System for eye tracking

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10674143-B2
Application number	US-201815973182-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 7, 2018
Priority date	May 12, 2017
Publication date	Jun 2, 2020
Grant date	Jun 2, 2020

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to a system. In some aspects, the system may include an emitter configured to emit a light. The system may include a light guide configured to direct the light toward a pupil of an eye. The light guide may include a directing portion configured to propagate the light. The light guide may include a turning portion configured to receive light from the directing portion and direct the light toward the pupil of the eye and configured to receive reflected light directed from the pupil of the eye and direct the reflected light toward the directing portion. The system may include a receiver configured to receive the reflected light from the light guide. The system may include a processor configured to determine a gaze direction of the pupil of the eye based at least in part on the reflected light received by the receiver.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
an emitter configured to emit a light;
a light guide configured to direct the light toward a pupil of an eye,
the light guide including a directing portion configured to propagate the light, and
the light guide including a turning portion configured to receive light from the directing portion and direct the light toward the pupil of the eye and configured to receive reflected light directed from the pupil of the eye and direct the reflected light toward the directing portion;

a receiver configured to receive the reflected light from the light guide; and
a processor configured to determine a first gaze direction of the pupil of the eye based at least in part on a pattern of light rays, of the reflected light received by the receiver, being a first set of light rays associated with a first set of angles of incidence,
the processor further configured to determine a second gaze direction based at least in part on the pattern of light rays being a second set of light rays associated with a second set of angles of incidence.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the emitter is an infrared light emitting diode.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the turning portion includes at least one of:
a holographic film attached to an eyepiece;
a micro-structured element,
a surface relief diffractive element, or
a mirror.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the turning portion is aligned to within a threshold proximity of a center point of the eye.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the turning portion is configured to direct the light so that the light strikes the eye over a plurality of different angles.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reflected light is reflected by the eye over a plurality of different angles.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the light guide is configured to diffract a single angle of light incident to the light guide into differing directions based at least in part on a portion of the light guide on which the single angle of light is incident and wherein the processor is configured to determine the gaze direction based at least in part on an angle of incidence of the reflected light on the turning portion or a wavelength of the reflected light at incidence with the turning portion.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein a path of the reflected light through the directing portion toward the receiver is related to a position of the pupil of the eye.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein light guide configured to cause the reflected light to be incident on the receiver at a spatial position of incidence of the reflected light on the receiver corresponding to the gaze direction and wherein the processor is configured to determine the gaze direction based at least in part on an angle of incidence or the spatial position of incidence of the reflected light on the receiver.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the receiver is a pseudo imaging sensor.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine the gaze direction based at least in part on at least one of:
a regression algorithm,
a computer vision algorithm,
a machine learning regression model, or
a neural network.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the light guide is a fiber bundle with a collection lens configured to image the reflected light onto a collection end of the fiber bundle and toward the receiver.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the fiber bundle includes a non-uniform distribution of fibers.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the turning portion is horizontally distributed on an eyepiece aligned to the eye.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the turning portion is vertically distributed on an eyepiece aligned to the eye.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the turning portion comprises a plurality of rows or a plurality of columns of turning portions.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine the gaze direction in one axis.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine the gaze direction in a two axes.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine the gaze direction based at least in part on an intensity of the reflected light.

20. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system comprises an eyeglass structure,
the eyeglass structure including at least one eyepiece.

21. A method, comprising:
transmitting, by a device, light toward a pupil of an eye,
wherein the light is directed by a directing portion of a light guide to a turning portion of the light guide,
wherein the light is directed toward the pupil of the eye by the turning portion,
wherein reflected light is directed by the turning portion to the directing portion, and
wherein the reflected light is directed by the directing portion to a receiver;

receiving, by the device, the reflected light based at least in part on transmitting the light toward the pupil of the eye; and
determining, by the device and after receiving the reflected light, a first gaze direction of the pupil of the eye based at least in part on a pattern of light rays, of the reflected light, being a first set of light rays associated with a first set of angles of incidence,
a second gaze direction being determined based at least in part on the pattern of light rays being a second set of light rays associated with a second set of angles of incidence.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the light is transmitted by an infrared light emitting diode of the device.

23. The method of claim 21 , wherein the turning portion includes at least one of:
a holographic film attached to an eyepiece;
a micro-structured element,
a surface relief diffractive element, or
a mirror.

24. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:
one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the one or more processors to:
cause the device to transmit light toward a pupil of an eye,
wherein the light is directed by a directing portion of a light guide to a turning portion of the light guide,
wherein the light is directed toward the pupil of the eye by the turning portion,
wherein reflected light is directed by the turning portion to the directing portion, and
wherein the reflected light is directed by the directing portion to a receiver;

cause the device to receive the reflected light based at least in part on transmitting the light toward the pupil of the eye; and
determine a first gaze direction based at least in part on a pattern of light rays, of the reflected light, being a first set of light rays associated with a first set of angles of incidence,
a second gaze direction being determined based at least in part on the pattern of light rays being a second set of light rays associated with a second set of angles of incidence.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24 , wherein the light is transmitted by an infrared light emitting diode of the device.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24 , wherein the turning portion includes at least one of:
a holographic film attached to an eyepiece;
a micro-structured element,
a surface relief diffractive element, or
a mirror.

27. An apparatus, comprising:
means for transmitting light toward a pupil of an eye,
wherein the light is directed by a directing p

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Gruhlke Russell
• Rangan Venkat
• Sivalingam Ravishankar
• Li Kebin

Classifications

• G02B6/005

  provided by one optical element, or plurality thereof, placed on the light output side of the light guide · CPC title

• H04N5/33

  Transforming infrared radiation (cameras or camera modules for generating image signals from infrared radiation H04N23/20; circuitry of SSIS for transforming infrared radiation into image signals H04N25/20) · CPC title

• H04N13/332

  Displays for viewing with the aid of special glasses or head-mounted displays [HMD] · CPC title

• G02B27/0093

  with means for monitoring data relating to the user, e.g. head-tracking, eye-tracking · CPC title

• G02B27/0172

  characterised by optical features · CPC title