New Patent Suggests Apple May Someday Enter Wearable Computer Market Too

In the future, Apple may offer products for projecting an image onto the eyes of a user wearing a viewable display. If this sounds a lot like Google’s Project Glass, you would be correct, according to The Next Web. The patent awarded to Apple today entitled, “Peripheral treatment for head-mounted displays” states:

A first display projects an image viewable by a first eye of the user. A first peripheral light element is positioned to emit light of one or more colors in close proximity to the periphery of the first display. A receives data representing a source image, processes the data representing the source image to generate a first image for the first display and to generate a first set of peripheral conditioning signals for the first peripheral light element, directs the first image to the first display, and directs the first set of peripheral conditioning signals to the first peripheral light element.

According to the report, this suggests Apple’s patent, if implemented in an actual device, would offer a fully immersive experience. This would be different than the “walk around” technique Google is offering in their upcoming line of Glass devices. In doing so, Apple’s design would allow the user to see a “screen” floating out in space using one or two LCDs. Google Glass is just one of the many new Google products arriving soon for consumers. Just last week, the company introduced the world to the Nexus 7 tablet. In addition, they unveiled iOS editions of Google Drive, Chrome, and Google+ for iPad. Last week, Google reported that the first Project Glass devices would arrive in 2013, priced at $1,500 each for developers. No one is suggesting Apple will release some sort of iGlass device anytime soon. Still, it is nice to know they aren't letting Google have all the fun with this interesting new concept. Are you ready to buy a “wearable” computer? Source: The Next Web

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