Future Apple Vision Pros may have a display or display built into their headbands as evidenced by a newly granted Apple patent for “Notifications in Headbands.”
About the patent
The patent relate generally to a display on a wearable electronic device. More particularly, it involves an external display positioned on a retention band of a head-mounted device.
In the patent, Apple notes that head-mounted displays (HMDs) are increasingly used in a wide variety of applications and settings, including aviation, engineering, medicine, military applications, and video gaming. HMDs are intended to provide the user with an interactive and immersive experience, for example, through visual and audio stimulation.
However, Apple says that obtaining status information about the HMD can be burdensome when not wearing the HMD, as it often requires a user to put on or don the HMD to view status information via the primary display. Additionally, it can be difficult for an outside observer to obtain information regarding the HMD or the user without disturbing the user to inquire of the status.
What’s more, as HMDs become more common, it can be desirable to distinguish or personalize the HMD to the user’s preference. As a Vision Pro owner, it would be nice to have a small external display that would, for instance, tell me when a visionOS software update is finished installing without having to put on the spatial computer to see if the update is done.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “A wearable electronic device includes a head-mounted display (HMD) and a retention band connected to the HMD. The retention band can include a display assembly positioned within the retention band for displaying visual information on an exterior of the retention band.”
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