IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,745,018
Granted Patent B2
US 12,745,018 · App. 18/316,221 · Granted Sep 22, 2026

Applications for anamorphic lenses

Inventor: Edwin Chongwoo Park (San Diego, CA)
Assignee: SoftEye, Inc.
H04N25/779G02B13/08G02B27/0172H04N25/702H04N25/78G02B2027/0138G02B2027/0178H04N25/77
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,745,018
App. No.
18/316,221
Granted
Sep 22, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

Novel applications for anamorphic lenses in smart glasses. Anamorphic lenses preserve straightness of motion and lines (i.e., “linearity”). As a practical matter, existing computer vision models can be used with anamorphic images without re-training or intermediate conversion steps (unlike fisheye lenses). The contents of the present disclosure provide substantial improvements for applications that have different FOV requirements along different axis. Solutions for ergonomic hand placement (relative to gaze), non-square photosites, binning and eye-tracking are discussed throughout.

Claims (32)

1 . A smart glasses apparatus, comprising:

an anamorphic lens characterized by a major axis and a minor axis;

a photosite array characterized by a major dimension corresponding to the major axis and a minor dimension corresponding to the minor axis, the major dimension larger than the minor dimension;

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

cause the photosite array to capture light information via the anamorphic lens; and

address a subset of the light information according to a scan line of the minor dimension.

2 . The smart glasses apparatus of claim 1 , where the major dimension is rows, the minor dimension is columns, and the subset of the light information is accessed as a plurality of one-dimensional data structures of columns.

3 . The smart glasses apparatus of claim 2 , where the smart glasses apparatus is characterized by a frame width line formed by widths of two lenses and a bridge of the smart glasses apparatus, the rows are parallel to the frame width line, and the columns are perpendicular to the frame width line.

4 . The smart glasses apparatus of claim 2 , where the subset of the light information is captured via a second subset of the photosite array.

5 . The smart glasses apparatus of claim 4 , where:

the second subset of the photosite array corresponds to a plurality of adjacent columns of photosites of the photosite array, and

the instructions are further configured to deactivate columns of photosites of the photosite array outside the second subset of the photosite array.

6 . The smart glasses apparatus of claim 1 , where the major dimension is columns, the minor dimension is rows, and the subset of the light information is accessed as a plurality of one-dimensional data structures of rows.

7 . The smart glasses apparatus of claim 5 , where the smart glasses apparatus is characterized by a frame width line formed by widths of two lenses and a bridge of the smart glasses apparatus, the rows are parallel to the frame width line, and the columns are perpendicular to the frame width line.

8 . A camera module, comprising:

an anamorphic lens characterized by a major axis characterized by a first magnification and a minor axis characterized by a second magnification smaller than the first magnification; and

a photosite array characterized by a major dimension corresponding to the major axis and a minor dimension corresponding to the minor axis, where the photosite array is addressed as a plurality of one-dimensional data structures according to the minor dimension.

9 . The camera module of claim 8 , where the photosite array captures a two-dimensional array of light information characterized by an aspect ratio based on the major axis and the minor axis.

10 . The camera module of claim 8 , further comprising an on-board processor.

11 . The camera module of claim 8 , further comprising an interface coupled to an external processor.

12 . The camera module of claim 8 , where the photosite array is addressed as the plurality of one-dimensional data structures of rows.

13 . The camera module of claim 8 , where the photosite array is addressed as the plurality of one-dimensional data structures of columns.

14 . The camera module of claim 8 , where the photosite array is configured to deactivate a plurality of photosites of the photosite array.

15 . A method, comprising:

reading a first one-dimensional vector of light information from an anamorphic camera module characterized by a major dimension corresponding to a first axis of an anamorphic lens of the anamorphic camera module and a minor dimension corresponding to a second axis of the anamorphic lens of the anamorphic camera module, the first axis having a greater magnification than the second axis, where the first one-dimensional vector has a first length corresponding to the minor dimension; and

developing the first one-dimensional vector of light information into a one-dimensional vector of pixel values.

16 . The method of claim 15 , where the first one-dimensional vector corresponds to a row of a sensor of the anamorphic camera module.

17 . The method of claim 15 , where the first one-dimensional vector corresponds to a column of a sensor of the anamorphic camera module.

18 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising binning a first light information and a second light information into a single pixel value.

19 . The method of claim 18 , where the first light information and the second light information is obtained from the first one-dimensional vector.

20 . The method of claim 18 , further comprising reading a second one-dimensional vector from the anamorphic camera module, where the first one-dimensional vector comprises the first light information and the second one-dimensional vector comprises the second light information.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 20, 2024
From: PARK, EDWIN CHONGWOO
To: SOFTEYE, INC.
Reel/Frame 068652/0402 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20240381001A1 · Nov 14, 2024
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