US 10,502,959 B2Granted

Realtime lens aberration correction from eye tracking

AssigneeSony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

InventorsJeffrey Roger Stafford, Eric Larsen

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Abstract

Systems and methods include receiving an image for presenting on a display screen of a head mounted display (HMD). The image is provided by an application. The received image is pre-distorted to enable optics provided in a HMD to render the image. An alignment offset is identified for an eye of a user wearing the HMD by determining a position of the eye relative to an optical axis of at least one lens of the optics of the HMD. The pre-distorted image provided by the application is adjusted to define a corrected pre-distorted image that accounts for the alignment offset. The corrected pre-distorted image is forwarded to the display screen of the HMD for rendering, such that the image presented through the optics of the HMD removes aberrations caused by the alignment offset.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A method, comprising:

a) identifying a position of an eye of a user wearing a head mounted display (HMD), the position of the eye used in determining an alignment offset of the eye relative to an optical axis of at least one lens of optics provided in the HMD;
b) predicting a shift in the position of the eye of the user based on media content that is being rendered on a display screen of the HMD, wherein image of the media content is pre-distorted to enable the optics of the HMD to render the image;
c) selecting pre-defined distortion maps to determine a specific distortion correction for the alignment offset, the pre-defined distortion maps are selected to correspond with a location where the position of the eye is predicted to shift;
d) adjusting the image of the media content that is pre-distorted by applying the specific distortion correction to generate a corrected image that accounts for the alignment offset, wherein an amount of adjusting for the alignment offset is determined from the one or more pre-defined distortion maps selected for a shape and a type of lens used in the optics of the HMD;
and
e) sending the corrected image for rendering on the display screen of the HMD when the shift in the position of the eye of the user is detected, such that the image when viewed through the optics is devoid of aberration caused by the alignment offset.

3 more elements

A head mounted display device, comprising:

a lens of optics for viewing a pre-distorted image of multimedia content rendered on a display screen of the head mounted display (HMD);
an eye position sensor configured to,
(a) determine position of an eye of a user wearing the HMD in relation to an optical axis of the lens of optics provided in the HMD;
(b) determine alignment offset of the eye of the user;
and
an optics distortion processor configured to,
(c) predict a shift in the position of the eye of the user based on the multimedia content being rendered on the display screen;
(d) select pre-defined distortion maps for a type and shape of lens used in the optics, the pre-defined distortion maps selected correspond with a location where the position of the eye is predicted to shift and are used to determine a specific distortion correction for the alignment offset;
(e) adjust the pre-distorted image of multimedia content provided for rendering on the display screen of the HMD by applying the specific distortion correction to generate a corrected image that accounts for the alignment offset, wherein an amount of adjusting for the alignment offset is determined from the pre-defined distortion maps, wherein the corrected image of the multimedia content is transmitted to the display screen of the HMD for rendering when the shift in the position of the eye of the user is detected.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/351,466Filed 12 Mar 2019 · continuation
Priority: 30 Sep 2014
Published: US 2019/0250409 A115 Aug 2019
Granted: 10 Dec 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

G02B 27/0172
Head mounted: characterised by optical features
G02B 27/0068
For optical correction, e.g. distorsion, aberration: having means for controlling the degree of correction, e.g. using phase modulators, movable…
G02B 27/0093
Optical systems or apparatus not provided for by any of the groups G02B1/00 - G02B26/00, G02B30/00: with means for monitoring data relating to the…
G02B 2027/011
Characterised by optical features: comprising device for correcting geometrical aberrations, distortion

Family

Application62/058,057Us provisional application · filed 30 Sep 2014
Application14/835,558Parent of this continuation · filed 25 Aug 2015
US 2019/0250409 A1Pre-grant publication · published 15 Aug 2019
US 10,228,562 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2016/0091720 A1Published application
US 10,502,959 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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