Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Apple Inc.

Earlens Corporation

Emcore Corporation

Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Lakshman Rathnam

Joseph R Fisher

Erturk Kocalar

Rodney C Perkins

Benjamin B Lyon

William M Facteau

Kulbir S Sandhu

Brent Edwards

Paul Rucker

Cem Shaquer

Fletcher R Rothkopf

Ilya Daniel Rosenberg

John Aaron Zarraga

David C Buuck

Albert T Yuen

Julien George Beguin

Andrea Mucignat

Nadim Awad

Louis W Bokma

Angeles Marcia Almanza-Workman

Robert P Ryan

Kishore Sundara-Rajan

Debanjan Mukherjee

Omar Sze Leung

Siddharth Gupta

Anoop Menon

Pierre H Mertz

Dean V Dang

Dubravko I Babic

Thomas A Tacklind

Ashok K Desai

Gregory Turner Witmer

Chin Siong Khor

Howard Huang

Hany Mounir Ghali

Robert L D Zenner

Steven Nemshick

Edmond Lau

Premal Parekh

Rishabh Bhargava

Gabriel Isaiah Rowe

Andy P Atamaniuk

Jianjun Yang

Heang Heng

Herbert Kraus

Gokhan Orakcilar

Krishan Yadav

Thiagarajan Marimuthu

Premal Vinodchandra Parekh

Robert LD Zenner

The present invention is directed to a wearable system wherein elements of the system, including various sensors adapted to detect biometric and other data and/or to deliver drugs, are positioned proximal to, on the ear or in the ear canal of a person. In embodiments of the invention, elements of the system are positioned on the ear or in the ear canal for extended periods of time. For example, an element of the system may be positioned on the tympanic membrane of a user and left there overnight, for multiple days, months, or years. Because of the position and longevity of the system elements in the ear canal, the present invention has many advantages over prior wearable biometric and drug delivery devices.

Wearable customized ear canal apparatus

Embodiments of the invention include a method of preventing ferrite migration in a hearing aid including an antenna stack and a battery stack wherein the antenna stack sits on the battery stack, the method comprising the steps of: conformally coating the top and sides of the antenna stack using a conformal coating material; and separately coating all the surfaces of the battery stack using a separate material.

Battery coating for rechargable hearing systems

Electronic devices may include force sensitive sensors. The sensor may include a first layer of electrodes, a second layer of electrodes and a deformable dielectric material separating the first layer of electrodes and the second layer of electrodes. A conductive material may be disposed to negate capacitive effects between an object near to or touching the touch surface and the electrodes of the first layer and the electrodes of the second layer. A force applied to the sensor may be detected based at least in part on a change in capacitance between at least one electrode of first layer and at least one electrode of the second layer resulting from deformation of the deformable dielectric material. This disclosure also describes techniques for assembling electronic devices including these components.

Force sensitive capacitive sensors and applications thereof

User input is accepted by a force sensing resistor ('FSR') assembly, a force sensing capacitor ('FSC') assembly, or both. The FSR or FSC assemblies may be located within an input device, such as behind a device exterior, display, and so forth. A force applied to the device exterior proximate to the assembly may result in a signal indicative of the force to the assembly. The signal may be processed to determine a particular touch zone was activated. A particular action associated with the touch zone may be performed. The particular action may be based at least in part on which touch zone which was activated, a magnitude of the force, or both. For example, the particular action may include a haptic output to provide feedback to a user.

Determination of input from force sensing input device under an unbroken exterior portion of a device

A stylus device is disclosed that is capable of changing its output so that it can communicate and function with a multitude of touch controllers of a computing device. In an aspect, the stylus device receives a message including the configuration information from the computing device. The configuration information may include an encoding scheme corresponding to a format for encoding data to be sent to the computing device and an operating frequency. The stylus configures itself in the encoding scheme, and communicates with the computing device using the encoding scheme. For example, the stylus device may encode data using the encoding scheme and send the data at the operating frequency.

Configurable active stylus devices

A touch-sensitive display for an electronic device may include a touch sensor comprising a low birefringence substrate, ultraviolet (UV) stabilizers, and a metal mesh disposed on at least a portion of the low birefringence substrate. The low birefringence characteristic of the touch sensor substrate causes the touch sensor to exhibit low haze, high transmittance, and substantially no color, which provides improved optical properties over conventional touch sensor substrate materials used with metal mesh film. In some embodiments, the retardation value of the touch sensor substrate may be no greater than about 15 nanometers (nm). Additionally, the UV stabilizers prevent the substrate from yellowing and becoming brittle from exposure to UV radiation.

Metal mesh touch sensor with low birefringence substrate and ultraviolet cut

An input device with switchable sensor configurations. In one embodiment, the input device can switch between a sensor configuration in which each of its sensor elements is enabled to sense input and a sensor configuration in which only a subset of its sensor elements are enabled to sense input. In another embodiment, the input device can switch between a sensor configuration in which each of its sensor elements is enabled to sense input and a sensor configuration in which one or more groupings of its sensor elements are enabled to collectively sense input. In a further embodiment, the input device can operate in a detection mode that switches between sensor configurations to determine a position of an input.

Sensor configurations of an input device that are switchable based on mode

An electronic device includes a stack assembly and a cover glass. The stack assembly includes an electronic paper display sub-assembly for rendering content, a front light sub-assembly for illuminating the electronic display sub-assembly, and a capacitive touch sensing sub-assembly for detecting touch inputs. The cover glass includes two apertures for the placement of control buttons for the electronic device. Prior to assembly of the electronic device, the cover glass is strengthened after the two apertures are formed so as to strengthen the interior edges of the apertures.

Electronic device stack assembly

Various embodiments provide a capacitive touch input element that is formed of a recess in a substrate. The size and shape of the recess are chosen such that a finger of a user will not contact the bottom or minima point of the recess, thereby, requiring pressure to be applied by the finger in order to make contact. Beneath the substrate is a capacitive sensing electrode designed to concentrate an electric field toward the minima point of the recess such that the finger must make contact with the minima point to effect a change in capacitance causing the capacitive touch element to provide input to an appropriate application.

Capacitive touch with tactile feedback

User input is accepted by a force sensing resistor ('FSR') assembly, a force sensing capacitor ('FSC') or both. The FSR or FSC assemblies may be located within an input device, such as behind a device exterior, display, and so forth. A force applied to the device exterior proximate to the assembly may result in activation of the assembly. The activation may be processed as input and used to determine and then perform a particular action. The particular action may be based at least in part on a particular portion of the assembly which has been activated, a magnitude of applied force, or both. A haptic output may be provided on activation to provide feedback to a user.

Force sensing input device under an unbroken exterior portion of a device

A multi-dimensional scroll wheel is disclosed. Scroll wheel circuitry is provided to detect input gestures that traverse the center of the scroll wheel and to detect multi-touch input. The scroll wheel can include a first plurality of sensor elements arranged in a first closed loop and a second plurality of sensor elements arranged in a second closed loop, the first and second closed loops being concentrically arranged about the center of the scroll wheel.

Multi-dimensional scroll wheel

A capacitive sensor may include a flex circuit, a substrate facing the flex circuit, and conductive electrodes configured to sense an input applied to the substrate. At least one of the conductive electrodes is associated with a surface of the substrate and an at least one of the electrodes is associated with a surface of the flex circuit.

Capacitive sensor having electrodes arranged on the substrate and the flex circuit

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Lakshman Rathnam