Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 61 newly granted utility patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we briefly cover the patent covering Vision Pro's EyeSight feature using a camera with a double-folded light path. 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.

HMD With Virtually Shifted Component Locations Using A Double-folded Light Path

Apple's patent relates to an electronic device such as a head-mounted device may be provided with head-mounted support structures that allow the electronic device to be worn on a user's head. While being worn on the user's head, a display in the electronic device may present an image for viewing by the user.

The image may include computer-generated content. The image may also include images of real-world objects captured with a forward-facing camera. This is one of the key features of Apple Vision Pro's visionOS as noted below illustrating real-world view integrating spatial 3D elements.

Apple further notes that an optical system with a double-folded light path may overlap the front-facing camera. The optical system may virtually shift the viewpoint of the camera so that the viewpoint coincides with eye boxes at which the user's eyes are located. This reduces motion parallax when using the front-facing camera to display real-world images on the display.

If desired, the electronic device may have a forward-facing display that is viewable by people in the vicinity of the user. The display may be display any suitable content. With one illustrative arrangement, the forward-facing display may be display real-world images of the user's face and/or may display an image of the user's face that contains computer-generated facial features (e.g., an avatar, computer-generated content overlaid on a real-world face image, etc.).

An optical system with a double-folded light path may overlap the forward-facing display, so that face images that are displayed on the forward-facing display are virtually shifted to a location that lies in a common plane with the surface of the user's face and the eye boxes. This allows images on the forward-facing display to be displayed without parallax due to changes in an observer's angular orientation when viewing the image.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below is a schematic diagram of an illustrative system that includes an electronic device such as a head-mounted device and optional external electronic equipment; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an illustrative electronic device; FIG. 3 is a top view of an illustrative electronic device with a forward-facing camera; and FIG. 4 is a top view of an illustrative electronic device with a forward-facing externally viewable display.

For more on this, review Apple's granted patent 11899214.

This Week's Remaining Granted Patents