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Apple Outlines How Augmented Reality Glasses Could Overlay Points of Interest

cmaier said:
That's not patent trolling
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No, AR doesn't limit your field of view. VR does. AR gives you your full field of view, and augments it by superimposing things over some of what is already in your view. People already drive with AR - some cars have heads up displays, for example. Fighter pilots fly with AR helmets. It's fine.
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I can still see several problems with AR Glasses:

  1. Cost. Probably the biggest problem on my list.
  2. Bad human eyesight. You will need either prescription lenses or the AR glasses will have to be goggles you can wear right over your current glasses.
  3. Privacy. Apple may not be monitoring your data and browsing habits but a lot of apps have been. How would you like to start getting spam because your glance stayed on a store for longer than 1 or 2 seconds? Apple literally can’t monitor all of the output an app sends back, at least not successfully.
  4. Driving. Information is fine but what if a text pops up saying something that distracts you? Or an ad flashes bright or strobing colors right as someone changes lanes in front of you?
 
EdT said:
I can still see several problems with AR Glasses:

  1. Cost. Probably the biggest problem on my list.
  2. Bad human eyesight. You will need either prescription lenses or the AR glasses will have to be goggles you can wear right over your current glasses.
  3. Privacy. Apple may not be monitoring your data and browsing habits but a lot of apps have been. How would you like to start getting spam because your glance stayed on a store for longer than 1 or 2 seconds? Apple literally can’t monitor all of the output an app sends back, at least not successfully.
  4. Driving. Information is fine but what if a text pops up saying something that distracts you? Or an ad flashes bright or strobing colors right as someone changes lanes in front of you?
Click to expand...

All solveable problems. Undoubtedly these will have to support prescriptions. Cost will be what it is. Starts out expensive and gets cheaper over time. I’m not worried about driving at all - apple will undoubtedly put strict limits on how much of your view can be occluded, and they already have driving mode for iPhones and this will undoubtedly get smarter over time.

Privacy is a big one, but it’s not even clear these things would have the ability to transmit the view to apps (as opposed to an abstracted geometry model). And of course you’d have to grant permissions, and apple is likely to be much stricter about glasses apps than iPhone apps (just look at CarPlay. Good luck getting permission to develop for that.)
 
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Krayzkat said:
You won’t be able to see the wood because of the augmented trees superimposed in front of it
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"Wow, that's beautiful. Siri, what kind of tree is that?". And you get a quick, succinct description via audio, but there is a augmented reality tag that you can 'press' if you want more information.

But, still probably five years out. If not due to technology issues, then because we haven't worked out the social and cultural issues of recording in public spaces.
 
78Bandit said:
Looks a lot like how an app called mTrip did things when I went to Italy back in 2010 and had it on my then-new iPhone 3GS. You would point the camera around and it would bring up overlays about restaurants, points of interest, hotels, and a lot of other information. Not sure how this new patent is different from what was available a decade ago, but I guess that's the patent office for you.
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The method described in this new patent includes the following steps:
1. Capture of image of real environment
2. Recognize and calculate the position of PoI on that image
3. Drawing a virtual indicator based on the position of PoI
4. Drawing a virtual compass (or path mark) based on the relative position of that indicator

It's different from the GPS tags. This would recognize the real path and obstacles, and guide you using an AR arrow floating above the real ground surface.
 
Jyby said:
I would expect Apple to be curious - but that doesn't mean they will actually make a product... Apple does patent trolling as well.

I believe great augmented reality glasses will kill off the Apple Watch some day... Maybe even the iPhone.
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Glasses won’t kill off the watch, but make it more important. I foresee phone converges to watch and glasses and get us off the screen era and on to AR. Watch could become the controller and with the glasses it could really create the tech fashion era they’ve always strived for.
 
Mrjynx said:
Glasses won’t kill off the watch, but make it more important. I foresee phone converges to watch and glasses and get us off the screen era and on to AR. Watch could become the controller and with the glasses it could really create the tech fashion era they’ve always strived for.
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I think watch would be a crummy controller. It’s not even easy to control Apple Watch with Apple Watch.
 
