Patents by Inventor Matthew D. Hollands

Matthew D. Hollands 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: 20250085461
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a lens module with a tunable lens. The tunable lens may include a flexible lens element and a lens shaping structure attached to the flexible lens element. The lens shaping structure may include a plurality of tabs that are each coupled to a respective actuator. The actuator may have a slot that receives the tab of the lens shaping structure and moves the tab up and down along an axis of displacement. The actuator may include two motor subassemblies that each have a ring-shaped magnet between two coils. The actuator may include a housing, a screw that is rotated by the motor subassemblies, a guide rod, and a nut with openings aligned with both the screw and the guide rod. The actuator may include a homing sensor with an electrode on the nut and at least one electrode on the housing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2024
    Publication date: March 13, 2025
    Inventors: Matthew D Hollands, Richard J Topliss, James E Pedder, Daniel J Burbridge
  • Patent number: 12216285
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display and a lens module through which the display is viewable. The lens module may include a tunable lens with an adjustable spherical power, cylindrical axis, and/or cylindrical power. To tune the tunable lens to compensate for a viewer's eyesight, the display may present at least one target. The optical power of the tunable lens may be set based on the point of gaze relative to the at least one target. Multiple targets with associated optical powers may be presented and the optical power of the tunable lens may be set depending on which target is aligned with the point of gaze. The display may present an image through a masking layer with a ring of pinhole pairs. The electronic device may include an input device that receives user input regarding a perceived image associated with the display and the masking layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2024
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: James E Pedder, Gareth D Hastings, Igor Stamenov, Matthew D Hollands
  • Publication number: 20250028093
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a lens module with a tunable lens. The tunable lens may include multiple adjustable fluid-filled bladders distributed around the periphery of the tunable lens. Fluid may be selectively added to and removed from each adjustable fluid-filled bladder to control a displacement of a lens element at a given position along the periphery. The fluid may be added to and removed from the adjustable fluid-filled bladders by fluid-controlling components. The fluid-controlling components may be positioned locally within a ring-shaped chassis portion and adjacent to a respective bladder or may be consolidated in an additional chassis portion and connected to the bladders using fluid channels through the ring-shaped chassis portion. The fluid-controlling components may include stepper motors with two subassemblies that each have a ring-shaped magnet between two coils.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2024
    Publication date: January 23, 2025
    Inventors: Richard J. Topliss, Matthew D. Hollands, James E. Pedder, Daniel J. Burbridge, Thomas M. Gregory
  • Publication number: 20250028094
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a lens module with a tunable lens. The tunable lens may include multiple adjustable fluid-filled bladders distributed around the periphery of the tunable lens. Fluid may be selectively added to and removed from each adjustable fluid-filled bladder to control a displacement of a lens element at a given position along the periphery. The fluid may be added to and removed from the adjustable fluid-filled bladders by fluid-controlling components. The fluid-controlling components may be positioned locally within a ring-shaped chassis portion and adjacent to a respective bladder or may be consolidated in an additional chassis portion and connected to the bladders using fluid channels through the ring-shaped chassis portion. The fluid-controlling components may include stepper motors with two subassemblies that each have a ring-shaped magnet between two coils.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2024
    Publication date: January 23, 2025
    Inventors: Richard J Topliss, Matthew D Hollands, James E Pedder, Daniel J Burbridge
  • Publication number: 20240369841
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a lens module with a tunable lens. The tunable lens may be operable in multiple modes such as a normal mode, a presbyopia-mitigation mode, a near-focus mode, and a negative power boost mode. During operation, the electronic device may gather data and adjust the tunable lens based on the gathered data. The tunable lens may be switched from the normal mode to the presbyopia-mitigation mode in response to determining that a nearby object is being viewed through the lens module. The tunable lens may be switched from the normal mode to the negative power boost mode in response to ambient light levels being low and/or eye fatigue levels being high. The tunable lens may switch between modes over a transition period. An output device may notify the user when the tunable lens changes modes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2024
    Publication date: November 7, 2024
    Inventors: Igor Stamenov, Gareth D Hastings, James E Pedder, Jason Chen, Matthew D. Hollands, Amrith V. Ram
  • Publication number: 20240302657
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display and a lens module through which the display is viewable. The lens module may include a tunable lens with an adjustable spherical power, cylindrical axis, and/or cylindrical power. To tune the tunable lens to compensate for a viewer's eyesight, the display may present at least one target. The optical power of the tunable lens may be set based on the point of gaze relative to the at least one target. Multiple targets with associated optical powers may be presented and the optical power of the tunable lens may be set depending on which target is aligned with the point of gaze. The display may present an image through a masking layer with a ring of pinhole pairs. The electronic device may include an input device that receives user input regarding a perceived image associated with the display and the masking layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2024
    Publication date: September 12, 2024
    Inventors: James E. Pedder, Gareth D. Hastings, Igor Stamenov, Matthew D. Hollands
  • Patent number: 12073051
    Abstract: A touch sensor panel comprises a plurality of touch electrodes in a two-dimensional array, the plurality of touch electrodes including first and second touch electrodes disposed along a first axis. The first and second touch electrodes can each include one or more first protrusions along a first side and one or more second protrusions along a second side, opposite the first side. The one or more first protrusions along the first side can be offset along a second axis, orthogonal to the first axis, from the one or more second protrusions along the second side. The first and second touch electrodes can tessellate such that the one or more first protrusions along the first side of the first touch electrode interlock with the one or more second protrusions along the second side of the second touch electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2023
