Samsung files patent for device that Apple has reportedly given up on

A couple of years ago, Samsung released a video of a project called Monitorless which showed a pair of AR-based smartglasses that look very similar to the illustrations used in the patent application. These glasses connected to a Samsung handset via Wi-Fi while the phone connects to a user's PC with a cellular signal. This would allow users to see their desktop display through the glasses (hence the Monitorless name). Sammy showed off the Monitorless glasses at Mobile World Congress in 2017. Using electrochromic glass, the headset can be switched between Augmented and Virtual Reality. This type of glass can change their opacity by applying voltage to it.

While there are a smattering of smartglasses in the marketplace now, the most famous ones are Google Glass, still used by businesses. As a consumer product, the product failed because the device could not live up to the promise shown in the video Google released when it announced Project Glass in April 2012. The $1,500 price was also too high for the average consumer and fitting the glasses was an ordeal. Movie theaters banned them over fears that films would be recorded by the AR glasses' camera and some bars prevented patrons from wearing them because they could take pictures of their customers on the sly.

Samsung's patent was filed on January 2nd this year.