Patents by Inventor Darwin Hu

Darwin Hu 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).

  • Publication number: 20190129182
    Abstract: An integrated lens for wearable display devices is described. The integrated lens includes at least a lens, a protecting sheet, an optical waveguide integrated with the lens, and a clear sheet. The waveguide is smaller than the lens in size. The clear sheet is provided to supplement the waveguide to match the lens in size. The optical waveguide is sandwiched between the lens and the protecting sheet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2018
    Publication date: May 2, 2019
    Inventors: Darwin Hu, Leo Chen, Tom Lee, Chee Wei Wong, Yoo Seung Lee
  • Publication number: 20190129184
    Abstract: Designs of a laser-based display engine for wearable display devices are described. A laser source is provided to produce a laser dot in one of three primary colors. The laser dot is projected upon a lens before it hits an optical unit, wherein the optical unit then produces a laser plane from the laser dot. An optical cube, formed by two triangular prisms, includes a transmissive reflector disposed between two sloping rectangular sides of the triangular prisms. A collimation lens is provided to collimate the laser plane and project the collimated laser plane into the optical cube, where the collimated laser plane is reflected by the transmissive reflector to a microdisplay. The reflected laser beams from the microdisplay transmit through the transmissive reflector and eventually are projected in a waveguide. Depending on the implementation, the optical unit may include a collimation lens or a micro lens array (MLA).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2018
    Publication date: May 2, 2019
    Inventors: Darwin Hu, Leo Chen, Jangho Choi
  • Publication number: 20190129183
    Abstract: Designs of integrated frames for wearable display devices are described. An exemplary wearable device includes a pair of integrated lenses, a lens frame accommodate the integrated lenses and two temples coupled respectively to two opposite ends of the lens frame. The integrated lens includes a transparent optical waveguide. Each of the temples includes a conduit to accommodate a cable received at one end thereof and an enclosure on an inner side thereof, wherein the enclosure includes electronic parts powered by wires in the cable and optical parts receiving optical signals from at least two optical fibers in the cable. Depending on the implementation, the temples and/or the lens frame glows when one of the optical fibers is coupled to a light source being turned on.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2018
    Publication date: May 2, 2019
    Inventors: Darwin Hu, Leo Chen, Hank Lee, Samuel B. Backes, Jie Wu
  • Publication number: 20180356637
    Abstract: Architecture and designs of wearable display devices are described. According to one aspect of the present invention, at least one optical conduit is embedded in or integrated with a temple of the wearable display device. The optical conduit is used to transport an optical image from one end to another end, where the optical image is generated in an image source (e.g., microdisplay) in accordance with image data. The microdisplay is powered and receives the image data and control signals via an active optical cable.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 3, 2018
    Publication date: December 13, 2018
    Inventor: Darwin Hu
  • Patent number: 10147350
    Abstract: Techniques for displaying a video or images in perceived better resolution are described. An input image is expanded into two frames based on the architecture of sub-pixels. A first frame is derived from the input image while the second frame is generated based on the first frame. These two frames are of equal size to the input image and displayed alternatively at twice the refresh rate of the input image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2018
    Inventors: Darwin Hu, Tsunglu Syu
  • Patent number: 10147349
    Abstract: Architecture and designs of display devices are described, where the display devices possesses high spatial resolution as well as high intensity resolution and may be readily used in various display applications. According to one aspect of the present invention, a display device includes an array of image elements, each of the image elements further includes an array of sub-image elements. A portion of an image element area, namely some of the sub-image elements, is turned on, which has the same perceived brightness level of turning on an entire image element for a specific time. In addition, various designs of an image element or a sub-image element are described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2018
    Inventors: Darwin Hu, Tsung-Lu Syu
  • Publication number: 20180275407
    Abstract: Techniques related to a see-through optical system are disclosed. According to one aspect of the techniques, the optical system includes a lens unit for enlarging an image light displayed on a display panel, a horizontal light guide includes an inclined plane of a sawtooth shape to totally reflect the enlarged image light and expand an exit pupil distance along a horizontal direction, a vertical light guide placed under the horizontal light guide to totally reflect the enlarged image light transferred from the horizontal light guide to expand the exit pupil distance in a vertical direction. Optionally, a compensation prism for reflecting the image light with the exit pupil distance expanded in both horizontal and vertical directions is used.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2018
