Patents by Inventor Stuart James Myron NICHOLSON

Stuart James Myron NICHOLSON 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: 12317010
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and techniques are provided for reducing graphical bandwidth in a projection display system by modifying a modulation frequency used to display one or more portions of content based on an identified content type of such portions. Content is received for display, and types of content associated with one or more portions of the received content are identified. For each respective portion of content, an effective resolution is selected for displaying the respective portion based on the identified content type for the respective portion, and one or more light beams directed to a respective display area of a projection surface are modulated at a respective emitter modulation frequency that corresponds to the selected effective resolution for the respective portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2025
    Assignee: GOOGLE
    Inventor: Stuart James Myron Nicholson
  • Patent number: 12292569
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for accommodating multiple sets of laser light sources in an optical engine of a display system such as a laser projection system are described. Laser light beams may be combined via wavelength-, polarization-, and/or angular-separation-based techniques. First and second sets of laser light beams may be angularly separated such that different sets of partially overlapping pixels are projected by the system, thereby increasing the display pixel density and/or an expanding the field of view of the display. One or more laser die may be mounted to each submount of the optical engine. For embodiments with two laser dies on each submount, collimating lenses may introduce angular separation between laser light beams output by each pair of commonly mounted laser dies. A retroreflector prism may be disposed at a beam combiner to provide a compact extension of the optical path through the beam combiner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2025
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Adema, Stuart James Myron Nicholson
  • Publication number: 20250142028
    Abstract: An illustrative display system includes an array of pixels and a frame controller configured to cause the array of pixels to display an image frame by performing a series of successive field updates. The series of successive field updates includes a first field update in which a first write pointer circuit tracks a first traversal, during a first update period, across the array of pixels to update the array of pixels from a first to a second image field in the sequence, and a second field update in which a second write pointer circuit tracks a second traversal, during a second update period, across the array of pixels to update the array of pixels from the second to a third image field in the sequence. The second update period of the second field update overlaps the first update period of the first field update.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2024
    Publication date: May 1, 2025
    Inventors: Edwin Lyle Hudson, Robert Lo, Jeffrey Tang Fung Li, Stuart James Myron Nicholson
  • Patent number: 12276790
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for accommodating multiple sets of laser light sources in an optical engine of a display system such as a laser projection system are described. Laser light beams may be combined via wavelength-, polarization-, and/or angular-separation-based techniques. First and second sets of laser light beams may be angularly separated such that different sets of partially overlapping pixels are projected by the system, thereby increasing the display pixel density and/or an expanding the field of view of the display. One or more laser die may be mounted to each submount of the optical engine. For embodiments with two laser dies on each submount, collimating lenses may introduce angular separation between laser light beams output by each pair of commonly mounted laser dies. A retroreflector prism may be disposed at a beam combiner to provide a compact extension of the optical path through the beam combiner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2025
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Adema, Stuart James Myron Nicholson
  • Publication number: 20250020932
    Abstract: A laser projection system utilizes a waveguide having a narrow incoupler for double-bounce mitigation and form factor reduction. An optical scanner includes an optical relay positioned in between two scan mirrors. The first scan mirror scans laser light into the optical relay in a first dimension, and the optical relay and converges the scanned laser light towards a second scan mirror. The second scan mirror scans laser light along a second dimension substantially perpendicular to a path over which the laser light is scanned across the second scan mirror, and the convergence introduced by the optical relay causes the laser light to be scanned as a line or arc path of an exit pupil plane that is coincident with the incoupler. The optical relay may include one or more lenses or may be a monolithic molded structure, which may be an Offner-style relay or a molded reflective relay.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2024
    Publication date: January 16, 2025
    Inventors: Daniel Adema, Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Ian Andrews
  • Publication number: 20250004289
    Abstract: A display system includes one or more low-power laser diodes, each producing an emission. The emissions are directed to an optical element that affects the direction or divergence of the emissions. The optical element redirects the emissions toward a steering element such as a MEMS-actuated mirror, or a combination of such mirrors. The steering element directs the emissions toward the incoupler of a waveguide acting as an optical combiner. The emissions propagate through the waveguide and are extracted by an outcoupler in the direction of an observer. By scanning the direction of the beam-steering element along one or several directions, an image may be formed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2022
    Publication date: January 2, 2025
    Inventors: Aurelien Jean Francois David, Benjamin Wales, Bergen Albert Fletcher, Daniel Adema, Daniel J. Effinger, Vance R. Morrison, Patrick F. Brinkley, Ian Andrews, Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Shreyas Potnis
  • Publication number: 20240355240
