GB2149136A

GB2149136A - Antiglare glasses capable of being adapted to different eye positions

Info

Publication number: GB2149136A
Application number: GB08421086A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Rudiger Salomon; Klaus Nitsche; Gerhard Borner
Original assignee: Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH
Current assignee: Jenoptik AG
Priority date: 1983-10-31
Filing date: 1984-08-20
Publication date: 1985-06-05
Also published as: DD230132A3; GB8421086D0; HUT36380A; DE3430575A1

Abstract

Antiglare glasses capable of being adapted to suit different human eye positions. comprising light- sensitive members, a liquid crystal layer (4), electrodes (5, 6) arranged in rows and columns respectively on either side of said layer and moveable contact means (8-see Fig. 3-not shown) for receiving a signal from the light sensitive member to set a given number of adjacent rows and columns to a given potential to thereby alter the transparency of the elemental areas formed at the overlap of said adjacent rows and columns. The light sensitive members causing different rows and columns to be "activated" in accordance with the position of the wearer's head relative to the light source. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Antiglare glasses capable of being adapted to different eye positions The invention relates to an arrangement for adapting antiglare glasses to different anatomical features of the eye positions of human beings.

As is known, the anatomical position of the human eyes may differ from person to person in the distances between the eyes and in the position of the eyes relative to the bridge of the nose. It is known in the art to adjust the optical axis of spectacle lenses to the respective wearer by using different spectacle frames of relevant dimensions. Furthermore, mechanically adjustable spectacles, often used by opticians, are known, which permit one to shift the spectacle lenses vertically and horizontally in dependence upon the position of the wearer's eyes. Shifting the spectacle lenses within a special frame and fixing them in the required position is feasible by means of said special frame and appropriate adjusting screws, so that finally the centres of the lenses coincide with the centres of the wearer's pupils.

Weight, appearance and measurements of the spectacles are influenced by the mechanical adjusting members used, as for example by screws, rails and guide frames. Antiglare glasses which can be adapted to different wearers and which would include the above described adjusting members, would become unwieldy, susceptible to accidental shifts and would put additional weight onto the wearer.

These are the main reasons for not applying the aforegoing mechanical adjusting system to antiglare glasses which are intended for cutting out interferring light sources incident from any direction. If such a mechanical adjusting system were to be used, the antiglare glasses would loose their simplicity and universality.

It is an object of the invention to provide an arrangement for adapting antiglare glasses to different eye positions which does not reduce the wearing characteristics and does not make the glasses more voluminous and more heavy.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an arrangement in which the adaption of the antiglare glasses to different positions of the human eyes is feasible without mechanically shifting the eye shields.

According to the present invention, there is provided an arrangement for adapting antiglare glasses to different eye positions, consisting of light-sensitive members which divide the visual field of the wearer's eyes into a number of subranges and, via driving units, to change the transparency of a plurality of separately drivable sections of a liquid crystal cell forming an eye shield, the latter sections being assigned to said light sensitive members via signal connections, said separately driveable section of the liquid crystal layer being subdivided into a number of elemental areas, which are arranged in jointly driven lines and columns, with the electrical connections to these elemental areas being coupled, via displaceable electrical joints with a group of counter contacts connected in series with the light-sensitive members via driving units, such as to permit a variable assignment of the elemental areas to the sections of the liquid crystal layer, each of the sections corresponding to a selected subrange which is covered by the light-sensitive members.

Advantageously, electrical connections to the elemental areas are in the form of the two sets of mutually orthogonal conducting tracks disposed on a front limiting panel and a rear limiting panel, respectively.

Preferably, the detachable electrical joints are sliding contacts with several switching switching stages. It is also preferable if the detachable electrical joints are in the form of stepping switches provided with several switching stages. In the event of operating the stepping switch or the sliding contact, in every different switching stage each of the opposite contacts faces a connection to an ever different elemental area, which means that a different assignment of the counter contacts to the liquid crystal cell is achieved.

This, advantageously, is synonymous with a shift of all sections of the liquid crystal cell, each by the same amount.

