Head mounted device for virtual or augmented reality combining reliable gesture recognition with motion tracking algorithm

1. A head mounted device for virtual or augmented reality comprising:

a display element configured to display content;

at least one non-depth infrared camera module configured to operate at a predetermined bandwidth;

an illuminator having a wavelength of operation inside the bandwidth of the infrared camera, and having a field of view before the camera module; and

an integrated control unit implementing a six degrees of freedom (6DoF) algorithm to determine 6DoF poses from data including image data of the camera module, and implementing a gesture tracking algorithm.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the infrared camera module comprises:

a lens;

a lens filter having an infrared pass band from 800 nm to 1000 nm; and

an image sensor.

3. The device according to claim 2 , wherein the infrared pass band has a range from 850 nm to 940 nm.

4. The device according to claim 2 , wherein the illuminator has the same field of view as the field of view of the lens.

5. The device according to claim 2 , wherein the image sensor is a monochrome black and white sensor having a resolution of at least 176×144.

6. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the image sensor is a monochrome black and white sensor having a resolution of 640*480.

7. The device according to claim 2 , wherein the lens is a fisheye or a standard lens.

8. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the illuminator is a light which is able to emit at any range of non-visible light.

9. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the illuminator is a light electroluminescent diode which is able to emit at 850 nm.

10. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the illuminator is a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (vcsel) which is able to emit at 850 nm.

11. The device according to claim 2 , wherein the sensor and the illuminator are physically connected together.

12. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the head mounted device comprises two camera modules and one illuminator, the field of view of the illuminator covering at least the fields of view of said two camera modules.

13. The device according to claim 1 , wherein it the head mounted device comprises two camera modules and two illuminators, the fields of view of the illuminators covering respectively the fields of view of said two camera modules.

14. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit is configured to activate the illuminator at a framerate lower than the framerate of the camera module.

15. A method for performing a 6DoF algorithm and a gesture tracking algorithm in a head mounted device for virtual or augmented reality, comprising:

a display element configured to display content;

at least one infrared camera module configured to operate at a predetermined bandwidth;

an illuminator having a wavelength of operation inside the bandwidth of the infrared camera, and having a field of view before the camera module; and

a control unit implementing a six degrees of freedom (6DoF) algorithm to determine 6DoF poses from data including image data of the camera module, and implementing a gesture tracking algorithm;

wherein the control unit is configured to activate the illuminator at a framerate lower than the framerate of the camera module, the images detected by the camera module when the illuminator is off being used for implementing the 6DoF algorithm, and the images detected by the camera module when the illuminator is on being used for a gesture tracking algorithm.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the framerate of the camera module is 60 or 90 frames per second and the framerate of the illuminator is 30 frames per second.

17. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises the step of applying a modification of luminosity and exposure on the images provided for the gesture tracking algorithm.

18. A head mounted device for virtual or augmented reality comprising:

a display element configured to display content;

at least one infrared camera module configured to operate at a predetermined bandwidth, wherein the camera module includes a fisheye lens;

an illuminator having a wavelength of operation inside the bandwidth of the infrared camera, and having a field of view before the camera module; and

a control unit implementing a six degrees of freedom (6DoF) algorithm to determine 6DoF poses from data including image data of the camera module, and implementing a gesture tracking algorithm;

wherein the control unit is configured to activate the illuminator at a framerate lower than the framerate of the camera module, the images detected by the camera module when the illuminator is off being used for implementing the 6DoF algorithm, and the images detected by the camera module when the illuminator is on being used for a gesture tracking algorithm.