modulator modifies the magnification of said input image.

85. The system of claim 82, wherein said image modulator modifies one or more cylindrical focal properties including at least one of focal length or axis-of-orientation of said input image.

86. The system of claim 82, wherein said image modulator comprises an adjustable optical system.

96. The system of claim 82, wherein said image modulator modulates or controls at least one of the spectral content of said input image, the spatial frequency content of said input image, or the intensity of said input image in a spectral wavelength-dependent fashion.

87-89. -89. (canceled)