Patents by Inventor Graham B. Myhre

Graham B. Myhre 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: 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
  • Publication number: 20240077740
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display system and an optical system that are supported by a housing. The optical system may be a catadioptric optical system having first, second, and third lens elements. The first lens element may have a convex surface and a concave surface. The convex surface may have less curvature than the concave surface. An anti-reflective coating may be formed on the convex surface. A partially reflective mirror may be interposed between the first and second lens elements and a reflective polarizer may be interposed between the second and third lens elements. Alternatively, a partially reflective mirror may be interposed between the second and third lens elements and a reflective polarizer may be interposed between the first and second lens elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2023
    Publication date: March 7, 2024
    Inventors: Zachary A. Granger, Fuyi Yang, Graham B. Myhre, Young Cheol Yang
  • Publication number: 20240081134
    Abstract: A hybrid display may include different display portions with different resolutions. The high resolution display portion may be positioned in a main viewing area for the viewer whereas the low resolution display portion may be positioned in a peripheral viewing area. The high resolution display portion may have a silicon backplane. The low resolution display portion may have a different type of backplane such as a thin-film transistor backplane. The different display portions may optionally share a common organic light-emitting diode layer such that light is emitted from the same plane across both display portions. The high resolution display portion may emit light through a transparent window in the low resolution display portion. A high resolution display may also be formed by separately forming a frontplane and a backplane. Conductive attachment structures such as indium bumps may be used to mechanically and electrically connect the backplane to the frontplane.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2023
    Publication date: March 7, 2024
    Inventors: James E Pedder, Patrick B Bennett, Michael Slootsky, Graham B Myhre, Andrew Lin, Cheuk Chi Lo, Guanjun Tan
  • Publication number: 20240029661
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a head-mounted device may have displays. The display may have regions of lower and higher resolution to reduce data bandwidth and power consumption for the display while preserving satisfactory image quality. Data lines may be shared by lower and higher resolution portions of a display or different portions of a display with different resolutions may be supplied with different numbers of data lines. Data line length may be varied in transition regions between lower resolution and higher resolution portions of a display to reduce visible discontinuities between the lower and higher resolution portions. The lower and higher resolution portions of the display may be dynamically adjusted using dynamically adjustable gate driver circuitry and dynamically adjustable data line driver circuitry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2023
    Publication date: January 25, 2024
    Inventors: Cheng Chen, Jason C. Sauers, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, David W. Lum, Chun-Yao Huang, Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov, Graham B. Myhre, Bennett S. Wilburn, Paolo Sacchetto, Shih Chang Chang, Wonjae Choi, Cheuk Chi Lo
  • 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: 11852819
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display module that produces foveated images having high and low resolution regions. The module may include a reflective display panel that produces first reflected light during first time periods and second reflected light during second time periods. The first reflected light may reflect off of a beam splitter to form the low resolution region of the foveated image. The second reflected light may be transmitted by the beam splitter, de-magnified by a lens, and redirected by an optical steering element to produce the high resolution region at a desired, adjustable, location in the foveated image. The reflective display panel may be replaced by sets of emissive display panels that concurrently display the high and low resolution regions in the foveated image. The sets of emissive display panels may be replaced by front-lit reflective display panels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Inventors: Graham B. Myhre, Guolin Peng, Hyungryul Choi, Scott M. DeLapp, Vikrant Bhakta
  • Patent number: 11810516
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a head-mounted device may have displays. The display may have regions of lower and higher resolution to reduce data bandwidth and power consumption for the display while preserving satisfactory image quality. Data lines may be shared by lower and higher resolution portions of a display or different portions of a display with different resolutions may be supplied with different numbers of data lines. Data line length may be varied in transition regions between lower resolution and higher resolution portions of a display to reduce visible discontinuities between the lower and higher resolution portions. The lower and higher resolution portions of the display may be dynamically adjusted using dynamically adjustable gate driver circuitry and dynamically adjustable data line driver circuitry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Cheng Chen, Jason C. Sauers, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, David W. Lum, Chun-Yao Huang, Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov, Graham B. Myhre, Bennett S. Wilburn, Paolo Sacchetto, Shih Chang Chang, Wonjae Choi, Cheuk Chi Lo
  • Patent number: 11803056
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2023
    Assignee: 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
  • Publication number: 20230333359
