Apple Creating Head Mounted Displays?
Three Apple patent applications have recently surfaced dealing with how best to implement a head mounted display- adapted for stereo viewing- is the future of the iPhone/Mac OS wearable computing or is it just blue-sky thinking? The listed inventor, John Tang, is part of the Apple Industrial Design Group and worked on the eMate as well as other projects.
The idea is just formalization of the process of creating the stereoscopic image for a HMD and some clever hardware means of implementing it. The most likely use of the technology is as a headset for the video iPods. Instead of watching your movie on the tiny screen of your iPod, you’ll watch the movie on two tiny screens. The effect will be dramatic though with some clever processing by Apple to show slightly different images to each eye and to add dynamic colours which reinforce the image in the periphery. Additionally, Apple talks about the stereoscopic possibilities of the technology. It’s debatable how much stereoscopic content is out there (thought the technology is rapidly being developed).
Another use is in the desktop computing user interface. Aspects of the patents deal with how best to buffer and show windows in 3D. Imagine seeing stacks piled high projecting out of your desktop towards you, or your open windows clearly stacked in 3D or Time Machine’s effects in 4D. Perhaps a 3D beachball cursor would make its presence more bearable. Will Apple make this product a reality?, here are some of the details of the patent applications–you decide:
Something in the air? — MacBookAir Inductive charging, RFID tagging?
MacBookAir
The banners are up at MacWorld — and they’re saying “2008 There’s something in the air”
Hrmpf! These banners will obviously make sense come Tuesday but until then we will have to speculate wildly about their meaning. One thing I think is that it doesn’t seem to point to a new Apple SubNoteBook — unless it uses some significantly novel wireless technology… what are the possibilities suggested by Apple’s patent applications this year? Well, obviously there is the refinement of the iPhone- but I can’t see there being any dramatic changes in that regard (perhaps addition of wireless shopping at places like starbucks, and the new Firmware).
Here are some of the patent applications that jumped to mind when I saw the “There’s something in the air” banners.
Digital Camera Sensor Cleaning with Magic Tape
I deserve some sort of prize for having the dirtiest sensor on a digital camera… I’ve had my D70 for about 4 years and have taken lens off in dust storms (or at least that’s how the sensor looked). I was despairing and thinking I’d have to fork out some cash for a professional cleaning. I’d tried cleaning it with various combinations of reagent grade isopropanol and kim wipes. It worked ok but more moved the dust around than removed it. Then after a few months I did some new google searches and found the Magic Tape method — basically you get 3M Magic Tape (make sure it’s 3M Magic Tape, others leave a residue), apply tape to your sensor (with a D70 you select mirror lockup from the menu and click the shutter release).
Caveats: There are many- your camera is an expensive piece of equipment. There is much discussion around on the web and the consensus seems to be don’t do it! So, I did this on a D70 which has a sensor without any built-in dust removal system and from all accounts a robustish filter in front of the sensor. forums.dpreview.com have a lot of posts on the topic and seem to be against the idea in general with a few people in favor. I found only a few people who’d actually done it and they seemed happy, a few people who tried it and said they’d had to remove guck with reagent ethanol. So, consider yourself warned.
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