The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 26, 2024
Filed:
Sep. 02, 2021
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Mengshu Huang, Cupertino, CA (US);
Ahmet Fatih Cihan, San Jose, CA (US);
Adrian Z. Harb, San Jose, CA (US);
Stephen E. Dey, San Francisco, CA (US);
Yuhao Pan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Mehmet Mutlu, San Jose, CA (US);
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
A system may include one or more finger devices that gather input from a user's fingers. A finger device may include one or more self-mixing interferometric proximity sensors that measure a distance to the user's finger. The proximity sensor may measure changes in distance between the proximity sensor and a flexible membrane that rests against a side portion of the user's finger. The self-mixing interferometric proximity sensor may include a laser and a photodiode. In some arrangements, a single laser driver may drive the lasers of multiple self-mixing proximity sensors using time-multiplexing. The self-mixing proximity sensor may operate according to a duty cycle. Interpolation and stitching may be used to determine the total displacement of the user's finger including both the on periods and off periods of the self-mixing proximity sensor.