Apple patent involves ‘eye enrollment’ for the upcoming Vision Pro

Apple has been granted a patent (number US 11749018 B1) for “Eye Enrollment for Head-mounted Enclosure.” It involves the upcoming Apple Vision Pro.

The US$3,499 (and up) “Spatial Computer” was previewed at June’s Apple Worldwide Developer Conference. However, it won’t be available until early 2024 — and then, apparently, only in limited quantities.

About the patent

In the patent Apple notes that head-mounted displays are typically one-size-fits-all. However, facial geometries can vary significantly from person to person. 

Deviations of the positions of the eyes of a user from expected nominal positions relative to a head-mounted display can be a cause of image distortion. Apple says that manual adjustments of the shape of a head-mounted display can be made to try to mitigate this source of distortion.

However, this can be cumbersome. Apple’s idea is that a Vision Pro could automatically adjust some of the device’s lens positions based on the size and shape of a user’s eyes.

Summary of the patent

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “Systems and methods for eye enrollment for a head-mounted enclosure are described. Some implementations may include an image sensor; and a processing apparatus configured to: access a set of images, captured using the image sensor, that depict a face of a user and a head-mounted enclosure that the user is wearing; and determine, based on the set of images, a first position of a first eye of the user relative to the head-mounted enclosure.”