In June 2020 Patently Apple posted a report titled "Alphabet has Reportedly Acquired Canadian AR Smartglasses Company called 'North' which gives us a Peek at their Future." Last week, a series of patent filings from Google described how they would construct their AR glasses to support prescription lenses could be inserted by a local eyeglasses store and/or their manufacturer.

In some cases, AR eyewear displays for smartglasses include Rx lenses with curvatures corresponding to a user's vision correction prescription. For example, if a user is near-sighted, the eyewear display includes negative Rx lenses to enable a user to see distant objects more clearly. Or, if a user is far-sighted, the eyewear display includes positive Rx lenses to enable a user to see nearby objects more clearly.

Conventionally, the burden of fulfilling this wide range of Rx lens types falls on the eyewear display manufacturer due to the complex design considerations of eyewear displays. For example, in many cases the eyewear display design considerations include maintaining ingress protection (IP) sealing, preserving optical alignment, protecting fragile components, and ensuring that the Rx lens stays in place during drop or high-acceleration events.

Furthermore, it is typically desirable for the features that retain the Rx lens and provide the sealing between lens interfaces to be as discreet as possible to minimize the aesthetic impact and bulk added to the eyewear display.

In some cases, it may be advantageous to design an eyewear display to enable other parties (e.g., an optometrist) to insert an Rx lens. In this way, the burden to fulfill a wide range of Rx lens types in an eyewear display is shifted away from the eyewear display manufacturer, thereby allowing users requiring Rx lenses to enjoy the AR experience with reduced or minimal Rx lens manufacturing delays.

The eyewear display includes an eyeglass frame form factor with a frame including two lens rims and a nose bridge. One lens rim (or both of the lens rims) holds a lens stack serving as an optical combiner. The lens stack includes a first lens (e.g., a world-side lens) and a waveguide.

In some embodiments, the first lens rim also holds a placeholder lens. For example, the placeholder lens is a “blank” (i.e., does not include a vision correction prescription) lens on the eye-side of the waveguide. The first lens rim of the frame includes a detachable rim piece such as a detachable nose piece. In some embodiments, the detachable rim piece covers a loading cavity housing a lens retention component.

After being detached from the lens rim, the detachable rim piece exposes the loading cavity and the lens retention component. The lens retention component, in some embodiments, is a retaining clip that fixes the placeholder lens in the first lens rim and is detachable from the loading cavity. Upon the lens retention component being detached from the loading cavity, the placeholder lens is removed from the first lens rim. Then, a second lens (such as an Rx lens) is inserted within the first lens rim into the volume previously occupied by the placeholder lens.

Once the second lens is inserted into the first lens rim, the lens retention component is re-attached in the loading cavity to fix the second lens in the lens stack within the first lens rim. The detachable rim piece is then re-attached to the first lens rim to cover the loading cavity with the lens retention component arranged therein. In this manner, a party other than the eyewear display manufacturer is able to insert an Rx lens into the eyewear display. This reduces the burden of fulfilling all Rx lens types on the eyewear display manufacturer, thus enabling more users requiring Rx lenses to enjoy the AR experience.

To further illustrate, in some embodiments, the eyewear display includes a frame with a first lens rim to hold a lens stack serving as an optical combiner. The lens stack includes a first lens (e.g., a world-side lens) and a waveguide. In some embodiments, the first lens rim also holds a placeholder lens.

In some embodiments, a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) is applied around the perimeter of the second lens prior to insertion into the first lens rim. In this scenario, the PSA applied to the first carrier may be removed along with the protective liner.

After being inserted and aligned within the first lens rim, the second lens is pressed to activate the PSA such that the second lens is adhered to the first carrier. Then, the detachable rim piece is re-attached to the first lens rim, thereby covering the cavity and securing the second lens into the first lens rim. In this manner, a party other than the eyewear display manufacturer is able to insert an Rx lens into the eyewear display. This reduces the burden of fulfilling all Rx lens types on the eyewear display manufacturer, thus enabling more users requiring Rx lenses to enjoy the AR experience.

Google's patent FIG. 3 below illustrates an example of an exploded view of mechanical components for installing a second lens into an eyewear display, such as the eyewear display; FIGS. 6 illustrates an example perspective view and an example close-up view of a lens rim after the insertion of a second lens and the re-insertion of the retaining clip in an eyewear display, such as the eyewear display.

Google patent FIGS. 3A above is from a second related patent that illustrates an example of an exploded view and an assembled view of a lens rim portion of an eyewear display.

Two of the inventors listed on the patent includes, Nabila Zaman Product Design Engineer and Joshua Moore a Product Design Engineer.  The other three inventors listed on the patent were with Google (originally from the company "North") joined Meta's smartglasses team over the summer of 2024, according to LinkeIn.

A third smartglasses patent from Google published in Europe dealt with a port integrated into one of the arms of the smartglasses under patent #WO2024248853.