Apple has filed for another patent (number 20200252593) involving its rumored “Apple Glasses,” an augmented reality/mixed reality head-mounted display (HMD). One of dozens of patent applications and granted patents, this one is dubbed “low latency chroma keying embedded in a head-mounted display for mixed reality.”
Chroma keying (or chroma key compositing) is a method for compositing two images by replacing a color range in one image with the content of the second image. It’s used in several applications in the field of motion picture or newscasting for instance, often to replace a green (or blue) screen background with a static image or video.
In the patent filing, Apple notes that, while chroma keying is usually a post-production effect or done live with dedicated equipment/software, it can be applied in the context of augmented reality (AR) headsets, also referred to as mixed reality (MR), where virtual elements are composited in real-time into the real-world environment seen by the user through the head-mounted display. One example is a crane simulator where the controls would be real objects and where a color screen would be replaced by a virtual crane and a virtual environment.
Another example would be a social MR experience using a color screen which covers the whole field of view and only the user’s hands and/or body are not replaced by virtual content (unless their color is the same as the screen). This example application is sometimes classified as virtual reality (VR) but for simplicity in the patent filing, Apple considers it as augmented reality (AR).
When it comes to Apple Glasses, such a device will arrive next year or 2022, depending on which rumor you believe. It will be a head-mounted display. Or may have a design like “normal” glasses. Or it may be available in both. The Apple Glasses may or may not have to be tethered to an iPhone to work. Other rumors say that Apple Glasses could have a custom-build Apple chip and a dedicated operating system dubbed “rOS” for “reality operating system.”
