Apple's Ring patent application has been granted amid conflicting reports about the status of the company's development of such a device. device.
However, while recent reports have focused on using the ring as a health sensor as a cheaper alternative to the Apple Watch, this patent is more about using it as an input device …
Latest Apple Ring reports
A report last week suggested that Apple's smart ring development was accelerating following Samsung's teaser of the upcoming Galaxy Ring, but we called it sketchy at the time.
This report appears to be based on nothing more than the opinion of one unnamed source, and we definitely place it in the “sketchy” pile.
We' I've literally been hearing talk about “iRing” in one form or another for over a decade, with several analysts in particular pushing the idea. Yes, it's true that Apple has patents in this area, but as we often point out, Apple patents all sorts of things, only a small fraction of which ever make it to market.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman of 8217;s also poured cold water on the idea of an imminent launch, saying it was just an idea, with no current plans.
At this point, the ring idea is just an idea. The company is not actively developing such a device, but there are certainly people on the Apple campus promoting this concept.
Apple Ring Patent
Apple has filed a number of patent applications for various concepts associated with the ring, and this describes its use as an input device for an AR/VR headset.
Each of the finger-mounted devices may have a housing, which serves as a support structure for components such as force sensors, accelerometers and other sensors […]
The control circuit can collect finger pressure inputs, finger lateral movement inputs and finger touch inputs using sensors , and can provide tactile output using a tactile output device.
Apple specifically refers to it as an alternative to gloves as an input device for “electronic equipment such as computers and heads.” -mountable display systems.”
9to5Mac’s Take
It It seems likely that Apple at some point felt that optical hand gesture recognition might not be accurate enough for a product like the Vision Pro and considered using such a device. Indeed, Gurman has previously cited Apple's experiments with this approach.
Given that the company ultimately succeeded in creating a device that could be adequately controlled using a combination of eye and hand tracking, this particular invention is most likely redundant .
