Eye mounted displays and eye tracking systems, with toroidal battery

Abstract

A display device is mounted on and/or inside the eye. The eye mounted display contains multiple sub-displays, each of which projects light to different retinal positions within a portion of the retina corresponding to the sub-display. The projected light propagates through the pupil but does not fill the entire pupil. In this way, multiple sub-displays can project their light onto the relevant portion of the retina. Moving from the pupil to the cornea, the projection of the pupil onto the cornea will be referred to as the corneal aperture. The projected light propagates through less than the full corneal aperture. The sub-displays use spatial multiplexing at the corneal surface. Various electronic devices interface to the eye mounted display.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An eye-mounted device comprising:
 a contact lens;   electronics contained in the contact lens; and   a rechargeable toroidal battery contained in the contact lens, wherein the battery provides electrical power to the electronics.   
     
     
         2 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 1  wherein the battery is positioned outside an optical zone of the contact lens. 
     
     
         3 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 2  wherein the electronics are also positioned outside the optical zone of the contact lens. 
     
     
         4 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 1  wherein the battery is positioned along an outer edge of the contact lens. 
     
     
         5 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 1  wherein the contact lens is a scleral contact lens. 
     
     
         6 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 1  wherein the battery stores enough charge to power the electronics for at least a day. 
     
     
         7 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 1  wherein the battery provides all of the electrical power to the electronics. 
     
     
         8 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 1  wherein an external power source provides additional power to the electronics. 
     
     
         9 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 8  wherein the electronics include a controller chip, and the battery is smaller in size than the controller chip. 
     
     
         10 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 8  wherein the battery buffers the additional power from the external power source. 
     
     
         11 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 8  further comprising:
 a photovoltaic cell that receives the additional power from the external power source. 
 
     
     
         12 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 1  wherein the electronics includes a femtoprojector that projects images onto a retina of a user's eye. 
     
     
         13 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 12  wherein the femtoprojector comprises:
 an array of addressable display pixels; and 
 display optics projecting light from the display pixels to a portion of the retina corresponding to the image displayed by the femtoprojector, where the portion of the retina is fixed as the user's eye rotates in its socket and thereby forms the visual sensation of the image comprising the pixels. 
 
     
     
         14 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 12  wherein the electronics further include a controller chip that transmits to the femtoprojector data specifying the images projected by the femtoprojector. 
     
     
         15 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 1  wherein the electronics includes an accelerometer. 
     
     
         16 . An eye-mounted device comprising:
 a contact lens;   electronics contained in the contact lens; and   a rechargeable battery contained in the contact lens, the battery having a shape that conforms to a space in the contact lens along an outer edge of the contact lens, wherein the battery provides electrical power to the electronics.   
     
     
         17 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 16  wherein the electronics includes a femtoprojector that projects images onto a retina of a user's eye. 
     
     
         18 . An eye-mounted device comprising:
 a contact lens;   electronics contained in the contact lens; and   a single rechargeable battery contained in the contact lens, wherein the single battery provides electrical power to the electronics.   
     
     
         19 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 18  wherein the single battery provides all of the electrical power to the electronics and stores enough charge to power the electronics for at least a day. 
     
     
         20 . The eye-mounted device of  claim 18  wherein the single battery has a shape that conforms to a space in the contact lens outside an optical zone of the contact lens.