New revelations about the exciting launch of Apple’s AR (augmented reality) Apple Glass coming this year still continue to surprise and astound us.
Self-cleaning, But It’s Not an Oven
Anyone who owns a pair of glasses is surely well familiar with the constant hassle of dealing with condensation, dust, dirt or debris smudging over the lens. It’s annoying but it’s one of those things we’ve accepted we just have to suck up and deal with, like exercise and balanced diets. Yet Apple Insider has just informed us that Apple may have actually found a way to beat this problem by filing for a patent on a special technology which would allow the Apple Glass to—you guessed it, clean itself.
No, they will not be rigging tiny little windshield wipers to the fragile Glass lens, as adorable (and weird) as that may be. Instead, Apple’s innovative engineers have come up with a way to “shake” the Glass free of dust using vibration. After the undesirable particles are dislodged, a so-called retention element “securely retains the particles so that they remain outside of the optical pathway.” In other words, it shakes ’em lose, then sweeps them out of sight and mind. The pending patent for this feature is called “Particle Control for Head-Mountable Device” and is available for public view on the US Patent & Trademark Office website.
Image of the self-cleaning technology found on the patent
Will All This Innovation Ever Stop?
There truly seems to be no end to Apple’s plans for ground-breaking novelties when it comes to the Apple Glass. They have already announced that it will eliminate its wearer’s need for prescription glasses, being entirely self-adjusting to any diopter. Their 5G-compatible smart features may well have the potential to replace other devices such as your iPhone, tablet, or TV. Recently, we found out the Apple Glass may be able to authenticate the unlocking of any of your other Apple devices.
It’s good to keep in mind that like the self-cleaning feature, many of these are still patents—not absolute guarantees from Apple. But I think we can all agree we’ve got a lot to look forward to!
