Apple Inc.

Other

Erik G De Jong

Fletcher R Rothkopf

Colin M Ely

Sameer Pandya

Michael Benjamin Wittenberg

Trevor J Ness

Anna-Katrina Shedletsky

Tyler S Bushnell

Steven P Cardinali

Siwen Yong

Steven James Martisauskas

Serhan O Isikman

Andrzej T Baranski

Jayesh Nath

Rex Tyler Ehman

Steven C Roach

Qingxiang Li

Adam Thomas Clavelle

Yiren Wang

Yuehui Ouyang

Makiko K Brzezinski

Miroslav Samardzija

Todd K Whitehurst

Stephen Brian Lynch

Paul Stephen Drzaic

Robert W Schlub

Ruben Caballero

Jean-Pierre Simon Guillou

Dale N Memering

Samuel Bruce Weiss

Mario Martinis

James G Horiuchi

Mattia Pascolini

Erik L Wang

Christopher S Graham

Carlo Di Nallo

Joseph Hakim

Ryan C Perkins

Christopher Matthew Werner

Jason C Sauers

Lijun Zhang

Osamu Yabe

Xinping Zeng

Tang Yew Tan

Daniel William Jarvis

Yi Jiang

Martin Melcher

William C Lukens

Zhipeng Zhang

Xu Han

Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima

Steven Porter Hotelling

Richard Hung Minh Dinh

David A Pakula

Emery Artemus Sanford

Brian Quentin Huppi

Teodor Dabov

Sawyer Isaac Cohen

Peter W Richards

Storrs Townsend Hoen

Anthony Sagala Montevirgen

Lucy Elizabeth Browning

Jonah Alexander Harley

Ian A Spraggs

Martin Paul Grunthaner

Omar Sze Leung

Christopher D Jones

Brad G Boozer

Maegan K Spencer

Jing Jing Zhang

Lee E Hooton

Marwan Rammah

Dhaval N Shah

Prashanth S Holenarsipur

Ueyn L Block

Paul Choiniere

Miguel C Christophy

Yi Qiao

Rasamy Phouthavong

David Andrew Doyle

Jia Liu

Anthony Michael Ashcroft

Benjamin J Pope

Jiang Zhu

David I Nazzaro

Hung A Pham

Brad W Simeral

Michael Kane Pilliod

Wey-Jiun Lin

Stephen E Dey

Benjamin J Kallman

Tyler Robin Kakuda

Michael J Brown

Christopher R Pasma

Anil K Kandangath

Christopher T Cheng

Benjamin G Jackson

Tyson Benner Manullang

David M Pelletier

David Glen Havskjold

An electronic device may include a display system and control circuitry. The user's environment may be presented on the display system. The environment on the display system may be a captured image of the environment, may be the actual real world viewed through an optical combiner, or may be a completely virtual image representing the environment. The control circuitry may gather information about external electronic devices in the user's environment, including determining a type and location of each external electronic device and a status of wireless communications links between external electronic devices. The display system may overlay computer-generated display elements onto the user's environment to indicate the status of wireless communications links between the external electronic devices. In response to touch or gesture input, the control circuitry may send control signals to the external electronic devices to establish or break wireless communications links between external electronic devices.

Electronic device with intuitive control interface

An electronic device may have a display. A display cover layer and a transparent inner display member may overlap a display pixel layer. The display pixel layer may have an array of display pixels for displaying images for a user. A touch sensor layer may be interposed between the display pixel layer and the transparent display member. A ferromagnetic shielding layer may be mounted below the display pixel layer. A flexible printed circuit containing coils of metal signal lines that form a near-field communications loop antenna may be interposed between the ferromagnetic shielding layer and the display pixel layer. A non-near-field antenna such as an inverted-F antenna may have a resonating element mounted on an inner surface of the display cover layer. The resonating element may be interposed between the transparent display member and the display cover layer.

Electronic device with near-field antenna operating through display

A wearable electronic device includes a body, a housing component, a band operable to attach the body to a body part of a user, and a force sensor coupled to the housing component. The force sensor is operable to produce a force signal based on a force exerted between the body part of the user and the housing component. A processing unit of the wearable electronic device receives the force signal from the force sensor and determines the force exerted on the housing component based thereon. The processing unit may use that force to determine a tightness of the band, determine health information for the user, adjust determined force exerted on a cover glass, and/or to perform various other actions.

Sensing contact force related to user wearing an electronic device

An electronic device may have a display mounted in a housing. The display may have a display panel with an array of pixels on a flexible substrate. A display cover layer may overlap the display panel. The flexible substrate may have a protruding portion that forms a tail. The tail may be coupled to a printed circuit on which a display driver integrated circuit and/or other circuitry is mounted. When the display is mounted in the housing, the tail may be bent back on itself to create a bend. The bend may be embedded in a molded polymer member. The molded polymer member may be attached to the housing with adhesive and may directly contact an inner surface of the display cover layer.

Electronic devices with molded display mounting structures

An electronic device may include a display, a cover layer overlapping the display, and a housing have housing sidewalls. An encapsulant material may surround at least part of the display and may be used to couple the cover layer to the housing sidewalls. A rigid outer material having a higher elastic modulus than the encapsulant material may also be used to couple the cover layer to the housing sidewalls. The rigid outer material may be a molded material that surrounds an outer perimeter of the encapsulant, or the rigid outer material may be a metal or plastic frame member having a C-shaped cross-section or other geometry. The display may overlap the housing sidewall. The encapsulant may absorb mechanical stresses on the cover layer to protect the display, whereas the rigid outer material may transfer mechanical stresses on the cover layer to the housing.