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Emmanuelle J. Merced-Grafals, Matthew D. Hollands
  • Publication number: 20240280817
    Abstract: A head-mounted device may include a lens module with a least one adjustable lens. The head-mounted device may be wirelessly paired to an electronic device such as a cellular telephone, watch, laptop computer, etc. To correct for presbyopia, the optical power of adjustable lenses in a head-mounted device may be adjusted when the user is viewing a close object. To allow for intelligent adjustments of the adjustable lenses while minimizing power consumption in the head-mounted device, the head-mounted device may receive sensor data and/or focal point change instructions from a paired electronic device. The paired electronic device may detect a trigger, analyze the user's attention to the paired electronic device, and send focal point change instructions to the head-mounted device based on the obtained information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 8, 2024
    Publication date: August 22, 2024
    Inventors: James E. Pedder, Igor Stamenov, Matthew D. Hollands, Thomas M. Gregory
  • Publication number: 20230350209
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display module that generates image light and an optical system that redirects the light towards an eye box. The optical system may have first hologram structures that replicate the light over multiple output angles onto second hologram structures. The second hologram structures may focus the replicated light onto the eye box. If desired, the device may include an image sensor. The first and second hologram structures may include transmission and/or reflection holograms. The optical system may redirect a first portion of the light to the eye box and a second portion of the light to the sensor. The sensor may generate image data based on the second portion of the light. Control circuitry may compensate for distortions in the first portion of the light by performing feedback adjustments to the display module based on distortions in the image data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2023
    Publication date: November 2, 2023
    Inventors: Matthew D. Hollands, Michael D. Simmonds, Richard J. Topliss, Thomas M. Gregory
  • Publication number: 20230284503
    Abstract: A display may have both a full pixel density region and a pixel removal region with a plurality of high-transmittance areas that overlap an optical sensor. Each high-transmittance area may be devoid of thin-film transistors and other display components. To improve transmission while maintaining satisfactory touch sensing performance, one or more segments of the touch sensor metal in the pixel removal region may have a reduced width relative to the touch sensor metal in the full pixel density region and/or one or more segments of the touch sensor metal in the pixel removal region may be omitted relative to the touch sensor metal in the full pixel density region. To mitigate a different appearance between the pixel removal region and the full pixel density region at off-axis viewing angles, the position of the touch sensor metal in the pixel removal region may be tuned.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 16, 2022
    Publication date: September 7, 2023
    Inventors: Ricardo A Peterson, Abbas Jamshidi Roudbari, Ashray Vinayak Gogte, Christophe Blondin, Sebastian Knitter, Warren S Rieutort-Louis, Yuchi Che, Yurii Morozov, Matthew D Hollands, Chuang Qian, Michael H Lim, Matthew J Schwendeman, Kenny Kim, Tsung-Ting Tsai, Yue Qu
  • Patent number: 11751462
    Abstract: A display may have both a full pixel density region and a pixel removal region with a plurality of high-transmittance areas that overlap an optical sensor. Each high-transmittance area may be devoid of thin-film transistors and other display components. To improve transmission while maintaining satisfactory touch sensing performance, one or more segments of the touch sensor metal in the pixel removal region may have a reduced width relative to the touch sensor metal in the full pixel density region and/or one or more segments of the touch sensor metal in the pixel removal region may be omitted relative to the touch sensor metal in the full pixel density region. To mitigate a different appearance between the pixel removal region and the full pixel density region at off-axis viewing angles, the position of the touch sensor metal in the pixel removal region may be tuned.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ricardo A Peterson, Abbas Jamshidi Roudbari, Ashray Vinayak Gogte, Christophe Blondin, Sebastian Knitter, Warren S Rieutort-Louis, Yuchi Che, Yurii Morozov, Matthew D Hollands, Chuang Qian, Michael H Lim, Matthew J Schwendeman, Kenny Kim, Tsung-Ting Tsai, Yue Qu
  • Patent number: 11740460
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display module that generates image light and an optical system that redirects the light towards an eye box. The optical system may have first hologram structures that replicate the light over multiple output angles onto second hologram structures. The second hologram structures may focus the replicated light onto the eye box. If desired, the device may include an image sensor. The first and second hologram structures may include transmission and/or reflection holograms. The optical system may redirect a first portion of the light to the eye box and a second portion of the light to the sensor. The sensor may generate image data based on the second portion of the light. Control circuitry may compensate for distortions in the first portion of the light by performing feedback adjustments to the display module based on distortions in the image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew D. Hollands, Michael D. Simmonds, Richard J. Topliss, Thomas M. Gregory
  • Publication number: 20200174255
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display module that generates image light and an optical system that redirects the light towards an eye box. The optical system may have first hologram structures that replicate the light over multiple output angles onto second hologram structures. The second hologram structures may focus the replicated light onto the eye box. If desired, the device may include an image sensor. The first and second hologram structures may include transmission and/or reflection holograms. The optical system may redirect a first portion of the light to the eye box and a second portion of the light to the sensor. The sensor may generate image data based on the second portion of the light. Control circuitry may compensate for distortions in the first portion of the light by performing feedback adjustments to the display module based on distortions in the image data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2019
    Publication date: June 4, 2020
    Inventors: Matthew D. Hollands, Michael D. Simmonds, Richard J. Topliss, Thomas M. Gregory