• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 2, 2010

Yahoo updated a U.S. patent last week that merges virtual with physical world objects. SEO by the Sea founder Bill Slawski points to a Yahoo patent called "Reconfiguring Reality Using A Reality Overlay device."

U.S. Patent Application No. 20100103075 assigned to Yahoo describes virtual and physical things displayed in a wearable device worn by people. It appears that location would play a role, too. The patent describes "information related to an environment proximate to the wearable device is determined." The virtual image seen through the glasses would create an overlay to what the person sees in reality. An image is generated based on "information as a non-transparent region of a lens of the wearable device," enabling the virtual image to appear as if it was present.

An apple engraved on the arm of the virtual goggles near the lens bears a striking resemblance to the apple logo on iPads, iPods and Apple laptops. "I don't know if that has any significance at all, or if the creator of the image was having fun with the readers of the patent filing," Slawski writes.

The patent describes several examples for use, such as a simulator for pilots and other training, goggles for a Wii game to support simulated environments in stadiums and bowling alleys, and advertisements on real world objects during games, such as football or hockey.

Some might think the patent puts Yahoo out of its element, but the Sunnyvale, Calif. company has a video game site and often supports content from sporting events. Slawski also calls attention to a similar virtual reality patent filed by Yahoo last year that describes advertising on a virtual billboard. It describes how advertisers could display ads to someone wearing goggles. The virtual billboards could be sent automatically to handheld Internet-enabled devices when they are within a certain distance from objects advertised.