Apple’s rumoured ‘RealityOS’ for augmented reality glasses appears in legal filing

Andrew Griffin
Monday 30 May 2022 13:14 EDT
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EUR-TEC UE-APPLE
EUR-TEC UE-APPLE (AP)

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RealityOS, Apple’s rumoured operating system for its AR glasses, has appeared in a legal filing.

Apple has long been rumoured to be making its own augmented reality glasses, which will impose digital information and visuals onto the real world. RealityOS is said to be a key part of that, powering the system that will show that information.

But Apple has not yet officially announced that it is working on either the hardware or the software, even as rumours suggest that it could be revealed as soon as next week.

Now the filing suggests that someone is working on the long-rumoured RealityOS – and that it may well be Apple. They were first discovered by Park Ortolani, who noted that it was probably not a coincidence that they were registered for “wearable computer hardware”.

There is nothing officially connecting the trademark application to Apple, and it was not filed under the company’s name. But many such filings are made under one-off names, in an effort to keep them from revealing unannounced information.

The filing is registered to RealityO Systems LLC. That company does not own any other trademarks, and is registered to an address that has been used for Apple’s shell companies in the past.

The filings were also registered on 8 December, 2021, shortly before the name started appearing in Apple’s own source code.

It also includes the date of 8 June. That happens to come during Apple’s WWDC conference – during which it shows off new software, and which could serve as the first official announcement of Apple’s augmented reality technology.

Apple has been reported to be pressing ahead with the release of the glasses, including showing them to its board, and so some kind of announcement may arrive soon.

However Mark Gurman, a Bloomberg reporter with a strong track record of leaks from within the company, said that the date in the trademark is “coincidence” and the result of a legal deadline. As such, it does not necessarily suggest that the announcement will come at WWDC.

“Maybe we’ll see it there, but the trademark application isn’t evidence of that,” he tweeted.

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