Apple patents head-mounted display tech to stop flicker and ghosting
Apple describes a system for head-mounted devices that uses a sensor to detect the specific frequency and phase of ambient light in a room. The device then adjusts its camera frame rate and exposure timing to match that light, which helps prevent visual artifacts like judder and double images on the display.
In the filing’s own words
A method of operating an electronic device such as a head-mounted device to mitigate judder, double images, ghosting, and other display artifacts is provided. The method can include acquiring images of a scene with one or more cameras, outputting the acquired images of the scene with one or more displays, sensing light in the scene with a flicker sensor, obtaining a frequency and a phase of the sensed light, and setting or locking a frame rate of the cameras based on the frequency of the sensed light. The method can also include shifting or locking exposure periods of the cameras based on the phase of the sensed light. Determination of whether judder is present can involve computing a display artifact severity parameter and comparing that parameter to a threshold.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. Circuitry in an electronic device, comprising: a sensor data processing circuit that processes sensor data on light in a scene to detect a frequency of the light; a control circuit that controls a frame rate of an image sensor in the electronic device based on the detected frequency of the light; and a display processing circuit that outputs images for display in the electronic device and that is coupled to the control circuit.
Facts
- Company
- Apple (Apple Inc.)
- Official title
- Head-Mounted Device with Flicker Judder Mitigation
- Publication number
- US20260332902A1
- Application number
- 19724624
- Filed
- Jun 29, 2026
- Published
- Oct 22, 2026
- Inventors
- 13
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
H04N 23/745 Electricity & electronicsG09G 3/001 Physics & computingH04N 23/667 Electricity & electronicsH04N 23/71 Electricity & electronicsH04N 23/72 Electricity & electronicsH04N 23/73 Electricity & electronicsMore 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.