Thursday, December 12, 2024
NewsPatents

Future Vision Pros may work in tandem with an iPhone to automatically adjust for a wearer’s presbyopia

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of illustrative method steps for operating an illustrative electronic device that has an adjustable lens and that is paired with an electronic device.

Apple has filed for a patent (number US 20240280817 A1) for . It hints at future Apple Vision Pros being able to work in tandem with an iPhone to automatically adjust for a wearer’s presbyopia.

About the patent filing

Presbyopia is common in folks as they get older. It makes it harder to small print. 

In the patent filing Apple notes that head-mounted devices  such as the Vision Pro may include optical systems with lenses. They typically include lenses with fixed shapes and properties. However, Apple says if care isn’t taken, it may be difficult to adjust these types of lenses to optimally present content to each user of the head-mounted device. I’m not exactly how the Vision Pro/iPhone tandem would work to deal with a Vision Pro wearer’s presbyopia. Perhaps a lens prescription would be digitally stored on the smartphone and sent to the spatial computer for automatic lens adjustment.

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “A head-mounted device may include a lens module with a least one adjustable lens. The head-mounted device may be wirelessly paired to an electronic device such as a cellular telephone, watch, laptop computer, etc. To correct for presbyopia, the optical power of adjustable lenses in a head-mounted device may be adjusted when the user is viewing a close object. 

“To allow for intelligent adjustments of the adjustable lenses while minimizing power consumption in the head-mounted device, the head-mounted device may receive sensor data and/or focal point change instructions from a paired electronic device. The paired electronic device may detect a trigger, analyze the user’s attention to the paired electronic device, and send focal point change instructions to the head-mounted device based on the obtained information.”

I hope you’ll help support Apple World Today by becoming a patron. All our income is from Patreon support and sponsored posts. Patreon pricing ranges from $2 to $10 a month. Thanks in advance for your support.

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.