Apple Mixed Reality vGlasses with Face Cooling?

Good news for next summer? Apple will introduce mixed reality glasses with high-end specs this year or next, according to insiders. A patent shows how the high-performance device and its user could be cooled.

Earlier this year, there was a flurry of leaks about Apple's upcoming VR glasses. According to the reports, the device has two 8K displays, a particularly powerful Apple chip and a multitude of sensors for spatial tracking, eye tracking and AR video viewing. All this autonomously and in a slim form factor. If it actually has these features, it would technically eclipse all previous VR glasses.

The problem: The high-resolution displays and the chip are likely to emit even more heat than other stand-alone VR glasses like the Oculus Quest 2, whose CPU only runs at half load for reasons of power consumption and heat development. Passive cooling is unlikely to prevent Apple's VR glasses from becoming an uncomfortable head heater.

Air conditioning for glasses and face

A US patent by Apple shows how the cooling system of the mixed reality glasses could work. The patent describes a housing with an inlet and an outlet opening. A sophisticated air circulation system draws air in through the inlet opening, directs the cold air past the displays and chips and lets it escape again through the outlet opening.

In one variant of the invention, the airflow is deflected to cool the face of the glasses wearer. This would allow Apple to kill two birds at once. "The cooling system can also be used to cool the user's face from heat build-up inside the device," the patent literally states.

Complicated and not entirely new

The question is whether the company will even go for such a complicated system. The more mechanical parts the VR glasses have, the more complex and expensive they are likely to be to manufacture, not to mention the susceptibility to malfunctions. In addition, the active cooling could cause noise that distracts from the VR experience, which Apple itself describes as a problem.

By the way, the idea of a face cooler is not entirely new. A few years ago, a start-up produced mini ventilators for HTC Vive that are attached to the outside of the VR goggles and fan cold air to the goggle user.

But all in all, this would certainly also be a helpful solution for sweaty E-sports tournamentsas offered by the Fusion Arena.

Source: Mixed