Apple has been granted a patent (number 11,288,873) for “blur prediction for head mounted devices.” It involves the rumored “Apple Glasses,” an augmented reality/virtual reality head-mounted display,
About the patent
In the patent Apple notes that when a person visually focuses on an object that is a distance away from the person, objects at other distances naturally appear blurry to the user. For example, if a user focuses on a tree that is ten feet away from the user’s eye, a coffee cup that is three feet away from the user’s eye that is not focused on will typically appear blurry to the user.
In the context of head-mounted devices (HMDs), content presented on the display of the HMD may not have this natural and expected blurred appearance. A user focusing on a virtual tree that is depicted as being 10 feet away may see a virtual coffee cup that is depicted as being three feet away as being clear rather than blurry. Existing systems and techniques don’t adequately account for the natural blurring expected by HMD users.
Apple says another problem arising in the context of optical see through HMDs relates to the virtual objects appearing too bright or transparent because of the light reflected from objects in the physical environment that may pass through the transparent display and combine with the light of the virtual object.
Attempts to address this problem have involved using a blocking layer on HMDs that selectively block the physical environment light behind the virtual objects. However, existing techniques have failed to adequately account for the blurring and empty spaces that often appear to the user around the virtual objects with such selective blocking. Apple thinks it can do better.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent with technical details: “arious implementations provided herein provide a computer-generated reality (CGR) experience on a head mounted device (HMD) that includes intentionally blurring virtual content to provide a more natural user experience. For example, while the user is focused on an object 10 feet away, a virtual object three feet away that is not focused upon but still visible may be intentionally blurred so that it does not appear crisp.
“The blurring depends on the distance of what the user is focusing on and the distance of the virtual object that the user is not focusing on. The CGR environment may involve virtual reality, mixed reality, optical see through, or video pass through.”
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.”
