Today the U.S. Patent Office published a patent application of Apple's titled "Adaptive Non-Visual Navigation Guidance for Electronic Devices.” If a user enters the navigational route into their iPhone, a user will be able to be guided on a walking trail without the need of looking at the iPhone’s map. The system could work for bikers to when to turn without the need of looking at a map. It could also assist someone navigating through a building or mall they’re unfamiliar with. Non-visual navigation guidance system could be used with AirPods and simply beep in the left or right ear when its time for a user to turn or when to take the stairs. The system could also work with specialized haptic gloves, a walking cane and other future devices that supports Apple’s non-visual guidance system.

 

In the big picture, there are many different types of electronic systems that enable a person to sense and/or interact with various XR environments. Examples include head mountable systems, projection-based systems, heads-up displays (HUDs), vehicle windshields having integrated display capability, windows having integrated display capability, displays formed as lenses designed to be placed on a person's eyes (e.g., similar to contact lenses), headphones/earphones, speaker arrays, input systems (e.g., wearable or handheld controllers with or without haptic feedback), smartphones, tablets, and desktop/laptop computers.

In today’s patent, Apple covers “a non-visual navigational guidance system” using an electronic device, such as an electronic device having one or more sensors for sensing objects in a physical environment of the electronic device.

Non-visual navigational guidance can be useful, as examples, to a person that is a visually occupied (e.g., a walker, a bike rider, or a driver of a car) and/or to a visually impaired person.

The non-visual navigational guidance can be based on a three-dimensional map of a physical environment, and can be provided in the form of spatial audio (e.g., beeps or other sounds generated to be perceived as coming from an indicated direction of travel) or spatial haptics (e.g., haptic taps or other haptic outputs generated to be perceived as coming from a location associated with an indicated direction of travel).

The non-visual navigational guidance can be provided within a building, and can include adaptive navigational guidance around new, moved, moving, and/or changed objects in the physical environment.

Some or all of the spatial haptics can be provided by a glove or other hand-wearable device, like Apple Watch.

Apple’s patent FIG. 3 below  illustrates an example of an electronic device providing adaptive non-visible navigational guidance within a building; FIG. 4 illustrates an example of an electronic device providing three-dimensional non-visible navigational guidance. 

Apple’s patent FIG. 5 above illustrates an example hand-wearable device that can be used to output non-visible navigational guidance;  FIG. 6 illustrates the example hand-wearable device of FIG. 5 providing tactile feedback representing a face of remote user.  

More specifically, Apple’s patent FIG. 5 illustrates an implementation in which the haptic feedback device/Glove #160 is implemented as a glove that includes haptic components at various locations in the glove. In the example of FIG. 5, the haptic feedback glove includes haptic components #162 in each of the fingers and the thumb of the glove, as well as at various locations on the back or palm of the glove. The technology could also be applied to a wand, a walking stick, a cane, a white cane, another portable electronic device.

As indicated in FIG. 5, in order to provide non-visual navigational guidance along the route #224, haptic components that are located, relative to the other haptic components in the glove, in the direction of the route may be vibrated or otherwise actuated to indicate to the wearer of the haptic feedback device/glove to move in the direction of the vibrating or actuating haptic components.

As the wearer moves their hand and/or moves along the route the pattern of haptic components that are vibrated or actuated may change to update the guidance along the route.

Apple's patent application 20240361128 which was made public today was filed a year ago on October 27, 2023.