Patents by Inventor Nicholas Daniel

Nicholas Daniel 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).

  • Patent number: 10495887
    Abstract: A head-mounted display (HMD) includes a multifocal block having one or more possible focal distances and includes a multifocal structure. The multifocal structure has a first focal distance and a second focal distance of the one or more possible focal distances. The multifocal structure includes one or more optical components positioned in series such that light from an electronic display is received and passes through each of the one or more optical components at least once before being output from the multifocal structure. The one or more optical components includes a switchable half waveplate (SHWP). The SHWP has a first state that causes the multifocal structure to output image light at the first focal distance, and a second state that causes the multifocal structure to output the image light at the first focal distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Yusufu Njoni Bamaxam Sulai, Nicholas Daniel Trail, Wai Sze Tiffany Lam
  • Patent number: 10481321
    Abstract: An augmented-reality system has canted waveguides. The waveguides are canted at a wrap angle and/or a tilt angle. Input couplers to the waveguides are designed differently because of the different cant angles. Having canted waveguides allows waveguides to be formed in glasses and/or sunglass that have a base curvature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Nicholas Daniel Trail, Sharvil Shailesh Talati
  • Patent number: 10481687
    Abstract: An eye tracker for determining a position of an eye, which may be integrated into a head-mounted display. The eye tracker includes a waveguide, switchable Bragg gratings (SBGs) that selectively out couple light from the waveguide, light sources coupled to the waveguide, a detector coupled to a return path of the waveguide, and a controller. The controller instructs at least one light source to emit at least one light beam propagating through the waveguide, and activates at least one SBG to out-couple the at least one light beam from the waveguide toward the eye. The waveguide in-couples at least one reflected light signal reflected from the eye that originates from the at least one light beam out-coupled from the waveguide. The detector detects the at least one reflected light signal. The controller determines a position of the eye using the detected at least one reflected light signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Nicholas Daniel Trail
  • Patent number: 10469832
    Abstract: A depth camera assembly (DCA) includes a projector, a detector and a controller. The projector emits a tiled structured light (SL) pattern onto a local area. Each illumination source of the projector includes one or more light emitters and an augmented diffractive optical element (ADOE) designed with a pattern mask. The ADOE diffracts at least a portion of light beams emitted from the light emitters to form a first SL pattern projection having a field-of-view corresponding to a first tileable boundary. The pattern mask prevents projection of light that would otherwise be diffracted outside the first tileable boundary. The first SL pattern projection is combined with at least a second SL pattern projection into the tiled SL pattern illuminating objects in the local area. The detector captures images of the objects illuminated by the SL pattern. The controller determines depth information for the objects using the captured images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologes, LLC
    Inventors: Zhaoming Zhu, Nicholas Daniel Trail, Renzo De Nardi, Richard Andrew Newcombe
  • Patent number: 10469722
    Abstract: An illumination source in a depth camera assembly (DCA) includes multiple emitters on a single substrate and a diffractive optical element (DOE) assembly including multiple DOEs. Each DOE is configured to generate a structured light pattern from the light emitted from a corresponding emitter. The DOE assembly projects the structured light patterns onto portions of a local area based in part on DOE projection geometries associated with the DOEs. The illumination source may also include a second DOE assembly common to the multiple emitters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Nicholas Daniel Trail
  • Patent number: 10462451
    Abstract: A depth camera assembly includes an illumination source assembly, a projection assembly, and an imaging device. The illumination source assembly emits light in accordance with emission instructions. The illumination source assembly includes a plurality of emitters on a single substrate. The projection assembly projects light from the illumination source assembly into a local area. The projection assembly includes an optical element that is positioned to receive light from a first emitter at a first angle and project the received light from the first emitter to a first depth zone in the local area, and to receive light from a second emitter at a second angle and project the received light from the second emitter to a second depth zone in the local area. The imaging device captures one or more images of the local area illuminated with the light from the illumination source assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Nicholas Daniel Trail, Richard Andrew Newcombe
  • Patent number: 10452138
    Abstract: An eye tracker characterization system comprising a scanning retinal imaging unit and a controller. The scanning retinal imaging unit characterizes eye tracking information determined by an eye tracking unit under test. The scanning retinal imaging unit includes a scanning optics assembly and a detector. The scanning optics assembly scans light in a first band across a retinal region of an eye of a user. The detector detects the scanned light reflected from the retinal region. The controller selects eye tracking information received from the eye tracking unit under test and corresponding eye tracking parameters received from the scanning retinal imaging unit. The controller calculates differences between the selected eye tracking information and the corresponding selected eye tracking parameters, and characterizes the selected eye tracking information based on the calculated differences.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Robin Sharma, Nicholas Daniel Trail, Robert Dale Cavin