It is an advantage, if the number of switching stages is equal to the number of sections of the liquid crystal cell, each of the sections being formed of several elemental areas.

Advantageously, that part of the liquid crystal layer is specified as one elemental area which is disposed at the intersection point of a pair of the front and rear electrodes.

Preferably, the counter contacts for electrically connecting the elemental areas of one section are united to one area contact of an equal potential, and every area contact is coupled with the light-sensitive member connected in series and provided with a driving unit. The number of counter contacts forming one area contact equal the number of columns and line, respectively, forming one section.

Advantageously, the counter contact for connecting all elemental areas are combined to form switching stages, the elemental areas of one section each being arranged in equal lines and columns so that the number of switching stages is equal to the number of counter contacts of one section.

Preferably, all counter contacts, separated into those for the front electrodes and those for the rear electrodes, are united to form area contacts and both groups of area contacts are coupled with the light-sensitive members connected in series and provided with a driving unit. The driving of one section is possible via each of the groups of counter contacts forming an area contact. Depending on the conditions, other elemental areas can be united to form sections by means of the detachable electrical joints. Shifting the assignment of the counter contacts and, hence, the assignment of the light-sensitive members to the sections is carried out in steps of integer multiples of the dimensions of the elemental areas.

Advantageously, the counter contacts for connecting all front electrodes and all rear electrodes, which always form lines and columns of the same kind in every section, are combined to form switching stages and, hence, the number of switching stages is equal to the number of lines and columns, respectively, of one section.

The present invention will now be described further hereinafter, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a front view of a liquid crystal cell according to the present invention provided with conducting tracks as connections for elemental areas; Figure 2 is a side view of the liquid crystal cell of Fig. 1; Figure 3a shows a detail of the connections to the liquid crystal cell of Fig. 1; and Figure 3b shows a detail of a connector means of the arrangement.

The liquid crystal cell shown in Figs. 1 and 2 comprises a front limiting panel 1, a rear limiting panel 2, two side limiting panels 3 and a liquid crystal layer 4 disposed between them. The front and the rear limiting panels are made of transparent material, as for example glass or plastics. The side limitations are epoxy-resin layers.

Front electrodes 5 and rear electrodes 6 are evaporated as parallel running tracks onto the inner surface of the front and the rear limiting panels 1 and 2 such that the front and the rear electrodes are mutually orthogonal. Each of the limiting panels 1 and 2 is accessible at one side for making electrical connections to the front and the rear electrodes 5 and 6.

The liquid crystal layer 4 is thus subdivided into lines and columns by the front and the rear electrodes 5 and 6. Each part of the liquid crystal layer 4 which is disposed at the respective intersection points of the rear and the front electrodes 5 and 6 forms an elemental area (not identified). A predetermined number of elemental areas forming a closed area establishes one "section" (not identified).

The sectional view of Fig. 3 shows a detail of a connector which, via its opposite (counter) contact (not identified) forming area contacts 7, establishes an electrical connection between the conducting tracks 6 of the liquid crystal layer 4 and driving units (not shown) associated with light-sensitive members (not shown). The connector (shown in Fig. 3b) consists of an electrically insulating base material 8 on the inside of which the counter contacts are disposed which are embodied as plug/socket contacts for receiving the electric connections 5 and 6 of the liquid crystal cell 4. A respective connector (shown in Fig. 3b) can be plugged onto the rear electrodes 6 and the front electrodes 5, as shown in Fig. 3a for the electrodes 6, and can be shifted perpendicularly to them in the arrowhead direction.

A number of the plug counter contacts are arranged in groups each forming an area contact 7, so that plugging the connector (shown in Fig. 3b) onto the connections 5 or 6 of the liquid crystal cell enables all of the front and the rear electrodes 5 and 6 corresponding to one section to be set at an equal potential. The equipotential electrodes of one section are electrically connected to said driving units (not visible) via an electric lead 9.

For driving the liquid crystal layer 4, the signal picked-up by the light-sensitive members (not shown) proceeds to the liquid crystal cell via electric signal connections after being processed by the driving units.

