<p> <i> 11.50 pm </i> Apple gets virtual reality patent

Apple was awarded a patent yesterday on a headset that could let iPhones be part of augmented or virtual reality displays.

The patent titled “Head Mounted Display Apparatus For Retaining A Portable Electronic Device With Display” depicts a large eyeglass-style frame into which a smartphone could be seated.

A smartphone would essentially become a screen set directly before the wearer’s eyes, with the option of picture-in-picture if a person wants to watch what is happening around him or her.

Coupling the headset device with an iPhone “temporarily integrates the separate devices into a single unit,” according to the patent, which Apple filed for in late 2008.

Capabilities of each device would be extended to the other, the patent specified, leaving open the potential to incorporate Siri virtual assistant voice commands.

The gadget described in the patent is similar to Gear VR head gear released last year by Samsung and paired with the South Korean consumer electronics titan’s large-screen Galaxy Note 4 smartphones.

At its developers conference in San Francisco last year, Google gave away simple kits to make cardboard virtual reality headsets that act as frames for Android powered smartphones.

Meanwhile, Sony began taking orders yesterday for SmartEyeglass Internet-linked eyewear, moving ahead in the market as Google steps back to revise its Glass strategy.

The offering from the Japanese consumer electronics comes amid growing interest in wearable computing, but also questions about whether consumers will warm to connected eyewear.

SmartEyeglass connects with smartphones and then superimposes text, images or other information onto whatever real scene is in view.

A version of the eyewear tailored for software developers will be available in Japan, Germany, Britain, and the US on March 10. The price in the US will be US$840. In Europe it will be US670 plus applicable taxes.

SmartEyeglass for enterprises will also be available in March in France, Italy, Spain and elsewhere.

Along with the hardware, Sony will release an upgraded software development kit “to tap into the ingenuity of developers to improve upon the user experience that the SmartEyeglass provides.”

Sony is encouraging software makers to develop fun, hip, or functional applications for SmartEyeglass so people will be enticed to buy the eyewear on track for commercial release in 2016

Sony said that it “has its eyes set on the future of wearable devices and their diversifying use cases, and it hopes to tap into the ingenuity of developers to improve upon the user experience that the SmartEyeglass provides.”

Sony said it sees a wide range of uses for the eyewear, beyond the obvious display of information at eye level without having to turn attention to another device.

It sees “considerable implications for AR (augmented reality), which holds great potential in the domain of professional use as well, such as when giving instructions to workers at a manufacturing site or when transmitting visual information to security officers about a potential breach,” the Sony statement said.

Google in January halted sales of its Internet-linked eyewear Glass but insisted the technology would live on in a future consumer product.

The technology titan put brakes on an “explorer” program that let people interested in dabbling with Glass buy eyewear for US$1,500 apiece.

Glass became available in the US in early last year to anyone with the money and desire to become an “explorer.” The Glass test programme was later expanded to Britain.

Instead of being part of the Google X lab working on innovations such as self-driving cars, the Glass team became a separate unit.

Microsoft last month introduced HoloLens eyewear that may hit a sweet spot between Google Glass and virtual reality headgear, immersing users in a mesmerising world of augmented reality holograms.

Microsoft executives said the holographic capabilities built into Windows 10 operating software — to be released late this year — would open doors for developers to augment tasks from complex surgery to motorcycle design.</p>