Get the newsletter
Qualcomm · AR / VR · Filed Sep 3, 2025 · USPTO published Jun 11, 2026 · Jun 11 release

Qualcomm Patents AR Glasses That Show Other People Where You're Looking

One of the stranger problems with AR and VR headsets is that they hide your eyes — making you look like a blank-faced robot to everyone around you. Qualcomm's new patent tries to fix that by tracking your eyes and projecting an image of them outward for others to see.

By · Updated · 3 min read

Qualcomm Patent: AR Glasses That Track and Display Your Eyes, figure from US 2026/0161237 A1
Figure from the official USPTO publication.
Publication number
US 2026/0161237 A1(US20260161237A1)
Applicant
QUALCOMM Incorporated
Filed · Published
Sep 3, 2025 · Jun 11, 2026
Inventors
Meron GRIBETZ, W. Steve MANN
Status when we published
Examiner raised objections; the company can respond
Document
20 claims
US classification
345/156
Examiner
SASINOWSKI, ANDREW (Art Unit 2625)
Parent application
Continuation of 18/818,274 (filed Aug 28, 2024)(18818274)

What Qualcomm's eye-projecting AR glasses actually do

Imagine wearing a pair of AR glasses that show you digital overlays on the real world — directions, notifications, whatever — while the people standing across from you see only two dark lenses where your eyes should be. It's socially awkward at best, and at worst it makes normal conversation feel unnatural because nobody can tell where you're looking.

Qualcomm's patent describes glasses that solve this with two separate screens. One screen faces you, showing your virtual content as usual. A second screen faces outward, displaying a real-time image of your actual eyes — updated continuously based on where your eyes are moving inside the headset.

The result: someone talking to you would see something that looks like your eyes, reacting and moving naturally, even though you're wearing a computer on your face. It's a bid to make AR wearables feel less isolating in social situations.

How the eye-tracking and dual-display system works

The patent describes a head-mounted device — essentially AR glasses or a visor — with two displays and an eye-tracking system working together.

  • An inward-facing display shows the wearer virtual content layered over their view of the real world (standard AR behavior).
  • An eye-tracking system continuously monitors where the wearer's eyes are pointing and how they're moving.
  • An outward-facing display takes that eye-tracking data and renders a corresponding image of the user's eyes, so bystanders see something resembling natural eye contact.
  • The system also uses the eye-tracking data to update what the wearer sees — so the virtual scene adjusts based on gaze direction.

The term used in the patent — "extramissive" — refers to projecting outward (as opposed to just receiving light inward). The broader concept, called "augmediated reality" (a blend of augmented and mediated reality), was coined by inventor Steve Mann and describes systems where digital content is woven into, not just overlaid on, the physical world.

At its core, this is a dual-pipeline display system: one pipeline for the wearer, one pipeline for the world around the wearer.

What this means for social presence in AR headsets

The "hidden eyes" problem is one of the biggest social hurdles for mainstream AR and VR adoption. Meta, Apple, and others have all acknowledged it — Apple's Vision Pro even tried to address it with its "EyeSight" feature, which projects an outward image of the wearer's eyes. Qualcomm's patent covers similar ground and, given that Qualcomm makes the chips inside most of the world's AR headsets (including Meta's Quest line), this filing could influence how future partner devices are designed at the hardware level.

For you as a potential wearer, this matters because it's the difference between a device that isolates you from the people around you and one that lets you stay socially present. That distinction may seem minor, but it's likely one of the reasons most people still won't wear a headset in public.

Source: US 2026/0161237 A1 at the USPTO (PDF). Full patent text and figures are in the official publication.

Get our take in your Top Stories

Liked this breakdown? Add Patentlyze as a preferred source on Google, and our plain-English take shows up more often in your Top Stories the next time Qualcomm patent news breaks.

Add Patentlyze on Google One click.
There are more where this came from

We read every patent application Big Tech publishes and send you the ones worth knowing. Plain English, free, every week.

More from Qualcomm

All 624 Qualcomm patents →

More in AR / VR

All 690 AR / VR patents →