    Abstract: A head-mounted display may include a display system and an optical system in a housing. The display system may have a pixel array that produces light associated with images. The display system may also have a linear polarizer through which light from the pixel array passes and a quarter wave plate through which the light passes after passing through the quarter wave plate. The optical system may be a catadioptric optical system having one or more lens elements. The lens elements may include a plano-convex lens and a plano-concave lens. A partially reflective minor may be formed on a convex surface of the plano-convex lens. A reflective polarizer may be formed on the planar surface of the plano-convex lens or the concave surface of the plano-concave lens. An additional quarter wave plate may be located between the reflective polarizer and the partially reflective mirror.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2023
    Publication date: October 19, 2023
    Inventors: Sajjad A. Khan, Nan Zhu, Graham B. Myhre, Brent J. Bollman, Tyler Anderson, Weibo Cheng, John N. Border
  • Patent number: 11740446
    Abstract: A head-mounted display may include a display system and an optical system in a housing. The display system may have a pixel array that produces light associated with images. The display system may also have a linear polarizer through which light from the pixel array passes and a quarter wave plate through which the light passes after passing through the quarter wave plate. The optical system may be a catadioptric optical system having one or more lens elements. The lens elements may include a plano-convex lens and a plano-concave lens. A partially reflective mirror may be formed on a convex surface of the plano-convex lens. A reflective polarizer may be formed on the planar surface of the plano-convex lens or the concave surface of the plano-concave lens. An additional quarter wave plate may be located between the reflective polarizer and the partially reflective mirror.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Sajjad A. Khan, Nan Zhu, Graham B. Myhre, Brent J. Bollman, Tyler Anderson, Weibo Cheng, John N. Border
  • Patent number: 11309372
    Abstract: An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display may have an array of organic light-emitting diode pixels that each have OLED layers interposed between a cathode and an anode. Voltage may be applied to the anode of each pixel to control the magnitude of emitted light. The conductivity of the OLED layers may allow leakage current to pass between neighboring anodes in the display. To reduce leakage current and the accompanying cross-talk in a display, the pixel definition layer may disrupt continuity of the OLED layers. The pixel definition layer may have a steep sidewall, a sidewall with an undercut, or a sidewall surface with a plurality of curves to disrupt continuity of the OLED layers. A control gate that is coupled to a bias voltage and covered by gate dielectric may be used to form an organic thin-film transistor that shuts the leakage current channel between adjacent anodes on the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jaein Choi, Andrew Lin, Cheuk Chi Lo, Chun-Yao Huang, Gloria Wong, Hairong Tang, Hitoshi Yamamoto, James E. Pedder, KiBeom Kim, Kwang Ohk Cheon, Lei Yuan, Michael Slootsky, Rui Liu, Steven E. Molesa, Sunggu Kang, Wendi Chang, Chun-Ming Tang, Cheng Chen, Ivan Knez, Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov, Giovanni Carbone, Graham B. Myhre, Jungmin Lee
  • Publication number: 20220004009
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display module that produces foveated images having high and low resolution regions. The module may include a reflective display panel that produces first reflected light during first time periods and second reflected light during second time periods. The first reflected light may reflect off of a beam splitter to form the low resolution region of the foveated image. The second reflected light may be transmitted by the beam splitter, de-magnified by a lens, and redirected by an optical steering element to produce the high resolution region at a desired, adjustable, location in the foveated image. The reflective display panel may be replaced by sets of emissive display panels that concurrently display the high and low resolution regions in the foveated image. The sets of emissive display panels may be replaced by front-lit reflective display panels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2021
    Publication date: January 6, 2022
    Inventors: Graham B. Myhre, Guolin Peng, Hyungryul Choi, Scott M. DeLapp, Vikrant Bhakta
  • Patent number: 11163157
    Abstract: A vehicle may have a light-field head-up display that produces a light-field output allowing a viewer in the vehicle to observe three-dimensional content. An array of light-field display units and corresponding lenses may be used to direct the light-field output towards the viewer. The head-up display may have a transmissive display such as a liquid crystal display or other display with an array of backlit pixels. The pixels may have subpixels of different colors and may have elongated shapes extending along a given dimension. Lenticular lenses in the transmissive display that overlap the pixels may extend along the given dimension. A directional backlight may be used to adjust the direction of the light-field output produced by a light-field display unit. The directional backlight may be adjusted to alternately provide light-field output to the left and right eyes of a viewer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Graham B. Myhre, Hyungryul J. Choi
  • Patent number: 11130391
    Abstract: A vehicle may have optical structures such as windows and mirrors that have the potential to allow glare from external objects to shine into the eyes of a driver or other vehicle occupant. A control circuit may gather information on where the eyes of the driver are located using a camera mounted in the vehicle and may gather information on where the sun or other source of glare are located outside of the vehicle. Based on this information, the control circuit may direct a light modulator on a window or mirror to selectively darken an area that prevents the glare from reaching the eyes of the driver. The light modulator may have a photochromic layer that is adjusted by shining light onto the photochromic layer, may be a liquid crystal modulator, an electrochromic modulator, or other light modulator layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Inventors: Hyungryul J. Choi, Arthur Y. Zhang, Cheng Chen, Graham B. Myhre, Malcolm J. Northcott, Matheen M. Siddiqui, Russell Y. Webb, Matthew E. Last
  • Patent number: 11119624
