Yesterday we posted an IP report titled " Samsung has filed a patent for 3D Display Technology that could be applied to Future HMDs, Smartglasses and/or other Applications." Today, the U.S. Patent Office published a patent from Apple titled "Pixel Arrangements For Displays With Lenticular Lenses."

Apple's patent abstract states that a display may include an array of pixels covered by lenticular lenses. The lenticular lenses may cause expansion of light primarily in a horizontal direction. To improve the perceived resolution of the display, the horizontal resolution of the pixels on the display may be increased.

In one possible layout, each pixel includes one red sub-pixel, one blue sub-pixel, and one green sub-pixel. The sub-pixels may be non-square rectangular. The sub-pixels may be the same size or may have the same widths and different heights. Each pixel may be asymmetric about a horizontal axis. In a given row, the pixels may alternate between first and second layouts. The second layout may be a vertically flipped version of the first layout.

Further, Apple notes that the displays with lenticular lenses could go beyond HMDs and smartglasses and apply to future Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch. For the sake of the patent, they focus on smartglasses.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below is a schematic diagram of an illustrative electronic device having a display. The electronic device could be devices in the Vision Pro family including smartglasses which is presented in FIG. 2. Display #14 of FIG. 2 may sometimes be a stereoscopic display that is configured to display three-dimensional content for a viewer. Stereoscopic displays are capable of displaying multiple two-dimensional images that are viewed from slightly different angles. When viewed together, the combination of the two-dimensional images creates the illusion of a three-dimensional image for the viewer. For example, a viewer's left eye may receive a first two-dimensional image and a viewer's right eye may receive a second, different two-dimensional image. The viewer perceives these two different two-dimensional images as a single three-dimensional image.

As shown in FIG. 3 above, lenticular lens film #42 may be formed over the display pixels. The Lenticular lens film (sometimes referred to as a light redirecting film, a lens film, etc.) includes lenses #46 and a base film portion #44 (e.g., a planar film portion to which the lenses are attached). The Lenses may be lenticular lenses that extend along respective longitudinal axes (e.g., axes that extend into the page parallel to the Y-axis). The Lenses may be referred to as lenticular elements, lenticular lenses, optical elements, etc.

Apple's patent FIG. 4 above is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative stereoscopic display showing how the stereoscopic display may be viewable by multiple viewers. The stereoscopic display of FIG. 3 may have one optimal viewing position (e.g., one viewing position where the images from the display are perceived as three-dimensional). The stereoscopic display of FIG. 4 may have two optimal viewing positions (e.g., two viewing positions where the images from the display are perceived as three-dimensional).

For details, go to USPTO, enter the patent number 20240348767 and then hit the Search button for results.