Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to methods for vision-corrected lens operations while describing the use of "Privacy Eyewear" that allows a user to view content on their display while blocking out those around them from viewing the same content. 

Apple notes in their patent background that a large percentage of the population requires prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses in order to see with sufficient clarity. For example, a person with nearsighted vision (myopia) may have difficulty perceiving far away objects. Similarly, a person with farsighted vision (hyperopia) may have difficulty perceiving nearby objects. In order to view an electronic display, a person with a vision deficiency may need to put on or remove prescription eyewear to avoid eye strain and/or to view the electronic display clearly. If such a person is unable to easily remove or put on the prescription eyewear, it may be difficult to interact with the electronic display and a user experience with the electronic display may suffer.

To improve on this, Apple's invention covers a method of controlling a vision-correcting operation of a portable electronic device that may include scanning at least a portion of a face of a user using a sensor, generating a depth map using the scan conducted using the sensor, and determining a similarity score between the depth map and one or more identity maps of a set of stored biometric identity maps that are associated with a registered user.

In response to the similarity score exceeding a threshold, the method may further include authenticating the user as the registered user and determining a corrective eyewear scenario using the depth map.

The method may further comprise selecting a display profile that is associated with the corrective eyewear scenario and the registered user and generating a graphical output in accordance with the selected display profile. The corrective eyewear scenario may correspond to the registered user wearing a corrective eyewear. The graphical output may compensate for a vision deficiency associated with the corrective eyewear scenario and the registered user.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below illustrates a side view of an iPhone performing a facial recognition (Face ID) scan of a user and using the optical sensor system #102. The front-facing camera #105 (e.g., a camera designed to detect visible, infrared, and/or ultraviolet light, not shown) may capture images of the dot pattern (e.g., portions of the dot pattern that are reflected from the user's face toward the front-facing camera) and may create a biometric identity depth map and/or a set of biometric identity maps of the face of the user based on the spacing between the individual dots.

Apple's patent FIG. 2A above illustrates a front view of an electronic device displaying a standard graphical output; FIG. 2B illustrates a front view of an electronic device displaying a vision-corrected graphical output; FIG. 3A illustrates a front view of an electronic device displaying a vision setting menu.

Privacy Eyewear

A key new dimension discussed in Apple's granted patent covers "Privacy Eyewear." In some embodiments, a user may interact with the calibration graphic to intentionally blur the graphical output presented on the display of the device (iPhone). If a user desires privacy or doesn't want a nearby person to view what is presented on the display, the user may interact with the calibration graphic to make the graphical output illegible.

Apple's patent FIG. 9 below depicts an example process #900 of generating and displaying a privacy screen in response to a facial scan of a user. For a standard graphical output, a user may experience certain privacy concerns. For example, surrounding people may be able to view a display of an electronic device in the possession of the user on, for example, a crowded restaurant or bus. It also depicts an example process of generating and displaying a privacy screen in response to a facial scan of a user.

If the user wanted to view highly sensitive content, the user would either need to move to a more private location or physically block a view-line of the surrounding people. The process depicted here, creates a private graphical output that can only be perceived by a wearing of a particular set of glasses.

For more details, review Apple's granted patent 11670261.