Today, the United States Patent and Trademark Office announced a continuation of Apple's patent related to its title "Electronic Equipment with Adjustable Lens." The present invention relates to a tunable lens system, which is mainly used in Apple's future VR headsets, and may also be used in future glasses.

Apple pointed out in their patents that headsets usually include lenses with fixed shapes and properties. If you are not careful, it may be difficult to adjust these types of lenses to best present content to each user of the headset.

Apple's solution is to design an advanced lens module in the head-mounted device that separates the first and second lens elements by a liquid-filled gap with adjustable thickness.

The pump or other components can then control how much liquid is forced from the reservoir into the liquid-filled gap. The first and second lens elements may form a catadioptric lens, the thickness of which depends on the adjustable thickness of the liquid-filled gap.

The lens module in the head-mounted device may include first and second fluid-filled chambers and first and second flexible films. The control circuit in the head-mounted device can control the first fluid volume in the first fluid-filled chamber and the second fluid volume in the second fluid-filled chamber to adjust the curvature of the first flexible film and the curvature of the second flexible film.

Apple's patent map. Figure 2 below is a top view of the head-mounted display system. Each lens element of the lens module #72 may be formed of any desired transparent material (for example, glass, a polymer material such as polycarbonate or acrylic, a crystal such as sapphire, etc.).

Apple's patent map. 4A is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative head-mounted device with a catadioptric lens that includes two lens elements separated by a fluid-filled gap of variable thickness. For more information, please view our March 2020 original patent report here.

Today’s patent report is not about a new invention application, but a continuation patent, in which Apple is updating and/or adding specific technologies, features, and/or methods, and they want to legally extend, protect, and fold to the extent permitted by law Among the granted patents. Any changes and/or additions to their inventions are limited to the legally binding Apple patent claims. 

The patent granted by Apple in December 2020 covers 23 patent claims, and all claims cover "systems." In the continuation patents announced today, Apple has expanded their patent claims with 20 new claims, and all new patent claims once again cover more details about the "system" that Apple wants to further protect.

The following are 20 complete patent claims newly added by Apple, covering new aspects of the present invention.

Apple's continuation patent 20210041705 was filed in October 2020 and was published by the U.S. Patent Office today. Considering that this is a continuation patent, it is not yet clear when this type of product will be on the market.

Jack Purcher will be published in 1B on February 11, 2021 at 07:02 PM. Continuation of patents, HMD, smart glasses | Permalink | Comments (0)

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