Apple Inc.

Timothy Michael Johnson

Jeffrey J Terlizzi

Wendell B Sander

Douglas M Farrar

Jesse Lee Dorogusker

Brian Jonathan Conner

Brian Sander

Scott P Mullins

Yehonatan Perez

Achim Pantfoerder

Vishal I Gupta

Lawrence F Heyl

Alexei Elias Kosut

Hugo Fiennes

Barry J Corlett

Nicholas Ainsley Sims

Sivasankari Krishnanji

Tang Yew Tan

Sawyer Isaac Cohen

David Tupman

Ashutosh Yugesh Shukla

Daniel J Hiemstra

Jorge L Rivera Espinoza

Timothy Bryan Ogilvie

Richard H M Dinh

Anthony Michael Fadell

Jared L Zerbe

Paolo Sacchetto

Andrew Bart Hodge

Emily Clark Schubert

Donald Joseph Novotney

Policarpo Bonilla Wood

Scott Peter Krueger

Weijun Yao

Nicholas George Merz

David Andrew Doyle

Jiayi Jin

Yue Jack Chu

Allen Paul Haughay, Jr

James Eric Mason

Xingqun Li

Nilay D Jani

Maofeng Yang

Eric S Winokur

Tyler S Atura Bushnell

Venkatesh Rajendran

Andreas Johannes Koeberl

Michael H Lim

Kyung Hoae Koo

John Tam

Brian H Tsang

Andriy Pletenetskyy

Adriane S Niehaus

Matthew J Schwendeman

Zaid M Nadeem

Andy J Zhou

Xinhao Wang

Bryan D Raines

Richard HM Dinh

Sensing circuitry of a first electronic device can be configured to sense a signal transmitted by the second, external electronic device contacting and coupling through the body of the user. The first electronic device can be configured to detect the contact while receiving data from the second device, and determine whether the signal transmitted by the external device corresponds an 'intentional touch,' or corresponds to a signal coupling between a different body part and the external device or through a different signal pathway (e.g., electromagnetically, through the air, etc.).

Systems, methods and apparatus for through skin communication and noise disambiguation

An electronic device can include a housing, a back cover, a structural member, and a sensing circuit. The housing can at least partially define an internal volume of the electronic device and the back cover can define at least a portion of the internal volume and be connected to the housing. The structural member can be disposed against the back cover and at least partially within the internal volume, the structural member including an electronic component. The sensing circuit can be disposed in the internal volume and electrically coupled to the electronic component. The sensing circuit can detect an amount of charge of the electronic component as part of a user proximity sensor of the electronic device.

Using a structural internal element as a capacitive element to sense proximity

A first device such as a wristwatch may include a front face at which a display is disposed and a rear face at which a rear housing wall is mounted. Antenna structures may overlap the rear housing wall and may be operable to transmit and receive relatively high frequency signals through the rear housing wall to a communication with a second device such as a wireless power transmitting device for the wristwatch. The second device may also include antenna structures that overlap a top surface housing. Respective sets of magnetic structures may be provided in the first and second devices to align the two devices and to form a reliable wireless communication link between the two devices. The first and second devices may include respective antenna arrays that include pairs of antenna elements that are selectively used to form a reliable wireless communication link.

Systems and methods for establishing reliable wireless links

A wearable device can include an electronic device and a band for securing the electronic device to the user. The electronic device can detect an identification of the band, which can serve as an input to initiate actions performed by the electronic device. For example, a type, model, color, size, or other characteristic of a band can be determined and used to select a corresponding action performed by the electronic device. Identification of the band can be performed by components of the electronic device that also serve other purposes. Existing sensors, communication elements, and/or detectors can be used to detect and identity a band provided to the electronic device. The electronic device can respond to the identification of a particular band by performing particular functions, such as changing an aspect of a user interface or altering settings of the electronic device.

Identification of bands for wearable electronic devices

A personal electronic device can include a main printed circuit board having disposed thereon a processing unit, one or more auxiliary circuits coupled to the main printed circuit board by one or more corresponding flexible printed circuits and one or more temperature sensors disposed on one of the flexible printed circuits. A processing unit of the portable electronic device can be configured to monitor the one or more temperature sensors, provide a warning in response to a monitored temperature exceeding a first threshold, and to cause a shutdown of at least a portion of the personal electronic device in response to the monitored temperature exceeding a second threshold. The temperature sensors can be negative temperature coefficient resistors.

