Apple has filed a US patent that has some speculating that the Cupertino, California technology giant could create an augmented reality head-mounted display to compete with Google's Project Glass technology.

Filed January 20, 2011, and published just a few days ago, the patent shows a graphic that looks like the company wants to own the rights to bowls people wear on their heads, as pointed out by The New York Times.

Instead, the patent details an Apple innovation that could be used to increase the pixel density of a digital display placed over someone's eye through mechanical actuation. In a nutshell, the patent describes wearable video glasses that use a tiny battery which could display video as clear as the iPhone 4S with its Retina Display.

As pointed out by Patently Apple, a site that tracks Apple's patents, it's not the first patent Apple has filed on wearable technology. It says the company has been toying with the idea of video glasses since at least 2006.

Apple's latest patent comes after another one was published earlier this month in relation to a Video Telephonic Headset. That patent's publication comes after Apple's 2008 patent for an iPod Video Headset Display.

If Apple does indeed plan to release video glasses it will need to get a move on with releasing them, as Google plans to offer its "Project Glass" video glasses early next year. It offered them for pre-order to attendees for at its recent Google I/O event last month for US$1500.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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