A patent granted today describes a possible way to reduce neck strain when using an Apple headset. It follows a report that the company is concerned about neck fatigue from the Vision Pro’s weight.
Counter-intuitively, the method proposed would make a future version of Vision Pro heavier, rather than lighter …
Background
When Apple announced Vision Pro back in June, it let selected media representatives try it out for themselves – including our own Chance Miller – and he did raise the weight of the headset as a potential concern when using it for longer sessions.
Apple already made two compromises to reduce the weight of the device: making it smaller, at the cost of not allowing room for eyeglasses, and having a separate, tethered battery pack.
A Bloomberg report over the weekend said that despite these measures, Apple remains concerned about the comfort of the headset, and is hoping to reduce the weight of future models.
But Apple could make Vision Pro heavier
A newly-granted Apple patent describes what might seem an unlikely solution to the problem: adding weight to the headset.
A significant part of the issue is not the weight itself, but rather the weight distribution. Most of the tech – and thus most of the weight – is at the front of the headset, exerting downward pressure at the front. Resisting that pressure is a key source of neck fatigue.
What the patent (spotted by Patently Apple) proposes is a rear counterweight, to create a more neutral center of gravity.
A head-mounted display includes a display unit, a head support, and a balancing mass. The display unit displays graphical content to a user. The head support is coupled to the display to support the display unit on a head of the user for displaying the graphical content thereto. The balancing mass is movable relative to the display unit to offset changes in torque induced by the display unit when tilting the head-mounted display.
I do have personal experience of this. For the Meta Quest 2 I bought specifically to see whether this tech could play a role in my life, I ended up buying an accessory which works in almost exactly the way Apple describes – and can confirm that the approach works.
The front-heavy weight balance meant that I constantly felt like my head was being pulled forward and down. Not massively, but enough that it became irritating after around 30-40 minutes of use.
Meta does have a solution to this, in the form of the Quest 2 Elite Strap. This is a more comfortable strap generally, cradling the back of your head, but also includes a second battery in the rear section. While this does makes the complete unit heavier, the more even weight distribution still improves comfort (as well as doubling battery-life from around two hours to about four).
What Apple proposes is a little more sophisticated, in that the counterweight can be moved back and forth to match head position when using the unit.
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