Apple wants users of “Apple Glasses” — the rumored augmented reality/virtual reality headset — to be able to use it for modeling, measuring and drawing purposes as evidenced by a new patent filing (number 20220130118).
About the patent filing
In the patent filing, Apple notes that augmented reality (AR) and/or virtual reality (VR) environments are useful for modeling and annotating physical environments and objects by providing different views of them. This allows a a user to superimpose annotations such as measurements and drawings on a physical environment and objects and visualize interactions between them.
However, Apple says that conventional methods of modeling and annotating physical environments and objects using AR/VR are “cumbersome, inefficient, and limited.” The tech giant wants to offer “improved methods and interfaces for modeling, measuring, and drawing using virtual/augmented reality environments” on its Apple Glasses.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing with technical details: “A computer system displays a representation of a previously-captured media item, which includes or is associated with depth information corresponding to a physical environment in which the media item was captured.
“While displaying the representation of the media item, the system receives, via one or more input devices, one or more inputs corresponding to a request to display a representation of a measurement corresponding to a respective portion of the physical environment captured in the media item, and, in response, the system displays the representation of the measurement over at least a portion of the representation of the media item that corresponds to the respective portion of the physical environment, based on the depth information, and a label corresponding to the representation of the measurement that describes the measurement based on the depth information.”
About Apple Glasses
When it comes to Apple Glasses, such a device will arrive in late 2022 or 2023, 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 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.”
