Patents by Inventor Bradley C. Steele
Bradley C. Steele has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20240053823Abstract: An eye tracking system for detecting position and movements of a user's eyes in a head-mounted display (HMD). The eye tracking system includes at least one eye tracking camera, an illumination source that emits infrared light towards the user's eyes, and diffraction gratings located at the eyepieces. The diffraction gratings redirect or reflect at least a portion of infrared light reflected off the user's eyes, while allowing visible light to pass. The cameras capture images of the user's eyes from the infrared light that is redirected or reflected by the diffraction gratings.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 24, 2023Publication date: February 15, 2024Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Kathrin Berkner-Cieslicki, Se Baek Oh, Scott M. DeLapp, Christopher F. Griffo, Bradley C. Steele, Ting Sun, Kenichi Saito, Noah D. Bedard
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Patent number: 11829528Abstract: An eye tracking system for detecting position and movements of a user's eyes in a head-mounted display (HMD). The eye tracking system includes at least one eye tracking camera, an illumination source that emits infrared light towards the user's eyes, and diffraction gratings located at the eyepieces. The diffraction gratings redirect or reflect at least a portion of infrared light reflected off the user's eyes, while allowing visible light to pass. The cameras capture images of the user's eyes from the infrared light that is redirected or reflected by the diffraction gratings.Type: GrantFiled: April 11, 2022Date of Patent: November 28, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Kathrin Berkner-Cieslicki, Se Baek Oh, Scott M. DeLapp, Christopher F. Griffo, Bradley C. Steele, Ting Sun, Kenichi Saito, Noah D. Bedard
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Patent number: 11822079Abstract: An electronic device may have a display that provides image light to a waveguide. First and second liquid crystal lenses may be mounted to opposing surfaces of the waveguide. An coupler may couple the image light out of the waveguide through the first lens. The second lens may convey world light to the first lens. Control circuitry may control the first lens to apply a first optical power to the image light and the world light and may control the second lens to apply a second optical power to the world light that cancels out the first optical power. Each lens may include two layers of liquid crystal molecules having antiparallel pretilt angles. The pretilt angles and rubbing directions of the first lens may be antiparallel to corresponding pretilt angles and rubbing directions of the second lens about the waveguide.Type: GrantFiled: July 24, 2019Date of Patent: November 21, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Jin Yan, Young Cheol Yang, Igor Stamenov, Scott M. DeLapp, Francesco Aieta, Bradley C. Steele, Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov, Se Baek Oh
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Patent number: 11803056Abstract: An electronic device may have a display that emits image light, a waveguide, and an input coupler that couples the image light into the waveguide. Beam splitter structures may be embedded within the waveguide. The beam splitter structures may partially reflect the image light multiple times and may serve to generate replicated beams of light that are coupled out of the waveguide by an output coupler. The beam splitter structures may replicate the beams across two dimensions to provide an eye box with uniform-intensity light from the display across its area. The beam splitter structures may include stacked partially reflective beam splitter layers, sandwiched transparent substrate layers having different indices of refraction, a thick volume hologram interposed between substrate layers, or combinations of these or other structures. The reflectivity of the beam splitter structures may vary discretely or continuously across the lateral area of the waveguide.Type: GrantFiled: August 20, 2019Date of Patent: October 31, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Guolin Peng, Eric J. Hansotte, Francesco Aieta, Graham B. Myhre, Hyungryul Choi, Nan Zhu, Paul J. Gelsinger-Austin, Se Baek Oh, Scott M. DeLapp, Bradley C. Steele
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Patent number: 11467407Abstract: An electronic device may have a display system that produces images. The display system may have one or more pixel arrays such as liquid-crystal-on-silicon pixel arrays. Images from the display system may be coupled into a waveguide by an input coupler and may be coupled out of the waveguide using an output coupler. The input and output couplers may be formed from volume phase holographic gratings. An additional grating may be used to shift light that would otherwise pass above or below the user's field of view towards the viewer. Holographic gratings in the waveguide may have fringes with constant pitch and variable period. The period at a given portion of the grating may be Bragg-matched to maximize diffraction efficiency for light of a given incident angle.Type: GrantFiled: August 14, 2018Date of Patent: October 11, 2022Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Scott M. DeLapp, Byron R. Cocilovo, Se Baek Oh, Bradley C. Steele
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Publication number: 20220236799Abstract: An eye tracking system for detecting position and movements of a user's eyes in a head-mounted display (HMD). The eye tracking system includes at least one eye tracking camera, an illumination source that emits infrared light towards the user's eyes, and diffraction gratings located at the eyepieces. The diffraction gratings redirect or reflect at least a portion of infrared light reflected off the user's eyes, while allowing visible light to pass. The cameras capture images of the user's eyes from the infrared light that is redirected or reflected by the diffraction gratings.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 11, 2022Publication date: July 28, 2022Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Kathrin Berkner-Cieslicki, Se Baek Oh, Scott M. DeLapp, Christopher F. Griffo, Bradley C. Steele, Ting Sun, Kenichi Saito, Noah D. Bedard
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Patent number: 11360557Abstract: An eye tracking system for detecting position and movements of a user's eyes in a head-mounted display (HMD). The eye tracking system includes at least one eye tracking camera, an illumination source that emits infrared light towards the user's eyes, and diffraction gratings located at the eyepieces. The diffraction gratings redirect or reflect at least a portion of infrared light reflected off the user's eyes, while allowing visible light to pass. The cameras capture images of the user's eyes from the infrared light that is redirected or reflected by the diffraction gratings.Type: GrantFiled: August 3, 2020Date of Patent: June 14, 2022Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Kathrin Berkner-Cieslicki, Se Baek Oh, Scott M. DeLapp, Christopher F. Griffo, Bradley C. Steele, Ting Sun, Kenichi Saito, Noah D. Bedard