The signal for driving the liquid crystal layer 4 proceeds to the front and the rear electrodes 5 and 6 via one connector in each case. In dependence upon the signal received by the front and the rear electrodes 5 and 6, the transparency of the driven elemental areas is changed. Each of the sections consists of a number of elemental areas and corresponds to a sub-range of the angle of vision range of the human eye. Thus, all elemental areas of one section are set at an equal potential by means of the area contacts 7 of the connector, i.e. all elemental areas are driven equally. By virtue of the aforegoing arrangement, the front and the rear electrodes 5 and 6 are connected to the counter contacts of the connectors via detachable joints (not shown).Hence, it is predetermined by the position of the area contacts 7 of the connectors which of the elemental areas are set at an equal potential and which, as a result, are combined to form "sections". By shifting the connectors in the arrow-head directions different groups of elemental areas of the front and rear electrodes 5 and 6 can be combined to form said sections.

Hence, the sections predetermined by the area contacts 7 which correspond to a subrange of the vision angle of the human eyes can, so to speak, be shifted at the surface of the liquid crystal cell and can be adapted to the eye positions of the wearer of the antiglare glasses. This is synonymous to mechanically shifting the liquid crystal cell forming an eye shield.

The liquid crystal layer 4 is subdivided into elemental areas of equal size which, in turn, form sections of equal size. This permits the connectors for the front and the rear electrodes to be constructed symmetrically. All area contacts 7 are of the same geometric measurements and are mechanically connected to one another via the base material 8.

The area contacts 7 can thus be regarded as switching stages. The number of these area contact is equal to the number of sections of the liquid crystal layer 4. The contacts 7 which set the electric connections at an equal potential, are dimensioned such as to establish contact between all the connections of the front and the rear electrodes 5 and 6 of one section.

Claims

1. Antiglare glasses capable of being adapted to suit different human eye positions, comprising light-sensitive members adapted to divide the visual field of a wearer's eyes into a number of subranges and, via driving units, to change the transparency of a plurality of separating drivable sections of a liquid crystal cell forming an eye shield, the latter sections being assigned to said light sensitive members via signal connections, said separately driveable sections of the liquid crystal cell being subdivided into a number of elemental areas which are arranged in jointly driven lines and columns, with the electrical connections to these elemental areas being coupled via displaceable electrical joints with a group of counter contacts connected in series with the light-sensitive members via driving units, such as to permit a variable assignment of the elemental areas to the sections of the liquid crystal layer, each of the sections corresponding to a selected subrange which is covered by the light-sensitive members.

2. Anti-glare glasses as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electrical connections to the elemental areas are in the form of two sets of mutually othogonal conducting tracks disposed on a front limiting panel and a rear limiting panel, respectively.

3. Anti-glare glasses as claimed in claim 1, wherein the displaceable electrical joints are in the form of sliding contacts having several switching stages.

4. Anti-glare glasses as claimed in claim 1, wherein the displaceable electrical joints are stepping switches provided with several switching stages.

5. Anti-glare glasses as claimed in claim 1, 3 or 4, wherein the counter contacts for electrically connecting the elemental areas of one section are united to form one area contact whereby those counter contacts are at an equal potential, the area contact being coupled with the series connected light-sensitive members.

6. Anti-glare glasses as claimed in claims 3, 4 or 5, wherein the counter contacts for connecting all elemental areas are combined to form switching stages, the elemental areas forming each section being arranged in lines and columns of equal number so that the number of switching stages is equal to the number of counter contacts of one section.

7. Anti-glare glasses as claimed in claims 2, 3 or 4, wherein all counter contacts, separated into those for the front electrodes and those for the rear electrodes, are united to form area contacts, and both groups of area contacts are coupled in series with the lightsensitive members.

8. Anti-glare glasses as claimed in claims 2, 3 or 4, wherein the counter contacts for connecting all front and all rear electrodes, which always form lines and columns of the same number in every section, are combined to form switching stages and wherein, therefore, the number of switching stages is equal to the number of lines and columns, respectively, of one section.

9. Anti-glare glasses substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.