Eye tracking systems and methods for virtual reality environments
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorsHayes S. Raffle, Xinda Hu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Eye tracking methods and systems for virtual reality (VR) environments are disclosed herein. An example method includes receiving light through a lens positioned in an opening defined through a surface of a head-mounted display (HMD), reflecting an infrared light portion of the light off a display device of the HMD, the display device oriented generally parallel to the lens, and performing eye tracking based on the reflected infrared portion of the light.
Claims21
A method, comprising:
- receiving light through a lens positioned in an opening defined through a surface of a head-mounted display (HMD);
- reflecting an infrared light portion of the light off a display device of the HMD, the display device oriented generally parallel to the lens;
- receiving, by an imaging device of the HMD, the infrared light portion of the light;
- capturing, by the imaging device, images corresponding to the received reflected infrared light portion of the light, at intermittent intervals of operation;
- and
- performing eye tracking based on the images captured by the imaging device.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a lens configured to pass light, the lens positioned in an opening defined through a surface of a head-mounted display (HMD);
- display device configured to reflect an infrared light portion of the light, the display device oriented generally parallel to the lens;
- and
- an imaging device configured to capture images based on the reflected infrared portion of the light during intermittent intervals of operation, and to perform eye tracking based on the captured images, including:
- controlling a light emitting diode (LED) driver to control at least one LED of the HMD such that the at least one LED is intermittently in an on state and an off state;
- and
- capturing images only during set intervals of operation of the at least one LED.
A non-transitory machine-readable media storing machine-readable instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
- receive light through a lens positioned in an opening defined through a surface of a head-mounted display (HMD);
- reflect an infrared light portion of the light off a display device of the HMD, the display device oriented generally parallel to the lens;
- receive, by an imaging device of the HMD, the infrared light portion of the light;
- capture, by the imaging device, images corresponding to the received reflected infrared light portion of the light, at intermittent intervals of operation;
- and
- perform eye tracking based on the images captured by the imaging device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.