If you’re someone who has to wear prescription glasses permanently, such as myself, then you know that VR/AR headsets and smart glasses are kind of annoying. Do we want to give up our sight just to immerse ourselves in the metaverse? No. But Samsung wants to fix that. According to a recently discovered patent, Samsung is toying with the idea of creating a pair of smart glasses that has a built-in customizable display that also offers vision correction.
Prescription glasses wearers, rejoice!
The patent filing mentions support for users with prescription lenses. This means that the smart glasses can cater to users who wear corrective eyewear. So instead of these groups of users having to buy external attachments or accessories that only make the glasses heavier, it can adjust itself based on your eyesight.
This is a nice touch by Samsung. This is because, at the moment, most headsets and smart glasses don’t really cater to users with corrective eyewear. Support for these users usually feels more like an afterthought.
Speaking of corrective eyewear, the patent also describes how these Samsung smart glasses come with a customizable display. This display system relies on gears or actuators that allow the glasses to make dynamic adjustments. This means that users can adjust the display so that it better aligns with their natural field of view. This could potentially solve issues such as motion sickness or headaches that are a result of the display either being too near or too far from the wearer’s eyes.
Samsung going all-in on smart glasses
The adjustable display and vision correction features are pretty cool concepts, but it also highlight Samsung’s growing interest in the field of XR. Samsung might be known to most of you for its phones and TVs, but the company is definitely looking to expand beyond that. Earlier this month, the company showed off the upcoming Samsung XR headset. However, this device is more akin to Apple’s Vision Pro rather than smart glasses.
Samsung had previously filed patents for smart glasses, so this is a form factor they are definitely interested in. There are obvious benefits to smart glasses over headsets. For starters, they are smaller, which means they’re more portable. They can also potentially be worn all day, making them as indispensable as our smartphones.
However, the bigger question is whether or not such devices will come to market. As it stands, these Samsung smart glasses with their adjustable display and vision correction features are only a patent. It’s hard to say if Samsung will make it a reality. But as someone with corrective eyewear, I can only hope that it happens.
