Apple Inc.

Andrew Sterian

Daniel D Sunshine

Andrew L Rosenberg

Christopher Schultz

Lan H Hoang

David M Kindlon

Chang Liu

Michael B Nussbaum

Steven J Keating

Mark J Beesley

Breton M Saunders

Peter W Mash

David A Bolt

Lia Mieko Uesato

Daniel A Podhajny

John Greer Elias

Storrs Townsend Hoen

Maurice Philip May

Zebinah P Masse

Anuranjini Pragada

Jean Hsiang-Chun Lu

An item may include fabric having insulating and conductive yarns or other strands of material. The conductive strands may form signal paths. Electrical components can be mounted to the fabric. Each electrical component may have an electrical device such as a semiconductor die that is mounted on an interposer substrate. The interposer may have contacts that are soldered to the conductive strands. A protective cover may encapsulate portions of the electrical component. To create a robust connection between the electrical component and the fabric, the conductive strands may be threaded through recesses in the electrical component. The recesses may be formed in the interposer or may be formed in a protective cover on the interposer. Conductive material in the recess may be used to electrically and/or mechanically connect the conductive strand to a bond pad in the recess. Thermoplastic material may be used to seal the solder joint.

Electrical components attached to fabric

This disclosure relates to a VR glove capable of measuring the movement of individual finger and thumb bones. The VR glove can include a plurality of inertial measurement units (IMUs) to track the movement of one or more finger and/or hand sections. The IMUs can include one or more motion sensors, such as a gyroscope and an accelerometer, for measuring the orientation, position, and velocity of objects (e.g., finger bones) that the IMU can be attached. An IMU can be located proximate to a finger (or thumb) bone and can measure the inertial motion of the corresponding bone. In some examples, the VR glove may include magnetometers to determine the direction of the geo-magnetic field. The VR glove can also include one or more other electronic components, such as a plurality of electrodes for sensing the heading, enabling capacitive touch, and/or contact sensing between finger tips.

IMU-based glove

An item such as a glove may be formed from knitted fabric. The knitted fabric may form fingers for the glove and may form pockets in the fingers. Sensors such as inertial measurement units may be placed in the pockets to measure movements of a user's fingers in the glove. The sensors may be coupled to control circuitry in the glove using conductive yarn in the knitted fabric. The conductive yarn may form courses in the knitted fabric that run along each finger. Haptic components and other electrical components may be coupled to the control circuitry using the conductive yarn. Electrodes may be formed from metal-coated strands of material in the fabric on the sides of each finger. The wireless or wired communications circuitry coupled to the control circuitry may be used to convey information such as user finger movement information to external equipment.

Knit data input glove

Growing community of inventors

Morgan Hill, CA, United States of America

Andrew Sterian