Electronic Device with Adaptive Display

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021134245-A1
Application number	US-201816629495-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 27, 2018
Priority date	Aug 29, 2017
Publication date	May 6, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

An electronic device may include a display that displays virtual reality content. Control circuitry may estimate a brightness adaptation state of a user that is wearing the electronic device. The control circuitry may select a tone mapping curve and brightness level for the virtual reality content based on the user's adaptation state. To estimate the user's adaptation state, the control circuitry may gather ambient light information from an ambient light sensor, may gather physiological attributes of the user such as blink rate, pupil size, and eye openness from a camera, and may gather gaze position information from gaze detection circuitry. The control circuitry may optimize the brightness of the display based on the user's current adaptation state, or the control circuitry may shift the brightness of the display away from the user's adaptation level to help guide the adaptation state to the desired level.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electronic device configured to be worn by a user, comprising:
an ambient light sensor that measures ambient light outside of the electronic device; a camera that is used to measure physiological attributes; a display that generates virtual reality content; and control circuitry configured to:
receive an ambient light reading from the ambient light sensor;
adjust a brightness of the virtual reality content on the display based on the ambient light reading and the physiological attributes.

2 . The electronic device defined in claim 1 further comprising gaze detection circuitry that determines a gaze position, wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust the brightness of the virtual reality content based on the gaze position.

3 . The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine an average pixel brightness at a location on the display that aligns with the gaze position.

4 . The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust the brightness of the virtual reality content based on the average pixel brightness at the location.

5 . The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust the brightness of the virtual reality content from a first brightness level to a second brightness level, wherein the first brightness level is less than the second brightness level, and wherein the first brightness level is used when the display displays a video and the second brightness level is used when the display displays a menu screen.

6 . The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the physiological attributes comprise at least one of blink rate, pupil size, and eye openness.

7 . The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to estimate a brightness adaptation state of the user based on the ambient light reading and to adjust the brightness of the virtual reality content based on the estimated brightness adaptation state.

8 . The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to select a tone mapping curve for the virtual reality content based on the ambient light reading and the physiological attributes.

9 . An electronic device configured to be worn by a user, comprising:
an ambient light sensor that measures ambient light outside of the electronic device; an input-output component that gathers information about the user; a display that generates virtual reality content; and control circuitry configured to:
estimate a brightness adaptation state of the user based on the ambient light and the information; and
adjust a brightness of the virtual reality content on the display based on the brightness adaptation state.

10 . The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust the brightness by optimizing the brightness for the brightness adaptation state.

11 . The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust the brightness of the display from a first brightness level to a second brightness level, wherein the first brightness level is greater than the second brightness level, and wherein the first brightness level is used when the display is turned on and the second brightness level is used a period of time after the display is turned on.

12 . The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust the brightness of the display from a first brightness level to a second brightness level, wherein the first brightness level is less than the second brightness level, and wherein the first brightness level is used when the display displays a video and the second brightness level is used when the display displays a menu screen.

13 . The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the input-output component comprises a camera that is used to measure a gaze position.

14 . The electronic device defined in claim 13 wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine an average pixel brightness at a location on the display that aligns with the gaze position.

15 . The electronic device defined in claim 14 wherein the control circuitry is configured to estimate the brightness adaptation state of the user based on the average pixel brightness at the location.

16 . The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the input-output component comprises a camera that measures at least one of blink rate, pupil size, and eye openness.

17 . A method for operating an electronic device having a display that displays virtual reality content, comprising:
with an ambient light sensor, measuring ambient light outside of the electronic device; with a camera, gathering information about a user wearing the electronic device; with control circuitry, determining a brightness adaptation state of the user; and adjusting a brightness of virtual reality content based on the brightness adaptation state of the user.

18 . The method defined in claim 17 wherein adjusting the brightness of the virtual reality content comprises optimizing the brightness of the virtual reality content for the brightness adaptation state of the user.

19 . The method defined in claim 17 wherein adjusting the brightness of the virtual reality content comprises decreasing the brightness of the virtual reality content to shift the brightness adaptation state of the user from a first brightness adaptation level to a second brightness adaptation level.

20 . The method defined in claim 17 wherein gathering information about the user comprises tracking at least one of: gaze position, blink rate, pupil size, and eye openness.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Bonnier Nicolas P
• Baar Teun R
• Gambacorta Christina G
• Wu Jiaying

Classifications

• G06F3/013 Primary

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

• G06V40/18

  Eye characteristics, e.g. of the iris · CPC title

• G06F3/1407

  General aspects irrespective of display type, e.g. determination of decimal point position, display with fixed or driving decimal point, suppression of non-significant zeros · CPC title

• G06V40/193

  Preprocessing; Feature extraction · CPC title

• G02B27/017

  Head mounted · CPC title