Apple's latest patent may solve the pain points of VR headsets and corrective glasses

      One of the pain points of current virtual reality headsets is that not everyone has perfect vision. Many people wear glasses or contact lenses to correct their vision, which poses a challenge to headset manufacturers. Apple's latest patent is expected to solve this pain point.

　　For people who wear contact lenses, manufacturers need to take optical distortion into account when designing VR headsets. For users who wear glasses, this will affect wearing comfort. If they take off their glasses to get a more comfortable head-mounted experience, the visual effects of virtual reality will inevitably be reduced.

　　On Tuesday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted and published an Apple patent titled "Head-mounted display apparatus for retaining a portable electronic device with display," in which Apple proposed a novel solution.

　　In fact, Apple has reused the patent's name several times, with each iteration adding some variations to the design. Fundamentally, the device consists of an eyeglass frame into which the iPhone slides and connects with an internal connector, a frame that positions the iPhone directly in front of the user's eyes.

　　In this new version of the patent, Apple specifically mentioned that Apple proposed using the iPhone's display to display images, while adding optical elements between the screen and the user's eyes to allow the user to focus correctly on the image, as if the display is larger than in reality and farther away from the eyes.

　　The patent description states that this optical element can also be used in regular glasses. It can be used in both general head-mounted display designs and head-mounted display designs that use "mobile phones with display functions", which means it is a system that can be used in addition to the iPhone-display version.

　　In Apple's concept, the optical components will use coaxially arranged lenses for each eye, or use dynamic optical components that can be adjusted by a central system. These optical components can include lenses, light guides, light sources, mirrors, and diffusers.

　　The system will use the 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 prescription lenses to the components. In effect, this will allow users to take off their glasses or contact lenses, put on the headset, and not lose vision during the experience.

　　The system will have a processor that switches between different configurations based on the user's specific prescription, though the system will feasibly fall back to a "standard" setting for new users with normal vision. In addition to the lens assembly, the patent also mentions how the display can be adjusted to better serve the user's vision, including changing the position of the image on the display relative to the eye and resizing the content for consistency.