Eye mounted displays and systems, with variable resolution

• US 9,837,052 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2016
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tectus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Spy Eye, LLC
• Inventors: Deering, Michael Frank, Huang, Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Bukowski, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US15/281,645
• Publication Number:
  US 20170047051A1
• Time in Patent Office: 431 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0118 comprising devices for improving the contrast of the display / brillance control visibility
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0123 comprising devices increasing the field of view
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0134 of stereoscopic type
• 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 2027/0147 comprising a device modifying the resolution of the displayed image
• 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 27/0093 with means for monitoring data relating to the user, e.g. head-tracking, eye-tracking
• 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: G02C 7/04 Contact lenses for the eyes disinfection or sterilisation of contact lenses A61L12/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/40 Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/60 Analysis of geometric attributes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0407 Resolution change, inclusive of the use of different resolutions for different screen areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0435 Change or adaptation of the frame rate of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/02 by tracing or scanning a light beam on a screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/003 : Details of a display terminal, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto specific for a CRT G09G1/165; for a flat panel G09G3/2092
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/391 : Resolution modifying circuits, e.g. variable screen formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/344 : with head-mounted left-right displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/383 : for tracking with gaze detection, i.e. detecting the lines of sight of the viewer's eyes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/70 : characterised by syntax aspects related to video coding, e.g. related to compression standards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0117 : involving conversion of the spatial resolution of the incoming video signal for graphics images G09G2340/0407
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0127 : by changing the field or frame frequency of the incoming video signal, e.g. frame rate converter
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/31 : Projection devices for colour picture display , e.g. using electronic spatial light modulators [ESLM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/3188 : Scale or resolution adjustment scaling in general G06T3/40; resolution modifying circuits for displays in general G09G5/391
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/3191 : Testing thereof testing of displays in general G09G3/006

Abstract

A display device is mounted on and/or inside the eye. The eye mounted display contains multiple sub-displays, each of which projects light to different retinal positions within a portion of the retina corresponding to the sub-display. The projected light propagates through the pupil but does not fill the entire pupil. In this way, multiple sub-displays can project their light onto the relevant portion of the retina. Moving from the pupil to the cornea, the projection of the pupil onto the cornea will be referred to as the corneal aperture. The projected light propagates through less than the full corneal aperture. The sub-displays use spatial multiplexing at the corneal surface. Various electronic devices interface to the eye mounted display.

Claims

1. An eye mounted display comprising:

a contact lens; and

two or more femto projectors located inside the contact lens, the eye mounted display moving with the user'"'"'s eye as the user'"'"'s eye rotates in its socket, the two or more femto projectors projecting a plurality of pixels onto a retina of an eye of a human user when the contact lens is mounted on the eye, thereby forming a visual sensation of an image that spans a field of view of the user'"'"'s eye, the projected pixels having different sizes at the retina, each of the femto projectors comprising;

a plurality of display pixels displaying a different portion of the image for each femto projector, and

display optics projecting light from the display pixels to a portion of the retina corresponding to the portion of the image displayed by that femto projector, wherein the portion of the retina is fixed as the user'"'"'s eye rotates in its socket and thereby forming a visual sensation of the portion of the image displayed by that femto projector, each such projection of light propagating through a partial corneal aperture for that femto projector, different femto projectors projecting light to different portions of the retina, and the femto projectors in aggregate projecting light to portions of the retina that in aggregate span the field of view.

2. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the sizes of the projected pixels at the retina match a native resolution of the eye.

3. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the visual sensation of the image is produced with a resolution matching a native resolution of the eye.

4. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the sizes of the projected pixels at the retina vary in part as a function of a size of cone cells.

5. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the sizes of the projected pixels at the retina vary in part as a function of an area between cone cells.

6. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the sizes of the projected pixels at the retina vary in part as a function of a density of cone cells.

7. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the sizes of the projected pixels at the retina vary in part as a function of the number of cone cells that form a retinal receptive field.

8. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the sizes of the projected pixels at the retina vary in part as a function of a size of retinal receptive fields.

9. The eye mounted display of claim 8 wherein the sizes of the projected pixels at the retina vary in part as a function of a size of cone retinal receptive fields.

10. The eye mounted display of claim 8 wherein the sizes of the projected pixels at the retina vary in part as a function of a size of rod retinal receptive fields.

11. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the sizes of the projected pixels at the retina are smallest within a fovea of the eye.

12. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the sizes of the projected pixels at the retina increases with increasing eccentricity.

13. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the pixels are pseudo-cone pixels.

14. The eye mounted display of claim 13 wherein the pseudo-cone pixels projected to a fovea of the retina are somewhat larger than cone cells in the fovea.

15. The eye mounted display of claim 13 wherein the pseudo-cone pixels are hexagonal in shape.

16. The eye mounted display of claim 13 wherein the projected pseudo-cone pixels at the retina are elongated at increasing eccentricities.

17. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the pixels are projected onto a lattice at the retina.

18. The eye mounted display of claim 17 wherein the pixels are projected onto an irregular hexagonal lattice at the retina.

19. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the image occupies substantially a full field of view of the eye, and the visual sensation of the image is produced by not more than approximately 400,000 pixels.

20. The eye mounted display of claim 1 wherein the one or more femto projectors produce wavefronts of variable radius.