During the Apple Vision Pro segment of WWDC23 we were able to see how users will be able to work with virtual displays and floating apps for home or the workplace. Another feature that may be coming to Apple Vision Pro is one that has been revealed in a granted patent issued to Apple today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office titled "Privacy Screen."

What's great about Apple is that they think holistically. While most headset makers limit their software to games and perhaps playing movie content, Apple thinks about how Apple Vision Pro and future smartglasses will work in future autonomous vehicles, in AR applications and how it could be applied to students and office workers so that they can work in privacy mode to protect their private documents, notes and schematics that they're working on. 

Apple has designed a system that will allow a user wearing eyewear to work on a MacBook, iPad or even an iPhone in private mode. The system can be set so that whatever is on the screen that you're working on is actually blank to outsiders but seen perfectly in the AR devices. 

In respect to patent FIG. 4 below, Apple notes that the display of the external device can only be viewed by the user (such as in the case of a personal headset worn by the user), this feature provides privacy by allowing the user to operate a MacBook while preventing other people from viewing the content on screen (e.g., e-mails, documents, applications, etc.).

For example, FIG. 4 below illustrates device #400 (e.g., a MacBook) operating in private mode with user wearing a head mounted system #450. As shown in FIG. 4, the MacBook can be seen through the display #452 of the head mounted system and is being used to edit a confidential document that is only presented display #452. Since the content of the document is only displayed on display #452 of head mounted system, the MacBook can be used privately to edit the document.

In patent FIGS 3B and 3B below, external device #300 is a head mounted system that allows the user to see a physical view of what's on device #200, an iPhone or iPad, while outsiders looking at the screen will see a blank screen. In some embodiments, Apple Vision Pro carries out a computer simulated reality technique. 

For finer details, review Apple's granted patent 11768956.

In 2021, Patently Apple posted a patent report that was focused on the smartglasses side of Apple's project. You could review that patent here. The patent figure below is from that Apple patent.