AR Light System Resolving Headset Weight and Shared Viewing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional augmented and virtual reality systems require users to wear large, heavy, and power-intensive head-mounted displays to view AR or VR content, which can be uncomfortable and limit others' ability to see the content within a shared environment.
Innovation Solution
An AR light system that projects high and low-resolution AR and VR content onto surfaces in a room using a combination of low-resolution and high-resolution LED projectors, providing both room illumination and content projection without the need for head-mounted displays, with integrated optical detection systems and diffusers for adaptive lighting and object detection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If head-mounted displays are used to view AR or VR content, then the user can experience immersive virtual or augmented reality, but the device becomes large, heavy, and power-intensive, causing discomfort and limiting others' ability to see the content
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the display function from the user's head and relocates it to the environment. Instead of projecting content onto the user's retina or through head-mounted optics, the system projects AR/VR content onto surfaces in the room (walls, tables, floors), allowing the user to view content through the environment itself rather than carrying heavy display equipment on their head
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces environmental surfaces as an intermediary between the content source and the user's eyes. Rather than direct head-mounted projection, light representing virtual content is projected onto intermediate surfaces (walls, tables, floors), which then reflect or transmit the content to the user, eliminating the need for heavy head-mounted display hardware
2Reliability
If head-mounted displays are used for AR content viewing, then the user can view virtual content overlaid on the real world, but other persons in the room cannot see the content being viewed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the private AR viewing experience with the shared physical environment by projecting content onto common surfaces that multiple people can observe. The virtual content is combined with the real-world environment in a way that makes it visible to all occupants, transforming a solitary head-mounted experience into a shared environmental display
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions the display from a first-person, head-bound dimension to a third-person, environmental dimension. Instead of content being confined to what one person can see through head-mounted optics, the content is projected into the spatial dimension of the room, making it accessible to multiple observers from different positions and angles
3Manufacturing precision
If high-resolution LED projectors are used to project AR content, then the quality of projected content improves, but the system complexity and number of components increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using high-resolution projection only where needed (on primary viewing surfaces) and lower-resolution projection for ambient or peripheral content. This allows the system to achieve high overall quality without uniformly deploying high-resolution projectors everywhere, reducing complexity while maintaining visual fidelity in critical areas
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables comfortable and shared viewing of AR or VR content within a room environment, reducing the need for head-worn devices and providing adaptive illumination and content projection that can be synchronized with AR/VR systems to avoid double augmentation.
Implementation Method 1
one or more low-resolution light-emitting diode (LED) projectors for emitting light including light representing low-resolution AR content, and one or more high-resolution LED projectors for emitting light including light representing high-resolution AR content
Implementation Method 2
a focusing lens configured to focus the light emitted by first array of LEDs on a surface in a room to form an image
Implementation Method 3
a diffuser mechanism configured to diffuse the light emitted by the respective array of LEDs to provide illumination within the room
Data Source
AI summary
A light system that may project virtual content onto surfaces of a room. The system may include one or more low-resolution light-emitting diode (LED) projectors for emitting light representing low-resolution virtual content, and a high-resolution LED projector for emitting light representing high-resolution virtual content. The high-resolution projector may be used to project a 2D image of augmented or virtual reality content being viewed by a person in a room using a device such as a headset or glasses onto a surface of the room so that other persons in the room can view a representation of what the person using the device is seeing. The low-resolution projector(s) may project low-resolution images onto other surfaces in the room, for example the walls and ceiling. The system may also be configured to emit diffuse light to illuminate a room when not emitting light representing virtual content.