September 23, 2020 08:00 ET
Ocutrx Vision Technologies, LLC, an augmented/extended reality manufacturing company, announced today the issuance of its third and fourth awarded patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The third patent, titled “System and Method for Correction of Vision Defects Using Augmented Reality Glasses” covers the company’s visual field perimetry testing technology. This eye examination takes place in the augmented reality (AR) head mounted unit (HMU) to detect damaged retinal tissue called “scotomas” existing in central and peripheral vision which may be caused by various medical conditions such as advanced macular degeneration (AMD).
The fourth patent covers what Ocutrx calls Dynamic Opacity™ titled “Wearable Image Manipulation and Control System with Dynamic Opacity Augmentation in Augmented Reality Glasses” a technology which is essential to the broader application of AR beyond gaming, and important to the AR industry as a whole. The patent covers technology which solves a common AR problem of being able to see projected virtual images or video in an AR headset in high-lighting conditions or daylight settings. An alpha-matte layer containing pixels, which turn varying degrees of opaqueness, are controlled to match, much like an exterior “shadow”, the reflected image the person sees inside the headset. In other words, it puts “a sunglasses” type shade behind just the virtual image while leaving portions around that image see-through.
“We are incredibly pleased to add these important patents to our Intellectual Property portfolio and the value of our company. The allowance of these patents serves to affirm our belief that the technologies we are developing will transform the future of augmented/extended reality and expand the bounds of optical technologies as we now know it,” said Michael Freeman, CEO/CTO of Ocutrx Vision Technologies.
The Visual Field Test patent teaches that by using a display controller in the headset to provide a visual field test to a patient, using both static and kinetic perimetry testing processes to identify the area of damage, medically known as a “scotoma” on the patient’s retina. As a result, the digital headset creates a retinal map of exactly where the analog retinal scotoma is located in a patient’s eyes as if it was projected onto the Oculenz display screen.
To aid AMD patients, the Oculenz then activates its two 4K cameras mounted within the device, taking video of what the patient should be seeing from the real world: “real-reality” (RR), Then, the software controller combines and modifies the RR streaming video buffering the frame-by-frame video images with the retinal scotoma map of each eye of the patient. Then, when the original video frames are displayed to the patient in the headset the buffer “pixel-shifts” the RR video to outside the scotoma, so that none of the information is displayed to the part of the patient’s retina where the scotoma exists. This permits a patient with AMD to see what would normally be hidden by the scotoma in their vision.
The head mounted visual-field test is a huge step forward because previously a patient had to go to an Ophthalmologist’s office and take the same test on a machine that’s half the size of a refrigerator. Now, with the Oculenz HMU the test can be taken by the patient at home, as often as the patient needs to, with the results being instantaneously available to the patient’s physician for immediate interpretation and further diagnosis by the doctor. Alternatively, the algorithms measure each test and reports to the Ophthalmologist when the scotoma has enlarged, or a new area of defect is detected.
The fourth patent uses the method of putting an occlusive “shadow” behind the projected virtual image through controlled pixels which exist on an alpha-matte lens while the virtually displayed images are being reflected into the eyes. Each pixel can be controlled in varying degrees of opaqueness gradation which Ocutrx calls AR Dynamic Opacity (ARDO). ARDO is included in all the Oculenz headsets for patients, and in the ORlenz™ AR/XR headset for surgeons. The ARDO overcomes bright-light conditions by making the virtual image more visible than the RR in front of it.
Another feature of the fourth patent is a particularly important feature to the AR sector as a whole and involves the application of foveated rendering to AR visualizations. The part of the invention leverages the natural operation of the fovea in the human eye, with mechanical and software applications in the AR/XR HMU’s to get the most out of the resolution of virtual images and graphics. The Ocutrx patent teaches a method where the optical engine mimics the attributes of the human eye concentrating the highest-resolution in the center of the eye-box and a lower resolution on the periphery. These elements work together to display a higher-than-native display resolution projected onto the fovea and macula, where most of a person’s high-acuity vision exists, while the user sees the virtual images in the lens periphery in a lower resolution which matches more closely their own peripheral perceptual acuity.
“Ocutrx Vision Technologies is transforming the way AR/XR can be applied in medical devices for surgeons and patients, alike,” said Dr. Linda Lam MD, MBA, Chief Scientific and Strategy Officer at Ocutrx. “Being able to match the resolution of the human eye with a symbiotic resolution in the headset is a major step forward in making augmented reality the most usable for medical applications.”
The company plans to bring more pending patents to market once approved. Ocutrx currently has 4 patents awarded and 49 international patents filed and 20 US patents pending. Freeman, himself, has well over 60 patents awarded to his credit in seven different scientific sectors.
About Ocutrx
With corporate headquarters in Irvine, Calif., and a research and development labs in Colorado Springs, CO and Tulsa, OK, and a new office in London, England, Ocutrx is a new breed of Augmented/Extended Reality manufacturing company focusing on the best-connected, lightest-weight, highest-resolution AR headset, housing the largest field-of-vision in the market. The Ocutrx AR headsets boast 60 pixel-per-degree resolution, which is the highest resolution the human eye can see at 20/20. Ocutrx is focused on AR/XR as a medical device for surgeons and patients alike to deliver an extended reality experience to both. At a time when worldwide applications for easy-to-wear and easy-to-use AR solutions are being touted as the “next big thing after smartphones,” Ocutrx is creating impactful, revolutionary ARWear for the medical sector.