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Publication number: 20210405378Abstract: An electronic device may include an optical combiner with a waveguide. The waveguide may have an output coupler that directs high resolution light towards an eye box within a field of view. Peripheral light sources may provide low resolution peripheral light to the eye box about a periphery of the field of view. The peripheral light sources may be mounted to a frame for the waveguide, to an additional substrate mounted to the frame and overlapping the waveguide, in a low resolution projector that projects the peripheral light towards reflective structures in the additional substrate, or in a display module that produces the high resolution light. The optical combiner may overlay real world light with the high resolution light and the low resolution peripheral light.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 14, 2021Publication date: December 30, 2021Inventors: Hyungryul Choi, Bradley C. Steele, Brian S. Lau, Cameron A. Harder, David A. Kalinowski, Eric J. Hansotte, Guolin Peng, Scott M. DeLapp, Vikrant Bhakta, Jonathan C. Moisant-Thompson
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Publication number: 20210041948Abstract: An eye tracking system for detecting position and movements of a user's eyes in a head-mounted display (HMD). The eye tracking system includes at least one eye tracking camera, an illumination source that emits infrared light towards the user's eyes, and diffraction gratings located at the eyepieces. The diffraction gratings redirect or reflect at least a portion of infrared light reflected off the user's eyes, while allowing visible light to pass. The cameras capture images of the user's eyes from the infrared light that is redirected or reflected by the diffraction gratings.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 3, 2020Publication date: February 11, 2021Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Kathrin Berkner-Cieslicki, Se Baek Oh, Scott M. DeLapp, Christopher F. Griffo, Bradley C. Steele, Ting Sun, Kenichi Saito, Noah D. Bedard
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Publication number: 20200166756Abstract: An electronic device may have a display system that produces images. The display system may have one or more pixel arrays such as liquid-crystal-on-silicon pixel arrays. Images from the display system may be coupled into a waveguide by an input coupler and may be coupled out of the waveguide using an output coupler. The input and output couplers may be formed from volume phase holographic gratings. An additional grating may be used to shift light that would otherwise pass above or below the user's field of view towards the viewer. Holographic gratings in the waveguide may have fringes with constant pitch and variable period. The period at a given portion of the grating may be Bragg-matched to maximize diffraction efficiency for light of a given incident angle.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 14, 2018Publication date: May 28, 2020Inventors: Scott M. DeLapp, Byron R. Cocilovo, Se Baek Oh, Bradley C. Steele
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Publication number: 20200096771Abstract: An electronic device may include a display that produce images. The display may generate light for an optical system that redirects the light towards an eye box. The optical system may include a waveguide that propagates the light in a first direction towards the output coupler. The output coupler may couple the light out of the waveguide towards the eye box while inverting a parity of the light about the first direction. The coupler may include a first element such as a set of partial mirrors or diffractive gratings that redirects a first portion of the light in a second direction. The coupler may include a second element that redirects a second portion of the light in a third direction opposite the second direction. The first element may redirect the second portion and the second element may redirect the first portion towards the eye box.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 13, 2019Publication date: March 26, 2020Inventors: Se Baek Oh, Bradley C. Steele, Byron R. Cocilovo, Francesco Aieta, Graham B. Myhre
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Publication number: 20200089014Abstract: An electronic device may have a display that emits image light, a waveguide, and an input coupler that couples the image light into the waveguide. Beam splitter structures may be embedded within the waveguide. The beam splitter structures may partially reflect the image light multiple times and may serve to generate replicated beams of light that are coupled out of the waveguide by an output coupler. The beam splitter structures may replicate the beams across two dimensions to provide an eye box with uniform-intensity light from the display across its area. The beam splitter structures may include stacked partially reflective beam splitter layers, sandwiched transparent substrate layers having different indices of refraction, a thick volume hologram interposed between substrate layers, or combinations of these or other structures. The reflectivity of the beam splitter structures may vary discretely or continuously across the lateral area of the waveguide.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 20, 2019Publication date: March 19, 2020Inventors: Guolin Peng, Eric J. Hansotte, Francesco Aieta, Graham B. Myhre, Hyungryul Choi, Nan Zhu, Paul J. Gelsinger-Austin, Se Baek Oh, Scott M. DeLapp, Bradley C. Steele
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Publication number: 20200049996Abstract: An electronic device may have a display that provides image light to a waveguide. First and second liquid crystal lenses may be mounted to opposing surfaces of the waveguide. An coupler may couple the image light out of the waveguide through the first lens. The second lens may convey world light to the first lens. Control circuitry may control the first lens to apply a first optical power to the image light and the world light and may control the second lens to apply a second optical power to the world light that cancels out the first optical power. Each lens may include two layers of liquid crystal molecules having antiparallel pretilt angles. The pretilt angles and rubbing directions of the first lens may be antiparallel to corresponding pretilt angles and rubbing directions of the second lens about the waveguide.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 24, 2019Publication date: February 13, 2020Inventors: Jin Yan, Young Cheol Yang, Igor Stamenov, Scott M. DeLapp, Francesco Aieta, Bradley C. Steele, Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov, Se Baek Oh