US 2,014,177,023 · Filed 2013-04-05

The Augmented Reality Glasses Patent That Lets You See Real and Fake at Once

Imagine AR glasses that blend what you actually see with digital overlays, but smarter—where the digital stuff can cover up parts of the real world, and you can control how see-through everything is. This patent describes the optical trick that makes both the real view and virtual images coexist in the same lens without fighting each other.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a head-mounted optical display system that simultaneously channels both a real see-through light path and a virtual image path into the wearer's eye, with the ability to modulate the transparency of the see-through view and allow virtual content to occlude (block) parts of the real world. What's protected here is the specific optical architecture and control mechanism that enables mutual occlusion between real and virtual elements.

Why it matters

This patent addresses a core technical challenge in augmented reality: blending reality and digital content in the same field of view without one completely washing out the other. By enabling opaqueness control and mutual occlusion, it solves a fundamental user-experience problem that has plagued AR headset makers for decades. Companies building consumer AR glasses rely on similar optical principles to make their devices practical for everyday use.

Real-world use

When you wear modern AR glasses and see a virtual arrow overlay on a real street corner, or a digital menu panel that partially covers a restaurant window, you're experiencing the optical blending this patent describes.

Original USPTO abstract

The present invention comprises a compact optical see-through head-mounted display capable of combining, a see-through image path with a virtual image path such that the opaqueness of the see-through image path can be modulated and the virtual image occludes parts of the see-through image and vice versa.

Patent details

Publication number: US 2,014,177,023
Filing date: 2013-04-05
Grant date: Application — not yet granted
Assignee: Augmented Vision Inc.
Inventor(s): GAO CHUNYU, LIN YUXIANG, HUA HONG
CPC class: G02B26/00

View original record on Google Patents →

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