    Abstract: A system is disclosed for correcting a world-additive display of a head mounted device (HMD). The system includes a processor of a controller of the HMD connected to the world-additive display and a memory on which are stored machine-readable instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform a process. The process includes receiving optical data from the world-additive display, receiving background data from an optical sensor connected to the controller, deriving scene estimate data from the background data, extracting display color estimate data from the optical data, generating a correction map based on the scene estimate data and the display color estimate data, and applying the correction map to the optical data. Corresponding methods and devices are also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 22, 2024
    Publication date: October 24, 2024
    Inventors: Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Nils Johan Fransson, Brian Cousins
  • Patent number: 12092823
    Abstract: A laser projection system utilizes a waveguide having a narrow incoupler for double-bounce mitigation and form factor reduction. An optical scanner includes an optical relay positioned in between two scan mirrors. The first scan mirror scans laser light into the optical relay in a first dimension, and the optical relay and converges the scanned laser light towards a second scan mirror. The second scan mirror scans laser light along a second dimension substantially perpendicular to a path over which the laser light is scanned across the second scan mirror, and the convergence introduced by the optical relay causes the laser light to be scanned as a line or arc path of an exit pupil plane that is coincident with the incoupler. The optical relay may include one or more lenses or may be a monolithic molded structure, which may be an Offner-style relay or a molded reflective relay.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2024
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Adema, Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Ian Andrews
  • Patent number: 12080204
    Abstract: A display system varies a size of a field of view area of a display for augmented reality (AR) applications based on at least one of ambient light in the environment and content displayed at the display and varying a brightness level of the field of view area such that the brightness level within the field of view area is inversely proportional to the field of view area. Based on an amount of ambient light detected in the environment of the display system, the display system adjusts the size of the area of the field of view of the display in inverse proportion to the amount of detected ambient light. As the size of the field of view area decreases, the display system increases the brightness level of the display within the field of view such that the brightness level is approximately inversely proportional to the field of view area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2024
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Timothy Paul Bodiya, Daniel Adema, Shreyas Potnis
  • Publication number: 20240235679
    Abstract: There is provided a method including receiving an incoming ID at a first wearable heads-up display (WHUD), which incoming ID is associated with a communicant device. The method also includes sending match data from the first WHUD to a match engine. The match data includes a first WHUD ID and the incoming ID. Moreover, the method includes receiving a match indicator at the first WHUD from the match engine. The match indicator is to indicate a match event between the first WHUD and the communicant device based on the match data. Furthermore, the method includes effecting communication between the first WHUD and the communicant device comprising at least one of sending a message from the first WHUD to the communicant device and receiving at the first WHUD a corresponding message from the communicant device. The first WHUD, and a method of operating the match engine are also described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2024
    Publication date: July 11, 2024
    Inventors: Ido Raveh, Stuart James Myron Nicholson
  • Patent number: 11960094
    Abstract: A wearable heads-up display includes a power source, laser sources, and a lightguide. A photodetector is positioned to detect an intensity of a test light emitted at a perimeter of the lightguide from an optical path within the lightguide. A laser safety circuit provides a control to reduce or shut off a supply of electrical power from the power source to the laser sources in response to an output signal from the photodetector indicating that the detected intensity is below a threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Timothy Paul Bodiya
  • Patent number: 11942989
    Abstract: There is provided a method including receiving an incoming ID at a first wearable heads-up display (WHUD), which incoming ID is associated with a communicant device. The method also includes sending match data from the first WHUD to a match engine. The match data includes a first WHUD ID and the incoming ID. Moreover, the method includes receiving a match indicator at the first WHUD from the match engine. The match indicator is to indicate a match event between the first WHUD and the communicant device based on the match data. Furthermore, the method includes effecting communication between the first WHUD and the communicant device comprising at least one of sending a message from the first WHUD to the communicant device and receiving at the first WHUD a corresponding message from the communicant device. The first WHUD, and a method of operating the match engine are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Ido Raveh, Stuart James Myron Nicholson
  • Patent number: 11921292
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for eyebox expansion in wearable heads-up displays (“WHUDs”) are described. The WHUDs described herein each include a projector and an optical waveguide positioned in an optical path between the projector and an eye of the user. For any given light signal from the projector, the optical waveguide receives the light signal at an input coupler and outputs multiple instances or copies of the light signal from multiple discrete, spatially-separated output couplers. The multiple instances or copies of the light signal may be converged by the optical waveguide directly to respective exit pupils at the user's eye or may be routed by the optical waveguide to a holographic combiner in the user's field of view from which the light signals may be converged to respective exit pupils at the user's eye. The optical waveguide employs exit pupil replication to expand the eyebox of the WHUD.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Timothy Paul Bodiya, Stefan Alexander
  • Publication number: 20240073547
