Apple wants the Vision Pro to play nicer with various accessories as evidenced by a patent filing for “Physical Companion Devices for Use With Extended Reality Systems.”
About the patent filing
In the patent filing, Apple notes that augmented reality technology aims to bridge a gap between virtual environments and a physical environment by providing an enhanced physical environment that is augmented with electronic information. As a result, the electronic information appears to be part of the physical environment as perceived by a user while the user views the physical environment via the augmented reality technology.
However, the electronic information does not persist in the physical environment when not being viewed by the user via the augmented reality technology.
There are many different types of electronic systems that enable a person to sense and/or interact with various XR environments. A head mountable system such as the Vision Pro may have one or more speaker(s) and an integrated opaque display. Alternatively, a head mountable system may be configured to accept an external opaque display (e.g., a smartphone). The head mountable system may incorporate one or more imaging sensors to capture images or video of the physical environment, and/or one or more microphones to capture audio of the physical environment.
Rather than an opaque display, a head mountable system may have a transparent or translucent display. The transparent or translucent display may have a medium through which light representative of images is directed to a person’s eyes. The display may utilize digital light projection, OLEDs, LEDs, uLEDs, liquid crystal on silicon, laser scanning light source, or any combination of these technologies.
Projection-based systems may employ retinal projection technology that projects graphical images onto a person’s retina. Projection systems also may be configured to project virtual objects into the physical environment, for example, as a hologram or on a physical surface.
In other words, the implementations of the subject technology described in Apple’s patent filing provide for extended reality systems to utilize one or more physical companion devices to which content generated and/or stored within an XR environment can be associated. The systems and methods disclosed herein associate system generated and/or stored content with the physical companion device such that the association persists even when the XR components of the system are idle or powered off.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “Implementations of the subject technology provide a small, portable physical object for use in an extended reality system. The system may include a device that allows a user/wearer to interact with virtual representations of content such as stored data and/or applications overlaid on the user’s physical environment. The object has a unique identifier that is obtainable by the device or another device.
“The object may be an inactive device without any internal circuitry, a passive device with circuitry that is activated by another device, or an active device having its own processing circuitry and/or a display housed in the body of the object. The object can be associated with content displayed by the device to provide a user with a physical object that can be moved or manipulated to move, modify, transport, or store the content generated, stored, and/or displayed in an extended reality environment.”
About the Vision Pro
Demos of the Apple Vision Pro at Apple Stores in the U.S. can be reserved on Apple.com. To reserve a free Vision Pro demo online, go here, then follow the steps to book an appointment at your local Apple Store.
Pricing for the Vision Pro starts at US$3,499 with 256GB of storage. ZEISS Optical Inserts are available: $99 for reading lens and $149 for prescription lens.
