Apple patent is for ‘Apple Gloves’ for use with ‘Apple Glasses’ — Apple World Today

It involves a virtual reality (VR) glove capable of measuring the movement of individual finger and thumb bones. The Apple Glove can include a plurality of inertial measurement units (IMUs) to track the movement of one or more finger and/or hand sections. 

The IMUs can include one or more motion sensors, such as a gyroscope and an accelerometer, for measuring the orientation, position, and velocity of objects (e.g., finger bones) that the IMU can be attached. An IMU can be located proximate to a finger (or thumb) bone and can measure the inertial motion of the corresponding bone. The Apple Glove may also include magnetometers to determine the direction of the geo-magnetic field. What’s more, it can also include one or more other electronic components, such as a plurality of electrodes for sensing the heading, enabling capacitive touch, and/or contact sensing between finger tips.

In the patent filing, Apple notes that VR technology can be used for many applications such as military training, educational learning, and video games. VR technology can use one or more electronic devices to simulate a virtual environment and the user’s physical presence in that virtual environment. One type of VR technology is augmented reality (AR) technology, where the user’s real environment can be supplemented with computer-generated objects or content. Another type of VR technology is mixed reality (MR) technology, where the user’s real environment and the virtual environment can be blended together.