Prevention and detection of overheating from component short circuits

A display may have an array of organic light-emitting diode display pixels. Each display pixel may include a drive transistor coupled in series with one or more emission transistors and a respective organic light-emitting diode (OLED). A semiconducting-oxide transistor may be coupled between a drain terminal and a gate terminal of the drive transistor to help reduce leakage during low-refresh-rate display operations. To compensate for variations in the threshold voltage of the semiconducting-oxide transistor, the magnitude of a high voltage level of a scan control signal provided to the gate terminal of the semiconducting-oxide transistor may be adjusted. Sensing circuitry may be used to sense a display current while displaying a calibration image. The sensed display current may be compared to an expected display current associated with the calibration image. Processing circuitry may update the high voltage level based on the actual display current compared to the expected display current.

Electronic devices having displays with compensation for oxide transistor threshold voltage

Methods and systems for facilitating health research by utilizing one or more wearable sensor devices with a research mode are provided herein. Systems include a wearable sensor device that can pair with a first portable computing device of a user and a second computing device of a researcher in a first and second pairing, respectively. The wearable sensor device obtains one or more health parameters of a user. In one aspect, the wearable sensor device communicates research related and non-research related health information to the first computing device via the first pairing link and communicates only research related health information to the second computing device via the second pairing link. Methods for pairing one or more wearable sensor devices with one or more research computing devices and switching between operating modes to provide additional research related features are also provided.

Systems and methods for facilitating health research using a personal wearable device with research mode

A first device such as a wristwatch may include a front face at which a display is disposed and a rear face at which a rear housing wall is mounted. Antenna structures may overlap the rear housing wall and may be operable to transit and receive relatively high frequency signals through the rear housing wall to a communication with a second device such as a wireless power transmitting device for the wristwatch. The second device may also include antenna structures that overlap a top surface housing. Respective sets of magnetic structures may be provided in the first and second devices to align the two devices and to form a reliable wireless communication link between the two devices. The first and second devices may include respective antenna arrays that include pairs of antenna elements that are selectively used to form a reliable wireless communication link.

An alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) power converter may have a connector with a pair of power supply contacts and a pair of data contacts. An electronic device may be connected to the connector of the power converter. The power converter may supply DC power to the electronic device using the power supply contacts. The power converter may include control circuitry that has a resistor coupled across the data contacts. When the electronic device and the power converter are connected to each other, each may advertise to the other that capabilities are present that exceed industry standards. At the same time, standard-compliant discovery operations may be performed to probe the value of the resistance of the resistor that is coupled across the data contacts. When extended capabilities are discovered, extended functions may be performed including accelerated charging functions and data communications functions.

Charging systems with direct charging port support and extended capabilities

A single prong, multiple signal conducting plug and plug detection circuitry is provided. The plug may be electrically coupled to a stereo headset including a microphone. The plug may include four signal conducting regions arranged in a predetermined order along the length of the prong. Detection circuitry may be operative to determine whether a microphone type of plug (e.g., a four region plug including a microphone region and two audio regions, or a three region plug including microphone region and only one audio region) or a non-microphone type of plug (e.g., stereo plug) is inserted into the jack of an electronic device (e.g., mobile phone). Detection circuitry may also detect user activated functions performed in response to user activation of one or more switches included with the headset. For example, the headset may include a single switch for performing a function with respect to a microphone (e.g., end-call function).

Audio I O headset plug and plug detection circuitry

Methods, structures, and apparatus that are able to detect the presence of a connection to a device contact of an electronic device and are also able to detect the presence of contamination at the device contact. A host device includes a connection detection circuit and a contamination detection circuit connected to the device contact. The connection detection circuit includes a pull-up resistor that is pulled down by a pull-down resistor in an accessory device following a connection. The contamination detection circuit includes a current source to provide a current at the device contact and measurement circuitry to measure a resulting voltage.

Connection and corrosion detection

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Timothy Michael Johnson