Apple patents head-mounted display that adjusts to your nose width
This filing describes a head-mounted device, like a VR headset, that automatically adjusts the distance between the lenses to fit different face shapes. It uses sensors woven into the fabric on the back of the device to detect when the lenses press against the user's nose. If the sensors detect this contact, the device stops moving the lenses to prevent discomfort.
In the filing’s own words
Electronic devices such as head-mounted electronic devices may include displays for presenting images to users. To accommodate variations in the interpupillary distances associated with different users, a head-mounted device may have actuators that move left-eye and right-eye optical modules with respect to each other. To hide internal structures from view, the rear of a head-mounted device may be provided with a cover. Capacitance sensor circuitry and/or switch-based sensor circuitry may use electrodes to measure nose contact arising from movement of the optical modules towards each other against the sides of a user's nose. The actuators may be halted or may otherwise be moved in response to sensor measurements, thereby avoiding undesired nose pressure as the optical modules are moved towards each other to accommodate a user's interpupillary distance.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A head-mounted device, comprising: a head-mounted housing; first and second optical assemblies in an interior region of the housing that are configured to provide images respectively to first and second eye boxes; a housing cover that is configured to block the interior region from view, wherein the housing cover has first and second cover openings that are respectively aligned with the first and second optical assemblies, and wherein the housing cover comprises fabric; a sensor electrode on a nose-bridge portion of the housing cover, wherein the fabric comprises a stretchable fabric and wherein the sensor electrode comprises conductive strands in the fabric; and an additional sensor electrode on a given one of the first and second optical assemblies.
Facts
- Company
- Apple (Apple Inc.)
- Official title
- Electronic devices with sensors
- Patent number
- US12748309B2
- Application number
- 18334999
- Filed
- Jun 14, 2023
- Granted
- Sep 29, 2026
- Inventors
- 3
- Claims
- 15
Classified under
G02B 27/0172 Physics & computingG02B 27/0176 Physics & computingH03K 17/962 Electricity & electronicsG02B 2027/0154 Physics & computingMore from Apple in AR, VR & displays
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.