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Apple invents Smartglasses with Waveguide-Based Eye Illumination

1 Smartglasses -

The AI glasses market is heating up with Meta, Snap, Baidu and XREAL that introduced their new glasses yesterday dubbed the XREAL One.

2 XREAL

Today the U.S. Patent Office published yet another patent application of Apple's that relates to glasses that include a light source which, when worn by a user, illuminates at least one eye of the user.

Apple's invention covers devices, systems, and methods for illuminating an eye. In various implementations, a device includes a frame to mount the device to a head. The device includes a light source, coupled to the frame, to generate light. The device includes a waveguide, optically coupled to the light source, to redirect the light to emit in a first direction from a plurality of leakage points, wherein, when the device is mounted to the head, the light is emitted in the first direction towards the eye to illuminate the eye.

In various implementations, a method is performed at a device including frame, a light source, and a waveguide. The method includes mounting, using the frame, the device to a head. The method includes injecting light from the light source into the waveguide. The method includes illuminating an eye via emission of the light from a plurality of leakage points of the waveguide.

In accordance with some implementations, a device includes one or more processors, a non-transitory memory, and one or more programs; the one or more programs are stored in the non-transitory memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors. The one or more programs include instructions for performing or causing performance of any of the methods described herein.

In various implementations, to illuminate the eye of user for gaze tracking purposes, a plurality of light sources emits light from various locations to generate glints on the eye of the user.

An image of the eye so illuminated can be analyzed to determine the gaze direction of the user.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below illustrates a front view of glasses worn by a user according to various implementations. This isn't a design patent, so the graphic is only conveying the concept of smartglasses; FIG. 2 illustrates a rear view of an eyepiece including an illumination system to illuminate the eye of a user according to a first implementation; FIG. 3 illustrates a rear view of an eyepiece including an illumination system to illuminate the eye of a user according to a second implementation.

2 Apple Glasses

Apple's patent FIG. 7 above illustrates a functional block diagram their smartglasses.

In various implementations, the glasses further includes a camera to capture a reflection of the light emitted in the first direction, e.g., an image of the eye of the user illuminated by the light emitted in the first direction when the glasses are mounted on the user's head.

In various implementations, the glasses further includes a processor to control various components to perform additional functions. For example, in various implementations, when the detector on the glasses detects an intensity of light over a threshold, the processor reduces an intensity of the light generated by the light source to prevent overexposure of the eye of the user to infrared and/or visible light. As another example, in various implementations, the processor analyzes an image of the eye of the user captured by the camera to determine an identity of the user or determine a gaze direction of the user.

Apple lists Pushkar P as the inventor of this invention who is one of Apple's Engineering Managers for Camera Hardware.

10.51FX - Patent Application Bar