EYE IMAGING IN HEAD WORN COMPUTING

• US 20150206008A1
• Filed: 11/05/2014
• Published: 07/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mentor Acquisition One, LLC (Magic Leap, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Osterhout Design Group
• Inventors: Border, John N., Haddick, John, Bietry, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 9,615,742 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0008 provided with illuminating means A61B3/117 takes precedence; goniolenses used for laser treatment A61F9/009; illuminating means for optical instruments G02B27/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0025 characterised by electronic signal processing, e.g. eye models
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0041 characterised by display arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/113 for determining or recording eye movement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/12 for looking at the eye fundus, e.g. ophthalmoscopes A61B3/13 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/14 Arrangements specially adapted for eye photography apparatus or arrangements for taking photographs per se G03B
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/117 Identification of persons methods or arrangements for recognising patterns, e.g. fingerprints, G06F18/00, G06V40/00; identification of persons by analysing their voice or speech G10L17/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1171 based on the shapes or appearances of their bodies or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0138 comprising image capture systems, e.g. camera
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/014 comprising information/image processing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0178 Eyeglass type eyeglass details G02C
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0187 slaved to motion of at least a part of the body of the user, e.g. head, eye
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0172 characterised by optical features
• CPC Class Codes: G02C 11/10 Electronic devices other than hearing aids
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/19 Sensors therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/193 Preprocessing; Feature extraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/197 : Matching; Classification

Abstract

Aspects of the present invention relate to methods and systems for imaging, recognizing, and tracking of a user'"'"'s eye that is wearing a HWC. Aspects further relate to the processing of images reflected from the user'"'"'s eye and controlling displayed content in accordance therewith. Aspects further relate to determining health conditions of the user based on eye imaging technologies.

Claims

1. An eye-imaging system, comprising:

a. A camera system positioned in a head-worn computer, wherein the camera system is further positioned to capture eye-image light that originates as reflections from an eye of a user; and

b. A processor adapted to cause the camera system to capture the eye-image light a plurality of times, wherein an interval of time between the plurality of times is based on a one of a plurality of reasons for capturing the eye-image light.

2. The eye-imaging system of claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of reasons is security.

3. The eye-imaging system of claim 2, wherein the interval of time is based on an indication that the user has mounted the head-worn computer.

4. The eye-imaging system of claim 2, wherein the interval of time is based on an indication that the head-worn computer is attempting to access a pre-determined computer resource.

5. The eye-imaging system of claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of reasons is health.

6. The eye-imaging system of claim 2, wherein the interval of time is relatively short to assess a health condition of the user due to a type movement of the user.

7. The eye-imaging system of claim 6, wherein the type of movement is indicative of user physical exertion.

8. The eye-imaging system of claim 2, wherein the interval of time is relatively long to assess a long-term condition of the user.

9. The eye-imaging system of claim 1, wherein the head-worn computer includes a display adapted to generate image light, wherein the image light is projected into an optical path in-line with the eye of the user.

10. The eye-imaging system of claim 9, wherein the display is a reflective display.

11. The eye-imaging system of claim 10, wherein the reflective display is an LCoS.

12. The eye-imaging system of claim 11, wherein substantially all display illumination is incident the reflective between 45 degrees and 135 degrees relative to a front surface of the reflective display.

13. The eye-imaging system of claim 9, wherein the reflective display is a DLP.

14. The eye-imaging system of claim 13, wherein the illumination light is generated at a position adjacent to the reflective display.

15. The eye-imaging system of claim 13, further comprising a dark-light trap positioned to capture off-pixel light.

16. The eye-imaging system of claim 1, wherein the display is an emissive display.