New patent shows how Apple Glass might detect sound and direct you to its origin
Apple Glass concept – Eric Huismann
We hear today about another interesting patent concerning the future AR/VR headset by Apple dubbed by early rumors 'Apple Glass'. AppleInsider reports about a patent application filed by Cupertino with the US Patent and Trademark Office, which concerns a feature of the headset that will potentially detect sounds and direct the user to their source.
The patent does not specifically say the feature is for the Apple Glass, but it does say it is for a "Head-mountable device" we can surely assume is the AR/VR headset by Apple. The device's audio-detection may use sound information, collected by microphones, to display where the user should look or direct the user towards the sound. The patent does not go into detail about how the processing of the sounds will be accomplished, but it marks the possibility to display a notification when a specific sound is detected.
Illustration from the patent showing the possible arrangement of the microphones
The potential microphones situated on the device will reportedly be able to detect sounds that the human ear couldn’t. Due to the fact that those microphones will be situated in different positions on the device, they can subsequently help the headset determine the position of the originating sound, and that position will then be rendered to the user with some sort of “indicators directing the user to the source of the sound”. The patent also states the device can have a speaker for audio output as well.
As some of you probably know, submitted and granted patents don’t also come to fruition, so you should take this information with a grain of salt. It’s still quite early to determine whether or not Apple will be able to successfully implement such technology in Apple Glass (or whatever the future AR/VR headset by Apple ends up being called).
We have heard rumors that Apple Glass could be announced in 2021, but there's no official information about that at the moment.
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