Our report covers a new Lenticular patent application from Apple surfacing this week along with 5 others that may interest developers
In September 2023, Patently Apple posted a granted patent report that covered Apple Vision's Lenticular Display and more. This feature came to life with Vision Pro's 'EyeSight' feature. During the WWDC23 keynote, Mike Rockwell, VP, Technology Development Group, stated at one point that "EyeSight utilizes a unique curved OLED panel with a Lenticular Lens to project the current perspective of your eyes to each person looking at you. The result is a 3D display that makes the device look transparent.
On Thursday the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a patent application from Apple that relates to lenticular displays and, in particular, to systems, methods, and devices for reducing power consumption on devices with lenticular displays. For those interested in Lenticular display technology, this patent provides a greater overview.
Reducing Power Consumption Of A Lenticular Display
Lenticular displays are capable of displaying different content at different angles. For example, when viewing a lenticular display from a first horizontal angle, an image from a first perspective is seen and when viewing the lenticular display from a second horizontal angle, the image from a second perspective, different than the first perspective, is seen.
In various implementations, a lenticular display includes a matrix of pixels over which a lenticular lens pattern is laid. In various implementations, a first set of the matrix of pixels is visible from a first horizontal angle, a second set of the matrix of pixels is visible from a second horizontal angle, a third set of the matrix of pixels is visible from a third horizontal angle, and so on. In various implementations, each set of the matrix of pixels includes a subset of the columns of the matrix.
In various implementations this feature of lenticular displays is used to present different views at different horizontal angles with respect to the lenticular display. For example, in various implementations, different content is presented to different people at different horizontal angles. As another example, in various implementations, the same or different content is presented at horizontal angles at which a person is present and no content is presented at other horizontal angles. Accordingly, content at the other horizontal angles is neither rendered (saving power at a rendering processor) nor displayed (saving power at the lenticular display).
Of particular interest is Apple's patent FIG. 4 of the Apple Vision Pro display below. Apple notes that "In various implementations, notifications can include a notification of an incoming call or message." Apple doesn't fully explain that message shown below. Does it relate to FaceTime that is supported in Vision Pro today or is it hinting at future telephony built into Vision Pro?
If you're interesting in Lenticular display technology, then review the full details of this patent application 20240236292.
Patently Apple also covered Apple patents relating to Lenticular display prior to this coming display coming to Apple Vision Pro. In September 2021, Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Invents what could be a Revolutionary next-gen Lenticular Display for Macs, HMDs & iDevices." The other patent covered was in May 2023. The use of a Lenticular Display is yet another patent fulfilled.
Here are a Few Additional Patent Applications published this week by the U.S. Patent Office that may interest some Developers:
01: Environment Capture and Rendering
02: Methods for Controlling and Interacting with a Three-Dimensional Environment
03: Content Stacks
04: Three-Dimensional Programming Environment
05: Foveated Anti-Aliasing