Eye tracking system with holographic film decoder

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10866634-B2
Application number	US-201816012022-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 19, 2018
Priority date	Jun 19, 2018
Publication date	Dec 15, 2020
Grant date	Dec 15, 2020

Abstract

A volume holographic film (such as a photopolymer) that is pre-recorded with patterns subsequently is used to encode LED or low-power laser light reflections from an eye into a binary pattern that can be read at very high speeds by a relatively simple complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensor that may be similar to a high framerate, low resolution mouse sensor. The low-resolution mono images from the film are translated into eye poses using, for instance, a look up table that correlates binary patterns to X, Y positions or using a pre-trained convolutional neural network to robustly interpret many variations of the binary patterns for conversion to X, Y positions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving reflections from a human eye of light from an encoding laser on a holographic film to establish coded emissions on respective regions of the film;
correlating the coded emissions to respective poses of the human eye;
illuminating the film using at least one reflection of light from a person's eye, the film being juxtaposed with at least one sensor to sense light from areas of the film illuminated by the reflection of light from a person's eye and representing at least one of the coded emissions; and
decoding signals from the sensor representing the at least one coded emission to return a respective pose of the eye.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein light from the reflection of light from a person's eye is infrared (IR).

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the sensor comprises at least one complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensor.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is executed at least in part by a processor.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the processor comprises at least one application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the processor comprises at least one microcontroller unit (MCU).

7. The method of claim 4 , comprising embedding the processor onto/into the sensor.

8. An apparatus, comprising:
at least one light source;
at least one holographically recorded film having plural coded regions, each coded region representing a code different from other coded regions on the film;
at least one sensor to sense light from at least one coded region of the film illuminated by a reflection from an eye of light from the light source; and
at least one decoder configured for decoding signals from the sensor representing the at least one coded region to return a respective pose of the eye.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the codes comprise respective plural different splotches.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the codes comprise respective plural different lines.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the codes comprise respective plural different bar codes.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the codes comprise respective plural different quick response (QR) codes.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the light source comprises at least one light emitting diode (LED).

14. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the sensor comprises at least one complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensor.

15. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the decoder comprises at least one application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

16. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the decoder comprises at least one microcontroller unit (MCU).

17. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the decoder is embedded onto/into the sensor.

18. An apparatus, comprising:
at least one holographically recorded film having plural coded regions, each coded region representing a code different from other coded regions on the film; and
at least one data storage medium correlating the coded regions to respective poses of an eye.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , comprising:
at least one light source;
at least one sensor to sense light emitted by the light source and reflected from a human eye onto at least one coded region of the film; and
at least one decoder configured for correlating signals from the sensor representing the at least one coded region to return a respective pose of the eye.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the light from the light source is infrared (IR).

Assignees

• Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc

Inventors

• Stafford Jeffrey R

Classifications

• G03H1/0248 Primary

  Volume holograms · CPC title

• G06V40/19

  Sensors therefor · CPC title

• G06V10/145

  Illumination specially adapted for pattern recognition, e.g. using gratings · CPC title

• G06V10/82

  using neural networks · CPC title

• G06V10/147

  Details of sensors, e.g. sensor lenses (fingerprint or palmprint sensors G06V40/13; vascular sensors G06V40/145; eye sensors G06V40/19) · CPC title