    Publication date: September 27, 2018
    Inventors: Jangho Choi, Jin Soo Kim, Darwin Hu
  • Publication number: 20180275412
    Abstract: Architecture and designs of wearable devices using optical fibers are described. According to one aspect of the present invention, a display device is made in form of a pair of glasses and includes a minimum number of parts to reduce the complexity and weight thereof. A separate enclosure is provided as portable to be affixed or attached to a user (e.g., a pocket or waist belt). The enclosure includes all necessary parts and circuits to generate content for a microdisplay device that in return produces optical images. The optical images are picked up and transported by one or more optical fibers in a cable to the glasses, where the optical images are projected respectively to the lenses specially made for displaying the optical images before the eyes of the wearer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2018
    Publication date: September 27, 2018
    Inventor: Darwin Hu
  • Publication number: 20180164599
    Abstract: Architecture and designs of wearable devices for viewing multimedia in 3D are described. According to one aspect of the present invention, a display device is made in form of a pair of glasses. A separate enclosure is provided to generate content for display on the glasses. The content is optically picked up by an optical cable and transported by one or more optical fibers in the optical cable to the glasses, where an image polarizer receives the content and produces an alternating polarized content sequence. An optical cube is provided to decouple the alternating polarized content sequence into two orthogonally polarized image sequences are respectively projected onto two lenses.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 12, 2017
    Publication date: June 14, 2018
    Inventor: Darwin Hu
  • Patent number: 9946075
    Abstract: Architecture and designs of wearable devices for virtual reality and augmented reality applications are described. According to one aspect of the present invention, a display device is made in form of a pair of glasses and includes a minimum number of parts to reduce the complexity and weight thereof. A separate enclosure is provided as portable to be affixed or attached to a user (e.g., a pocket or waist belt). The enclosure includes all necessary parts and circuits to generate content for virtual reality and/or augmented reality applications. The content is optically picked up by an optical cable and transported by one or more optical fibers in the optical cable to the glasses, where the content is projected respectively to the lenses specially made for displaying the content before the eyes of the wearer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Inventor: Darwin Hu
  • Publication number: 20180061302
    Abstract: Circuits in analog and digital for displaying an input image in improved perceived resolution are described, In one aspect, a circuit is designed to include a set of memory cells, a horizontal decoder and a vertical decoder. Each of the memory cells is provided to store a pixel value to drive a pixel element on a display, wherein N and M are different or equal integers. The horizontal decoder includes a plurality of horizontal switches, each of the horizontal switches provided to address at least two rows of the cells simultaneously, wherein each the horizontal switches are controlled by a horizontal switch signal to toggle among three rows of the cells with the middle row of the cells always selected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 7, 2017
    Publication date: March 1, 2018
    Inventors: Darwin Hu, Tsunglu Syu
  • Publication number: 20180061301
    Abstract: Techniques for displaying a video or images in perceived better resolution are described. An input image is expanded into two frames based on the architecture of sub-pixels. A first frame is derived from the input image while the second frame is generated based on the first frame. These two frames are of equal size to the input image and displayed alternatively at twice the refresh rate of the input image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 7, 2017
    Publication date: March 1, 2018
    Inventors: Darwin Hu, Tsunglu Syu
  • Publication number: 20170365230
    Abstract: Techniques for displaying a multimedia in at least two resolutions are discussed. Depending on implementation, a resolution can be a spatial resolution, an intensity level resolution, or both. A display device is designed to ensure better resolution in an area (region of focus or ROF) being focused by eyes of a viewer while relatively poor resolution in the area surrounding the ROF. The ROF moves accordingly with the motion of the pupil. As a result, the perceived resolution by the user remains high while the memory requirement for displaying such media is significantly reduced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 5, 2017
    Publication date: December 21, 2017
    Inventor: Darwin Hu
  • Publication number: 20170249891
