Apple’s rumored AR smart glasses could someday offer auto-adjusting lenses for users that need prescription eyewear. (Eyeware?)
Malcolm Owen for AppleInsider:
Current-generation headsets do employ their own lens assemblies, to allow a display to be positioned within inches of a user’s eyes. It is somewhat feasible for these same lens assemblies to be replaced by versions that provide the same corrections as prescriptive lenses, but it would mean the headset would have to be adjusted each time to remove and replace with standard versions for multiple users.
In a patent granted on Tuesday by the US Patent and Trademark Office titled “Head-mounted display apparatus for retaining a portable electronic device with display,” Apple suggests a system that could perform a similar task in a rumored product like “Apple Glass.”
…The system would use prescription information for glasses or contact lenses to adjust the position and configuration of the optical components to correct the user’s vision, effectively adding the benefits of the prescription lens to the assembly. In effect, this would let a user remove their glasses or contact lenses and don the headset, without losing their vision in the experience.
MacDailyNews Take: Auto-adjusting prescription lenses alone would sell Apple’s glasses, no AR or any other functionality required!
Each prescription would just be kept in one’s iPhone. Once synced with the phone, the lenses would be configured. I would buy these in a heartbeat. A total disruption of the eyewear industry.
Wholley Fn Dogchips. $500/share is just a step onward/upward…if true.
iWare
bWare
The odd thing is that this is the latest in a series of “Continuation in Part” patents that date back to September 2008 in order to claim that priority date. The result is that the patent protection for this runs out in September 2028 even though this CIP was just issued.
I wonder why Apple’s legal team advised the inventors to file as a CIP and claim a 12 year old priority rather than file a new patent and list all the prior CIPs as prior art. They could have listed the prior patents as basis art and have this one as a stand alone explaining the enhancements. This would have gotten them the full 20 years beyond the filing date (June 2019).
Oh well, I’ve never been impressed with Apple’s legal team since the Franklin case.
You do a CIP when you need the earlier invention date. It’s quite possible that they need the earlier precedence because of prior art from third-parties.
As someone who’s worn glasses since the age of 12, I would love this, because as I’ve gotten older, my eyes don’t adjust as quickly or easily as they used to. Some people get bifocals or trifocals or lineless, but I hate those. I’d rather have something that I could tweak based upon what distance I’m looking. If I could tell Siri, to adjust my vision for an iPhone distance, like 18″ vs 3′ for a Mac, or 50′ when I’m driving, that would be amazing.
Better would be if it could tell what distance I’m looking and auto adjust.
Would be really great! Could totally replace prescription glasses with lots of additional benefits Too, and seeing the high price of prescription glasses may even be less expensive. A win win for the consumer