Bluetooth or other wireless interface with power management for head mounted display

• US 8,736,516 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2011
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kopin Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kopin Corporation
• Inventors: Jacobsen, Jeffrey J., Parkinson, Christopher, Pombo, Stephen A.
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, PREMAL R
• Application Number:
  US13/232,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20120235896A1
• Time in Patent Office: 986 Days
• Field of Search: 345 7- 9, 345156-184
• US Class Current: 345/7
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/014 comprising information/image processing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0101 characterised by optical features G02B27/0172 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback

Abstract

A Head Mounted Display (HMD) system that includes a wireless front end that interprets spoken commands and/or hand motions and/or body gestures to selectively activate subsystem components only as needed to carry out specific commands.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a head mounted display (HMD) system that includes a microdisplay, a user input device, a first processor, and two or more other peripheral circuits comprising:

entering a first state by enabling only the first processor and user input device;

detecting a user input;

interpreting, with the first processor, the user input as a spoken command or gesture command; and

entering a second state by the first processor issuing a command enabling a selected ones of the two or more other peripherals and the first processor issuing a command disabling other peripherals based on the spoken command or gesture command;

wherein the two or more peripherals include a second processor, the second processor configured to consume more power relative to the first processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the two or more other peripherals are selected from a group consisting of a wide area network interface, the second processor, a display, a camera and a head motion tracker.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the user input is the spoken command, and the spoken command is to access a document, and in the second state, power is applied to the second processor and microdisplay, and the document is then displayed.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the user input is the spoken command, and the spoken command is to access a webpage, and the second state further enables a wireless interface to connect to a network to fetch the webpage.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the peripherals include a camera and the second processor is further enabled in the first state, the user input is a hand gesture, and the second processor is configured to interpret the hand gesture prior to entering the second state.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the user input is a request to manipulate an aspect of the display, and the second state modifies presentation of information on the display.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the peripherals include a wireless interface, and the second state transmits the user command over the wireless interface to a host.

8. A headset portable apparatus comprising:

a microdisplay, for displaying visual information;

a user input device that provide a user input;

two or more peripheral devices that provides one or more peripheral input signals indicating a sensor input or at least one of a user motions from a user and /or vocal input from the user, wherein the two or more peripheral devices are disabled in a first state;

a first processor configured to translate the user input into one or more detected commands, only the first processor and the user input device enabled in the first state; and

a processor controller, for selectively enabling and /or disabling the microdisplay and one or more of the peripheral based on the one or more detected commands;

wherein the tow or more peripheral include a second processor, the second processor configured to consume more power relative to the first processor.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the one or more peripheral devices comprise:

one or more microphones, for receiving audio signals from the user; and

wherein the first processor further comprises a speech recognizer, for processing audio signals to detect vocal commands.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the one or more peripheral devices is a motion detector and the motion detector provides two or more motion inputs indicative of the user motion, the user motion being along two or more axes.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the motion detector is a camera for detecting hand and/or body gesture movements of the user.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the motion detector is a head movement tracking device for detecting head movements of the user.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the peripherals further comprise a communication interface providing one or more wireless links between the headset portable apparatus and another data processing device.

14. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the first processor is configured to process the detected commands to control aspects of presentation of visual information on the microdisplay.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the detected commands control a field of view.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the detected commands control a zoom, pan, or scale factor.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the detected command selects a hyperlink item in a web page display.