NEWS

Apple Patent Augmented Reality Mapping System Patent

Release time:

2016-11-11 14:40

Nanjing Hua News: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today announced a patent obtained by Apple. The U.S. patent number is 9,488,488 and the patent name is "Augmented Reality Mapping". It details an augmented reality mapping system that uses iPhone hardware and various sensors to superimpose video enhancement functions on live video to present users with real-time enhanced information of the surrounding environment.

The patent document describes some examples of applications of this technology, such as displaying street names to users, showing places that users may be interested in, and even performing augmented reality navigation. Among them, the user opens the rear camera of the iPhone through the AR augmented reality function in the map APP. The system automatically associates data from mobile phone sensors (including gyroscopes, digital compasses and accelerometers) with GPS data to accurately locate the iPhone's three-dimensional position in space, and can intelligently determine the location name of the scene where the user is located, thus downloading the relevant augmented reality information from the server through the network and overlaying it on the real-time video of the user's scene.

Apple's patent can overlay the names of buildings and monuments on the user's scene video, for example, or map complete interactive route guidance on real-time video, such as reminding users that they are walking along a one-way road. According to the iPhone handheld orientation, the system can switch the display format from real-time video to bird's-eye view, making entering and exiting the enhanced mode a seamless experience.

According to data released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today, Apple submitted the patent application as early as five years ago, that is, in 2011. Compared with that time, Apple only made minor changes to the document. Apple is working on an augmented reality solution, though what form the product will take is unclear. CEO Tim Cook said on a quarterly investor call in July that Apple is particularly interested in augmented reality.

Since technology industry competitors like Google, Microsoft and Facebook all have their own AR/VR systems, experts believe that Apple plans to test the waters with an iPhone-based solution for AR/VR.