Late yesterday we posted a report titled "Apple Ups the Mystery behind their Secret Virtual Reality Project by Acquiring AR Specialist Metaio." In that report we listed four of Apple's headset patents. Today, one of Apple's headset patents surfaced in Europe that covers another major update to one of Apple's headset patents. It's the third such update in the last year. Our report shows you what Apple's current update entails.

One of the most descriptive headset patents showing a link to a media player that naturally extends to an iPhone and iPad is one that surfaced back in December 2013. For more details on that patent you could review our report titled "Apple Granted a Knockout Head Mounted Display System Patent." One of the patent graphics from that patent filing is presented below. Apple then tweaked that patent in April 2014.

Yet of all headset patents to date, there seems to be one that Apple has worked on the most with several updates to its patent claims which is the most important aspect of a patent filing in terms of what Apple is officially seeking to protect. It's what patent infringement cases hinge on.

This particular headset patent that Apple appears to be updating the most is one that was granted to them back in September 2014. Although I'm unable to locate our original 2013 report on this patent, I was able to find Apple's May 2014 update to the original patent and you could review it here.The focus of the patent claim changes in that filing revolved around a users head movements. 

Apple's invention is about a headset that will deliver a real movie theater experience to users that could also apply to a concert hall, a ball park or soccer stadium. I'm sure third party developers will have a field day with this by bringing to market unique commercial apps like being able to view any hotel room in the world in stunning detail when you're planning a holiday or view a beach side resort's beach front or a tour of a famed art museum and maybe experience a NASCAR race from a camera that embedded right in the leading car.

Apple patent application also specifically targeted multi-player games for this headset. And it's definitely a device that could work with Apple TV.

Then in November 2014 Apple returned to this invention to make further tweaks to their granted patent that focused on a "seating map" for venues.

Apple's Updated Patent Claims

In today's headset patent claims that are found below we're able to see that the update found in Europe mainly focuses in on all things related to an advanced zooming function. The other new function is that Apple points to a sensor that will be able to monitor the users eye-movements.

1.-20. (Apple notes that patent claims 1-20 of a previous patent filing have been canceled. The following are new:)

21. A method for automatically adjusting a view of media displayed to a user of a personal display device, comprising:

displaying a zoomed view of a media item using the personal display device, wherein the zoomed view of the media item displayed by the personal display device is less than an un-zoomed view of the media item; receiving, from a sensor within the personal display device, a signal indicative a detected movement of a portion of the user's body; determining whether the detected movement triggers an adjustment the zoomed view of the media item; in accordance with determining that the detected movement triggers the adjustment, determining, based at least in part on the detected movement, an adjustment parameter to apply to the zoomed view of the media item to generate; and applying the adjustment parameter to the zoomed view of the media item to adjust the zoomed view in accordance with the detected movement.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein determining whether the detected movement triggers the adjustment includes determining that the detected movement is larger than a pre-defined minimum movement.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein determining that the detected movement is larger than a pre-defined minimum movement includes determining that the signal exceeds a minimum floor.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein applying the adjustment parameter to the zoomed view includes adjusting the zoomed view in a manner that is directly proportional to a magnitude of the detected movement.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein applying the adjustment parameter to the zoomed view includes adjusting the zoomed view a directly proportional distance at a constant rate.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein applying the adjustment parameter to the zoomed view includes adjusting the zoomed view a directly proportional distance at a rate corresponding to the detected movement.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein determining the adjustment parameter includes defining a vector representative of at least a direction, a distance, and a speed of the detected movement.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein applying the adjustment parameter includes using the vector to control the direction, distance, and speed of adjustment to the zoomed view of the media item.

29. The method of claim 21, wherein determining the adjustment parameter includes determining a level of zoom of the zoomed view and scaling at least a portion of the adjustment parameter based on the level of zoom.

30. The method of claim 21, wherein receiving the signal includes receiving output from a sensor monitoring head movements of the user.

31. The method of claim 21, wherein receiving the signal includes receiving output from a sensor monitoring eye movements of the user.

32. A personal display device for adjusting a user's perspective of displayed media, the personal display device comprising a processor, a display, and a user interface, the processor operative to perform operations comprising: displaying a zoomed view of a media item using the personal display device, wherein the zoomed view of the media item displayed by the personal display device is less than an un-zoomed view of the media item; receiving, from a sensor within the personal display device, a signal indicative of a detected movement of a portion of the user's body; determining whether the detected movement triggers an adjustment in the zoomed view of the media item; in accordance with determining that the detected movement triggers the adjustment, determining, based at least in part on the detected movement, an adjustment parameter to apply to the zoomed view of the media item to generate; and applying the adjustment parameter to the zoomed view of the media item to adjust the zoomed view in accordance with the detected movement.

33. The personal display device of claim 32, wherein determining whether the detected movement triggers the adjustment includes determining that the detected movement is larger than a pre-defined minimum movement.

34. The personal display device of claim 33, wherein determining that the detected movement is larger than a pre-defined minimum movement includes determining that the signal exceeds a minimum floor.

35. The personal display device of claim 32, wherein applying the adjustment parameter to the zoomed view includes adjusting the zoomed view in a manner that is directly proportional to a magnitude of the detected movement.

36. The personal display device of claim 35, wherein applying the adjustment parameter to the zoomed view includes adjusting the zoomed view a directly proportional distance at a constant rate.

37. The personal display device of claim 35, wherein applying the adjustment parameter to the zoomed view includes adjusting the zoomed view a directly proportional distance at a rate corresponding to the detected movement.

38. The personal display device of claim 32, wherein determining the adjustment parameter includes defining a vector representative of at least a direction, a distance, and a speed of the detected movement.

39. The personal display device of claim 38, wherein applying the adjustment parameter includes using the vector to control the direction, distance, and speed of adjustment to the zoomed view of the media item.

40. A computer-readable storage device including instructions that, when executed on a processor within a personal display device, cause the personal display device to perform operations comprising:

displaying a zoomed view of a media item using the personal display device, wherein the zoomed view of the media item displayed by the personal display device is less than an un-zoomed view of the media item; receiving, from a sensor within the personal display device, a signal indicative of a detected movement of a portion of the user's body; determining whether the detected movement triggers an adjustment in the zoomed view of the media item; in accordance with determining that the detected movement triggers the adjustment, determining, based at least in part on the detected movement, an adjustment parameter to apply to the zoomed view of the media item to generate; and applying the adjustment parameter to the zoomed view of the media item to adjust the zoomed view in accordance with the detected movement.

Apple is definitely spending a lot of engineering time on this invention with their ongoing tweaks. Yet whether it will translate into a real world product remains a mystery that can't be answered today. Apple's European filing was published today and originally filed on May 21, 2015.

For the record, this isn't a design patent so the look of the headset doesn't reflect what the end product would look like. Should Apple ever deliver such a video headset, we all know that Jony Ive and his team would sculpt and invent something really cool. The headset shown in all of Apple's headset patents are simply in a basic form to convey a concept. 

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