Apple secured a patent Tuesday for an augmented reality platform that will allow it to pursue developing and implementing the technology on its iOS devices. Augmented reality is a combination of real-world and computer-generated images that are displayed to the user simultaneously in one feed.
The Cupertino company filed for the patent in January 2010, Mashable reports. It sought to develop technology that would allow devices running iOS to receive live video with an informational layer that pops up to give more information about the objects on screen.
"Information about the real world environment can be stored and retrieved as an information layer which can be overlaid on the live view and interacted with by a user," Apple explained in the filing. "Despite strong academic and commercial interest in AR systems, many existing AR systems are complex and expensive, making such systems unsuitable for general use by the average consumer."
In one example given by Apple, a teacher could hold a device over a student's exam paper and "an outline showing incorrect answers to exam questions can be displayed in the live video to assist the teacher in grading the exam paper."
A car mechanic could hold the device over a car engine and "an outline identifying parts and providing excerpts from a repair manual or schematics can be displayed in the live video to assist the mechanic in repairing the engine," Apple said.
"Data can be received from one or more onboard sensors indicating that the device is in motion," according to the filing. "The sensor data can be used to synchronize the live video and the information layer as the perspective of video camera view changes due to the motion. The live video and information layer can be shared with other devices over a communication link."
