Let the Apple Car rumors roll on. Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,643,391) for an “immersive virtual display” for a vehicle. And it could use the rumored “Apple Glasses.”
Virtual reality (VR) allows users to experience and/or interact with an immersive artificial environment, such that the user feels as if they were physically in that environment. For example, virtual reality systems may display stereoscopic scenes to users in order to create an illusion of depth, and a computer may adjust the scene content in real-time to provide the illusion of the user moving within the scene.
When the user views images through a virtual reality system, the user may feel as if they’re moving within the scenes from a first-person point of view. Similarly, mixed reality (MR) combines computer generated information (referred to as virtual content) with real world images or a real world view to augment, or add content to, a user’s view of the world.
So how does this apply to an Apple Car? Apple says VR and MR systems could be used to reduce motion sickness. Whats more, integrating the VR system with a vehicle in motion provides opportunities for enhancing virtual experiences not available while sitting in a room using a stationary simulator or wearing a HMD. For example, accelerations and motions in a virtual experience can be matched to or enhanced by accelerations and motions of the vehicle, so don’t have to be simulated using gravity vectors as in a stationary simulator.
In the patent info, Apple talks of using a head-mounted VR/AR/MR display (“Apple Glasses”) with the vehicle’s immersive virtual display. That doesn’t sound particularly safe, but I could be wrong
Here’s the summary of the patent: “A VR system for vehicles that may implement methods that address problems with vehicles in motion that may result in motion sickness for passengers. The VR system may provide virtual views that match visual cues with the physical motions that a passenger experiences.
“The VR system may provide immersive VR experiences by replacing the view of the real world with virtual environments. Active vehicle systems and/or vehicle control systems may be integrated with the VR system to provide physical effects with the virtual experiences. The virtual environments may be altered to accommodate a passenger upon determining that the passenger is prone to or is exhibiting signs of motion sickness.”