    Abstract: Systems and techniques are described for generating a color image by computationally combining chromatically undersampled and shifted information present in multiple component image frames captured via a sparse color filter array that includes a minority of wavelength-filtered picture elements and a remaining majority of panchromatic picture elements. A burst capture is initiated of multiple image frames via a color filter array comprising a plurality of subunits, each subunit including a minority of one or more wavelength-filtered adjacent pixels and a majority of remaining panchromatic pixels. Each of the multiple image frames is processed to generate a resulting color image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 21, 2021
    Publication date: February 29, 2024
    Inventors: Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Steven Benjamin Goldberg, Timothy Paul Bodiya
  • Publication number: 20240064362
    Abstract: A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium can comprise instructions stored thereon. When executed by at least one processor, the instructions can be configured to cause a mobile computing device to receive, from a companion device, multiple files, each of the multiple files including at least media content, a trigger condition, and an action to be performed upon satisfaction of the trigger condition. The action included in at least one of the files can include playing media content from another one of the multiple files. The instructions can be further configured to cause the mobile computing device to play the media content included in at least one of the multiple files, receive at least one additional file from the companion device, erase at least one of the multiple files, and play media content included in the at least one additional file.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2021
    Publication date: February 22, 2024
    Inventors: Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Steven Benjamin Goldberg
  • Publication number: 20240012245
    Abstract: A head wearable apparatus, such as a pair of smart glasses are configured to track a gaze direction of a person for various applications. To support the tracking, the head wearable apparatus is configured with a lens assembly including at least one lens module (e.g., a lens or a lenslet array) operably coupled to the head wearable apparatus and a camera assembly including a camera sensor operably coupled to the head wearable apparatus. The head wearable apparatus is also configured with a camera assembly operably coupled to an anterior surface of a flexure of the head wearable apparatus (e.g., proximate to the front of the smart glasses frames) to minimize a size (e.g., to be as small as possible) of an aperture housing the camera assembly. The flexure is configured to be adjacent to the lens assembly operably coupled to the head wearable apparatus.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2020
    Publication date: January 11, 2024
    Inventors: Daniel Adema, Stuart James Myron Nicholson
  • Publication number: 20230421736
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and techniques are provided for reducing graphical bandwidth in a projection display system by modifying a modulation frequency used to display one or more portions of content based on an identified content type of such portions. Content is received for display, and types of content associated with one or more portions of the received content are identified. For each respective portion of content, an effective resolution is selected for displaying the respective portion based on the identified content type for the respective portion, and one or more light beams directed to a respective display area of a projection surface are modulated at a respective emitter modulation frequency that corresponds to the selected effective resolution for the respective portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2020
    Publication date: December 28, 2023
    Inventor: Stuart James Myron Nicholson
  • Publication number: 20230400679
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and techniques are provided for displaying graphical content by modulating an intensity of one or more emitted light beams while redirecting those emitted light beams along a scan path that includes multiple locations of a projection surface Timing information that specifies timing values associated with each of multiple locations on a projection surface of an optical element is received or generated. One or more light beams that each have a respective intensity are emitted, and redirected along a scan path that includes at least some of the multiple locations. During the redirection of the one or more emitted light beams, the respective intensity of each of the one or more emitted light beams is modulated in accordance with the timing information to display one or more pixels of an image at each of the at least some multiple locations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2020
    Publication date: December 14, 2023
    Inventors: Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Jerrold Richard Randell
  • Patent number: 11789274
    Abstract: There is provided a method of operating a wearable heads-up display (WHUD). The WHUD may include a light source, a spatial modulator, and a display optic. The method may include generating, by the light source, an output light to form an image viewable by a user of the WHUD. The method may also include receiving a position of a pupil of the user relative to an eyebox of the WHUD, and obtaining an image correction map based on the position of the pupil. Moreover, the method may include adjusting the output light to form an adjusted output light. The adjusted output light may be adjusted based on the image correction map to reduce at least one of an intensity non-uniformity and a color balance non-uniformity of the image. The method may also include directing, by the display optic, the adjusted output light into a field of view of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Timothy Paul Bodiya, Shreyas Potnis, Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Bergen Fletcher
  • Patent number: 11756510
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for generating, processing, assembling, and/or formatting data for display are described. Example display controllers are described in which image data is stored in a framebuffer, and a compositor selectively retrieves portions of the image data. At least one P-operator produces lines of intermediate P-operated data by performing at least one intra-line operation on the image data retrieved by the compositor, such as repeating or reordering pixels of the image data. A Q-operator produces a stream of pixel data by performing inter-line operations on the intermediate P-operated data, such as interpolating between lines of the P-operated data. A display is driven according to the stream of pixel data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2023
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Stuart James Myron Nicholson, Isaac James Deroche, Jerrold Richard Randell, Lai Pong Wong, Chris Brown