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Google Glass: Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display

wired.com

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Re: Google Glass: Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display

#21

Post by [deleted] »

nitrogen wrote: post #12
jeffool wrote: post #2

No one can expect this to stand. A cursory glance at the Wiki gave me "In 2005, the Liteye HMD was introduced for ground combat troops as a rugged, waterproof lightweight display that clips into a standard US PVS-14 military helmet mount." That's actually on the field a year before Apple even applied for this patent.

Looking further back for potential sources of prior art, I seem to remember seeing a picture of and/or reading about a very early stereoscopic head-mounted display that used two ultracompact CRT displays. However, given the mixed bag of Apple's recent successes and failures, combined with the general ham-handedness of the patent system, anything is possible.

[deleted]

Re: Google Glass: Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display

#22

Post by ralfn »

jeffool wrote: post #2

No one can expect this to stand. A cursory glance at the Wiki gave me "In 2005, the Liteye HMD was introduced for ground combat troops as a rugged, waterproof lightweight display that clips into a standard US PVS-14 military helmet mount." That's actually on the field a year before Apple even applied for this patent.

Apple are currently using slide-to-unlock to block certain products from selling.

Did you ever expect that to stand? I think we should be assume the worst now..

Re: Google Glass: Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display

#23

Post by electrichead »

m_eiman wrote: post #16

The actual problem that the patent is intended to solve, for those who'd rather comment than RTFA: "A problem with HMDs, primarily HMDs that are not of the see-through kind, is that the image on the display in front of each eye fills the central but not the peripheral field of view of the user. Consequently, the visual experience is similar to looking into a box or tunnel having a small screen at a distance. Peripher…

Their solution also only involves projecting a solid colour into the peripheral view. Actual peripheral view for our eyes can make out details and shapes, so it is not to emulate vision but to "reduce fatigue."

Re: Google Glass: Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display

#25

Post by _djo_ »

This is poor from Wired, there's nothing in this patent that would seem to represent a threat to Google Glass. After all, this is not in any way a patent on Head-Mounted Displays as a concept, as those have been in use in militaries since the 1980s, which Apple's patent references.

The patent actually refers to an apparently novel method of handling peripheral vision in stereoscopic HMDs, in order to remove the 'tunnel' or 'box' effect and increase the comfort of wearing HMDs for a long period of time. At present this is something which no existing stereoscopic HMD (or indeed, Google Glass) handles to my knowledge.

It's also worth noting that existing stereoscopic HMDs, while impressive, have been known to cause discomfort such as headaches in some people when worn for more than a few hours.

So there doesn't appear to be any link to Project Glass which, it should be noted, has also been patented by Google. This is just linkbait.

Re: Google Glass: Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display

#26

Post by _djo_ »

rsanchez1 wrote: post #4

If Apple turns around and sues Google using this patent, I think it will be time to unplug completely and join the people in the mountains looking to escape EM radiation. And really, they had to add CRT displays to the patent? Seriously Apple, CRT? Did Apple figure out a magical new way of getting "retina" resolution with a millimeter-long tube that can somehow feed the entire field-of-vision of the person wearing it…

If you read the actual patent, the references to CRTs are in the parts where Apple describes existing Head/Helmet-Mounted Displays, of which some do use CRT displays. All of Apple's drawings show LEDs or OLEDs being used.

And as I said before, I see nothing in this patent that applies to Google Glass.

Re: Google Glass: Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display

#27

Post by _djo_ »

jeffool wrote: post #2

No one can expect this to stand. A cursory glance at the Wiki gave me "In 2005, the Liteye HMD was introduced for ground combat troops as a rugged, waterproof lightweight display that clips into a standard US PVS-14 military helmet mount." That's actually on the field a year before Apple even applied for this patent.

This does not patent HMDs, it only patents a way to deal with peripheral vision in stereoscopic HMDs. In fact Apple's patent explicitly describes existing HMDs, which have actually been around for decades.

Re: Google Glass: Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display

#28

Post by _djo_ »

electrichead wrote: post #23
m_eiman wrote: post #16

The actual problem that the patent is intended to solve, for those who'd rather comment than RTFA: "A problem with HMDs, primarily HMDs that are not of the see-through kind, is that the image on the display in front of each eye fills the central but not the peripheral field of view of the user. Consequently, the visual experience is similar to looking into a box or tunnel having a small screen at a distance. Peripher…

Their solution also only involves projecting a solid colour into the peripheral view. Actual peripheral view for our eyes can make out details and shapes, so it is not to emulate vision but to "reduce fatigue."

Not so, the patent describes various options for dealing with peripheral vision, including projecting blurred shapes corresponding with the environment, 'frames' and solid colours.

Re: Google Glass: Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display

#29

Post by fpgeek »

taligent wrote: post #19
fpgeek wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motorola, HTC and Samsung were all making smartphones long before Apple was. IIRC, they are all now being sued by Apple over, among other things, at least one feature that their smartphones had before the iPhone was even announced. So how's that previous history working out for them? I'll also highlight my assumption: Apple's patent abuse continues unchecked. In other words, Apple's software patent assaults are deliv…

What are you talking about ? I was talking about Apple going after Linux.

So was I. You're asserting that vendors selling "nice Linux machines" (or at least nice machines that run Linux well once you install it) aren't among Apple's competitors? Since when?

To take just one example: the ultrabooks that Apple could easily try to go after with their "wedge" design patent, can run Linux, too, not just Windows. And that's clearly a form factor many people consider nice. Granted, this is a different area of competition than smartphones, but I specifically talked about Apple extending their patent assaults to new areas if their patent abuse remained unchecked.

Do you think Apple extending their legal strategy like that wouldn't have an impact on the availability of nice hardware to run Linux on? It seems obvious to me that it would. After all, there's more than one way to go after Linux.

Re: Google Glass: Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display

#30

Post by mtgx »

_djo_ wrote: post #25

This is poor from Wired, there's nothing in this patent that would seem to represent a threat to Google Glass. After all, this is not in any way a patent on Head-Mounted Displays as a concept, as those have been in use in militaries since the 1980s, which Apple's patent references. The patent actually refers to an apparently novel method of handling peripheral vision in stereoscopic HMDs, in order to remove the 'tunn…

I agree. The title of the patent, at least how it's being picked up in the press, makes it sound threatening to the Google Glass, but I doubt the actual description of the patent would describe Google Glass. I think Google already has a bunch of patents like these:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57434403-76/google-patents...

I remember reading a few posts like these about Google's new patents for Google Glass.

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