Air-Gap Camera Bracket for HMD Optical Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Head-mounted devices face challenges in ensuring proper alignment and durability of optical components, particularly cameras and displays, especially during drop events or other impact conditions, which can lead to misalignment and potential plastic deformation.
Innovation Solution
The use of a camera bracket and optical module guide rails with central mounting structures that are suspended in air by gaps, allowing for flexible alignment adjustments and preventing over-flexing and plastic deformation by acting as stops during impacts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If optical components are rigidly mounted to the housing, then alignment precision is improved, but durability during impact is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting system is divided into a rigid central portion (attached to housing for precision) and flexible end portions (isolated by air gaps for impact protection). This segmentation allows different parts of the same structure to serve different functions - the central portion maintains alignment precision while the isolated end portions absorb impact forces without transmitting them to the optical components.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the mounting structure have different mechanical properties. The central portion is rigidly connected to the housing for stability and precision, while the end portions are isolated by air gaps to provide flexibility and impact protection. This local differentiation of structural properties resolves the contradiction between needing rigidity for alignment and flexibility for impact resistance.
2Reliability
If optical components are isolated from housing by air gaps, then impact resistance is improved, but alignment precision is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting structure is segmented into a centrally-mounted rigid portion that ensures alignment precision and isolated end portions that provide impact resistance. The air gaps create clear separation between these functional zones, allowing each segment to optimize its performance without compromising the other.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges two mounting approaches - rigid mounting for precision and isolated mounting for protection - into a single hybrid structure. The central portion uses rigid attachment while the end portions use air gap isolation, combining the benefits of both methods in one integrated mounting system.
3Stability of the object's composition
If guide rails are rigidly attached to housing, then structural stability is improved, but plastic deformation during impact is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The guide rail system is segmented with the central portion rigidly attached to the housing for structural stability, while the end portions are isolated by air gaps. This segmentation allows the central portion to maintain structural integrity and positioning stability, while the isolated end portions can flex and absorb impact forces without suffering plastic deformation.
Solution Approach 2:
The air gaps act as pre-established cushioning zones between the guide rail ends and the housing. In the event of impact, these gaps provide a buffer that prevents direct force transmission to the guide rail ends, thereby preventing plastic deformation before it can occur.
4Ease of operation
If camera bracket ends contact housing interior surfaces, then over-travel prevention is improved, but impact force transmission is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The air gaps act as intermediary zones between the camera bracket ends and the housing interior surfaces. These gaps allow the bracket ends to move freely within normal operational ranges (preventing over-travel through the defined gap distance) while isolating them from impact forces that would be transmitted if direct contact occurred.
Data Source
AI summary
A head-mounted device may have a head-mounted housing that is configured to be worn on a head of a user. While the head-mounted device is being worn, displays in the head-mounted device may provide images to eye boxes. The user may view images in the eye boxes. The head-mounted housing may have a forward-facing front portion, may have a rearward-facing rear portion that faces away from the front portion towards the eye boxes, and may have a middle portion between the front and rear portions. The middle portion may have openings that receive left and right optical modules containing left and right displays and corresponding left and right lenses. A camera bracket and optical module guide rails may be centrally attached to the middle housing portion between the left and right openings and may have ends that are suspended in air.