Back in early February The Information posted a report about a prototype of an Apple HMD that had more than a dozen integrated cameras. Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to head-mounted display and, in particular, head-mounted displays with up to 8 cameras for observing the user's environment. More specifically, the multi-camera setup could provide users with a view of 360 degrees horizontal.

Apple's invention covers a head-mounted display device that includes a display unit, a head support, and cameras. The display unit includes a display for outputting graphical content. The head support is coupled to the display unit for engaging a head of a user to support the display unit with the display in front of an eye of the user.

The cameras are each coupled to one of the display unit or the head support. The cameras have camera fields of view that overlap horizontally to cooperatively provide the head-mounted display with a head-mounted display field of view of 360 degrees horizontal.

The cameras may be positioned below a top of the head of the user. The head-mounted display field of view of 360 degrees horizontal may extend around the head of the user. One or more of the cameras may be a support-mounted camera that is coupled to the head support. The head support may extend around the head of the user. One or more of the cameras may be a display-mounted camera that is coupled to the display unit.

In an implementation, a head-mounted display includes a display unit, a head support, and cameras. The display unit includes a display. The head support is coupled to the display unit for engaging a head of a user to support the display unit with the display in front of an eye of the user.

The cameras are each coupled to one of the display unit or the head support. The head-mounted display provides one of an optical passthrough or a forward-field video passthrough with a forward field of view that is a span of an environment visible to the user by the one of the optical passthrough or the forward-field video passthrough.

The head-mounted display provides an extended-field video passthrough with the display with images of the environment captured by the cameras from an extended field of view that is outside the forward field of view.

In an implementation, a head-mounted display includes a display unit, a head support, and cameras. The display unit includes a display. The head support is coupled to the display unit for engaging a head of a user to support the display unit with the display in front of an eye of the user. The cameras are each coupled to one of the display unit or the head support.

The cameras are each coupled to one of the display unit or the head support. The cameras have camera fields of view that overlap horizontally to cooperatively provide the head-mounted display with a head-mounted display field of view of 360 degrees horizontal. The head-mounted display stores 360-degree graphical content that includes images captured by the cameras from the head-mounted display field of view.

Apple's patent FIGS. 1A and 1B below illustrate a top and side view of a mixed reality headset with a series of camera surrounding the headset. FIG. 1C illustrates a glasses form of HMD which a limited range of cameras.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 above illustrates a head-mounted display device that includes eight of the cameras (#120).

Apple's patent FIG. 8 below illustrates a variation head-mounted display system with cameras that are removable. Instead of or in addition to any of the integrated cameras above, the head-mounted display may include removable display-mounted cameras (#822) and/or removable support-mounted cameras (#824), which may be removably coupleable to a display unit (#810) and a head support (#830) respectively.

Apple's patent FIG. 9B above is a flow diagram of a method of generating extended view graphical content with the head-mounted display.

Apple's patent FIG. 10A below is a top view illustrating a forward field of view and an extended field of view of the head-mounted display of FIG. 1A and variations thereof; FIG. 10B is a side view illustrating the forward field of view and the extended field of view of the head-mounted display of FIG. 10A.

Apple's patent FIG. 10G above is a flow diagram of a method of outputting extended-field graphical content with the head-mounted display of FIG. 1A and variations thereof.

Apple's patent application number 20210092292 was published today by the U.S. Patent Office. The patent was originally filed in Q3 2020.

Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.