Apple Inc.

Kathryn P Crews

Daniel A Podhajny

Daniel D Sunshine

David M Kindlon

Yohji Hamada

Paul Stephen Drzaic

Yung-Yu Hsu

Hoon Sik Kim

Joseph Benjamin Walker

Kirk M Mayer

John Arthur Maasberg

Storrs Townsend Hoen

Steven J Keating

Matthew Dean Rohrbach

Jahan C Minoo

Michael S Nashner

Samuel Gilkison Smith

David W Lum

Jonathan Robert Peterson

Andrew David Lauder

Kathleen A Bergeron

Benjamin J Grena

John J Baker

Ryan David Shelby

Andrew Nelthropp Lauder

Kevin M Kenney

Santhana Krishnan Balaji

Peter F Coxeter

Linda D Benavente-Notaro

Mingjing Ha

Tirshathah A Hunter

Shubham A Gandhi

Robert Michael Merritt

Yiwei Tao

Crenshaw Whitley

Shantanu R Ranade

Christopher I Edwards

Nicholas G L Merz

Yoji Hamada

Andrew L Rosenberg

Jared Sartee

Yue Chen

Didio V Gomes

Jared A Sartee

Lia Mieko Uesato

J Stephen Smith

Michael Baumann

Franck Robin

Felix Binder

Charlotte M Baravian

James C Whitley

Martin Latta

Ulrich Schläpfer

Helen Wächter Fischer

Bertram Wendisch

Kyle L Chatham

Benjamin Guild

Ulrich SCHLÄPFER

Joseph M Walker

Daniel A Podhajnyy

A touch-sensitive textile device that is configured to detect the occurrence of a touch, the location of a touch, and/or the force of a touch on the touch-sensitive textile device. In some embodiments, the touch-sensitive textile device includes a first set of conductive threads oriented along a first direction, and a second set of conductive threads interwoven with the first set of conductive threads and oriented along a second direction. The device may also include a sensing circuit that is operatively coupled to the first and second set of conductive threads. The sensing circuit may be configured to apply a drive signal to the first and second set of conductive threads. The sensing circuit may also be configured to detect a touch or near touch based on a variation in an electrical measurement using the first or second set of conductive threads.

Fabric sensing device

An electronic device such as a wrist band may include a strip of fabric that wraps around a longitudinal axis. A one-dimensional array of light sources may be embedded in the strip of fabric and may emit light parallel to the longitudinal axis to produce edge illumination along an edge of the strip of fabric. Optical structures such as light-diffusing strands, light-diffusing polymer structures, and/or light guides may be located between the light sources and the edge of the strip of fabric to help diffuse light and/or guide light to the edge of the strip of fabric. Light-reflecting layers may be formed on inner surfaces of the fabric. Control circuitry may control the light sources to produce the edge illumination in response to an event occurring on an external electronic device such as a notification on an external display.

Electronic devices with edge illuminators

A watch band for a smart watch can secure the smart watch to the user's wrist. The watch band can include a continuous loop of woven material to conform around the user's wrist. The watch band can further include an encasement formed from a rigid material to receive the smart watch. The encasement can protect the smart watch during activities. The watch band can include a retention portion formed from a transparent material to receive the smart watch. The watch band can also include light emitted diodes to increase visibility.

Watch band for a smart watch

Electrical components may have plastic packages. Contacts may be formed on exterior surfaces of the plastic packages. A plastic package for an electrical component may have an elongated shape that extends along a longitudinal axis. A first groove may run parallel to the longitudinal axis on a lower surface of the plastic package. A second groove may run perpendicular to the first groove on an opposing upper surface of the plastic package. The electrical components may be coupled to fibers in a fabric such as a woven fabric. A first solder connection may be formed between the first groove and a first fiber such as a weft fiber. A second solder connection may be formed between the second groove and a second fiber such as a warp fiber.

