The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 54 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we briefly cover two inventions. The first relates to enhanced facial recognition while the second relates to future texture detection for Apple Pencil. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

The first granted patent of interest today deals with enhanced face detection using depth information. Apple's patent FIG. 4 which is our cover graphic is a schematic representation of an image showing image windows used in face detection.

This was originally a PrimeSense patent. Apple acquired the Israeli company whose technology is used in Apple's current TrueDepth camera system for Face ID. This was originally covered by Patently Apple back in March and you could check out our report for more details. This is Apple's second granted patent for this invention and could be found under #9,818.023.

Granted Patent: Texture Capture Stylus and Method

The second granted patent of interest today covers Apple's invention relating to a possible future Apple Pencil that could include additional components for sensing, recording and transmitting an image of the texture of a surface.

In respect to patent FIG. 11noted above Apple notes the following; "The sensed texture surface would then be stored as part of the visual cloth image. The cloth image would then be put on the manufacturer's website. A user would then pass their stylus over the image and haptic feedback devices could be used to reproduce the sensed texture of the visual image to a user employing the haptic feedback device. The user would thus sense the texture of the cloth. As an example of one application of this embodiment in the retail clothing industry, users would utilize the sensed texture through haptic feedback and be able to "feel" the texture of clothes for sale on the internet. Likewise, such feedback may be provided based on a color of a sensed image or object, and/or a combination of color and texture, as previously described.

Further, in patent FIG. 11 we're able to see a haptic feedback accessory device which may be, for example, a rumble pack (#29) such as is known in the electronic gaming arts could be used in conjunction with the stylus to generate haptic feedback to a user.

The combination of visual and tactile input to the user allows the user to experience the "look and feel" of a fabric.

Patently Apple first covered this invention back as a patent application in July 2015. You could review the details of the invention in our original report here that covers sensing surface textures; CAD application; medical applications and a visually impaired application.

Apple's granted patent 9,817,489 was originally filed in Q1 2014 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today

Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.