Last week the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) published a patent application from Apple that relates to a display device sharing experience in a shared simulated reality (SR) setting. It's kind of like SharePlay for VR. Our report also briefly touches on two new camera related patents that camera engineers may appreciate.

Display Device Sharing and Interactivity in Simulated Reality (SR)

Apple's patent application 20210349676 published by USPTO on Thursday covers a display device sharing experience in a shared simulated reality (SR) setting (VR or AR). In some implementations, the display device has a display and is in communication with a first SR device used by a first user. For instance, the first user wears a head mounted device (HMD) and holds a smartphone in his hand, where through wired or wireless connection in communications range, the HMD and the smartphone are paired.

When the first user provides a gesture input associated with the display device, e.g., moving or tilting the smartphone towards a second user, the second user is provided with an SR representation of the display device, e.g., projecting the display of the display device, displaying the user interface of the display device in a TV in the SR setting, and/or displaying a floating panel in the SR setting representing the display device.

Whether sharing an experience between two devices will include sharing an VR game is unknown at this time.

The patent covers varying scenarios with some not relating to wearing an HMD but rather two iDevices. You could review it here for more details.