Fabric with embedded electrical components

A fabric-based item may include a housing that is covered in fabric. Areas of the fabric may overlap input circuitry such as button switches, touch sensors, force sensors, proximity sensors, and other sensing circuitry and may overlap other components such as light-emitting components and haptic output devices. The fabric-based item may include control circuitry that gathers user input from the input circuitry and wireless communications circuitry that the control circuitry uses to transmit remote control commands and other wireless signals in response to information from the input circuitry. The fabric-based item may have a weight that is located in the housing to orient the housing in a desired direction when the housing rests on a surface. A movable weight may tilt the housing in response to proximity sensor signals or other input. Portions of the fabric may overlap light-emitting components and optical fiber configured to emit light.

Fabric control device

Systems of the present disclosure can provide a watch band that provide a marker pattern to a computer-generated reality device. The watch band can include structures or features that provide an identifiable marker pattern to the computer-generated reality device. The structures or features that provide the marker pattern can be invisible or imperceptible to the user. Structures or features of the watch band can include infrared reflective thread, visually obscured markers, or lenticular lens assemblies.

Watch band with markers

A fabric-based item may include fabric layers and other layers of material. An array of electrical components may be mounted in the fabric-based item. The electrical components may be mounted to a support structure such as a flexible printed circuit. The flexible printed circuit may have a mesh shape formed from an array of openings. Serpentine flexible printed circuit segments may extend between the openings. The electrical components may be light-emitting diodes or other electrical devices. Polymer with light-scattering particles or other materials may cover the electrical components. The flexible printed circuit may be laminated between fabric layers or other layers of material in the fabric-based item.

Fabric-based items with electrical component arrays

Interlacing equipment may be used to form fabric and to create a gap in the fabric. The fabric may include one or more conductive strands. An insertion tool may be used to align an electrical component with the conductive strands during interlacing operations. A soldering tool may be used to remove insulation from the conductive strands to expose conductive segments on the conductive strands. The soldering tool may be used to solder the conductive segments to the electrical component. The solder connections may be located in grooves in the electrical component. An encapsulation tool may dispense encapsulation material in the grooves to encapsulate the solder connections. After the electrical component is electrically connected to the conductive strands, the insertion tool may position and release the electrical component in the gap. A component retention tool may temporarily be used to retain the electrical component in the gap as interlacing operations continue.

Fabric with electrical components

A fabric-based item may include a housing that is covered in fabric. Areas of the fabric may overlap input circuitry such as button switches, touch sensors, force sensors, proximity sensors, and other sensing circuitry and may overlap other components such as light-emitting components and haptic output devices. The fabric-based item may include control circuitry that gathers user input from the input circuitry and wireless communications circuitry that the control circuitry uses to transmit remote control commands and other wireless signals in response information from the input circuitry. The fabric-based item may have a weight that is located in the housing to orient the housing in a desired direction when the housing rests on a surface. A movable weight may tilt the housing in response to proximity sensor signals or other input. Portions of the fabric may overlap light-emitting components and optical fiber configured to emit light.

An electronic device such as a voice-controlled speaker device may have a housing characterized by a vertical longitudinal axis. A flexible substrate such as a flexible mesh substrate with component support regions coupled by flexible segments may be wrapped around the housing and the vertical axis. The housing may have surface regions with compound curvature. The flexible substrate may conform to the regions with compound curvature. A fabric spacer layer may be interposed between the flexible substrate and the housing. Electrical components such as input-output devices may be mounted to the component support regions. A display may be formed from an array of light-emitting devices that are mounted on respective component support regions. Light from the light-emitting devices may pass through the fabric spacer layer toward the housing and back out away from the housing. An outer fabric layer may cover the mesh.

Fabric-covered electronic device

An electronic device such as a pair of headphones may be provided with left and right speakers for playing audio to a user. Control circuitry in the electronic device may play audio through the speakers in an unreversed configuration in which left channel audio is played through a first of the speakers that is adjacent to a left ear of the user and right channel audio is played through a second of the speakers that is adjacent to a right ear of the user or a reversed configuration in which these channel assignments are reversed. The headphones may have ear cups that house the speakers. Capacitive touch sensors, force sensors, and other sensors on the ear cups may measure ear shapes and finger grip positions on the ear cups to determine whether to operate in the unreversed or reversed configuration. Sensors may gather gestures and other user touch input.

Electronic devices with orientation sensing

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Menlo Park, CA, United States of America

Kathryn P Crews