The rumored “Apple Glasses” — an augmented reality/virtual reality/mixed reality head-mounted display (HMD) — have have a Digital Crown akin to that on the Apple Watch and AirPods Max. Or perhaps more than one Crown.
Apple has filed for a patent (number 20210089136) for a “crown input and feedback for head-mountable devices.” In the patent data, the tech giant says an HMD can provide a crown module having an input system that allows a user to provide inputs by rotating or otherwise applying torque to a crown of the crown module. The HMD can interpret the rotation and/or torque as a user input.
The crown module can further include a feedback system that provides localized haptic (i.e, tech) feedback at the crown. The haptic feedback can be effectively perceived by the user at the crown without causing the entire HMD to vibrate against the head and/or face of the user.
When it comes to Apple Glasses, such a device will arrive this year or 2022, depending on which rumor you believe. The Sellers Research Group (that’s me) thinks Apple will at least preview it before the end of the year.
It will be a head-mounted display. Or may have a design like “normal” glasses. Or it may be eventually 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.”
