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Apple is studying how to add gyroscopes to Apple AR headsets, giving continuous haptic feedback that will feel immersive.
Virtual reality can show you anything it wants, but if you don’t feel anything either, there’s a limit to the immersion of the experience. That’s why you get VR games paired with treadmills, for example.
And that’s why some movie theaters will shake your seat in a frankly pointless attempt to make you feel like you’re actually in the car chase you’re watching.
A recently granted patent suggests Apple is considering taking at least a small step toward using haptics to aid in AR experiences. “Gyroscopic Precession Engine For Wearable Devices” is a nearly 30,000 word patent that goes out of its way to refer primarily to any device that can be attached “to a part of the human body”.
Haptic motors are an important aspect of the XR [Extended Reality, or AR/VR]because they impart physical sensations to the user’s body that enhance the user’s immersive experience,” Apple explains. “Typical haptic motors found in smartphones and other mobile devices, however, only provide vibration along one axis.
Apple notes that this is “useful for notification apps,” but points out that the odd tapping isn’t the same as the kind of “continuous torque or force” a head-mounted display (HMD) might have.
The patent ultimately focuses on HMDs, however, and specifically on providing a form of haptic feedback using a “gyroscopic precession motor”. Rotating gyroscopes can provide “continuous torque/force to a user’s head/neck or other body part that is synchronized with visual content”.
For example, it can let the HMD create “a feeling of air wave pressure (e.g. from an explosion scene)” or “a feeling of centrifugal force (e.g. a mountain ride bumpy roller coaster or a car race)”.
“The gyroscopic precession motor can be mounted or integrated into a head-mounted display (HMD),” explains Apple, “or any other portable device to provide spatial guidance in VR and AR applications.”
Patent detail showing how a gyroscopic precession motor could provide 3D haptic feedback
This reference to the existence of “other portable devices” may not just be a typical patent description intended to cover all possible exploitations of its proposals. Besides the game examples, Apple suggests other ways a gyroscopic precession motor could help with AR – and they must require more than a headset.
“[It can provide] head/neck/hand/wrist exercise (e.g., providing counter-torque to the user’s movement),” Apple continues, “ergonomic correction (e.g., warning or guiding the user to poor sitting or standing posture) and providing reaction force feedback in VR applications (e.g. boxing an object and feeling a reaction force on the hand/wrist).
So Apple’s headphones could potentially come with smart gloves (or those of boxing), for example.
When to expect Apple AR headsets
Apple has filed countless AR-related patents, but even when a patent is granted, it is uncertain whether the technology will ever be used. It does, however, indicate the directions Apple is considering for its AR and VR devices, even if not for the first generations of them.
These first generations could go into mass production in early 2023, with a rumored launch in April. This rumor is to safeguard by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who bases his estimates on information from the supply chain.
Previous rumors also called for an early 2023 launch, but say Apple is already working on it improved version for 2024. It’s no surprise that Apple is already working on future versions of an as-yet-unreleased product, but in this case it says maybe three HMDs aimed at different audiences.
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