Latest Patent Filing Hints At Apple’s AR Glasses Efforts

Is Apple working on augmented reality glasses? That’s what the rumors are claiming, but given Apple’s interest in the technology, especially with the launch of ARKit that kind of makes it official, it’s hard to ignore the possibility that an AR headset could be in the works. In fact a recent patent seems to hint at exactly that.

Discovered by Patently Apple (via 9toMac), a patent filed by Metaio hints at a system in which users use their smartphone to interact with images that can be seen through a special pair of glasses. The former has already been done with games like Pokemon GO and like we said, with the launch of ARKit we are starting to see more AR-based apps, but the latter is the interesting part, which you can see in the diagram above for an idea of how it might work together.

The patent’s description in part reads, “The mobile device may perform an action related to at least one point of interest if at least part of the computer-generated virtual object blended in on the semi-transparent screen is overlapped by a user’s finger or device held by the user.” For those who are unaware, Metaio is an AR company that was acquired by Apple back in 2015.

This is actually not the first time we’re hearing about Apple’s plans for AR, and in fact it was just last month that Apple actually reportedly acquired another AR company, but whether or not it will lead to AR glasses being made remains to be seen.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Gadgets
Tags: Augmented Reality (AR), Patent, Wearable Tech