A new patent registered by Apple itself shows a new method by which Apple’s augmented reality glasses would recognize text on a surface just by looking at it with our eyes.
This new patent describes does not refer specifically to Apple glasses since it focuses on a method for Apple devices to be able to recognize text inputs just by looking at specific fields with our eyes. Thus, the system would place the cursor there to facilitate the text writing process.
This system could be applied to applications or web pages. With a glance, the user could select full-text fields, and the cursor would follow our gaze to position itself where we need it.
A series of sensors placed next to the lenses of the glasses, next to the eyes, would serve to recognize our gaze, capturing the visual axes of our eyes.
By determining the directionality of our gaze, we can select text in applications or websites to place a cursor there. The patent describes how this system would look for “the center of the user’s pupil or the center of rotation of the user’s eyeball, to identify the visual axis of the user’s eye.“
In the case of iPad and iPhone, this system would require a remote gaze tracking system, which would indicate that the 3D Face ID facial recognition system would not be sufficient.