Apple Inc.

Khadijeh Bayat

Matthew Emanuel Last

Clarisse Mazuir

Ryan Joseph Garrone

Budhadipta Dan

Gregory A Cohoon

Jack E Graves

Cheng Kai Chen

Zhibing Ge

Avery P Yuen

John Z Zhong

Wei Chen

Jun Qi

James R Wilson

Martin Melcher

Hyungryul J Choi

David Andrew Doyle

Xianwei Zhao

Hossein Nemati

Yang Li

Chaohao Wang

Ibuki Kamei

Xiaokai Li

Yoshitaka Matsui

Hienminh Huu Le

Alex H Pai

Daisuke Nozu

Isaac Wing-Tak Chan

Shih-Wei Chang

Runyu Zhang

Rasmi R Das

Di Fan

Naomi Sugawara

A processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations including receiving a location; in response to determining that the location is known, setting a first tinting level of a surface; and in response to determining that the location is unknown, setting a second tinting level of the surface that differs from the first tinting level.

System and method for dynamic privacy and window tinting

Aspects of the present disclosure involve a transparent structure. The structure may include at least one light source, a transparent light-carrying guide layer optically coupled with the at least one light source. The structure may include refractive layers where a light absorbing feature is operably associated with the light-carrying guide layer to absorb any light not internally reflected in the light guide layer, at least adjacent the light source.

Transparent structure with controllable lighting

An electronic device such as a head-mounted device may have a display that displays computer-generated content for a user. The head-mounted device may have an optical system that directs the computer-generated content towards eye boxes for viewing by a user. The optical system may include a spatially addressable adjustable optical component. The adjustable optical component may have first and second electrodes and an electrically adjustable material between the first and second electrodes. The electrically adjustable material may include a transparent conductive material such as indium tin oxide that includes a pattern of segmented trenches configured to provide the transparent conductive material with electrical anisotropy. Contacts may be coupled to the transparent conductive material. Control circuitry can adjust the electrically adjustable material to form a spatially addressable light modulator or adjustable lens.

Display system with localized optical adjustments

An electronic device may have transparent housing structures such as walls formed of glass or sapphire. Housing structures such as transparent housing structures may have a colored coating. The colored coating may include an absorptive layer and a metal layer. The coating may exhibit a color that can be adjusted by adjusting the thickness of the thin absorptive layer. A colored layer such as a layer of colored polymer may be incorporated into the colored coating to further adjust the color of the coating. The colored coating may be formed on an inner or outer housing structure surface. The surface may have a texture to provide the coating with a matte appearance. When formed on an outer surface, a diamond-like carbon layer may protect the colored coating. When formed on an inner surface, a passivation layer may be used to prevent oxidation of the metal layer.

Colored coatings for electronic devices

Transparent conductors including a silver layer with high transparency and low sheet resistance are described. In some examples, the silver layer can be located between two transparent conductive oxide layers. The transparent conductor can further include additional transparent conductive oxide layers, optical layers, and/or additional conductive layers (e.g., layers including ITO or another fully or partially transparent conductive material), for example. In some examples, transparent conductors including a silver layer can be included in a touch screen device. For example, one or more shielding layers or one or more touch electrodes can include transparent conductors with a silver layer. In some examples, the silver layer can improve transparency, sheet resistance, and/or infrared reflection characteristics of the transparent conductor.

Touch screen with transparent electrode structure

A system such as a vehicle may have windows. A window may be provided with a light modular or other active layer having an electrically adjustable optical property. The active layer may have a pair of electrodes. The electrodes may be used to apply electric fields across the active layer to adjust the active layer. A lower sheet resistance electrode may be supplied with a current to ohmically heat the active layer. A higher sheet resistance electrode may be supplied with a voltage gradient to create a gradient in light transmission or other optical property as a function of distance across the higher sheet resistance electrode. The electrodes may be provided with terminals that are formed from elongated strips of metal or other terminal structures. The terminals may run along the peripheral edges of the electrodes.

Windows with active layers

A window may be provided with a light modulator. The light modulator may be dynamically adjusted to control visible light transmission through the window. The window may also have layers that selectively block light with non-visible wavelengths. The light-blocking layers may block ultraviolet light, near infrared light such as light from solar radiation, and far infrared light such as heat produced due to the absorption of visible light by the light modulator. The light modulator may be a guest-host liquid crystal light modulator. The guest-host liquid crystal light modulator may have a layer of liquid crystal material with dye that is interposed between polymer substrate layers. The polymer substrate layers may be thermoplastic layers that are moldable to conform to window shapes with compound curves.

Devices with guest-host liquid crystal modulators

A system includes a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations including determining a current state of a vehicle, the current state determined based on information from sensors, receiving a tinting control signal based on the current state of the vehicle, and adjusting a voltage level of an adjustable tint film to control a tinting level of an exterior facing surface of the vehicle based on the tinting control signal.

An electronic device may generate content that is to be displayed on a display. The display may have an array of liquid crystal display pixels for displaying image frames of the content. The display may be operated in at least a normal viewing mode, a privacy mode, an outdoor viewing mode, and a power saving mode. The different view modes may exhibit different viewing angles. In one configuration, the display may include a backlight unit that generates a collimated light source and that includes a switchable diffuser film for selectively scattering the collimated light source depending on the current viewing mode of the display. In another configuration, the display may include a backlight unit that generates a scattered light source that includes a switchable microarray structure such as a switchable mirror structure or a tunable microlens array for selectively collimating the scattered light source depending on the current viewing mode.

Electronic device display with switchable film structures

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Khadijeh Bayat