Apple Inc.

Kevin M Robinson

Houtan R Farahani

Mikael M Silvanto

Ari P Miller

Bradley Joseph Hamel

Dinesh C Mathew

Robert Y Cao

Robert J Lockwood

Keith J Hendren

Bartley K Andre

Bryan W Posner

Simon J Trivett

Christopher J Stringer

Brett W Degner

Adam T Garelli

David H Narajowski

Aidan N Zimmerman

Edward J Cooper

Zheng Gao

Craig C Leong

Laura M DeForest

Kristopher P Laurent

Bruce E Berg

Stephen Vincent Jayanathan

Matthew William Blum

Christoph Matthias Pistor

Kevin M Keeler

Ian A Guy

Jacob Seth Kononiuk

Mehrdad Hooshmand

Yi-Chen Kuo

Markus Peter Diebel

Sung-Ho Tan

John Raff

Michael D McBroom

Daniel Lynn McBroom

Wey-Jiun Lin

Simon R Lancaster-Larocque

Matthew Theobald

Simon Regis Louis Lancaster-Larocque

William A Counts

Antonio Clarke

Scott J Krahn

Francesco Ferretti

Genie Kim

Chien-Tsun Chen

Gurshan Deol

Prabhu Sathyamurthy

Jonathan P Ive

Duncan Robert Kerr

Richard P Howarth

Eugene Antony Whang

Peter N Russell-Clarke

Martha Evans Hankey

Rico L Zorkendorfer

Daniele De Iuliis

Daniel J Coster

Jody R Akana

Matthew Dean Rohrbach

Jeremy D Bataillou

Julian Hoenig

Shota Aoyagi

Benjamin Andrew Shaffer

Anthony Michael Ashcroft

Justin Derry Crosby

Daniel K Boothe

Ryan J Mihelich

Arthur Stanley Brigham

Karan Bir

Daniel A Podhajny

Hoon Sik Kim

Daniel D Sunshine

Jerzy S Guterman

George Tziviskos

Qiliang Xu

James Alexander Stryker

Shingo Yoneoka

Joel D Barrera

Tatsuya Sano

Terry C Lam

Xiaonan Wen

Didio V Gomes

Daniel David Hershey

Riley E Brandt

Daniel A Bergvall

Mariel L Lanas

Anton Talalayev

Simon Regis Louis Lancaster-larocque

Matthew S Theobald

Jacob S Kononiuk

Support systems and stands for electronic devices include tilt hinges, lift arms, and their component parts. Some tilt hinges include assemblies for guiding and retaining bars or protrusions into preferred positioning within receiver openings to unify the parts, particularly as they move, and to reduce wobble or slop in the joints. Lift arms provide simplified and low-cost guidance and counterbalance mechanisms for controlling movement of the electronic device relative to the base of a stand. In some cases, the lift arms have sheaths to help protect or cover mechanisms while allowing additional space for the mechanisms within the lift arm. Other interconnection systems hide and protect a connector interface between the stand and the electronic device within a housing until unlocked and the connector is moved into an exposed position. These systems improve efficiency, comfort, ergonomics, accessibility, and user satisfaction of the electronic devices and their supports.

Reconfigurable stand ecosystem

An electronic device includes an enclosure formed of a plurality of layers cooperating to define an interior volume. The enclosure includes a first layer formed of a first material and defining a user input surface of the enclosure and a first portion of a side surface of the enclosure. The enclosure also includes a second layer, formed of a second material different from the first material, positioned below the first layer and defining a second portion of the side surface of the enclosure. The enclosure also includes a third layer, formed of a third material different from the first and second materials, positioned below the second layer and defining a bottom surface of the enclosure and a third portion of the side surface of the enclosure.

Multi-part device enclosure

A foldable display device may have housing portions coupled by a hinge. The hinge may have a series of interconnected links. The links may be formed from interdigitated fingers in a friction clutch. The fingers or other portions of the links may be provided with crescent-shaped slots that receive pins. During folding of the device, the pins may slide along the crescent-shaped slots, thereby ensuring that adjacent links rotate relative to each other about a rotation axis that lies outside of the hinge and within a flexible display panel. Links may also be formed from link members with curved mating bearing surfaces that slide relative to each other as adjacent links are rotated relative to each other. A housing rotation synchronization mechanism may be formed using a set of gears that extends between the first and second housing portions.

Hinges for folding display devices

Cable assemblies for providing electrical communication between hinged sections of an electronic device are described. The cable assemblies can include a cover that covers one or more cables that run through a hinge region of the electronic device. The cable and cover can be drawn over a mandrel of the hinge region. The cover and the portions of the mandrel can be visible to a user at the hinge region of the electronic device. The cover can be sufficiently rigid to guide a path of the cable and protect the cable from bending beyond a prescribed angle during rotation of the electronic device at the hinge region. The cover can also be sufficiently rigid to prevent ceasing or folding of the cover and the cable during rotation of the electronic device at the hinge region.

Mandrel flex circuit routing

An electronic device has a housing that forms an exterior surface of the electronic device. An array of actuators is coupled to the housing and is operable to move the housing in order to produce sound waves and/or haptic output via the exterior surface. In this way, less space is consumed by acoustic and haptic devices as compared to similar conventional devices, thereby allowing for thinner electronic devices and/or room for other components within the housing. The actuators may be operable to move different regions of the housing to produce sound waves and/or haptic output within different frequency ranges.

Electronic device with actuators for producing haptic and audio output along a device housing

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

An accessory device for an electronic device is disclosed. The accessory device includes multiple sections, with one section holding the electronic device, and another section having an input mechanism, such as a keyboard. The accessory device includes a hinge assembly that allows relative movement of the sections with respect each other. An additional hinge assembly is integrated with the section carrying the electronic device, and provides additional flexibility and range of motion of the section, thereby allowing a user to position the electronic device at multiple different angles relative to the section carrying the input mechanism. Also, each hinge assembly may include multiple roller and spacer elements, as well as a retention structure passing through each roller element and spacer element. The retention structure can provide tension to increase the frictional force between the roller and spacer elements, and/or provide counterbalance to offset the weight of the electronic device.

Hinges for electronic devices and accessory devices

Key assemblies having a foldable stabilizer are disclosed. The stabilizer can be positioned under a keycap to help guide the keycap and limit rotation or movement when the key is pressed. The stabilizer can have a pointed-star shape with multiple folding axes and can have multiple points of connection or linkage to the keycap or other surrounding components. The stabilizer can unfold or flatten as the keycap is pressed and can fold as the keycap is raised.

Folded key stabilizer

A notebook computer may include a display portion, a base portion, a hinge mechanism movably coupling the display portion to the base portion, an optical sensing system configured to capture an image of an object, an actuation system comprising a shape-memory alloy member coupled to the base portion and the display portion and configured to move the display portion relative to the base portion, and a processing system. The processing system may be configured to determine a target position for the display portion based at least in part on a location of the object in the image and cause the actuation system to actuate the hinge mechanism to move the display portion, relative to the base portion, from an initial position to the target position.

Self-actuating hinge mechanism for electronic device

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Kevin M Robinson