The U.S. Patent Office has awarded Apple a patent for a device that would allow an iPhone to serve as the display for a portable virtual reality headset - a concept similar to Samsung's Gear VR device which went on sale in S. Korea today. The U.S. Patent No. 8,957,835 is entitled "Head-Mounted Display Apparatus for Retaining a Portable Electronic Device with Display." It describes
head-mounted display systems and methods of operation that allow users to couple and decouple a portable electronic device such as a handheld portable electronic device with a separate head-mounted device (e.g., temporarily integrates the separate devices into a single unit).

The portable electronic may be physically coupled to the head-mounted device such that the portable electronic device can be worn on the user's head, the patent's description reads. "The portable electronic device may be operatively coupled to the head-mounted device such that the portable electronic device and head mounted device can communicate and operate with one another. Each device may be allowed to extend its features and/or services to the other device for the purpose of enhancing, increasing and/or eliminating redundant functions between the head-mounted device and the portable electronic device."

Illustrations accompanying the patent show a new head-mounted hardware accessory that would have an iPhone inserted into it.

Apple's concept also includes a remote control that the user could keep in their hand, allowing them to manipulate the content on the screen.

Despite the newly awarded patent, the company has yet to signal it has any proprietary virtual reality hardware or software in the works.

The iPhone maker first filed for the invention in September of 2008.

The invention from Apple is very similar to the Gear VR launched by Samsung late last year. Samsung's Gear VR uses the company's Galaxy Note 4 smartphone to power a head-worn virtual reality accessory.