PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16128095
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-09
Publication Date: 2019-03
Patent Classification: ["385", "031000"]

Abstract:
Systems, devices, and methods for optical waveguides that are well-suited for use in wearable heads-up displays (WHUDs) are described. An optical device comprises an optical waveguide including a volume of optically transparent material having a first longitudinal surface positioned opposite a second longitudinal surface across a width of the volume, an in-coupler, a liquid crystal out-coupler, and a controller to modulate a refractive index of the liquid crystal out-coupler. Light is in-coupled into the waveguide and is propagated along a length of the waveguide by total internal reflection between the longitudinal surfaces before being out-coupled by the liquid crystal out-coupler on a path that is dependent on the modulated refractive index of the liquid crystal out-coupler. In this way, light signals can be steered to create an image and/or to move an exit pupil of an image. WHUDs that employ such optical waveguides are also described.

Claim (Index 1):
A method of operating an optical device comprising an optical waveguide including a volume of optically transparent material having a first longitudinal surface and a second longitudinal surface, the second surface positioned opposite the first surface across a width of the volume of optically transparent material, an in-coupler, and a liquid crystal out-coupler, and a controller communicatively coupled to the liquid crystal out-coupler, the method comprising:\n in-coupling a first set of light signals by the in-coupler; propagating the first set of light signals along a length of the volume of optically transparent material by total internal reflection between the first longitudinal surface and the second longitudinal surface; modulating a refractive index of the liquid crystal out-coupler to a first refractive index by the controller; out-coupling the first set of light signals by the liquid crystal out-coupler, wherein the first set of light signals are output on a path that is dependent on the refractive index of the liquid crystal out-coupler.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 5.0
- Percentile: 97.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.78652
- Patent Class: 385.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['16128084', '16127972', '16057429', '14936937', '14936985']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8340317521885465
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5542031470470673
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8060488916743986
- Mean Citation Score: 293.4790940000001
- Max Citation Score: 419.8534
- Similarity Product: 378.90234203348166

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 0
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 0
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test