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US 9,869,580 B2Granted
Controllable optical sensing
AssigneeFacebook, Inc.
InventorsNadav Grossinger, Nitay Romano, Arnon Gratch
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical sensing device for using light to locate objects or features in a field of view comprises a light source; a controllable lens having two states and being controllable between them, for example a multifocal lens having two or more foci for focusing light from the light source; and a sensor able to sense light reflected from an object, to determine information of the object. The use of two or more foci adds dynamic range to optical sensing to allow for reliable detection over a wide range of distances.
Claims20
An optical sensing device comprising:
- a light source;
- a multi-focal lens having a plurality of foci configured to focus light, at a single time instant, from the light source into a space at a plurality of focal points related to the plurality of foci, wherein the multi-focal lens comprises a liquid crystal configured to vary amounts of energy of the focused light among the plurality of focal points;
- and
- a sensor configured to sense the focused light of the light source reflected from an object in the space to sense the object or features of the object.
1 more element
An optical sensing method comprising:
- shining light from a light source on a multi-focal lens having a plurality of foci configured to focus light, at a single time instant, from the light source into a space at a plurality of focal points related to the plurality of foci, wherein the multi-focal lens comprises a liquid crystal configured to vary amounts of energy of the focused light among the plurality of focal points;
- and
- sensing the focused light of the light source reflected from an object in the space to sense the object or features of the object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.