In 2019 Patently Apple posted a report titled "Facebook has been working on Smartglasses to Replace Smartphones that includes a secret new OS to make it happen." We noted in a 2022 report that "Zuckerberg calls AR goggles a holy grail device that will 'redefine our relationship with technology,' akin to the introduction of smartphones, especially the Steve Jobs moment in time when the iPhone rocked the world. 

Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a patent application from Apple that relates to the frames of future smartglasses carrying antennas that could handle cellular low band and GPS frequencies. So it's not a Facebook dream, Apple also has it's eyes on smartglasses with cellular connectivity, a hybrid "vision" and "iPhone" device.

Frame Antennas for Smartglasses

Apple's patent covers smartglasses that include displays that display images to a user while worn. The device may include a conductive frame having a front portion and temple portions. Waveguides may be mounted to the front portion for directing image light to eye boxes.

Projectors that emit the image light may be coupled to the temple portions. The frame may include gaps that divide the frame into segments. Two or more of the segments may be fed radio-frequency signals to form one or more antennas in the temple portions, the front portion, or between the temple portions and front portion and/or to form isolation elements.

A conductive ring may be disposed between the waveguide and a transparent layer and may extend along a lateral periphery of the waveguide to form one or more conductors for one or more antennas and/or isolation elements between two or more antennas.

The smartglasses conductive frame 58 may be configured to accommodate as many as six different antennas 38 around the periphery of the user's head. Each antenna may cover one or more different respective frequency bands or, if desired, two or more of the antennas may cover the same frequency band(s). This may allow the smartglasses (device 10) to provide more uniform coverage within a complete sphere around the glasses (e.g., despite the presence of the user's head), may allow the glasses to implement antenna diversity and/or MIMO schemes, and may allow for antennas 38 to have as much volume and thus as large a bandwidth as possible at relatively low frequencies (e.g., frequencies including the cellular low band and GPS frequencies). In addition, when a user is wearing device 10, front housing 12-2 generally sits relatively far away from the user's skin. This may allow antennas 38A and 38B to transmit radio-frequency signals with relatively high transmit power levels without violating regulatory limits on radio-frequency absorption/exposure.

According to Nokia, the cellular Low-band spectrum is any spectrum lower than 1 GHz on the spectrum chart. Early wireless networks, often called analog cellular, were deployed in low-band 800 MHz spectrum.

At the time, CSPs often referred to low-band spectrum as "beachfront property" because it was desirable. Wireless carriers could serve thousands of customers within hundreds of square miles with just one tower.

A low-band spectrum in a 5G world will allow CSPs to provide comprehensive coverage. Still, the speed and latency of the 5G network will only be incrementally better than what is delivered with 4G networks due to smaller bandwidths.

The 5G network's performance will depend on your cell site’s proximity. However, low-band spectrum does make it easier for the wireless signal to penetrate windows and walls.

For full details, review Apple's patent application 20240204391.