EYE TRACKING SYSTEM AND RELATED METHODS

• US 20140138544A1
• Filed: 09/04/2013
• Published: 05/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Innovega Inc.
• Original Assignee: Innovega Inc.
• Inventors: Sprague, Randall B., Zhang, Arthur
• Granted Patent: US 9,040,923 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 250/341.8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence

Abstract

A tracking system for tracking an eye including a light source projecting light toward a display surface in a sequential pattern, one or more reflectors associated with an optical device, where the one or more reflectors reflect the pulses of light from the display source, one or more photo detectors, where the photo detectors detect reflected pulses of light from the light source, and a system that measures pulse timing relative to horizontal and vertical pattern to compute a gaze angle of the eye.

Claims

1. A tracking system for tracking an eye, the system comprising:

a light source projecting light scanned sequentially in a pattern;

one or more reflectors associated with an optical device, the one or more reflectors reflecting light;

one or more photo detectors, the photo detectors detecting reflected light from the light source; and

a system measuring pulse timing relative to horizontal and vertical projected light pattern.

2. The tracking system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a display, wherein the light source is projected toward a surface of the display.

3. The tracking system as recited in claim 1, wherein the optical device includes one or more of a contact lens, or an intraocular device.

4. The tracking system as recited in claim 1, wherein the reflectors are integrated into a contact lens.

5. The tracking system as recited in claim 1, wherein the tracking system computes gaze angle of the eye.

6. The tracking system as recited in claim 1, wherein the light source includes a scanned beam projector.

7. The tracking system as recited in claim 1, wherein the light sources include one or more of a laser, infrared light source, infrared laser, RGB laser, or collimated LED.

8. The tracking system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more photo detectors are disposed outside of a projected image area of a display.

9. The tracking system as recited in claim 7, wherein the reflector is a first polarization selective reflector and a polarization of the infrared laser is set to be reflected by the first polarization selective reflector.

10. The tracking system as recited in claim 9, further comprising a second polarization selective reflector is proximate to the first polarization selective reflector, wherein the second polarization selective reflector is orthogonal to the first polarization selective reflector.

11. The tracking system as recited in claim 1, further comprising multiple reflectors associated with the optical device.

12. The tracking system as recited in claim 11, wherein the multiple reflectors reflect multiple images overlapping on the one or more photo detectors.

13. The tracking system as recited in claim 1, wherein an intensity of the light source is adjusted to optimize light received by the one or more photo detectors.

14. The tracking system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more photo detectors have a gain adjustment circuit for setting light threshold for generating output pulses.

15. The tracking system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a display, wherein the light source is projected toward a surface of the display, and the surface of the display to direct the light toward the optical device.

16. A method for tracking an eye, the method comprising:

projecting a light source on a display;

reflecting the light from the light source from the display to one or more reflectors associated with a component, the component to be mounted near a human eye;

reflecting light from one or more reflectors to one or more photo detectors; and

measuring timing between photo detector pulses to track movement of the human eye.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein the method comprises measuring timing of photo detector pulses relative to a refresh rate of the light source.

18. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein projecting the light source includes projecting horizontal and vertical pulses.

19. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein projecting the light source includes projecting a laser, a RGB light source, or a combination thereof.

20. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein projecting the light source includes projecting an infrared light source.