Apple has filed for a patent (number 20210134245) for an “electronic device with adaptive display.” It involves the “Apple Glasses,” the rumored augmented reality/virtual reality/mixed reality head-mounted display (HMD).
In the patent filing, Apple notes that, if care isn’t taken, an HMD may be cumbersome and tiring to wear. The images on the display may appear too dark and washed out when the user first puts the head-mounted device on his or her head. The user may experience dazzle or discomfort when transitioning out of a virtual reality viewing experience. The dynamic range of a head-mounted display may be perceived as insufficient depending on the adaptation state of the user’s eyes.
Apple wants to make sure its Apple Glasses don’t have such issues. Here’s how, per this summary of the patent filing: “An electronic device may include a display that displays virtual reality content. Control circuitry may estimate a brightness adaptation state of a user that is wearing the electronic device. The control circuitry may select a tone mapping curve and brightness level for the virtual reality content based on the user’s adaptation state.
“To estimate the user’s adaptation state, the control circuitry may gather ambient light information from an ambient light sensor, may gather physiological attributes of the user such as blink rate, pupil size, and eye openness from a camera, and may gather gaze position information from gaze detection circuitry. The control circuitry may optimize the brightness of the display based on the user’s current adaptation state, or the control circuitry may shift the brightness of the display away from the user’s adaptation level to help guide the adaptation state to the desired level.”
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.”
