Apple patent for ‘displays with multiple scanning mode’ that offers more hints of ‘Apple Glasses’

Apple has filed for a patent for “displays with multiple scanning mode” that offers yet more hints of the rumored “Apple Glasses,” the company’s anticipated augmented reality (AR) head-mounted display (HMD).

Such a device will arrive this year, next year, or 2021, depending on which rumor your believe. It 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.”

In the patent filing, the tech giant says that an electronic device such as a HMD may include a display such as a light-emitting diode display that provides a virtual reality or augmented reality environment to a user. To reduce artifacts in the display, a display may be operable in both a normal scanning mode and a partial scanning mode.

However, Apple notes that it can be challenging to design devices such as these. The display may have a high resolution and may sometimes need to operate at a high refresh rate, resulting in each row in the display having a low scan time. This may result in poor display uniformity and other visible artifacts. Apple wants to provide an improved display that can operate at normal and high refresh rates.