Apple has been granted a patent (number 11,315,215) for “movement within an environment.” It involves the rumored “Apple Glasses,” an augmented reality/virtual reality device.
About the patent
In the patent Apple notes that come computer-generated reality (CGR) applications display the CGR environment from a particular position in the CGR environment. In some cases, the position represents the location of a user or a virtual camera within the CGR environment.
In some applications, a user may desire to move within the CGR environment and/or view the CGR environment from a different position. Movement in a CGR environment doesn’t have to correspond directly to the actual physical movement of the user in the real world. Indeed, a user can move great distances quickly in a CGR environment that would be infeasible in the real world. Apple wants Apple Glasses users to be able to easily recognize non-linearity between movement in CGR relative to movement in the real world.
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.”
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent with technical details: “A magnified portion and an unmagnified portion of a computer-generated reality (CGR) environment are displayed from a first position. In response to receiving an input, a magnified portion of the CGR environment from a second position is displayed with a magnification less than that of the magnified portion of the CGR environment from the first position and a field of view greater than that of the magnified portion of the CGR environment from the first position.
“A first unmagnified portion of the CGR environment from a third position is displayed with a field of view greater than that of the magnified portion of the CGR environment from the second position. Then, a second unmagnified portion of the CGR environment from the third position is displayed with a field of view greater than that of the first unmagnified portion of the CGR environment from the third position.”
