Dynamic adjustment of prism for head mounted display using photochromatic material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12487474-B2
Application number	US-202217670142-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 11, 2022
Priority date	Feb 11, 2022
Publication date	Dec 2, 2025
Grant date	Dec 2, 2025

Abstract

A head mounted display apparatus includes a display unit having an optical member, one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members operable to flexibly mount the optical member, and one or more light sources. The optical member has a reflective surface to direct rendered visual content towards an eye of a user. The elastically deformable position adjustment member(s) are moveable between a contracted state and an expanded state to adjust a spatial orientation of the optical member in a manner that adjusts a spatial orientation of the rendered visual content relative to the eye of the user. The elastically deformable position adjustment member(s) has one or more photochromatic regions that are moveable in response to exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light emitted by the light sources.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A head mounted display apparatus, comprising:
a display unit that includes an optical member having a reflective surface to direct rendered visual content towards an eye of a user, and one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members operable to flexibly mount the optical member and adjust a spatial orientation of the optical member and thereby adjust a spatial orientation of the rendered visual content relative to the eye of the user, the one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members having one or more photochromatic regions that are moveable in response to exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light; and one or more light sources operable to selectively emit illuminating UV light in a direction that contacts the one or more photochromatic regions to thereby adjust the spatial orientation of the optical member.

2 . The head mounted display apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the display unit further includes a projector member operable to project the rendered visual content.

3 . The head mounted display apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members comprises a polymer substrate, and the one or more photochromatic regions are composed of a photochromatic material that is embedded into the polymer substrate.

4 . The head mounted display apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the photochromatic material comprises an organic photochromatic material.

5 . The head mounted display apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the organic photochromatic material comprises spiropyran.

6 . The head mounted display apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more light sources comprise LED light sources.

7 . The head mounted display apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members are interconnected to each other on a surface of the optical member.

8 . A head mounted display system, comprising:
a head mounted display apparatus that includes a display unit having an optical member with a reflective surface to direct rendered visual content towards an eye of a user, one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members operable to flexibly mount the optical member and adjust a spatial orientation of the optical member, the one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members having one or more photochromatic regions that are moveable in response to exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, and one or more light sources operable to selectively emit illuminating UV light in a direction that contacts the one or more photochromatic regions to thereby selectively adjust the spatial orientation of the optical member; and a control module, operatively coupled to the one or more light sources, the control module including one or more processors and a non-transitory memory operatively coupled to the one or more processors comprising a set of instructions executable by the one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to:
dynamically adjust, in response to one or more of sensor data analysis and wireless communication network data, a spatial orientation of the rendered visual content relative to the eye of the user by causing movement of the optical member through a selective actuation of the one or more light sources.

9 . The head mounted display system of claim 8 , wherein the display unit further includes a projector member operable to project the rendered visual content.

10 . The head mounted display system of claim 8 , wherein:
the one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members comprises a polymer substrate, and the one or more photochromatic regions are composed of a photochromatic material that is embedded into the polymer substrate.

11 . The head mounted display system of claim 10 , wherein the photochromatic material comprises an organic photochromatic material.

12 . The head mounted display system of claim 11 , wherein the organic photochromatic material comprises spiropyran.

13 . The head mounted display system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more light sources comprise LED light sources.

14 . The head mounted display system of claim 8 , wherein the set of instructions cause the one or more processors to dynamically change the direction of light reflected by the optical member by selectively adjusting an intensity of the UV light emitted by the one or more light sources.

15 . A computer-implemented method of operating a head mounted display (HMD) apparatus, the computer-implemented method comprising:
dynamically adjusting, in response to one or more of sensor data analysis and wireless communication network data, a spatial orientation of rendered visual content relative to an eye of a user of the head mounted display system by causing movement of an optical member of the HMD apparatus through a selective actuation of one or more light sources to selectively emit illuminating UV light in a direction that contacts one or more photochromatic regions of one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members that are moveable in response to exposure to the illuminating UV light, wherein the one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members are operable to flexibly mount the optical member.

16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein the sensor data relates to one or more of a 3D virtual reality environment and a 3D augmented reality environment of the user.

17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein dynamically adjusting the spatial orientation of the rendered visual content comprises selectively adjusting an intensity of the UV light emitted by the one or more light sources.

18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein dynamically adjusting the spatial orientation of the rendered visual content comprises selectively adjusting a spatial orientation of the one or more light sources relative to the one or more elastically deformable position adjustment members.

19 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein dynamically adjusting the spatial orientation of the rendered visual content comprises dynamically adjusting a direction of UV light emitted by the one or more light sources.

20 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein dynamically adjusting the spatial orientation of the rendered visual content comprises dynamically adjusting a spatial orientation of the optical member.

Assignees

• Toyota Eng & Mfg North America
• Toyota Motor Engineering & Mfg North Inc

Inventors

• Joshi Shailesh N
• Dede Ercan M

Classifications

• G02B1/111

  using layers comprising organic materials · CPC title

• G02B2027/0178

  Eyeglass type (eyeglass details G02C) · CPC title

• G02B2027/014

  comprising information/image processing systems · CPC title

• G02B27/0172 Primary

  characterised by optical features · CPC title

• G02B27/0176

  characterised by mechanical features · CPC title