Eye imaging in head worn computing

• US 9,811,152 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2014
• Issued: 11/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mentor Acquisition One, LLC (Magic Leap, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Osterhout Design Group
• Inventors: Lohse, Robert Michael, Haddick, John D., Osterhout, Ralph F., Border, John N., Nortrup, Edward H.
• Primary Examiner(s): McDowell, Jr., Maurice L
• Application Number:
  US14/525,887
• Publication Number:
  US 20150241965A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,106 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0138 comprising image capture systems, e.g. camera
• 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 27/0172 characterised by optical features
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1686 the I/O peripheral being an integrated camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/606 by securing the transmission between two devices or processes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/005 Input arrangements through a video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• 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

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.

Claims

1. A head-worn computer, comprising:

a camera adapted to capture an image of an eye of a person wearing the head-worn computer to determine a position of the eye and to determine a sharpness of computer content reflected off of the eye, wherein the camera is positioned to capture the reflected images of the eye from an optical path that is in-line with an image-light path through delivery optics that are adapted to present an image to the eye;

a processor adapted to identify a movement pattern from the plurality of reflective images of the eye, wherein the processor is further adapted to determine if the movement pattern matches a pre-defined user control movement pattern; and

the processor further adapted to control a software application resident on the head-worn computer.

2. The head-worn computer of claim 1, wherein the pre-defined user control movement pattern is a wink.

3. The head-worn computer of claim 1, wherein the pre-defined user control movement pattern is a blink.

4. The head-worn computer of claim 1, wherein the pre-defined user control movement pattern is an eye movement pattern.

5. The head-worn computer of claim 1, wherein the camera is located proximate an image display system, wherein the image display projects image light along the optical path in-line with the delivery optics adapted to present an image to the eye.

6. The head-worn computer of claim 5, wherein the image display is a reflective display and the reflected image of the eye of the person reflects off of the image display prior to being captured by the camera.

7. The head-worn computer of claim 5, further comprising a reflective surface positioned between the image display and the camera, wherein the camera captures the reflected image of the eye of the person after it reflects off of the reflective surface.

8. The head-worn computer of claim 7, wherein the image display is a front lit reflective image display.

9. The head-worn computer of claim 7, wherein the image display is an emissive display.