Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 47 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we briefly cover a patent relating to a gaze tracking system for Apple's future smartglasses. Our report also covers three design patents and, as always, wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Smartglasses with Gaze Tracker Alignment Monitoring

Apple's granted patent covers a head-mounted device, such as a pair of smartglasses, that will have displays for displaying computer-generated content. Waveguides may supply the computer-generated content to a user for viewing while allowing the user to view the real world. Gaze tracking systems may monitor the user's gaze.

The displays of the head-mounted device may supply left and right images to left and right eye boxes. Left and right waveguides may be used in conveying the left and right images to the left and right eye boxes. The left and right waveguides may be transparent. This allows real-world images to be viewed through the left waveguide from the left eye box and through the right waveguide from the right eye box.

Left and right infrared-light reflectors may overlap the left and right waveguides in front of the left and right eye boxes. Left and right gaze tracking system light sources may supply left and right infrared light that reflects respectively from the left and right infrared-light reflectors to the left and right eye boxes. Left and right gaze tracking system cameras may capture left and right gaze tracking images that reflect from the left and right infrared-light reflectors from the left and right eye boxes, respectively.

Fiducials associated with the left and right infrared-light reflectors may be monitored using the left and right gaze tracking system cameras so that the cameras can be calibrated. The fiducials may be formed from patterned portions of the infrared-light reflectors or other fiducial structures.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below represents an HMD in the form of a pair of smartglasses that is supported in FIG. 3 which illustrates one side of smartglasses with a nose bridge (26NB); FIG. 4 is a top view of a portion of smartglasses with a gaze tracking system (#66); and FIG. 6 is a flow chart of illustrative operations involved in calibrating a gaze tracking system.

For more details, review Apple's granted patent US 11520152 B1.

Today's Key Granted Design Patents

The three top design patents granted to Apple today includes the AirPods Pro case and two designs for HomePod mini. Apple's Design patent 971880 is an unknown design. It's unknown at this time if this design had been dropped in favor of the full-mesh design or if it's a future design that will allow for LED lighting to extend from the flat top to the sides.

Today’s Remaining Granted Patents