Apple has been granted multiple new patents for the rumored “Apple Glasses,” an augmented reality/virtual reality/mixed reality head-mounted display (HMD).
Patent filing number 10,897,528 is for a “head-mounted display apparatus for retaining a portable electronic device with display.” This would allow you to couple and decouple the Apple Glasses from an iPhone — IF the smartphone ends up serving as the “brains” of the HMD. More on that later.
Patent filing number 10,896,548 is for “identify-based inclusion/exclusion in a computer generated reality experience. This would allow Apple Glasses users to view, or not view other people in a computer-generated reality experience.
Patent number 10,893,801 — which has been granted to Apple — is for an “eye tracking system and method to detect the dominant eye.” It could apply to eye tracking features on a Mac or iPad, as well as Apple Glasses. The invention relates to an eye tracking system and a method for operating an eye tracking system for determining if one of a left and a right eye of a user is dominant, and adjusting accordingly.
When it comes to Apple Glasses, such a device will arrive this year or 2022, depending on which rumor you believe. The Sellers Research Group (that’s me) thinks Apple will at least preview it before the end of the year.
It will be a head-mounted display. Or may have a design like “normal” glasses. Or it may 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.”
