Patents by Inventor Edward A. Valko

Edward A. Valko 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: 20240385454
    Abstract: A head-mountable display device includes a housing defining a front opening and a rear opening, a display screen disposed in the front opening, a display assembly disposed in the rear opening, a first securement strap coupled to the housing, the first securement strap including a first electronic component, a second securement strap coupled to the housing, the second securement strap including a second electronic component, and a securement band extending between and coupled to the first securement strap and the second securement strap.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 13, 2024
    Publication date: November 21, 2024
    Inventors: Ricardo J. Motta, Brett D. Miller, Chad A. Bronstein, Bennett S. Wilburn, Branko Petljanski, Mahmut C. Orsan, David W. Lum, Edward A. Valko, Graham B. Myhre, Wonjae Choi, Manohar B. Srikanth, Michael Slootsky, Nicolas P. Bonnier, Jiaying Wu, ZhiBing Ge, William W. Sprague, Bertrand Nepveu, Michael J. Rockwell, Edward S. Huo, Marinus Meursing, Timothy Y. Chang, Katharina Buckl
  • Publication number: 20240103301
    Abstract: A head-mounted display may include a display system and an optical system in a housing. The display system may have displays that produce images. Positioners may be used to move the displays relative to the eye positions of a user's eyes. An adjustable optical system may include tunable lenses such as tunable cylindrical liquid crystal lenses. The displays may be viewed through the lenses when the user's eyes are at the eye positions. A sensor may be incorporated into the head-mounted display to measure refractive errors in the user's eyes. The sensor may include waveguides and volume holograms, and a camera for gathering light that has reflected from the retinas of the user's eyes. Viewing comfort may be enhanced by adjusting display positions relative to the eye positions and/or by adjusting lens settings based on the content being presented on the display and/or measured refractive errors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2023
    Publication date: March 28, 2024
    Inventors: Victoria C. Chan, Christina G. Gambacorta, Graham B. Myhre, Hyungryul Choi, Nan Zhu, Phil M. Hobson, William W. Sprague, Edward A. Valko, Qiong Huang, Branko Petljanski, Paul V. Johnson, Brandon E. Clarke, Elijah H. Kleeman
  • Patent number: 11874530
    Abstract: A head-mounted display may include a display system and an optical system in a housing. The display system may have displays that produce images. Positioners may be used to move the displays relative to the eye positions of a user's eyes. An adjustable optical system may include tunable lenses such as tunable cylindrical liquid crystal lenses. The displays may be viewed through the lenses when the user's eyes are at the eye positions. A sensor may be incorporated into the head-mounted display to measure refractive errors in the user's eyes. The sensor may include waveguides and volume holograms, and a camera for gathering light that has reflected from the retinas of the user's eyes. Viewing comfort may be enhanced by adjusting display positions relative to the eye positions and/or by adjusting lens settings based on the content being presented on the display and/or measured refractive errors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Victoria C. Chan, Christina G. Gambacorta, Graham B. Myhre, Hyungryul Choi, Nan Zhu, Phil M. Hobson, William W. Sprague, Edward A. Valko, Qiong Huang, Branko Petljanski, Paul V. Johnson, Brandon E. Clarke, Elijah H. Kleeman
  • Patent number: 11861941
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for using polarized light (e.g., infrared (IR) light) to improve eye-related functions such as iris recognition. An eye camera system includes one or more IR cameras that capture images of the user's eyes that are processed to perform iris recognition, gaze tracking, or other functions. At least one polarizing element may be located in the path of the light which is used to capture images of the user's eye. The user's eye may be illuminated by IR light emitted by one or more LEDs. At least one of the LEDs may be an LED with a polarizing filter. Instead or in addition, at least one polarizer may be located at the eye camera sensor, in the eye camera optics, or as or in an additional optical element located on the light path between the eye camera and the user's eye.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Keenan Molner, Qiong Huang, Branko Petljanski, Edward A. Valko, Tom Sengelaub, Martin Haller, Andrei Nikiforov, Hua Gao, Emanuele Mandelli
  • Patent number: 11326763
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for fabricating light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that include polarizing or wavefront-altering optical components are described in which additional optical components are added to the LED package to filter or modify the polarization of the emitted photons. Packaged LEDs that include polarizing or wavefront-altering optical components are also described. The packaged LEDs may emit infrared light that is polarized or otherwise altered by the optical components added during the fabrication process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Keenan Molner, Qiong Huang, Emanuele Mandelli, Edward A. Valko, Martin Haller, Tom Sengelaub
  • Publication number: 20200174284
    Abstract: A head-mounted display may include a display system and an optical system in a housing. The display system may have displays that produce images. Positioners may be used to move the displays relative to the eye positions of a user's eyes. An adjustable optical system may include tunable lenses such as tunable cylindrical liquid crystal lenses. The displays may be viewed through the lenses when the user's eyes are at the eye positions. A sensor may be incorporated into the head-mounted display to measure refractive errors in the user's eyes. The sensor may include waveguides and volume holograms, and a camera for gathering light that has reflected from the retinas of the user's eyes. Viewing comfort may be enhanced by adjusting display positions relative to the eye positions and/or by adjusting lens settings based on the content being presented on the display and/or measured refractive errors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 3, 2018
    Publication date: June 4, 2020
    Inventors: Victoria C. Chan, Christina G. Gambacorta, Graham B. Myhre, Hyungryul Choi, Nan Zhu, Phil M. Hobson, William W. Sprague, Edward A. Valko, Qiong Huang, Branko Petljanski, Paul V. Johnson, Brandon E. Clarke, Elijah H. Kleeman
  • Patent number: 9285477
    Abstract: A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system has an emitter which produces a sequence of outgoing pulses of coherent collimated light that transmitted in a given direction, a mirror system having a scanning mirror that is positioned to deflect the outgoing pulse sequence towards a scene, and a detector collocated with the emitter and aimed to detect a sequence of incoming pulses being reflections of the outgoing pulses that are returning from said given direction and have been deflected by the scanning mirror. An electronic controller communicates with the emitter and the detector and controls the scanning mirror, so that the outgoing pulses scan the scene and the controller computes a radial distance or depth for each pair of outgoing and incoming pulses and uses the computed radial distance to provide a scanned 3D depth map of objects in the scene. Other embodiments are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Scott T. Smith, Matthew E. Last, Edward A. Valko