Apple applies for a patent to protect technology allowing users to manipulate virtual objects on a screen

For example, let’s say that on your screen, you are looking at an AR image of an iPad. In real life, you might be moving around an iPad-sized piece of wood as the “proxy object.” You’ll be able to move or turn the wood and the display will show the iPad in the exact same orientation as the wood, including the tablet’s screen and buttons. As Apple writes in the patent application, “Input is received from the proxy device using an input device of the proxy device that represents a request to create a fixed alignment between the virtual object and the virtual representation in a three-dimensional (“3-D”) coordinate space defined for the content.”

In the application, Apple explains the thinking that inspired it to file with the USPTO. “Various electronic devices exist, such as head-mound devices (also known as headsets and HMDs), with displays that present users with a computer-generated reality (CGR) environment in which they may be fully immersed in a surrounding physical environment, fully immersed in a virtual reality environment comprising virtual objects, or anywhere in between. While direct manipulation of physical objects in the surrounding physical environment is available to users naturally, the same is not true for virtual objects in the CGR environment. Lacking a means to directly interact with virtual objects presented to a user as part of a CGR environment limits a degree to which the virtual objects are integrated into the CGR environment. Thus, it may be desirable to provide users with a means of directly manipulating virtual objects presented as part of CGR environments.”

Amazon introduced the Echo Loop smart ring last year and the device pairs with a smartphone to allow the user to access Alexa and can even dial a phone number using the paired phone. The Echo Loop, however, does not feature touch input.