Electronic devices with display support structures

Wearable electronic devices, such as smart watches, can be provided with a band for securing the device to a wearer. The device and the band can include near-field communications (NFC) components that allow the device to uniquely identify the band. Device operations such as the color, theme, or content displayed on the device can be based, in part, on the identification of a particular band. The band may include a miniature NFC tag in an attachment portion of the band that is configured to be received in a recess in a housing of the device. An NFC module for reading the NFC tag can be provided within the recess of the housing, so that the attachment portion of the band and the recess in the device housing position and align the NFC tag with the NFC module when the band is attached to the device.

Band identifier system for wearable devices

An electronic watch may include a housing defining a side wall having a through-hole and a crown assembly including an actuation member. The actuation member may include a crown shaft extending through the through-hole and having an exterior portion defining an input surface and a crown ring coupled to the exterior portion of the crown shaft and electrically isolated from the crown shaft. The crown assembly may further include an optical encoder component attached to the actuation member and defining a group of optical features. The electronic watch may further include an optical detector configured to detect rotation of the crown assembly by detecting motion of the group of optical features and an electrocardiograph sensor comprising a sensing component. The sensing component may be conductively coupled to the actuation member via a conductive path at least partially defined by the crown shaft.

Crown assembly for an electronic watch

Device localization (e.g., ultra-wideband device localization) may be used to provide coordinated outputs and/or receive coordinated inputs using multiple devices. Providing coordinated outputs may include providing partial outputs using multiple devices, modifying an output of a device based on its position and/or orientation relative to another device, and the like. In some cases, each device of a set of multiple devices may provide a partial output, which combines with partial outputs of the remaining devices to produce a coordinated output.

Electronic system for producing a coordinated output using wireless localization of multiple portable electronic devices

An electronic device may have image transport layer material such as coherent fiber bundle material or Anderson localization material. The image transport layer material may overlap optical components. Optical sensor components can emit and/or detect light passing through the image transport layer material. Optical components such as light-emitting diodes may emit light through image transport layers. An image from a display may pass through an image transport layer. Infrared light-emitting diodes, infrared photodetectors, and/or other optical sensor components may be used to form a two-dimensional optical touch sensor that is configured to gather touch input from an external object such as a finger of a user. The optical touch sensor may operate through an image transport layer.

Electronic devices with optical sensor isolation

An electronic device, such as a watch, has an input mechanism, such as a crown, that may receive translational inputs, rotational inputs, and/or touch inputs. Inputs received at the crown may result in changes in operation of the electronic device and/or outputs, such as graphical outputs, provided by the electronic device. In various embodiments, the crown includes a retainer that couples an outer crown body to an inner crown body and secures an isolator between the outer crown body and the inner crown body. The embodiments of the crown described herein provide a simple and robust input mechanism for receiving rotational, translational, and touch inputs as described above, while simplifying part alignment, ensuring consistent rotation, and allowing for efficient manufacturing.

Watch crown having a conductive surface

A portable or wearable electronic device can include a device housing defining an internal volume, and an electronic component disposed in the internal volume. The electronic component can be an input component and can have a component housing. The electronic device can also include an antenna feed assembly disposed in the internal volume. The antenna feed assembly can include a conductive grounding component electrically connected to the component housing and the device housing, and an antenna feed component electrically connected to the grounding component and disposed adjacent to the component housing. The conductive grounding component can surround a first major surface and a second major surface of the component housing.

Electronic device

A wearable electronic device may include a display and a housing. The housing may include a chassis defining a first portion of a rear exterior surface of the wearable electronic device, a first portion of a side exterior surface of the wearable electronic device, and an internal wall. The housing may also include a glass shell defining a front wall positioned over the display and defining a front exterior surface of the wearable electronic device and a side wall extending from the front wall and overlapping the internal wall, the side wall defining a second portion of the side exterior surface of the wearable electronic device. The wearable electronic device may also include a touch sensing system within the housing and configured to detect a touch input applied to the front exterior surface of the wearable electronic device.

Wearable electronic device with glass shell

A connectible component is connected to a housing. A sensor of the housing is utilized to detect an identity element of the at connectible component. The connectible component is identified utilizing the at least one sensor. In some implementations, identification of the connectible component may identify whether or not a connectible component is connected to the housing. In other implementations, identification of the connectible component may identify the type of connectible component that is connected. In such implementations, the housing may house an electronic device and the electronic device may be configured based on the type of connectible component that is connected.

Connectible component identification

An electronic device is provided with a display and a light sensor that receives light that passes through the display. The display includes features that increase the amount of light that passes through the display. The features may be translucency enhancement features that allow light to pass directly through the display onto a light sensor mounted behind the display or may include a light-guiding layer that guides light through the display onto a light sensor mounted along an edge of the display. The translucency enhancement features may be formed in a reflector layer or an electrode layer for the display. The translucency enhancement features may include microperforations in a reflector layer of the display, a light-filtering reflector layer of the display, or a reflector layer of the display that passes a portion of the light and reflects an additional portion of the light.

Electronic devices with light sensors and displays

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Erik G De Jong