Six Meta Patents cover Future Smartglasses for Tunable Optical Lenses, 3D Retina Imaging, Biometric Signals to Personalize Audio & more
Wide Field of View Optical Lens Assembly with Tunable Optical Lens
Cameras in wearable devices are subject to design requirements such as small form factor, low power consumption, fast response time, and mechanical reliability. Due to the wearable nature of the containing devices, small size (lighter weight) is an important design consideration. In wearable devices, available power is another design constraint. Furthermore, moving parts such as mechanically adjustable lenses, etc. may increase a failure risk in wearable devices due to higher likelihood of drops, hits, etc. Thus, camera features such as autofocus and optical zoom may be desired, but add to power consumption, size, and reliability risks.
In some examples, an optical lens assembly with an electrically controlled, tunable lens and an aperture stop may be used to provide autofocus, optical zoom, and/or similar functionalities to a camera. The tunable optical lens may be positioned between a first optical lens and a second optical lens in the optical lens assembly with the assembly including any number of negative or positive optical power lenses and/or other optical elements such as polarizers, quarter wave plates, optical filters, and similar ones.
An optical profile of the tunable optical lens may be modified through a voltage-controlled thin film piezo actuator, for example, a lead-zirconium-titanium oxide (PZT) film. Through the tunable optical lens, a wide field of view (FOV) (a field of view (FOV) that is larger than 100 degrees in diagonal direction) may be achieved for the camera in addition to autofocus and optical zoom features without increasing a length of the optical lens assembly or adding multiple element such as different optical lens assemblies for different fields of view.
Meta's patent Figure 1A below illustrates a perspective view of a near-eye display device in form of a pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses that may include a camera; Figure 1B illustrates a top view of the near-eye display device in form of a pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses with two cameras; Figure 2 illustrates an architecture of a camera with an optical lens assembly.
Meta's patent Figure 6A above illustrates a flow diagram of a method for assembling an optical lens assembly with a tunable optical lens; Figure 6B illustrates a flow diagram of a method for using an optical lens assembly with a tunable optical lens to change focus distance for a camera.
For full details, review European patent EP4414763 titled "Wide Field of View Optical Lens Assembly with Tunable Optical Lens."
Other Meta Patents Relating to Smartglasses
- 02: Wavelength-Multiplexed Input Coupler for Eye-Tracking
- 03: Modifying Audio for Presentation to a user based on a Determined Location of an Audio System Presenting the Audio
- 04: Single Pixel Three-Dimesional Retinal Imaging
- 05: Modifying Audio for Presentation to a user based on a Determined Location of an Audio System Presenting the Audio.
- 06: Use of Biometric Signals to Personalize Audio