On June 14, 2022, Apple and Major League Soccer (MLS) announced that the Apple TV app would be the exclusive destination to watch every single live MLS match beginning in 2023. With the Apple Vision Pro being introduced at WWDC23, it was clear that Apple would be bringing MLS to their headset in 2024 to make user's feel that they're at the stadium where the match is being streamed.

Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to systems, methods, and devices for visual augmentation of sporting events as it relates to XR Environments that could be presented to those wearing the Apple Vision Pro.

In Apple's patent background they note that people have become accustomed to supplemental information being displayed while watching a sporting event on television. For example, a yellow first-down line may be displayed over the field during broadcast of a football game. As another example, the score may be displayed in the lower right corner during broadcast of a basketball game. However, when physically present at a sporting event, a person watching the sporting event live does not receive the same experience.

Method And Device For Visual Augmentation Of Sporting Events

Apple's patent notes that an extended reality (XR) environment refers to a wholly or partially simulated environment that people sense and/or interact with via an electronic device. For example, the XR environment may include augmented reality (AR) content, mixed reality (MR) content, virtual reality (VR) content, and/or the like. With an XR system, a subset of a person's physical motions, or representations thereof, are tracked, and, in response, one or more characteristics of one or more virtual objects simulated in the XR environment are adjusted in a manner that comports with at least one law of physics.

The head-mountable system may incorporate one or more imaging sensors to capture images or video of the physical environment, and/or one or more microphones to capture audio of the physical environment. Rather than an opaque display, a head-mountable system may have a transparent or translucent display. The transparent or translucent display may have a medium through which light representative of images is directed to a person's eyes.

A person physically present at a sporting event may desire to know supplemental information about the current state of the sporting event. In particular, the person may desire to know the supplemental information without ceasing to watch the sporting event. Thus, in various implementations, a device obtains and displays such supplemental information over a view of the sporting event.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 below is a block diagram of an example of the electronic device #120 relating to an Apple XR headset such as Apple Vision Pro (possible and future smartglasses). The XR presentation module #340 noted below is configured to present XR content to the user via the one or more XR displays 312.

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Apple's patent FIGS. 4A-4C below illustrate an XR environment based on a physical environment including a soccer game. Some examples of the augmented data about players, the score etc., is presented in yellow highlight.

Apple also illustrated another example with U.S. Football as another example and of course, Apple would use the augmented data for their baseball games and other sports over time.

For more details, review Apple's granted patent 11688168.