US 11,861,941 B1
Eye camera systems with polarized light
Keenan Molner, Palo Alto, CA (US); Qiong Huang, Cupterino, CA (US); Branko Petljanski, San Jose, CA (US); Edward A. Valko, San Jose, CA (US); Tom Sengelaub, San Francisco, CA (US); Martin Haller, Mountain View, CA (US); Andrei Nikiforov, Berlin (DE); Hua Gao, Cupertino, CA (US); and Emanuele Mandelli, Mountain View, CA (US)
Assigned to Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed by Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed on Jan. 31, 2020, as Appl. No. 16/779,297.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/802,138, filed on Feb. 6, 2019.
Int. Cl. G06V 40/19 (2022.01); G02B 27/01 (2006.01); G02B 5/30 (2006.01); G06V 40/18 (2022.01); H01L 31/0203 (2014.01); H01L 31/0216 (2014.01)
CPC G06V 40/19 (2022.01) [G02B 5/3025 (2013.01); G02B 27/0172 (2013.01); G06V 40/18 (2022.01); G02B 2027/0161 (2013.01); G02B 2027/0178 (2013.01); H01L 31/0203 (2013.01); H01L 31/0216 (2013.01)] 22 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An eye camera system, comprising:
a plurality of light sources configured to emit light towards a user's eye;
a camera configured to face toward the user's eye and oriented at an angle non-parallel to an optic axis or a visual axis of the user's eye, wherein the camera is configured to receive a portion of the light reflected off the user's eye to capture images of the user's eye; and
at least one light polarizing element configured to be located on a light path between the light sources and the user's eye to polarize the light incident on the user's eye,
wherein the camera is located on one side of an eyepiece, along an optical axis of the eyepiece that is configured to be positioned in front of the user's eye, the eyepiece comprises one more refractive elements that have refractive power, and the light sources are located on an opposite side of the eyepiece along the optical axis of the eyepiece.