    Abstract: Architecture and designs of display devices are described, where the display devices possesses high spatial resolution as well as high intensity resolution and may be readily used in various display applications. According to one aspect of the present invention, a display device includes an array of image elements, each of the image elements further includes an array of sub-image elements. A portion of an image element area, namely some of the sub-image elements, is turned on, which has the same perceived brightness level of turning on an entire image element for a specific time. In addition, various designs of an image element or a sub-image element are described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 16, 2017
    Publication date: August 31, 2017
    Inventors: Darwin Hu, Tsung-Lu Syu
  • Patent number: 9701099
    Abstract: Techniques for manufacturing a single flexible cover to equip a display with touch screen capabilities are disclosed. The single flexible cover is easy to be applied to nearly all displays and maintains its durability on the displays. According to one aspect of the present invention, the single flexible cover includes at least three layers, a crystalline aluminum oxide layer, a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film sensor stacking layer and an adhesive layer to bond the PET film sensor stacking layer to the crystalline aluminum oxide layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Inventor: Darwin Hu
  • Patent number: 9653015
    Abstract: Architecture and designs of display devices are described, where the display devices possesses high spatial resolution as well as high intensity resolution and may be readily used in various projection applications, storage and optical communications. According to one aspect of the present invention, a display device includes an array of image elements, each of the image elements further includes an array of sub-image elements. These sub-image elements are driven by PWM as in digital modulation. A portion of an image element area, namely some of the sub-image elements, is turned on, which has the same perceived effect of turning on an entire image element for a specific time. In addition, various designs of an image element or a sub-image element are described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2017
    Inventors: Darwin Hu, Tsung-Lu Syu
  • Patent number: 9560293
    Abstract: An exemplary display device is a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), the on-screen imager is referred to as an LCD imager. Without affecting the display functions of an LCD device, an image sensing module is provided behind or within an LCD unit in the LCD device. By controlling the liquid crystals in the LCD unit, the reflected light from an object placed against the LCD device to be imaged is allowed to pass through the LCD unit and projected onto an image sensor in the image sensing module to generate an image of the object. The imager includes an optical assembly having at least one wedge shaped light guide to collect and focus the reflected light from the object onto an image sensor, where the image sensor is disposed at an end of the wedge shaped light guide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Inventor: Darwin Hu
  • Publication number: 20160156857
    Abstract: An exemplary display device is a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), the on-screen imager is referred to as an LCD imager. Without affecting the display functions of an LCD device, an image sensing module is provided behind or within an LCD unit in the LCD device. By controlling the liquid crystals in the LCD unit, the reflected light from an object placed against the LCD device to be imaged is allowed to pass through the LCD unit and projected onto an image sensor in the image sensing module to generate an image of the object. The imager includes an optical assembly having at least one wedge shaped light guide to collect and focus the reflected light from the object onto an image sensor, where the image sensor is disposed at an end of the wedge shaped light guide.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2016
    Publication date: June 2, 2016
    Inventor: Darwin Hu
  • Patent number: 9328887
    Abstract: Techniques related to generating daylight-like light from green laser and magenta phosphor are disclosed. Such light may be used in headlights of vehicles. The daylight-like light generated from green laser and filtered through magenta phosphor is almost white or substantially white. The white laser is generated from green laser that is filtered through magenta phosphor. The green laser is well known for producing the highest perceived intensity among all colored lasers with equal or similarly provided energy and is low to obtain in cost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2016
    Inventor: Darwin Hu
  • Publication number: 20160035268
    Abstract: Architecture and designs of display devices are described, where the display devices possesses high spatial resolution as well as high intensity resolution and may be readily used in various projection applications, storage and optical communications. According to one aspect of the present invention, a display device includes an array of image elements, each of the image elements further includes an array of sub-image elements. These sub-image elements are driven by PWM as in digital modulation. A portion of an image element area, namely some of the sub-image elements, is turned on, which has the same perceived effect of turning on an entire image element for a specific time. In addition, various designs of an image element or a sub-image element are described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2014
    Publication date: February 4, 2016
    Inventor: Darwin Hu