Eye mounted displays and systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10089966-B2
Application number	US-201815868981-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 11, 2018
Priority date	Jan 23, 2008
Publication date	Oct 2, 2018
Grant date	Oct 2, 2018

Abstract

A display device is mounted on and/or inside the eye. The eye mounted display contains multiple sub-displays, each of which projects light to different retinal positions within a portion of the retina corresponding to the sub-display. The projected light propagates through the pupil but does not fill the entire pupil. In this way, multiple sub-displays can project their light onto the relevant portion of the retina. Moving from the pupil to the cornea, the projection of the pupil onto the cornea will be referred to as the corneal aperture. The projected light propagates through less than the full corneal aperture. The sub-displays use spatial multiplexing at the corneal surface. Various electronic devices interface to the eye mounted display.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An eye mounted display comprising:
a contact lens;
a femto projector located inside the contact lens, the eye mounted display moving with a user's eye as the user's eye rotates in its socket, the femto projector projecting a plurality of pixels onto a retina of the user's eye when the contact lens is mounted on the user's eye, thereby forming a visual sensation of an image comprising the pixels, the femto projector comprising:
an array of addressable display pixels, and
display optics projecting light from the display pixels to a portion of the retina corresponding to the image displayed by the femto projector, where the portion of the retina is fixed as the user's eye rotates in its socket and thereby forming the visual sensation of the image comprising the pixels; and

a controller chip also located inside the contact lens, the controller chip transmitting to the femto projector data specifying the pixels projected by the femto projector.

2. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the femto projector comprises:
a logic chip coupled to an LED chip, the logic chip receiving data from the controller chip and producing analog drive signals for the LED chip.

3. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the controller chip includes a capability to reset the femto projector.

4. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the controller chip includes a capability to test the femto projector.

5. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the controller chip includes a backchannel to transmit data from the eye mounted display to a component outside the contact lens.

6. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the controller chip is located outside an optical zone of the eye mounted display.

7. The eye mounted display of claim 1 further comprising:
a data receiver device located inside the contact lens for wirelessly receiving data that specifies the image displayed by the femto projector.

8. The eye mounted display of claim 1 further comprising:
a power receiver device located inside the contact lens for wirelessly receiving power for the controller chip and for the femto projector.

9. The eye mounted display of claim 1 further comprising:
an accelerometer located inside the contact lens for measuring movement of the eye.

10. The eye mounted display of claim 1 further comprising:
a battery located inside the contact lens for storing power to power the controller chip and the femto projector.

11. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the display optics consists of a single optical element with optical power.

12. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the projected pixels having different sizes at the retina.

13. The eye mounted display of claim 12 where sizes of the projected pixels at the retina vary in part as a function of a size of retinal receptive fields.

14. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where sizes of the projected pixels at the retina match a native resolution of the eye.

15. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the pixels are pseudo-cone pixels.

16. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the projection of light propagates through a partial corneal aperture.

17. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the array of display pixels comprises an array of individually addressable LEDs.

18. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the array of display pixels comprises an array of individually addressable phosphors.

19. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the pixels are hexagonal in shape.

20. The eye mounted display of claim 1 where the contact lens is a scleral contact lens.

Assignees

• Spy Eye Llc

Inventors

• Deering Michael Frank
• Huang Alan

Classifications

• G06F3/013

  Eye tracking input arrangements (G06F3/015 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04N7/0117

  involving conversion of the spatial resolution of the incoming video signal (for graphics images G09G2340/0407) · CPC title

• G02B27/0172 Primary

  characterised by optical features · CPC title

• G09G3/02

  by tracing or scanning a light beam on a screen · CPC title

• G02B2027/0138

  comprising image capture systems, e.g. camera · CPC title