Position tracking systems and methods for head-mounted display systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12259547-B2
Application number	US-202418441811-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 14, 2024
Priority date	Sep 28, 2021
Publication date	Mar 25, 2025
Grant date	Mar 25, 2025

Abstract

Systems and methods for tracking the position of one or more head-mounted display (HMD) system components of an HMD system. The HMD components may carry a plurality of angle sensitive detectors or other types of detectors. The HMD system may be operative to detect corrupted position tracking samples, allowing such samples to be ignored, thereby improving the position tracking process. Control circuitry causes light sources to emit light according a specified pattern, and receives sensor data from the plurality of detectors. Control circuitry may process the sensor data, for example using machine learning or other techniques, to track a position of one or more HMD components.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A head-mounted display system, comprising:
a first head-mounted display system component;
a plurality of optical detectors carried by the first head-mounted display system component;
a second head-mounted display system component that includes a plurality of light sources; and
control circuitry operative to:
cause one or more of the plurality of light sources to emit light;
receive sensor data from one or more of the plurality of optical detectors;
track a position of the second head-mounted display system component based at least in part on the received sensor data;
process the received sensor data, including to determine whether to disable any one of the plurality of optical detectors or any one of the plurality of light sources based on determined disabling criteria; and
disable each of the optical detectors or the light sources that satisfy the disabling criteria for a respective disabled time period during the tracking of the position of the second head-mounted display system component.

2. The head-mounted display system of claim 1 wherein the disabling criteria is based at least in part on a determined relative position between the first head-mounted display system component and the second head-mounted display system component.

3. The head-mounted display system of claim 1 wherein the respective disabled time period is based at least in part on movement of at least one of the first head-mounted display system component and the second head-mounted display system component.

4. The head-mounted display system of claim 1 wherein, for each of the plurality of light sources of the second head-mounted display system component, the disabling criteria provides a determination that light emitted by the light source is not likely to be received by any of the optical detectors of the first head-mounted display system component.

5. The head-mounted display system of claim 1 wherein, for each of the plurality of optical detectors of the first head-mounted display system component, the disabling criteria provides a determination that light emitted by any of the plurality of light sources of the second head-mounted display system component is not likely to be received by the optical detector.

6. The head-mounted display system of claim 1 wherein the respective disabled time period for each of the disabled light sources or optical detectors is determined based at least in part on at least one of:
a relative position between the first head-mounted display system component and the second head-mounted display system component; or
a relative movement between the first head-mounted display system component and the second head-mounted display system component.

7. The head-mounted display system of claim 1 wherein the respective disabled time period for each of the disabled light sources is determined based at least in part on a position of the light source on the second head-mounted display system component.

8. The head-mounted display system of claim 1 wherein the respective disabled time period for each of the disabled optical detectors is determined based at least in part on a position of the optical detector on the first head-mounted display system component.

9. The head-mounted display system of claim 1 wherein, the disabling criteria provides a determination that light emitted by each light source in a first subset of the plurality light sources is likely to be received by at least one of the optical detectors of the first head-mounted display system component, and the disabling criteria is operative to disable a second subset of light sources within the first subset of light sources for respective disabled time periods.

10. The head-mounted display system of claim 9 wherein the light sources in the second subset of light sources that are disabled are selected to provide light sources in the first subset of light sources that are not disabled that are relatively spaced apart from each other to provide relatively larger angles of separation with respect to the optical detectors that detect the light emitted by the light sources.

11. The head-mounted display system of claim 1 wherein the disabling criteria is based at least in part on previously received sensor data from one or more of the plurality of optical detectors.

12. A head-mounted display system, comprising:
a first head-mounted display system component;
a plurality of optical detectors carried by the first head-mounted display system component;
a second head-mounted display system component that includes a plurality of light sources; and
control circuitry operative to:
receive sensor data from one or more of the plurality of optical detectors;
track a position of at least one of the first head-mounted display system component and the second head-mounted display system component based at least in part on the received sensor data;
process the received sensor data, including to determine whether to disable any one of the plurality of optical detectors or any one of the plurality of light sources based on determined disabling criteria; and
disable each of the optical detectors or the light sources that satisfy the disabling criteria for a respective disabled time period.

13. A method of operating a head-mounted display system, the head-mounted display system comprising a first head-mounted display system component that includes a plurality of optical detectors, and a second head-mounted display system component that includes a plurality of light sources, the method comprising:
receiving sensor data from one or more of the plurality of optical detectors;
tracking a position of at least one of the first head-mounted display system component and the second head-mounted display system component based at least in part on the received sensor data;
processing the received sensor data, including determining whether to disable any one of the plurality of optical detectors or any one of the plurality of light sources based on determined disabling criteria; and
disabling each of the optical detectors or the light sources that satisfy the disabling criteria for a respective disabled time period.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the disabling criteria is based at least in part on a determined relative position between the first head-mounted display system component and the second head-mounted display system component.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the respective disabled time period is based at least in part on movement of at least one of the first head-mounted display system component and the second head-mounted display system component.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein, for each of the plurality of light sources of the second head-mounted display system component, the disabling criteria provides a determination that light emitted by the light source is not likely to be received by any of the optical detectors of the first head-mounted display system component.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein, for each of the plurality of optical detectors of the first head-mounted display system component, the disabling criteria provides a determination that light emitted by any of the plurality of light sources of the second head-mounted display system component is not likely to be received by the optical detector.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the respective disabled time period for each of the disabled light sources or optical detectors is determined based at least in part on at least one of:
a relative position between the first head-mounted display syste

Assignees

• Valve Corp

Inventors

• Fletcher Evan
• Mucha Jeffrey Walter
• Hudman Joshua Mark
• Yates Alan
• Stoll Gordon Wayne
• Leinbaugh Jeffrey George
• Lohr Charles

Classifications

• G06F3/011

  Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality (blind teaching G09B21/00) · CPC title

• G02B2027/0138

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

• G02B27/0172

  characterised by optical features · CPC title

• G06F3/0304

  Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means (constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042) · CPC title

• G06F3/012

  Head tracking input arrangements · CPC title