VR and AR patent applications demonstrate Apple's work on ARKit headsets

A new batch of Apple patent applications published recently by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shows Apple is still working on technology relating to virtual and augmented reality.

The "Predictive, Foveated Virtual Reality System," (Application No: US 20180081178) filed on September 21 2017, is aimed to produce VR and AR content, as well as to show case to the user with minimal latency. System lag resulted from high amount of data required for high-quality imagery in VR can cause headaches, nausea, and eye strain to the users. Apple's approach is to implement a system to reduce amount of data being piped through to user's VR headset in a selective way. At the time of rendering, the proposed system will output at two different resolutions – detailed high-quality image accompanied by a lower-quality version. It is also suggested that this could be employed with a multi-camera setup, using cameras configured to produce high- and low-resolution imagery. The patent involves system to analyse user’s head and eye movements to refine picture area with higher resolution.

A patent “Head-Mounted Display Apparatus for Retaining a Portable Electronic Device with Display” (Application No: US20180084093) filed on 15 November 2107, discloses a headset that users can slot a smartphone into the headset from one side. The application re-treads a lot of disclosure from Apple’s granted patent in 2016 and a related visor-based patent from 2008. This shows an indication that Apple is still interested in the concept, but yet to progress to produce such a device. The application explains that the headset has an advantage over wired versions that connect to computers, that it does not need to be tethered to other hardware to work, but merely using the iPhone to render images and to display them.

Apple applies patent regularly and filing ideas with the USPTO tens or hundreds of times a week. The listings detailed today are only a handful of 128 patent applications published in a single day. In many cases, Apple files the idea but does not commercialize the concept. As a result, there is no guarantee the applied patents will make an appearance in a future product or service.

source : https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/03/22/vr-and-ar-patent-applications-demonstrate-apples-work-on-arkit-headsets

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