Apple Invents an Odd Physical Control Device that sits atop a Touch Display when needed and more

Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to physical control devices for use with an electronic device having a touch sensor panel and/or touch screen. Apple notes that there are times when a user would prefer not to interact directly with a public touchscreen for hygienic reasons or is required to provide a fingerprint for ID purposes but don't want to leave a fingerprint sitting on a public display for security and privacy reasons.

Update 8:00 a.m.: One Patently Apple fan by the name of Mico sent in feedback pointing to one possible application being a Microsoft Dial-like device. It's a great observation that's more than logical.

Physical Control Device for Touchscreens

Apple's invention relates to physical control devices for use with an electronic device having a touch sensor panel and/or touch screen, and to communication between a physical control device and an electronic device having a capacitive touch sensor panel and/or touch screen using conductive protrusions of the physical control device.

More specifically, Apple's patent relates to a self-contained physical control extension of a touch screen that may require no additional communication technology (e.g., no dedicated Bluetooth or Wi-Fi communication channel) to communicate with the touch screen, and that can be capable of being connected to various electronic touch screens that may or may not include dedicated communication technology besides a touch screen.

In particular, the physical control device can be capable of identification and initiating operations with the touch screen through use of conductive protrusions.

In some examples, the conductive protrusions can be located on a housing of the physical control device and can be configured to identify the physical control device to the touch screen.

In some examples, the touch screen can include a touch sensor panel capable of detecting a pattern of the conductive protrusions such that processing circuitry of the touch sensor panel can identify the physical control device.

Once identified as being coupled to the touch screen, the physical control device can be enabled to act as an extension of the touch screen in various ways.

In some examples, a user can perform an action at the physical control device that cause changes in the conductive pattern of the one or more of the conductive protrusions detected by the touch sensor panel (e.g., by movement of the conductive protrusions). In this way, the conductive protrusions can serve as an input channel for transmitting information from the physical control device to the touch screen.

In some examples, the physical control device can be placed in contact with or in close proximity to the touch screen, with the conductive protrusions facing the touch screen. In this way, the touch screen can capture a touch image corresponding to the pattern of the conductive protrusions of the physical control device. Based on the detected pattern, processing circuitry of the touch screen can be configured to identify the physical control device.

Apple's patent FIG. 1A-1C below illustrate example physical control devices; FIG. 3A illustrates a cross-sectional side view of an example physical control device coupled to a touch screen.

Apple's patent FIG. 4 above illustrates a front view of an example physical control device coupled to an iPhone's touch screen; FIG. 5 illustrates a front view of example physical control devices coupled to a touch screen of an iPad; and FIG. 6 illustrates a front view of an example physical control device coupled to a touch screen of a monitor or a vending machine, a ticketing machine or an ordering screen at a restaurant. It could be used to authenticated the user and authorize a payment.

Although FIG. 6 describes the physical control device in terms of a touch screen and a biometric sensor (e.g., a fingerprint sensor), Apple notes that it is understood that, alternatively or additionally, the physical control device can include any suitable input/output devices (e.g., a braille reader or a braille enabled input device, a microphone, a speaker, keyboard, keypad, buttons, etc.

For finer details, review Apple's patent application number 20230145244. If you could think of other applications for such a device, send in your feedback below or on our Twitter feed.

Apple Inventors

In addition, there were a few patent applications published today that XR developers may appreciate, as follows:

01: Patent Title: "Devices, Methods, And Graphical User Interfaces For Interacting With Three-Dimensional Environments": 20230143827 and 20230147148; 02: Patent Title: "Modular Machine Learning Architecture" 20230147442

Posted by Jack Purcher on May 11, 2023 at 07:52 AM in 1A. Patent Applications, Devices, Components | Permalink | Comments (0)