Optical communication system for position-finding of a portable electronic device in free space
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsTong Chen, Mark T. Winkler
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A optical communication system including a source device and an endpoint device. The source device include an array of laser diodes and is configured to drive the laser diodes to project a sequence of patterns into the field of view of the source device to define a set of serially-projected codes, each of which isolated to one respective angular division of the field of view of the source device. The endpoint device receives a serially-projected code from the source device which varies based which angular division of the field of view of the source device is occupied by the endpoint device.
Claims19
An apparatus for projecting laser light into its field of view, the laser light encoding information distinguishing angular divisions of the field of view from one another such that an endpoint device within the field of view receives encoded information specific to the respective angular division of the field of view occupied by the endpoint device, the apparatus comprising:
- a substrate;
- a plurality of laser light emitting regions arranged in rows, each row defining a spatially-varying code;
- an optical structure positioned over the plurality of laser light emitting regions and configured to diverge patterned laser light emitted from the plurality of laser light emitting regions at a divergence angle;
- and
- a drive circuit coupled to each row of laser light emitting regions and configured to drive each row in a sequence, there by projecting each respective spatially-varying code sequentially into the field of view such that each respective angular division of the field of view is illuminated with a unique pattern.
A method of operating an apparatus to project laser light into a field of view of the apparatus, the laser light encoding information distinguishing angular divisions of the field of view from one another such that an endpoint device within the field of view receives encoded information specific to the respective angular division of the field of view occupied by the endpoint device, the method comprising:
- projecting a sequence into the field of view by:
- driving a first spatially-varying row of laser light emitting regions disposed in a first pattern to emit light through an optical element configured to diverge emitted light into a first angularly-varying pattern;
- and
- driving a second spatially-varying row of laser light emitting regions disposed in a second pattern to emit light through the optical element into a second angularly-varying pattern;
- wherein:
- the first angularly-varying pattern precedes the second angularly-varying pattern such that each angular division of the field of view is illuminated according to a time-varying pattern partly defined by the first angularly-varying pattern and partly defined by the second angularly-varying pattern.
An apparatus for projecting laser light into a field of view, the laser light encoding information distinguishing angular divisions of the field of view from one another such that an endpoint device within the field of view receives encoded information specific to the respective angular division of the field of view occupied by the endpoint device, the apparatus comprising:
- a first plurality of laser light emitting regions arranged in rows, each row defining a respective unique spatially-varying code;
- a second plurality of laser light emitting regions arranged in columns, each column defining a respective unique spatially-varying code;
- an optical structure positioned over the first plurality and the second plurality and configured to diverge light incident to the optical structure;
- and
- a drive circuit configured to drive each row and each column in a sequence, thereby projecting each respective unique spatially-varying code sequentially into the field of view such that each respective angular division of the field of view is illuminated with a unique pattern.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.