Apple has been granted yet another patent (number 10,499,043) for the rumored “Apple Glasses.” The head-mounted augmented reality/virtual reality device is predicted to arrive — depending on which source you believe — in 2020, 2021, or 2022.
The patent is for processing and displaying images in a head-mounted display (HMD). The invention would provide methods and an apparatus for providing a wider field of view and creating a more natural viewing situation for a user of the device. Apple says this would offer improved comfort and usability.
By using larger displays inside the HMDs and recreating each image displayed on each display as each eye would typically see it, a wider field of view and increased viewing comfort is achieved. Apple notes that various embodiments of the invention allow users to customize different viewing parameters of the HMDs to accommodate for individual user variation in the users’ eyes.
Here’s the summary of the invention: “Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for projecting a source image in a head-mounted display apparatus having a left and a right display for projecting a left and right images viewable by the left and right eyes, respectively, of a user. Source image data is received.
“The source image has right, left, top, and bottom edges. The source image data is processed to generate left image data for the left display and right image data for the right display. The left image data includes the left edge, but not the right edge, of the source image and the right image data includes the right edge, but not the left edge, of the source image. The right image data is presented on the right display and the left image data is presented on the left display.”
Apple files for, and is granted, lots of patents. Many of them never see the light of day as finished products.
