Passive surface acoustic wave communication

• US 8,820,934 B1
• Filed: 09/05/2012
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verily Life Sciences LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Ho, Harvey, Amirparviz, Babak
• Primary Examiner(s): Collins, Darryl J
• Assistant Examiner(s): O'NEILL, GARY WILLIAM
• Application Number:
  US13/603,531
• Time in Patent Office: 727 Days
• Field of Search: 35115902-15938, 351/219
• US Class Current: 351/219
• CPC Class Codes: G02C 7/04 Contact lenses for the eyes disinfection or sterilisation of contact lenses A61L12/00

Abstract

This disclosure relates to systems and/or methods for detection of eye blinking by interrogating a passive surface acoustic wave based contact lens using an interrogation signal and interpreting reflections of the interrogation signal from the passive surface acoustic wave based contact lens.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an interrogation component that is configured to;

transmit an interrogation signal to a contact lens, wherein at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component is disposed on or within the contact lens; and

receive a reflected portion of the interrogation signal from the contact lens, wherein the reflected portion of the interrogation signal is indicative of eyelid location relative to the at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component; and

a detection component configured to determine or infer a location of an eyelid relative to the at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component based upon at least a signal strength of the reflected portion of the interrogation signal.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the interrogation component is configured to transmit the interrogation signal at intervals less than a predetermined maximum interval.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the predetermined maximum interval is based upon an average or shortest length of time of an eye blink.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the detection component is configured to determine or infer a pattern of eyelid locations over a period of time based on a plurality of reflected portions of the interrogation signal.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the detection component is configured to match the pattern of eyelid locations to an associated command of a list of commands, wherein respective commands in the list of commands are associated with respective patterns of eyelid locations.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the system comprises at least one of a head mounted device, heads-up display glasses, a monocle, eyeglasses, sunglasses, a headset, a visor, a cap, a helmet, a mask, a headband, clothing, a mobile phone, a remote device, a wearable device, or a non-wearable device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the reflected portion of the interrogation signal has a distinct frequency corresponding to an operating frequency of an associated surface wave acoustic based sensing component of the contact lens.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the detection component is configured to determine or infer whether the eyelid is covering the at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component based on the signal strength of the reflected portion of the interrogation signal in comparison to a threshold.

9. A method, comprising:

employing at least one processor executing computer executable instructions embodied on at least one non-transitory computer readable medium to perform operations comprising;

transmitting an interrogation signal to a contact lens, wherein at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component is disposed on or within the contact lens;

receiving a reflected portion of the interrogation signal from the contact lens, wherein the reflected portion of the interrogation signal is indicative of eyelid location relative to the at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component; and

inferring a location of an eyelid relative to the at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component based upon at least a signal strength of the reflected portion of the interrogation signal.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the transmitting occurs a plurality of times at a predetermined interval.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising inferring a pattern of eyelid locations over a period of time based on a plurality of reflected portions of the interrogation signal.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising matching the pattern of eyelid locations to an associated command in a list of commands, wherein respective commands in the list of commands are associated with respective patterns of eyelid locations.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the reflected portion of the interrogation signal has a distinct frequency corresponding to an operating frequency of an associated surface wave acoustic based sensing component of the contact lens.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein inferring a location of an eyelid relative to the at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component based upon at least a signal strength of the reflected portion of the interrogation signal comprises:

inferring whether the eyelid is covering the at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component based on the signal strength of the reflected portion of the interrogation signal in comparison to a threshold.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution, cause at least one device including a processor to perform operations comprising:

transmitting an interrogation signal to a contact lens, wherein at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component is disposed on or within the contact lens;

receiving a reflected portion of the interrogation signal from the contact lens, wherein the reflected portion of the interrogation signal is indicative of eyelid location relative to the at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component; and

inferring a location of an eyelid relative to the at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component based upon at least a signal strength of the reflected portion of the interrogation signal.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the transmitting occurs a plurality of times at a predetermined interval.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the predetermined interval is less than an average or shortest length of time of an eye blink.

18. A contact lens, comprising:

a substrate; and

at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component disposed on or within the substrate that is configured to reflect a portion of a received interrogation signal, such that a signal strength of the reflected portion of the received interrogation signal is indicative of eyelid location relative to the at least one surface wave acoustic based sensing component.

19. The contact lens of claim 18, wherein the surface wave acoustic based sensing component comprises:

an antenna that is configured to receive the interrogation signal and propagate a first electrical energy from the interrogation signal to a surface acoustic wave filter, wherein the surface acoustic wave filter is configured to;

convert the first electrical energy propagated from the antenna to a first mechanical energy;

convert the first mechanical energy to a second electrical energy and propagate the second electrical energy to a sensor, wherein the sensor is configured to reflect an amount of the second electrical energy back to the surface acoustic wave filter for conversion into a second mechanical energy, wherein the amount is related to the impedance of the sensor, and wherein the impedance of the sensor is related to eyelid location; and

convert the second mechanical energy to a third electrical energy, wherein the third electrical energy is propagated to the antenna.

20. The contact lens of claim 19, further comprising multiple surface acoustic wave filters disposed on or within the substrate, each operating at a different respective frequency.

21. The contact lens of claim 19, wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a light sensor, a conductance sensor, a pressure sensor, or a temperature sensor.