If/when Apple debuts its “Apple Glasses” — the rumored head-mounted augmented reality display — it may be able to record, as well as playback, video What’s more, the recordings would film whatever the wearer is looking at.
Apple has filed for a patent (number 20200195940) for “gaze-driven recording of video.” In the patent filing, the tech giant notes that head-mounted displays are used to provide virtual reality, augmented reality, and/or mixed reality experiences for users. Video from a virtual reality or mixed reality experience may be recorded for later playback or analysis. Apple’s idea is for gaze-tracking sensors that used to provide an indication of where a subject person is currently looking.
Here’s the summary of the patent data: “Systems and methods for gaze-driven recording of video are described. Some implementations may include accessing gaze data captured using one or more gaze-tracking sensors; applying a temporal filter to the gaze data to obtain a smoothed gaze estimate; determining a region of interest based on the smoothed gaze estimate, wherein the region of interest identifies a subset of a field of view; accessing a frame of video; recording a portion of the frame associated with the region of interest as an enhanced frame of video, wherein the portion of the frame corresponds to a smaller field of view than the frame; and storing, transmitting, or displaying the enhanced frame of video.”
