Apple has reportedly delayed plans for an augmented reality/virtual device device in a traditional eyeglasses former, but a newly granted patent (number US 11803060 B1) shows the company is still investigating such a product.
Anxiously awaiting the “Apple Glasses” (my moniker, not Apple’s), a the follow-up to the upcoming Vision Pro? Don’t hold your breath. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says it won’t arrive until 2026 or 2027 at the earliest.
However, in January Bloomberg‘ s Mark Gurman said that development on such a device had been “indefinitely postponed.” He said that some Apple employees don’t think that Apple will ever ship the latter. Gurman said that most of Apple’s AR/VR group is working on the Vision Pro; however, the concept of AR glasses is still being explored, though not currently in active development.
About the patent
The newly granted patent is dubbed “eyewear with display-optimized lenses” and indicates that the Apple Glasses could double as sunglasses. In the patent filing, Apple says that conventional sunglasses use filters that significantly reduce the brightness of display light, making it difficult for users to view displays while wearing conventional sunglasses.
The tech giant’s idea is for the lenses in Apple Glasses to be optimized for viewing an external display and/or for viewing a display in a head-mounted device while also providing sun protection for the user’s eyes. The display-optimized lenses may also be optimized for a display that is part of the eyewear itself (e.g., a head-mounted display) as well as an external display.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “Eyewear such as sunglasses may include display-optimized lenses. The lenses may be optimized for viewing an external display and/or for viewing a display in the head-mounted device while also providing sun protection for the user’s eyes. The lenses may include a polarizer and a color filter that are designed for a given target display.
“Lenses that are optimized for a display that emits linearly polarized light may include a linear polarizer. Lenses that are optimized for a display that emits circularly polarized light may include a circular polarizer. The circular polarizer may include a quarter wave plate and a linear polarizer. The color filter may have a transmission spectrum curve with peaks corresponding to the primary colors of the target display so that the color and brightness of display light is preserved while the brightness of sunlight is reduced.”
