Augmented Reality Eyewear with Track-Mounted X-Ray Viewing
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing augmented reality technologies struggle to provide an immersive experience for users to view objects in a separate physical environment behind a barrier, such as a wall, without the use of complex and cumbersome equipment.
Innovation Solution
The use of eyewear devices equipped with a sensor system on a track system that allows for variable positioning on the inside surface of a barrier, capturing images from the other side and wirelessly transmitting them to the eyewear for display, creating an X-ray effect of viewing through the barrier.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If existing augmented reality technologies are used to view objects behind a barrier, then users can see through the barrier, but the equipment becomes complex and cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the viewing function into two separate components: a sensor system positioned behind the barrier to capture images, and eyewear devices worn by users to display the captured images. This segmentation allows each component to be simple and specialized, avoiding the need for complex all-in-one equipment at the user's location.
Solution Approach 2:
A wireless communication system acts as an intermediary between the sensor system behind the barrier and the eyewear devices worn by users. The sensor captures images, transmits them wirelessly, and the eyewear receives and displays them, enabling barrier penetration viewing without requiring complex equipment at either end.
2Reliability
If a sensor system is positioned on the inside surface of a barrier, then images can be captured from the other side, but the positioning system becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor system is designed to be multi-functional: it can be positioned at various locations on the barrier surface using simple mounting mechanisms, and it performs both image capture and wireless transmission functions. This universal design reduces the need for complex, location-specific positioning systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor system includes integrated wireless communication capabilities that allow it to autonomously transmit captured images without requiring complex external positioning or control systems. The system serves itself by combining sensing and communication functions in a single unit.
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
Figure 1C
AI summary
Eyewear providing an interactive augmented reality experience to users in a first physical environment viewing objects in a second physical environment (e.g., X-ray effect). The second environment may be a room positioned behind a barrier, such as a wall. The user views the second environment via a sensor system moveable on the wall using a track system. As the user in the first environment moves the eyewear to face the outside surface of the wall along a line-of-sight (LOS) at a location (x, y, z), the sensor system on the track system repositions to the same location (x, y, z) on the inside surface of wall. The image captured by the sensor system in the second environment is wirelessly transmitted to the eyewear for displayed on the eyewear displays, providing the user with an X-ray effect of looking through the wall to see the objects within the other environment.