  • Publication number: 20190317329
    Abstract: A super-resolution scanning display. The scanning display includes a light source, a conditioning assembly, and a scanning mirror assembly. The light source is configured to emit source light from a plurality of columns of emitters formed along a first dimension, including at least a first column of emitters emitting in a first band of light and a second column of emitters emitting in a second band of light which are offset along the first dimension by a fraction of an emitter width and offset along a second dimension—that is orthogonal to the first dimension—by greater than the emitter width. The conditioning assembly receives and conditions the source light. The scanning mirror assembly scans the conditioned light along the second dimension to generate a portion of an image at a first location with a resolution that is more than a first threshold number of emitters in a unit angle in the first dimension.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 13, 2018
    Publication date: October 17, 2019
    Inventors: Byron Taylor, Nicholas Daniel Trail
  • Patent number: 10440355
    Abstract: A an augmented reality (AR) headset includes a depth camera assembly that combines stereo imaging with structured light (SL) to generate depth information for an area of interest. The depth camera assembly includes at least two image capture devices and a SL illuminator and determines an imaging mode based on a signal to noise ratio or spatial variance of images captured by one or more of the cameras. Different imaging modes correspond to different operation of one or more image capture devices and the SL illuminator. The depth camera assembly includes different ranges of signal to noise ratios that each correspond to an imaging mode, and the depth camera assembly configures the image capture devices and the SL illuminator based on an imaging mode associated with a range of signal to noise ratios including the signal to noise ratio of a captured image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Nicholas Daniel Trail, Alexander Jobe Fix
  • Publication number: 20190293969
    Abstract: A hinge assembly mounted on a housing of form part of an electronic device includes a metal hinge member having a hinge post that extends through a mounting hole in a wall of the housing, the hinge post being connected to a metal anchor plate on an inner side of the housing wall to be rotationally and axially fast with the anchor plate. The anchor plate may has an area multiple times the size of a footprint of the hinge member, with fastening the hinge post and the anchor plate in some embodiments being by a welded connection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2019
    Publication date: September 26, 2019
    Inventors: Emily Lauren Clopp, Jun Lin, Douglas Wayne Moskowitz, Stephen Andrew Steger, Nicholas Daniel Streets
  • Publication number: 20190289049
    Abstract: Techniques for providing live content at different quality levels to a user device include advertising content availability at multiple quality levels for selection by the user device, receiving a quality level selection from the user device, wherein the quality level selection matches one of the advertised multiple quality levels, determining whether the received quality level selection differs from a currently used quality level, when it is determined that the received quality level selection is different from the currently used quality level, reconfiguring a transcoder to transcode the live content to only the received quality level, and updating a metafile to include a first quality level at a first bitrate lower than a bitrate for the received quality level selection and a second quality level at a second bitrate higher than the bitrate for the received quality level selection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2019
    Publication date: September 19, 2019
    Applicant: OpenTV, Inc.
    Inventors: Claes Georg Andersson, Nicholas Daniel Doerring, Nicholas Fishwick, John Michael Teixeira
  • Patent number: 10416766
    Abstract: A head-mounted display (HMD) includes an electronic display configured to emit image light, an optical assembly that provides optical correction to the image light, an eye tracking system, and a varifocal module. The optical assembly includes a back optical element configured to receive the image light from the electronic display, and a coupling assembly configured to couple a front optical element to a location within the optical assembly such that the front optical element receives light transmitted by the back optical element. The optical correction is determined in part by an optical characteristic of the front optical element that is replaceable. The eye tracking system determines eye tracking information for a first eye of a user of the HMD. A varifocal module adjusts focus of images displayed on the electronic display, based on the eye tracking information and the optical correction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Nicholas Daniel Trail, Douglas Robert Lanman
  • Patent number: 10401630
    Abstract: A head-mounted display (HMD) includes a multifocal block having one or more possible focal distances and includes a multifocal structure. The multifocal structure has a first focal distance and a second focal distance of the one or more possible focal distances. The multifocal structure includes one or more optical components positioned in series such that light from an electronic display is received and passes through each of the one or more optical components at least once before being output from the multifocal structure. The one or more optical components includes a switchable half waveplate (SHWP). The SHWP has a first state that causes the multifocal structure to output image light at the first focal distance, and a second state that causes the multifocal structure to output the image light at the first focal distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Yusufu Njoni Bamaxam Sulai, Nicholas Daniel Trail, Wai Sze Tiffany Lam
  • Patent number: 10379356
