AR/VR Eye-Tracking Display With Waveguide Depth Cues
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing augmented and virtual reality systems face challenges in providing a comfortable and natural-feeling presentation of virtual image elements amidst real-world imagery, with conventional 3-D displays causing discomfort due to mismatches between accommodative and vergence states of the user's eyes.
Innovation Solution
The use of a display system with inward-facing cameras for eye-tracking, combined with a stack of waveguides configured to provide varying wavefront divergence and discrete accommodation cues, allows for enhanced sensitivity in detecting physiological conditions by adjusting operational parameters and oculometric protocols to match accommodative and vergence states.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional 3-D displays are used to present virtual image elements, then depth perception is provided, but user comfort deteriorates due to mismatches between accommodative and vergence states
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the optical parameters of the display system by using waveguides with different wavefront divergences to present virtual images at different depths. This allows the accommodative state (focus distance) to be independently controlled from the vergence state (eye convergence), resolving the mismatch that causes discomfort in conventional 3-D displays.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the depth space into multiple discrete depth planes, each associated with a specific waveguide having a particular wavefront divergence. This segmentation allows independent control of accommodation cues for different virtual image elements at different depths, enabling comfortable multi-depth presentation without vergence-accommodation conflict.
2Measurement precision
If eye-tracking is used to detect physiological conditions, then sensitivity to health conditions improves, but system complexity increases due to additional sensors and processing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the display system multi-functional by integrating eye-tracking capabilities into the existing AR/VR display. The same optical system and sensors used for presenting virtual images at different depths are also used to track eye position and detect physiological conditions, eliminating the need for separate dedicated eye-tracking hardware and reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the user's own eye movements and responses to the presented stimuli as the measurement signal. By presenting visual stimuli at different depths and tracking how the user's eyes respond (vergence, accommodation, fixation patterns), the system self-diagnoses physiological conditions without requiring external measurement equipment.
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
This approach enables a more realistic and comfortable 3-D imagery experience by aligning accommodative and vergence states, while allowing for extended data collection and sensitivity adjustments to detect health conditions through eye-tracking.
Implementation Method 1
a stack of waveguides configured to provide varying wavefront divergence and discrete accommodation cues
Implementation Method 2
inward-facing cameras for eye-tracking
Data Source
AI summary
Example techniques are disclosed for increasing the sensitivity of an augmented or virtual reality display system to collecting eye-tracking data for detecting physiological conditions, such as neural processes. An example method includes accessing eye-tracking information associated with a control population and an experimental population, the eye-tracking information reflecting, for each user of the control population and the experimental population, eye-tracking metrics associated with the user; scaling the eye-tracking information based on the eye-tracking information associated with the control population; and determining a sensitivity measure reflecting a distance measure between the control population and experimental population. The sensitivity measure may be utilized to modify physical or operational parameters for the display system and/or the protocol for performing a test.