Apple wins Patent for a Revolutionary next-gen Lenticular Display for a next-gen TV & Apple TV+ Content
Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to lenticular displays and, in particular, to systems, methods, and devices for displaying different content to different users via a lenticular display. The twist to this invention was the context of a television using a lenticular display.
Lenticular displays are capable displaying different content at different angles. For example, when viewing a lenticular display from a first angle, a video clip is seen and when viewing the lenticular display from a second angle, a different video clip is seen.
Whereas some lenticular displays display different content at different angles, it may be desirable to display different content to different users while the users move with respect to the lenticular display.
For example, Apple describes patent FIG. 2 this way: "a first user (#120A) may be associated with metadata indicating that the first user has permission to watch television shows rated TV-MA or less, whereas the second user (#120B) is associated with metadata indicating that the second user has permission to watch television shows rated TV-PG or less. Thus, the first content (#130A) may include a TV-MA rated television show and the second content may include a different show (rated TV-PG or less) or a censored version of the TV-MA rated television show."
Apple's patent FIG. 3 illustrates a third perspective view of the example operating environment at the first time; FIG. 4 illustrates a top view of the example operating environment at the first time.
Further into this patent application got even more interesting in respect to TV. When Apple is describing a method associated with the lenticular display, they used the following scenario:
"For example, in various implementations, the first user is associated with a first subscription video service account and the second user is associated with a second subscription video service account and a respective “next episode” is displayed to each user. In various implementations, the method further includes determining, from the first image, a first vertical angle of the first user at the first time with respect to the line perpendicular to the lenticular display and a first vertical angle of the second user at the first time with respect to the line perpendicular to the lenticular display."
Hmm, a video subscription service like Apple TV+? Of course, though not limited to a single service in the bigger scheme of things.
Apple's patent FIG. 10 below is a schematic of a future lenticular display system.
For more details, review Apple's granted patent 11,184,605. To get the bigger picture as to what Apple is thinking of with this kind of display, also see Patently Apple's September 2021 report titled "Apple Invents what could be a Revolutionary next-gen Lenticular Display for Macs, HMDs & iDevices."
The video below provides you with a peek at a Lenticular display that Sony has been working on. Although they're using a lenticular 3D screen, they're marketing it as a "Spatial Reality Display." With Apple pushing "Spatial Audio" hard, could a "Spatial Reality Display" be far behind?
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