    Abstract: An auto-focus head-mounted display (HMD) dynamically generates aberration-adjusted images based on measured accommodation of user's eye(s). An aberration-adjusted image is an image distorted to correct aberrations that would otherwise occur at a retina of the user due to image light passing through optics of the HMD. The aberration-adjusted image corrects the aberrations of the HMD and “accounts” for the aberrations of the eye so that the resulting retinal image is free of optical aberrations due to the HMD but preserves correct eye optical aberrations that are correlated with a current accommodative state of the eye.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: William Aaron Nicholls, Marina Zannoli, Douglas Robert Lanman, Nicholas Daniel Trail
  • Patent number: 10373294
    Abstract: A head-mounted display (HMD) divides an image into a high resolution (HR) inset portion at a first resolution, a peripheral portion, and a transitional portion. The peripheral portion is downsampled to a second resolution that is less than the first resolution. The transitional portion is blended such that there is a smooth change in resolution that corresponds to a change in resolution between a fovea region and a non-fovea region of a retina. An inset region is generated using the HR inset portion and the blended transitional portion, and a background region is generated using the downsampled peripheral portion. The inset region is provided to a HR inset display, and the background region is provided to a peripheral display. An optics block combines the displayed inset region with the displayed background region to generate composite content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Austin Wilson, Douglas Robert Lanman, Nicholas Daniel Trail, Scott Charles McEldowney, Stephen James McNally, Yusufu Njoni Bamaxam Sulai
  • Publication number: 20190227317
    Abstract: The disclosed projector device may include (1) a first monochromatic emitter array having a plurality of emitters of a first color disposed in a two-dimensional configuration and (2) a second monochromatic emitter array having a plurality of emitters of a second color disposed in a two-dimensional configuration. The first and second monochromatic emitter arrays may be configured to emit images of the first and second colors into a waveguide configuration, and the first color may be different than the second color. Associated display systems and methods are also provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 10, 2018
    Publication date: July 25, 2019
    Inventors: Nicholas Daniel Trail, James Ronald Bonar, Gareth Valentine
  • Publication number: 20190227319
    Abstract: The disclosed apparatus may include (1) a plurality of monochromatic emitter arrays, where each of the plurality of monochromatic emitter arrays has a plurality of emitters disposed in a two-dimensional configuration and emits a monochromatic image of a corresponding color, (2) a waveguide configuration that includes (a) a top surface, (b) a bottom surface disposed opposite the top surface, (c) a coupling area that receives the monochromatic images, and (d) a decoupling area that projects a plurality of instances of a polychromatic image including a combination of the monochromatic images toward an eyebox through the bottom surface, and (3) an actuator system that produces lateral shifting of the plurality of instances of the polychromatic image between at least two positions relative to the waveguide configuration. Various other methods and systems are also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2018
    Publication date: July 25, 2019
    Inventors: Nicholas Daniel Trail, James Ronald Bonar, Gareth Valentine
  • Publication number: 20190227318
    Abstract: The disclosed apparatus may include a waveguide configuration that may include (1) a coupling area having at least one coupling element configured to receive a plurality of monochromatic images, where each of the monochromatic images is of a predetermined wavelength of light, (2) a propagation area in which light, received via the at least one coupling element, moves within a length of the waveguide configuration, and (3) a decoupling area that extends along the propagation area and includes decoupling elements that project a polychromatic image toward an eyebox, where the polychromatic image includes the monochromatic images of the predetermined wavelengths of light. Associated systems and devices are also provided herein.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2018
    Publication date: July 25, 2019
    Inventors: Nicholas Daniel Trail, Pasi Saarikko
  • Patent number: 10345999
    Abstract: Methods and systems of modifying a media presentation are presented. In one example, a first media item including first audio data is played. During that time, a user indication is received. In response to the indication, detection data for a first audio segment of the first audio data is generated. A second media item including second audio data is then played. A second audio segment in the second audio data corresponding to at least a portion of the first audio segment is detected based on the detection data. Whether a location in the second audio segment corresponds to a location in the detection data associated with the user indication is determined. In response to the location in the second audio segment corresponding to the location in the detection data, the playing of the second media item is altered during at least a portion of the second audio segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2019
    Assignee: OPENTV, INC.
    Inventor: Nicholas Daniel Doerring
  • Patent number: 10349038
    Abstract: A depth camera assembly (DCA) determines depth information for a scene in a field of view of the DCA. The DCA includes a structured light (SL) illuminator, a camera, and a controller. The SL illuminator includes a source assembly, a SL element, a liquid crystal (LC) array, and a polarizer. The source assembly generates light, and the SL element generates a SL pattern using the generated light source. The LC array includes a plurality of addressable cells configured to polarize the SL pattern in accordance with adjustment instructions. The polarizer attenuates portions of the SL pattern based on the polarization of the portions of the SL pattern. The camera captures an image of the SL pattern, and the controller identifies portions of the image that are saturated and generates adjustment instructions based in part on the identified portions of the image, and provides the adjustment instructions to the LC array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Nicholas Daniel Trail, Stephen James McNally