Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,997,948) for an “electronic device with adaptive lighting system” that involves its rumored “Apple Glasses,” an augmented reality/virtual reality/mixed reality head-mounted display (HMD).
The goal of the invention is to make such a device more comfortable to wear while providing excellent image quality.
Apple says that, if care isn’t taken, an HMD device may be cumbersome and tiring to wear. The images on the display may appear too dark and washed out when the user first puts the head-mounted device on his or her head.
The user may experience dazzle or discomfort when transitioning out of a virtual reality viewing experience. The dynamic range of a head-mounted display may be perceived as insufficient depending on the adaptation state of the user’s eyes. Apple wants to overcome such limitations with the Apple Glasses.
Here’s the summary of the patent: “A head-mounted device may include a display that generates content and an optical system through which the content is viewable. The head-mounted device may include a lighting system that illuminates a periphery of the optical system. When the user places the device on his or her head in a brightly lit environment, control circuitry may operate the lighting system to provide bright illumination to the user’s peripheral vision.
“The lighting system may gradually decrease in brightness until the user transitions from a bright-adapted state to a dark-adapted state. When the user is partially or fully dark-adapted, the lighting system may be turned off and the display may be turned on. In some arrangements, an ambient light sensor may measure ambient light conditions outside of the electronic device and the control circuitry may control the lighting system based on the ambient lighting conditions.”
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 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.”
