Wearable electronic display with pivoting display

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9733482-B2
Application number	US-201414149261-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 7, 2014
Priority date	Apr 27, 2010
Publication date	Aug 15, 2017
Grant date	Aug 15, 2017

Abstract

A wearable display apparatus includes a display for providing viewable images. A display support assembly can support the display. The display support assembly can be self centering and telescoping for adjusting the position of the display for viewing by a user. The display support assembly can include right side and left side arm members spaced apart from each other, and a flexibly resilient support member to which the display is mounted between the arm members. The support member can be telescopically mounted to the arm members. The support member can have flexibly resilient right and left side portions secured to the display. Each side portion can be slidably mounted to a respective arm member for telescoping. The support member can have a material cross section that provides stiffness for supporting the display when in a generally horizontal orientation for viewing while also providing resilient flexibility between the arm members to self center the display between the arm members with changes in distances between the arm members.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wearable display apparatus comprising:
an upright head band having a curved top and lower right and left sides for wearing over and on a user's head;
right and left side earphones, each coupled to a respective lower right and left side of the headband;
a display for providing viewable images; and
a display support assembly that supports the display, the display support assembly for adjusting position of the display for viewing by the user, the display support assembly comprising,
right side and left side arm members spaced apart from each other, and a unitary laterally flexible resilient support member to which the display is mounted between the arm members, the support member having a cross member between right and left side portions which are capable of laterally bending towards and away from each other to adjust to head size, the display being mounted to the cross member by a pivot joint for pivotal adjustment of the display relative to the cross member, the arm members of the display support assembly being rotatably mounted to opposing inner sides of the head band with two opposing joints of a display support assembly joint arrangement that are positioned over respective earphones and face each other, about a generally lateral display support assembly pivot axis that is centered and spaced above each earphone, for pivotably raising and lowering the display support assembly, each arm member having a straight portion to which a respective side portion of the support member is mounted, a curved portion extending from the straight portion, and into an upwardly angled portion extending over a respective earphone having an end with a joint member for engaging a respective display support assembly joint on an inner side of the head band spaced above a respective earphone for providing up and down pivoting arm member clearance over the earphone inwardly from said inner side of the head band, when the display support assembly is in a down position, the upwardly angled portion extends upwardly toward said end above and over a respective earphone, the joint members of the arm members each being connected to a respective frame extending inwardly from respective lower sides of the head band that inwardly space the arm members apart from the inner sides of the lower sides of the head band.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the unitary support member comprises a resilient metallic band in which the side portions of the unitary support member are bent relative to the cross member in a radius where the side portions are angled slightly away from each other.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the side portions of the unitary support member telescopically slide within a cavity in each arm member.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the side portions of the support member are provided with a preloaded resilient spring force outwardly away from each other that is constrained between the arm members.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 in which a constrained resilient bent condition of the support member provides symmetrical resilient centering of the display.

6. The apparatus of claim 3 further comprising a cable extending within at least one arm member for providing electrical communication to the display, the cable being secured to a respective telescoping side portion of the support member within the at least one arm member, the cable having a pattern of predetermined bendable and unbendable regions to allow a length of the cable to contract and expand in a predictable manner with telescoping of the side portion.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 in which the cable has a series of generally rigid sections separated from each other with generally flexible sections, at least a portion of the cable being positioned in a zig-zag fashion to allow contraction and expansion of the cable in an accordion like manner.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 in which the cable includes a series of individually insulated Litz wires with a length over which a series of generally rigid insulative sections are formed that are separated from each other by gaps, to form the bendable and unbendable regions.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the arm members of the display support assembly are rotatably mounted to the head band with the joint arrangement to allow pivoting of the display support assembly up and down and having an angle of rotation that moves to compensate for varying distances between the arm members.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 in which the joint arrangement comprises two ball joints.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the display is mounted to the support member by the pivot joint about a pivot axis, the pivot joint having a radius surface generally concentric to the pivot axis that contacts a resilient biased plate member to provide a frictional brake to hold the display in place once pivoted to a desired position.

12. A wearable display apparatus comprising:
an upright head band having a curved top and lower right and left sides for wearing over and on a user's head;
right and left side earphones, each coupled to a respective lower right and left side of the headband;
a display for providing viewable images; and
a display support assembly that supports the display for adjusting position of the display for viewing by the user, the display support assembly comprising,
right and left side arm members spaced apart from each other, and a unitary laterally flexible resilient support member to which the display is mounted between the arm members, the support member having a cross member between right and left side portions which are capable of laterally bending towards and away from each other to adjust to head size, the display being mounted to the cross member by a pivot joint for pivotal adjustment of the display relative to the cross member, the side portions of the support member having a preloaded resilient spring force outwardly away from each other that is constrained between the arm members, the arm members of the display support assembly being rotatably mounted to opposing inner sides of the head band by two opposing joints of a display support assembly joint arrangement that are positioned over respective earphones and face each other, about a generally lateral display support assembly pivot axis that is centered and spaced above each earphone for pivotably raising and lowering the display support assembly, and having an angle of rotation that moves to compensate for varying distances between the arm members, each arm member having a straight portion to which a respective side portion of the support member is mounted, a curved portion extending from the straight portion, and into an upwardly angled portion extending over a respective earphone having an end with a joint member for engaging a respective display support assembly joint on an inner side of the head band spaced above a respective earphone for providing up and down pivoting arm member clearance over the earphone inwardly from said inner side of the head band, when the display support assembly is in a down position, the upwardly angled portion extends upwardly toward said end above and over a respective earphone, the joint members of the arm members each being connected to a respective frame extending inwardly from respective lower sides of the head band that inwardly space the arm members apart from the inner sides of the lower sides of the head band.

13. A method of using a wearable display apparatus comprising:
providing the wearable display apparatus with an upright head band having a curved top and lower right and left sides for wearing over and on a user's head, right and left side earphone

Assignees

• Kopin Corp

Inventors

• West Adrian Mark Thomas
• Traina Zachary Jarrod
• Tak Junggeun
• Parent Thomas Gerard

Classifications

• Y10T29/49826

  Assembling or joining · CPC title

• G02B2027/0161

  characterised by the relative positioning of the constitutive elements · CPC title

• G02B2027/0158

  with adjustable nose pad · CPC title

• G02B2027/0185

  Displaying image at variable distance · CPC title

• G02B27/0179 Primary

  Display position adjusting means not related to the information to be displayed · CPC title