Apple reportedly granted patent for AR headphones with augmented stereo surround

It has been known that Apple is ramping up development in its AR department with hardware products. It was reported that Apple was working on an AR headset and AR glasses last month. According to a new patent, Apple is developing AR headphones as well.

The iPhone-maker has been granted a patent for augmented-reality headphones that will be targeting business applications such as conference calls, reports 9to5Mac . One of the cool features includes augmented stereo sound that will help users to pinpoint the location of people on the call within the room. Essentially, you will be able to tell where a person is sitting and talking across the room based on the sound.

An advantage of virtual positioning is that users won’t have to try to recognise the voice of the person speaking. The positioning changes as you turn your head to face someone. For instance, if someone sitting on your left starts speaking, the audio will be delivered to emulate that the person is actually sitting to your left.

The report says that a virtual room will be created and every participant will be assigned a position as they join from different locations for a conference call. While the patent only talks about its applications in office settings, it could very well be used in other areas such as games and regular FaceTime chats with your friends or family.

The timeline of the announcement or launch of the Apple AR devices isn’t out yet. It was reported that the company will release its first AR headset in 2022 and then come out with AR glasses in 2023. However, an earlier report said that Apple had apparently partnered with game developer and digital distributor Valve for its AR headset that will be coming out in the second half of 2020.

While the exact nature of products isn’t clear, we can definitely expect an AR hardware announcement from Apple next year.