Apple has today been granted a patent for using Vision Pro (or variant) to see out of an Apple Car (or other self-driving vehicle) without windows – or to use movements of the car to simulate an entirely different experience …
We do caution that Apple patents all kinds of things that never make it into products, and I’d put good money on this being one of them, but it deserves a mention just for the sheer fun of it.
The company describes a number of ways the approach can be used. At its simplest, the headset takes feeds from external cameras and other sensors to provide a virtual view of the journey.
A VR system may include at least one VR controller that generates virtual content for projection to passengers, and at least one projector mechanism for projecting or displaying virtual frames to at least one window of the vehicle to thus provide 3D virtual views to passengers. In either case, the 3D virtual views may ‘ include views of the passenger’s environment, including the environment outside the vehicle, augmented with virtual content (e.g., virtual objects, virtual tags, etc.), or alternatively may provide immersive VR environments that may include visual cues of the environment outside the vehicle […]
Embodiments of the VR system may integrate inputs from a number of sources, including but not limited to vehicle internal and external sensors (e.g., depth cameras (e.g., LiDAR) and video cameras), vehicle and HMD inertialmeasurement units (IMUs), vehicle control systems such as throttle control, braking, steering, navigation, and active suspension systems, world maps, 3D models, video, audio, and other information from external sources.
Alternatively, the system can use the actual car movements to create a simulated journey in another city, different part of the world, or even a completely invented world – but where what the user sees matches the movements of the vehicle. This would be similar to the moving simulators you often get in amusement parks and the like for virtual roller-coaster rides.
While this sounds like it could be quite entertaining, Apple positions it as a way to cure car sickness.
With the arrival of VR systems such as head-mounted displays (HMDs), passengers may want to enjoy a VR experience while riding in a vehicle. However, conventional VR systems may also cause motion sickness in moving vehicles, as the person’s body experiences different motions than what they are visually seeing […]
Further, autonomous vehicles may have limited or even no windows, and thus the motions that passengers experience in such vehicles may not match what they are visually seeing, potentially causing motion sickness.
Apple says that it could be used for productivity as well as entertainment.
Embodiments of the VR system may project content that a passenger may want to view or read such as computer screens, books, or video as virtual content at a distance from the viewer (e.g., outside and some distance in front of the vehicle) so that the virtual content appears as a distant object stabilized or fixed in the external environment while visual cues of the real environment are moving in the field of view of the passenger, allowing the passenger to work, view, or read in comfort without experiencing motion sickness as may occur if the passenger was trying to work or view the content on a physical screen on a portable computing device sitting on their lap, or read a physical book or paper.
Thus, embodiments of the VR system may aid in productivity, as passengers in vehicles may more comfortably perform work while riding in the vehicle.
Personally, I can’t see any car being sold without windows, even if it is 100% self-driving – though I can see options for electronically darkening all the glass when desired. Do sign me up for a VR experience using actual car motion to enhance the simulation, however!
Render: ConceptCreator
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