Apple Inc.

Aidan N Zimmerman

Ryan P Brooks

Kevin C Armendariz

Paul Xiaopeng Wang

Ivan S Maric

Brenton A Baugh

Mahmoud R Amini

Christopher R Pasma

Nathan J Bohney

Wingshan Wong

Phil M Hobson

Christopher J Stringer

Mikael M Silvanto

Daniel D Sunshine

Bradley Joseph Hamel

Liquan Tan

Markus Peter Diebel

Jason C Sauers

Kevin M Robinson

Qiliang Xu

Chia Chi Wu

Reza Nasiri Mahalati

Duncan Robert Kerr

Bartley K Andre

Richard P Howarth

Peter N Russell-Clarke

Martha Evans Hankey

Shota Aoyagi

Benjamin Andrew Shaffer

Molly J Anderson

Storrs Townsend Hoen

Forrest C Wang

Blake R Marshall

Jia Tao

Jan K Quijalvo

Jonathan P Ive

Eugene Antony Whang

Rico L Zorkendorfer

Daniele De Iuliis

Daniel J Coster

Jody R Akana

Jeremy D Bataillou

Julian Hoenig

Anthony Michael Ashcroft

Zheng Gao

Sung-Ho Tan

Daniel A Podhajny

Jeremy C Franklin

Michael D McBroom

Daniel Lynn McBroom

Wey-Jiun Lin

Kristina A Babiarz

Marinus Meursing

Sivesh Selvakumar

Maurice Philip May

Anna V Mirabella

Matthew Dean Rohrbach

Alex Joseph Lehmann

Florence W Ow

Gianpaolo Lisi

Hao Zhu

Jesse T Dybenko

John Schooley Camp

Joel N Ruscher

Arthur Stanley Brigham

Robert Scritzky

Zechariah D Feinberg

Qigen Ji

Samuel A Resnick

Nan Liu

Li-Quan Tan

Arash Naghib Lahouti

Madhusudanan Keezhveedi Sampath

Michael Y Cheung

Clement Tissandier

Julian Jaede

Marine C Bataille

Abidur Rahman Chowdhury

Clara Geneviève Marine Courtaigne

Fletcher R Rothkopf

Dinesh C Mathew

Nicolas Pedro Lylyk

Moises Hernandez Hernandez

Kainoa Kwon-Perez

Alexandre B Girard

Anne-Marie Heck

Keith J Hendren

Phillip Michael Hobson

Anthony Sagala Montevirgen

Jonah Alexander Harley

John C DiFonzo

Stephen E Dey

Bruce E Berg

Yoonhoo Jo

Muhammad F Hossain

Ritu Shah

Ming Yu

Shingo Yoneoka

Jonathan M Lee

Jesse Melrose

A user input system including a stylus and an electronic device. A user may manipulate the stylus across an input surface of the electronic device and the movement may be detected using axially-aligned electric fields generated by the stylus. The stylus may also include a force-sensitive structure that can be used to estimate a force applied to the electronic device by the stylus.

Stylus for electronic devices

A head-mountable device can include an optical module to present visual information to a user, a structure movably attached to the optical module, the structure defining a motion path of the optical module. The structure can include a housing defining an internal volume, and a battery disposed within the internal volume.

Battery assembly for head-mounted display

Display module for head-mounted display

An optical module for a head-mounted device is configured to present content to a user. The optical module includes an optical module housing assembly, a display assembly, and an eye camera. The optical module housing assembly has a first end and a second end. The lens is connected to the optical module housing assembly and positioned at the first end of the optical module housing assembly. The display assembly is connected to the optical module housing assembly and is positioned at the second end of the optical module housing assembly. The display assembly is configured to cause the content to be displayed to the user through the lens. The eye camera is connected to the optical module housing assembly and is positioned at the second end of the optical module housing assembly. The eye camera is configured to obtain images through the lens.

Optical module for head-mounted device

A head-mountable display device can include a structural frame, where a first mounting bracket can be coupled to a first side of the structural frame. In some examples, the first mounting structure can include a cantilever arm. A second mounting bracket can be coupled to a second side of the structural frame opposite the first side, where the second mounting bracket can include a mounting arm, a sensor coupled to the cantilever arm, and a display assemble slidably coupled to the mounting arm.

Head mountable display

A head-mounted device may include optical assemblies for presenting images to a user. The optical assemblies may each have a display for generating an image and a lens that presents the image to a corresponding eye box for viewing by a user. The optical assemblies may have lens barrels. Each lens barrel may have a first end to which a display is mounted and may have an opposing second end. A mount may be used to attach the lens to the second end of the lens barrel. The mount may have at least one flexure. The flexure may have a U-shaped cross-sectional shape. The mount may have a ring-shaped flexure that extends around a peripheral edge of the lens, may have flexure segments, or may have a set of three discrete flexures located at different positions along the edge of the lens.

