Skip to main content

Patent hints that Essential’s vision for the future could extend to AR glasses

essential ar glasses patent phone camera 3
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Essential has big plans for the future, and they don’t end with its recently revealed PH-1 smartphone, 360-degree camera, and Home smart speaker. Patents unearthed by Patently Apple show the startup’s phone plans in full, right down to the device’s magnetic pins that support modular components. They also reveal that Andy Rubin, hailed as the “Father of Android” and now CEO of Essential, could be itching to pick up where Google Glass left off.

The glasses shown in Essential’s patent look much more like conventional frames than the design Google ultimately ran with. The display is embedded into the lenses, alongside multiple cameras. One faces the user to track their eyes, and the other looks outward to identify objects in the environment. When the latter camera recognizes something it its view, the glasses can present augmented reality overlays relevant to the subject.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

With augmented reality becoming the next great frontier for software developers and hardware producers alike, it’s not totally surprising to learn that Essential has an interest in the space. The company isn’t rushing to the market in its infancy, however. Patents are no guarantee of future retail products, and Rubin and company have even publicly admitted that their phone — which can currently be ordered ahead of  its release later in June — is not meant to equal Apple’s iPhone or Samsung’s Galaxy in terms of sales volume.

“We’ve gone after technologies and methods of manufacturing that aren’t designed to support 50 million devices,” Jason Keats, the company’s head of product architecture, told Wired in an interview. “We’re not for everybody. You know it’s going to be a little exclusive.”

So Essential is looking to expand slowly, and you likely won’t see its augmented reality plans bear fruit for some time. However, it’s also poised to expand in multiple directions. Those two little pins on the back of the PH-1 are there to further the phone’s capabilities in ways the company probably hasn’t even fully considered yet. Add that to the development of a Home hub meant to connect a network of disparate devices and Rubin’s creation of Playground, a startup accelerator firm, and it’s clear Essential’s vision doesn’t stop at what we learned this week.

Whether it will include these glasses is anyone’s guess.

Editors' Recommendations

Adam Ismail
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Adam’s obsession with tech began at a young age, with a Sega Dreamcast – and he’s been hooked ever since. Previously…
How AR glasses are going from niche gadget to smartphone replacement
A man tries out AR glasses.

Alternate realities have historically dominated fact and fiction. From the use of augmented and virtual realities in air combat training to sci-fi stories and novelistic tales of looking into a crystal ball, these surrogate realities have often helped humankind operate better or cope with the harsh truths of the real world.

Stepping into the future, we can see virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies becoming commonplace in our daily lives. The combined market for AR and VR headsets is expected to grow tenfold from 2021 through 2028, and for the future yet to come, AR could potentially replace that one gadget that our lives depend on so much — our smartphones.

Read more
Google’s life-changing AR smart glasses demo gave me shivers
Google's AR smartglasses translation feature demonstrated.

When Viva and Yoshiko, one an English speaker and the other a Mandarin Chinese speaker, tried Google’s prototype smart glasses during a sneak peek at Google I/O 2022, I got shivers down my spine. The expressions on their faces, the sudden ability to meaningfully communicate with someone who before didn’t fully understand what was being said moved me a great deal. It’s an example of the type of technology that I truly love: One that can change lives.
'Subtitles for the world'
You’d be forgiven if you’d missed this special moment during Google I/O, as it came right at the end of the marathon event, and lasted for just a few minutes. The actual smart glasses were not named, only shown in a demonstration video, and really only revealed as a concept. Google didn’t even show us the interface itself or hint that the smart glasses will ever be released as an actual product.

Breaking down language barriers with augmented reality | Google

Read more
Meta’s sleek AR glasses appear set for 2024 launch
meta augmented reality glasses 2024 launch rumor specifications aria ar by

Meta’s first fully AR-ready smart glasses might arrive in 2024, opening the hardware floodgates for users to engage with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s lofty metaverse experiences. According to a report from tech publication The Verge, Meta’s high-end AR smart glasses code-named Project Nazare will make their debut in the next couple of years. And it appears that the company is leaving no stones unturned as it attempts to deliver the best experience possible.

The AR glasses are said to look fairly normal, with black frames, and will sport a camera as well, a callback to the Project Aria AR glasses concept that Facebook announced in 2020. They would offer some impressive tech such as high-end waveguides, a stereo audio system built into the frame, microLED projectors for higher visual fidelity, and eye-tracking facility as well. The company is even working with semiconductor partners in China to develop custom chips.

Read more