Apple seeks patent on reality

[The Straight Story]

Apple seeks patent on reality


Apple has filed a US patent for an immersive 3D display technology that allows you to vary your perspective on objects simply by moving your head.

It's a difficult concept to put into words when attempting to describe its use on a computer display, but immersive 3D is simply the way we view the world around us all the time. When you move your head from side to side, for example, objects move in front and in back of each other - and if you want to see what's behind an object, you simply, well, look behind it.

You can't do that on your 2D computer display. Windows or other objects on your display retain their spatial relationships with each other no matter what angle you view them from - you can't peek behind a window without dragging it out of the way. Your display is passive - it has no idea from what angle you're viewing it.


When viewing the inside of a box from the left, your prepective is quite different...

...than when you're viewing the same box from the right.

To know how to vary the spatial relationships of the objects on a display in order to portray immersive 3D, your computer needs to know where your head is - or, as we used to say back in the psychedelic 60s, where you head is at. Doing so uses a technology called, naturally enough, head tracking.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/18/apple_3d_patent/

[pleah]

1. WTF? I don't understand what I just read.

:crazy:

[walldude]

5. Apple is trying to patent immersive 3D technology..

Where you wear glasses or a visor and you enter into a 3D immersive world. Not sure how apple could patent this as it's already being used in a basic form.

What this means to you and me is soon you will be able to put on a headset and walk through The Louvre. It also has incredible real world applications, science and medicine for one. Imagine a doctor being able to virtually walk around in your blood stream and diagnose illnesses from the inside out.

[pleah]

7. Thank you.

:)

[dysfunctional press]

10. "It also has incredible real world applications, science and medicine for one..."

wouldn't that be 'for two?'

and don't forget porn- they're almost always one of the big driving forces behind these kinds of video advances.

imagine an out of shape middle-aged guy being able to virtually walk around in jenna jameson's hoo-ha.

[im1013]

2. Wow, that sounds awesome......but CREEPY!

:scared:

[Heywood J]

3. Uh, isn't there a whole lot of prior art out there?

Holograms and 3D displays have been around for a while. I remember seeing a holographic arcade game like this in Michigan ten or fifteen years ago...

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended, this will be huge.

Thanks for the thread, The Straight Story.

[walldude]

6. Huge K&R...

At some point technology will advance to a place where all people on the planet can be fed, housed, and taken care of without worrying about the "cost". Not in my lifetime but huge advances like this are the light at the edges of the darkness.

[dencol]

8. This dream could be a reality today.

And it could be done with our current technology and resources. The problem is greed, and the fact that so much money is poured into the military. Just imagine what we could do if we cut the defense budge in half and used it to develop renewable power sources, etc. There are plenty of resources for all - it's just people in positions of power are hoarding much more than they could ever hope to use.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. This seems a rather speculative patent

As the filing states in pure patentese, "The sensing mechanism may be operative to detect the user's position using any suitable sensing approach, including for example optically (e.g., using a camera or lens), from emitted invisible radiation (e.g., using an IR or UV sensitive apparatus), electromagnetic fields, or any other suitable approach."

It'd be one thing if they'd made a system which does the tracking of the user's head position; but this seems a pre-emptive "if anyone ever invents this, we thought of it first".

[Heywood J]

11. Pretty much. It may be the subject of litigation for that alone,

since it's full of "maybe" and "W or X or Y or Z"... Patents are supposed to protect real inventions, not passing thoughts.

[liberal_at_heart]

12. sounds cool but for now I am done with Apple

We just got our daughter a Sony Walkman MP3 player and download music from Napster.