Yesterday the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 38 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we briefly cover a patent detailing a futuristic immersive teleconferencing and telepresence system that will allow remote participants to join in a conference meeting wearing an XR Headset. Apple was also granted their first patent covering an industrial use of an Head Mounted Device. And, as always, we wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple this week. 

Immersive Teleconferencing And Telepresence 

In 2016 Cook spoke about AR on Good Morning America. He noted that "AR gives the capability for both of us to sit and be very present, talking to each other, but also have other things — visually — for both of us to see. Maybe it’s something we’re talking about, maybe it’s someone else here who’s not here present but who can be made to appear to be present."

At the time, it sounded as though he was referring to immersive teleconferencing and/or a Telepresence system. Cook's cryptic explanation was likely in context to their invention of such a system that they filed a patent. That patent was granted yesterday.  

Apple’s patent FIG. 1 below depicts a simplified architecture (#100) related to an immersive teleconferencing and telepresence system. It will be noted that this use case is described with respect to a conference call with two remote individuals #105a and #105b. In other embodiments the architecture may include more or fewer individuals.

Specifically, in FIG. 1, a group of colleagues may be having a meeting in a conference room (#110). The room may include a conference table (for physically present participants), a 360° camera, and a view screen. Specifically, the camera may include a plurality of individual cameras or lenses which are able to capture video at different angles or fields of view relative to the camera.

The two other individuals (#105a and #105b) are shown not being physically present in the conference room and want to join the meeting through a conference call. For example, participants in the conference room may use the screen to display a shared presentation and/or video streams coining from individuals #105a and #105b.

In this example use case, individual #105a may join the video conference from a remote location such as their home using a with a Head Mounted Display (HMD) and a camera that captures their video. Individual 105a may enjoy a 360-degree view of the conference room 110 by, for example, turning their head. Individual 105b may join the conference from a remote location such as an airport using a UE such as a mobile phone.

(Click on patent figure to Enlarge)

For more details, review Apple's granted patent 11652862.

 Method Of And System For Projecting Digital Information On A Real Object In A Real Environment

Yesterday the US Patent & Trademark Office granted Apple's first industrial Augmented Reality camera system that relates to a method of and system for projecting digital information onto real objects in a real environment. Apple describes projective AR applications that could be used for prototyping architectural design, car manufacture and more. Whether Apple will be able to use this invention in context to Project Titan is unknown at this time.

You could review our March 2021 patent application about this invention or review Apple's granted patent 11652965.

This Week's Remaining Granted Patents