Microsoft has big plans for its future smart glasses, patent shows

The company is looking for new systems to create next-gen smart glasses.

Not long ago, it was reported that Microsoft and Samsung teamed up to create a mixed-reality headset for gaming and movie watching.

Now, Microsoft has issued a patent showing that it's working on a smart glasses design that includes cyclopean-eye cameras – or at least exploring the operation principles of near-eye display technology.

The device is equipped with a processor and memory storing instructions that allow the processor to receive “depth data” and “image data” from the sensor and show images using this information.

The patent reveals that the system can also process applications such as eye, head, and hand tracking, as well as “scene/environment understanding,” and “object understanding."

The cyclopean-eye sensor could also diminish some glitches, including “inaccurate calibration, complex computations, and inefficient computational redundancies.”

The sensor’s design expands the capabilities of head-mounted displays by expanding its “application scope, large work volume, and flexible size, weight, and power (SWaP) utilization.”

As with many patents, it’s still unclear whether Microsoft will continue developing its smart glasses ideas.