Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a patent application from Apple that relates to measuring biometric data including temperature in head-mounted devices (HMDs).

It should be noted that while all of the listed inventors on the patent work for Apple, the fact is that Apple lists Dathomir Laboratories LLC (US) as one of the applicants of this patent for Temperature Detection.  Google Patents lists the Dathomir patent as WO2023283161A1. The patent Abstracts between the two patents are different – so Apple has conformed this invention to a future Vision device feature. Dathomir has many patents on record and there may be future collaboration with Apple over time.

In Apple's patent background they note that respiration detection has been conventionally performed using a wearable band worn by a subject and/or using a flow-meter in line with a user's mouth or nose (or both). However, these conventional methods are not designed for long-term user comfort, and cannot easily be integrated in head-mounted devices (HMDs), such as HMDs used in VR/MR systems.

Some conventional systems have employed contact-based sensors such as thermistors and thermocouples, which can be challenging to integrate in small form factor devices and require low thermal mass designs that require constant contact with the skin.

Some conventional systems use expensive thermal imaging cameras with resolutions of 320?240 or more, and apply standard image processing approaches to extract facial features and isolate regions of known large thermal delta (nose, mouth). However these approaches require an outward view of the user, and the cameras tend to be relatively large and expensive.

Patent: Temperature Detection

Apple's invention relates to methods and apparatus for temperature detection. The methods and apparatus may, for example, be implemented in a head-mounted device (HMD), such as a future version of Vision Pro or smartglasses.

Embodiments of thermal sensors that may be integrated in an HMD for estimating body temperature (e.g., core body temperature) are described. Embodiments may allow body temperature of a user to be measured with integrated thermal sensors while wearing an HMD. The thermal sensors that may be used to measure body temperature in an HMD may include contact sensors, non-contact sensors, or both.

Contact sensors may, for example be mounted on or integrated in a nose pad, a light seal, in a nasal mount, or elsewhere in the HMD. Thermal contact sensors may include thermistor and/or thermocouple technology sensors.

Non-contact sensors may, for example be mounted on or integrated in a nose pad, a light seal, a nasal mount, or elsewhere in the HMD. Thermal non-contact sensors may include, but are not limited to, passive IR sensors that include one or more pixels. Passive IR sensors may be used to measure temperature at the surface of the nose, or in other places such as the forehead, temple, or in the region around the eye.

In some embodiments, instead of or in addition to contact sensors and passive IR sensors, visible light (RGB) cameras of the HMD may be used to measure changes in luminance levels; this information may be analyzed to derive changes in body temperature. Similarly, in some embodiments, instead of or in addition to passive IR sensors, information captured with IR cameras of the HMD, for example IR cameras that are used in gaze tracking, may be subsampled and analyzed to derive changes in body temperature.

Information derived from signals collected from the thermal sensors in an HMD may be used in a variety of applications. For example, detected fluctuations in temperature may be used to derive changes in respiration.

Temperature data collected by the thermal sensors of an HMD, and/or respiration data derived from the thermal data, may be recorded or stored to memory of the HMD or on a device external to the HMD. The recorded data may, for example, be used to track biometric data for the user over time.

Apple's patent FIG. 10 below illustrates an example head-mounted device (HMD) that may include components and implement methods regarding temperature detection.

Further, HMD #4000 illustrated below may include one or more processors #4040 configured to pre-process signals from the sensors #4010 as described herein; controller #4060 may be configured to analyze the pre-processed signals to estimate, generate, and output biometric information including but not limited to temperature and respiration information.

The biometric information may be output to the display. Instead or in addition, biometric information may be provided in audible form to the user, for example via earbuds or headphones coupled to or integrated in the HMD.

In some embodiments, biometric information may be recorded, for example to memory of the HMD; the recorded biometric data may, for example, be used to track changes in respiration over time. In some embodiments, biometric information may be transmitted to another device via a wired or wireless connection.

Embodiments of an HMD as illustrated in FIG. 10 may, for example, be used in augmented or mixed (AR) applications to provide augmented or mixed reality views to the user.

Apple's patent FIGS. 3A above illustrates sensors and cameras that may be used to collect biometric data in an example HMD; FIG. 5A illustrates an example contact sensor, according to some embodiments; FIG. 5B illustrates an example non-contact sensor.

To review the full details of this invention, check out patent application 20240268682.  

Only Apple Engineers were listed on the patent as follows:

• Izzet Burak Yildiz: Sr. Research Scientist and Technical Manager at Apple - Vision Products Group
• Fletcher Rothkopf: Senior Director of Engineering, Vision Products Group
• Grant Mulliken: Senior Manager, Technology Development Group
• Cameron Harder: Product Design Manager at Apple
• Nicolas Soldner: System Architect, Vision Pro Sensors