The worst thing about "AR glasses" is the camera. People don't like talking to someone wearing glasses with a camera that has the potential to secretly record conversations. If Apple absolutely has to put a camera in the glasses then a conspicuous red record light should blink when it records to notify people.
 
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Baymowe335 said:
Who told you Apple is making glasses?

Google’s died in short order and hardly anyone bought them. Thus, they sucked.
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Glass was Google's attempt to get the public to beta test their device, which was limited due to the available technology of the time. They messed up in not understanding how the public would react to potentially being secretly recorded by wearers. Now, they've pivoted to business use, and this is where it should have started.
 
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jeremiah256 said:
Glass was Google's attempt to get the public to beta test their device, which was limited due to the available technology of the time. They messed up in not understanding how the public would react to potentially being secretly recorded by wearers. Now, they've pivoted to business use, and this is where it should have started.
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Also don’t underestimate how dumb people looked while wearing them in public. We’d see people out here walking around with them in malls and on the street, and they looked ridiculous.
 
ulyssesric said:
The method described in this new patent includes the following steps:
1. Capture of image of real environment
2. Recognize and calculate the position of PoI on that image
3. Drawing a virtual indicator based on the position of PoI
4. Drawing a virtual compass (or path mark) based on the relative position of that indicator

It's different from the GPS tags. This would recognize the real path and obstacles, and guide you using an AR arrow floating above the real ground surface.
Click to expand...
So something like Google's AR Navigation.
http://fortune.com/2019/02/11/google-maps-ar-navigation/

Apple's already late on that one.
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anthogag said:
The worst thing about "AR glasses" is the camera. People don't like talking to someone wearing glasses with a camera that has the potential to secretly record conversations. If Apple absolutely has to put a camera in the glasses then a conspicuous red record light should blink when it records to notify people.
Click to expand...
Even in that situation it would be a problem.
And not having a camera would make the glasses way less interesting overall.
Microsoft got it right with Holo Lenses, they are quite useful and cool in the professional fields where they are used but for general consumers they don't present a lot of value.
 
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Having played some VR games where some things are handily overlaid into your view (AR in VR), I'd love AR in my prescription glasses. Having the shopping list in view while grocery shopping, seamless navigation while driving, riding, walking, seeing product info and reviews when looking at a barcode. Then again, targeted ads will be annoying.

The only downside is that people would switch from staring down at their phone to looking through the world like zombies. So you think they're making eye contact but they just look for a dark background to contrast well with the display in their glasses. At least smartphones illuminate people's face so you can spot them more easily at night and not run them over when they just roam around the street with their mouth open. :)
 
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mozumder said:
AR & VR are dead as consumer products. They may have some use for professionals, but the general consumer isn't going to wear a device that blocks their mobility.

Right now the display technology isn't there to make it mobile friendly. There's an extremely limited field-of-view and low resolution in headsets. If a wrap-around light-field display could be made, then it might be possible to use AR/VR.
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This post is going to become one of those we look back at and make fun of like “why is Apple making a music player?” and “nobody wants to wear a watch”.

The technology for high definition, wide field of view images in a head mounted display does exist. It just hasn’t been released in a mass production consumer device. But neither had a multi touch screen before the iPhone or fingerprint authentication before Touch ID or 3D facial recognition before Face ID.

Retinal projectors could be made to look completely inconspicuous in every day looking glasses. Given that Apple’s focus is augmented reality, not virtual reality, it wouldn’t obstruct the user’s view, it would enhance it.
 
Hasn't anyone learned yet? Nobody want to wear this kind of glasses! And those who already wear gllasses can't.
Any invention involving glasses are doomed to failure. "Google Glass", anyone?...
 
kimmen said:
Hasn't anyone learned yet? Nobody want to wear this kind of glasses! And those who already wear gllasses can't.
Any invention involving glasses are doomed to failure. "Google Glass", anyone?...
Click to expand...

Google glass looked ridiculous and had huge privacy implications.

Literally billions of people wear glasses. If you make them look like glasses, they’ll sell great. And if you already wear glasses you certainly CAN use AR. You just put prescription lenses in them - companies that sell AR glasses already offer prescription lenses.

Google has failed at lots of things - the fact that google fails doesnt mean that the entire product category can’t succeed. Google+ anyone?
 
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