Huawei introduced Gentle Monster Smartglasses in Paris back in March 2019. Huawei pointed to the summer of 2019 for a launch though it drifted to November 15, 2019. The Huawei X Gentile Monster Eyewear can be reviewed on their website here.
A few months after the Huawei event in Paris, Samsung’s first patent for smart glasses surfaced that was quite detailed. You could review our report on that patent here.
Late last month the US Patent & Trademark Office published Samsung’s second smartglasses titled “Optical Device.”
Samsung’s patent FIG. 33 below illustrates a pair of augmented reality glasses which includes a ‘first ‘augmented reality providing device’ #10a and a ‘second augmented reality providing device’ #10b, a support frame #20, and eyeglass temples #30a and #30b.
Samsung’s patent FIG. 31 above is a perspective view of an augmented reality providing device and more specifically a curved lens.
Samsung’s patent FIG. 1 below is a perspective view of an augmented reality providing device. The lens #100 may also be formed in various suitable shapes other than the polyhedron, such as a circular cylinder, an elliptical cylinder, a semicircular cylinder, a semi-elliptical cylinder, a distorted circular cylinder, and/or a distorted semicircular cylinder. The distorted circular cylinder and the distorted semicircular cylinder refer to a circular cylinder and a semicircular cylinder having a non-uniform diameter.
In order to expand an area of the flexible display device #200 visible to the user’s eye E, that is, a field of view (FOV) of the user, the lens may include a plurality of first reflective members (#410), a plurality of second reflective members (#420), a plurality of third reflective members (#430), and a plurality of fourth reflective members (#440).
Each of the first through fourth reflective members may be smaller than a pupil of the user’s eye. For example, each of the first through fourth reflective members may have a diameter of about 4 mm or less. In this case, it may be difficult for the user to recognize the first through fourth reflective members because the user focuses on a real image (e.g., the user’s eyes are focused on a real image at the time).
Samsung’s patent FIG. 16 above is an alternative design wherein the lens is formed in the shape of an elliptical cylinder having elliptical first and second surfaces and a side surface.
Samsung’s patent application 20200026084 titled “Optical Device” that was published on January 23, 2021 was filed in July 2019 in the US and July 2018 in Korea. It’s a technical patent with 33 patent figures covering several alternative design concepts.
Apple’s patent history shows that their various teams are working on several projects covering everything from entry level glasses to sophisticated glasses and on through to advanced Mixed Realty HMD devices. View our HMD, Smartglasses + archive to see the extent of Apple’s intellectual property.