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display for displaying image content to a user and dynamic image stabilization circuitry for dynamically compensating the image content if the device is moving unpredictably to help keep the image content aligned with the user's gaze. The electronic device may include sensors for detecting the displacement of the device. The dynamic image stabilization circuitry may include a usage scenario detection circuit and a content displacement compensation calculation circuit. The usage scenario detection circuit receives data from the sensors and infers a usage scenario based on the sensor data. The content displacement compensation calculation circuit uses the inferred usage scenario to compute a displacement amount by which to adjust image content. When motion stops, the image content may gradually drift back to the center of the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Paul V. Johnson, Ahmad Rahmati, Chaohao Wang, Cheng Chen, Graham B. Myhre, Jiaying Wu, Paolo Sacchetto, Sheng Zhang, Yunhui Hou, Xiaokai Li, Tim H. Cornelissen
  • Patent number: 11099386
    Abstract: An optical system may include equipment with a housing that is configured to receive external equipment such as a cellular telephone. The external equipment may have a display mounted on a front face of the external equipment and may have additional components such as a front-facing camera. Communications circuitry in the equipment may support wired and wireless communications with the external equipment. An optical combiner in the equipment may be used to combine display image light emitted from pixels in the display with real-world image light received from external objects. The optical combiner may have a reflector with a concave lens shape that focuses light from the display towards eye boxes in which a viewer's eyes are located. The reflector may be a partial mirror or a reflective polarizer. The reflective polarizer and additional components may be used in implementing a tunable tint layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Hyungryul Choi, Lei Zhao, Chaohao Wang, Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov, Shih-Chyuan Fan Jiang, Zhibing Ge, Graham B. Myhre
  • Publication number: 20210142736
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a head-mounted device may have displays. The display may have regions of lower and higher resolution to reduce data bandwidth and power consumption for the display while preserving satisfactory image quality. Data lines may be shared by lower and higher resolution portions of a display or different portions of a display with different resolutions may be supplied with different numbers of data lines. Data line length may be varied in transition regions between lower resolution and higher resolution portions of a display to reduce visible discontinuities between the lower and higher resolution portions. The lower and higher resolution portions of the display may be dynamically adjusted using dynamically adjustable gate driver circuitry and dynamically adjustable data line driver circuitry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2021
    Publication date: May 13, 2021
    Inventors: Cheng Chen, Jason C. Sauers, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, David W. Lum, Chun-Yao Huang, Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov, Graham B. Myhre, Bennett S. Wilburn, Paolo Sacchetto, Shih Chang Chang, Wonjae Choi, Cheuk Chi Lo
  • Publication number: 20210132349
    Abstract: A head-mounted display may include a display system and an optical system in a housing. The display system may have a pixel array that produces light associated with images. The display system may also have a linear polarizer through which light from the pixel array passes and a quarter wave plate through which the light passes after passing through the quarter wave plate. The optical system may be a catadioptric optical system having one or more lens elements. The lens elements may include a plano-convex lens and a plano-concave lens. A partially reflective mirror may be formed on a convex surface of the plano-convex lens. A reflective polarizer may be formed on the planar surface of the plano-convex lens or the concave surface of the plano-concave lens. An additional quarter wave plate may be located between the reflective polarizer and the partially reflective mirror.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2021
    Publication date: May 6, 2021
    Inventors: Sajjad A. Khan, Nan Zhu, Graham B. Myhre, Brent J. Bollman, Tyler Anderson, Weibo Cheng, John N. Border
  • Patent number: 10997948
    Abstract: A head-mounted device may include a display that generates content and an optical system through which the content is viewable. The head-mounted device may include a lighting system that illuminates a periphery of the optical system. When the user places the device on his or her head in a brightly lit environment, control circuitry may operate the lighting system to provide bright illumination to the user's peripheral vision. The lighting system may gradually decrease in brightness until the user transitions from a bright-adapted state to a dark-adapted state. When the user is partially or fully dark-adapted, the lighting system may be turned off and the display may be turned on. In some arrangements, an ambient light sensor may measure ambient light conditions outside of the electronic device and the control circuitry may control the lighting system based on the ambient lighting conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Cheng Chen, Nicolas P. Bonnier, Graham B. Myhre, Jiaying Wu
  • Patent number: 10955724
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a head-mounted device may have displays that are viewable by the eyes of a viewer through adjustable lenses. The adjustable lenses may be liquid crystal lenses. A camera and other sensors in the head-mounted device may monitor the eyes of the user and gather other information. Control circuitry in the head-mounted device may control the adjustable lenses based on measured characteristics of the eyes of the user such as interpupillary distance and direction-of-view. The control circuitry may match the distance between the centers of the adjustable lenses to the measured interpupillary distance and may align the lens centers with the measured direction-of-view. The adjustable lenses may have transparent electrodes that are supplied with time-varying control signals by the control circuitry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Graham B. Myhre, Giovanni Carbone, Shih-Chyuan Fan Jiang, Sheng Zhang, Chaohao Wang