Thursday, November 14, 2024
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The rumored ‘Apple Glasses’ could sport prescription lens

The rumored “Apple Glasses” could serve as both an augmented reality/virtual reality headset AND a replacement for prescription lens. Apple has been granted a patent (number 11,189,248) for “systems and methods for switching vision correction graphical outputs on a display of an electronic device. As a glasses wearer, I like this idea.

About the patent

Apple notes in the patent that a large percentage of the human population requires prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses in order to see with sufficient clarity. For example, a person with nearsighted vision (myopia) may have difficulty perceiving far away objects. (That’s me.)

Similarly, a person with farsighted vision (hyperopia) may have difficulty perceiving nearby objects. In order to view an electronic display, a person with a vision deficiency may need to put on or remove prescription eyewear to avoid eye strain and/or to view the electronic display clearly. 

If such a person is unable to easily remove or put on the prescription eyewear, it may be difficult to interact with “Apple Glasses,” and a user experience with the electronic display may suffer. Apple doesn’t want this to happen.

Summary of the patent

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “A method of providing a graphical output may include scanning at least a portion of a user’s face using a sensor; generating a depth map using the scan; and determining a similarity score between the depth map and a set of stored biometric identity maps that are associated with a registered user. 

“In response to the similarity score exceeding a threshold, the user may be authenticated as the registered user. The method may further determine a corrective eyewear scenario, select a display profile that is associated with the corrective eyewear scenario, and generate a graphical output in accordance with the selected display profile.”

Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.