Lens mounting systems with flexures coupled to the lens

A head-mountable display can include a structural frame defining a viewing opening, an optical module coupled to the structural frame. The optical module can include a display screen to project light through the viewing opening. The display screen can define an inner edge, an outer edge opposite the inner edge, a lower edge extending between the inner edge and the outer edge, and an upper edge opposite the lower edge. The optical module can include a first camera disposed adjacent the inner edge and closer to the lower edge than the upper edge, and a second camera disposed adjacent the lower edge and closer to the outer edge than the inner edge.

A head-mounted device may have a head-mounted housing. The housing may include a chassis with left and right openings that overlap respective left and right optical modules that present images eye boxes. Each optical module may have a lens and display that presents an image through the lens. The chassis may have an inner frame and outer frame. A middle portion of the chassis may form a stiffened nose bridge structure. Components in the housing such as a display, a fan housing, a heat sink layer, optical module guide rods, and a rear cover may span the width of the housing and may be attached to edge portions of the chassis, thereby forming a box-shaped structure that provides rigidity and helps prevent housing deformation.

Head-mounted electronic device

A head-mounted device may include optical assemblies for presenting images to a user. Actuators may be used to adjust the spacing between the optical assemblies to accommodate different interpupillary distances. Upon detection of a power-down event or drop event, the device may be placed into an impact-safe mode. During the safe mode, the optical assemblies may be moved to predetermined impact-safe positions, brakes such as optical guide rail brakes may be adjusted, cushioning springs may be deployed, clutches may be adjusted, and/or other safety mechanisms may be activated to help protect the optical assemblies or other sensitive components from damage.

Electronic devices with drop protection

A head-mounted device can effectively manage heat while also managing noise output in a manner that reduces the user's perception thereof. For example, a support member extending across a flow channel can provide multiple sections with different profiles and/or cross-sectional dimensions within the flow channel. Each of the profiles and/or cross-sectional dimensions can generate tonal noises at different frequencies, so that the tonal noises generated are distributed across multiple frequencies to mask such tonal noises among broadband noises that are generated by the head-mounted device. Such a support member can be moveably positioned within the flow channel and rigidly coupled to other components of the head-mounted device. Such a support member can also be used to draw heat away from other components of the head-mounted device to be dissipated by the flow of air within the flow channel.

Noise mitigation for head-mounted device

A head-mounted device may have optical modules that present images to a user's eyes. Each optical module may have a lens barrel with a display and a lens that presents an image from the display to a corresponding eye box. To accommodate users with different interpupillary distances, the optical modules may be slidably coupled to guide members such as guide rods. Actuators may slide the optical modules towards or away from each other along the guide rods. The guide rods may be formed from fiber-composite tubes with end caps that are fastened to a frame in the head-mounted device. The tubes may be partly or completely filled with cores to add strength. Low-friction coatings such as metal coatings may be formed on the fiber-composite tubes and the corresponding inner surfaces of the optical module structures that slidably engage the fiber-composite tubes.

Electronic devices with optical module positioning systems

A head mountable display can include a structural frame, an optical bracket coupled to the structural frame, an optical assembly adjustably secured to the optical bracket, the optical assembly including a display screen, and a stop mechanism extending from the structural frame. The optical assembly can move back-and-forth between the optical bracket and the stop.

A keyboard may be provided that has keys overlapped by a touch sensor. The keyboard may have key sensor circuitry for monitoring switching in the keys for key press input. The keyboard may also have touch sensor circuitry such as capacitive touch sensor circuitry that monitors capacitive electrodes in the touch sensor for touch sensor input such as multitouch gesture input. The keyboard may include an outer layer of fabric that overlaps the keys. The fabric may have openings that are arranged to form alphanumeric characters. Light sources may emit light that passes through the openings and illuminates the alphanumeric characters. The touch sensor may have signal lines that are not visible through the openings. The signal lines may be transparent, may be covered by a diffuser, or may circumvent the openings so that they do not overlap.

Keyboard with touch sensor and illumination

Accessory devices for portable electronic devices are described. An exemplary accessory device can include a first segment coupled to a second segment via a first hinge assembly. The accessory can include a third segment coupled to the second segment via a second hinge assembly such that the second segment is positioned between the first and third segments. The accessory device can be arranged between a closed configuration and a configuration of a stand that supports the portable electronic device at a viewing angle. At the support configuration, the second segment can be at an acute angle relative to the first segment to shift the center of gravity of the system towards the middle. The third segment can be suspended above the first segment and be inclined outwards. The hinge assemblies of the system can be sufficiently stiff to withstand the weight of the electronic device.

Accessories for portable electronic devices

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Aidan N Zimmerman