Apple patents image warping for better view in wearable displays
Apple has filed a patent for a method that adjusts images captured by a camera to match the user's eye position. The system uses depth data to calculate how much the image needs to be stretched or shifted, ensuring the picture looks correct when viewed through a display worn on the head.
In the filing’s own words
Various implementations disclosed herein include a method performed at an electronic device including one or more processors, a non-transitory memory, an image sensor, and a display device. The method includes obtaining, via the image sensor, an input image that includes an object. The method includes obtaining depth information characterizing the object, wherein the depth information characterizes a first distance between the image sensor and a portion of the object. The method includes determining a distance warp map for the input image based on a function of the depth information and a first offset value characterizing an estimated distance between eyes of a user and the display device. The method includes setting an operational parameter for the electronic device based on the distance warp map and generating, by the electronic device set to the operational parameter, a warped image from the input image.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method comprising: at an electronic device including one or more processors, a non-transitory memory, an image sensor, and a display device: capturing an input image with the image sensor that is associated with a first field of view from the image sensor that includes an object; determining, based on an estimated eye location of an eye of a user when the electronic device is worn by the user, a second field of view from the estimated eye location that includes the object and is different from the first field of view; generating a warped image by warping the input image from the first field of view to the second field of view, wherein the warping is based on: a first distance between the image sensor and the object; and a second distance between the estimated eye location and the display device; and displaying, on the display device, the warped image towards the estimated eye location.
Facts
- Company
- Apple (Apple Inc.)
- Official title
- WARPING AN INPUT IMAGE BASED ON DEPTH AND OFFSET INFORMATION
- Publication number
- US20260278732A1
- Application number
- 19675734
- Filed
- May 13, 2026
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Inventors
- 3
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G06T 3/18 Physics & computingG06T 7/50 Physics & computingG06T 11/00 Physics & computingG06T 2207/20084 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.