Ocutrx Vision Technologies Receives Second Patent for Augmented Reality Glasses Eye Tracking Technology
Ocutrx Vision Technologies, a manufacturer of augmented reality (AR) glasses, announced the issuance of the company’s second US patent, which will protect the company’s unique eye tracking technology for patients with macular degeneration and other low vision conditions. The patent applies to both contact lens displays for AR and eye tracking technology for AR/XR applications.
“The new patent first covers using eye tracking as a part of the on-board Visual Field & Scotoma Edge Detection Self-Calibration mode,” Dr. Thomas A. Finley, MD, head of the Tulsa Retina Consultants and chairman of the Ocutrx Medical Advisory Board, said in a company news release. “This helps in fixing the analog eye defect alignment with the digital AR headset. The results of self-calibration are validated or invalidated based on verifying eye tracking and fixation, which is done concurrently while administering the eye tests. Also covered is eye tracking when displaying the Oculenz Computer Modified Image, which keeps the modified image aligned with the gaze of the patient.”
The Oculenz patient user interface keeps the zoom, skew or other manipulation features aligned to improve visual acuity. Eye tracking permits a differential adjustment to account for the potential for differing defects in each eye.
The language in the second patent covers the general use of eye tracking with a head’s-up display, noting, “another advantage” of the Oculenz heads-up display is that “this type of wide field-of-vision goggles or glasses can be used in conjunction with one or more cameras, which are typically head mounted and combined with proximity sensors, motion sensors, head and eye tracking, a feature which is advantageous for understanding a user’s specific field of vision for adjustments, and to measure triangulated distance,” Mitchael C. Freeman, COO of Ocutrx, said in the news release. “This makes our eye-tracking patents applicable across the board for AR/XR.”
Ocutrx Founder and CEO Michael Freeman revealed that the patent teaches that eye tracking can be used to judge the convergence and divergence of an image projected onto the lens to account for the epipolar geometry change in the field of vision (FOV), which occurs when human eyes converge when looking at objects closely and diverge when looking far away in an effort to maintain single binocular vision.
“This feature is especially helpful in ultra-high definition 3D applications, medical or non-medical, where eye tracking sensors are used to automatically change the field of vision to each eye and the presentation of a 3D image to each retina—including creating a virtual zoom in/out method as the eyes look close or far away,” Mr. Freeman said
“Importantly, the patent’s claims include using contact lenses as a display via an image projection powered by energy emitted by an AR headset, much like an RFID tag is powered by a receiver,” said Jordan Boss, chief product engineer for Ocutrx. “The application of a contact lens as a display—either alone or with AR glasses—is an important improvement to the art, and creates a virtual retina display into the eyes, augmenting the user’s real-world images with added AR or computer modified visuals.”
In addition, the patent covers using contact lenses as an AR display in amalgamation with eye tracking sensors and algorithms. These claims include an AR/XR system comprising a database, a model controller coupled to the database using data acquired by means of real-world cameras, with the FOV modified by eye tracking input to establish a retinal map with the resulting AR display projected onto contact lenses alone or in combination with the AR glasses functions.
Ocutrx Chief Scientific and Strategic Officer Dr. Linda Lam, MD, MBA believes eye tracking will add critical new technology for research. “Ocutrx’s methods for capturing, tracking, and processing eye movements in the Oculenz device enables it to not only help patients with macular degeneration but also those with eye movement disorders. Oculenz can reveal and help potentially correct abnormalities in eye movements. This may be applicable to those patients with amblyopia (lazy eye), strokes, concussions and neurologic disorders.”
The issued patent is USPTO No. 10,111,583. Ocutrx owns a worldwide, exclusive license and development agreement on the technology from Raytrx, LLC, a company affiliate. Hardware components in the patent include a wearable headset, reflective lenses, displays, processors, sensors and other input devices, including an AR eye tracking subsystem. The patent award gives Ocutrx broad patent protection on its core medical application and for the larger AR field of technology. For more information about Ocutrx, the company’s patented eye tracking technology and the groundbreaking, redesigned Oculenz AR glasses, visit http://bit.ly/ocu040219.