The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 66 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover an 8-Speaker iPad Pro, a wild immersive Headset, AR Apple Maps, water resistant iDevices & more. Our report also covers two design patents, and as always, we wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

8-Speaker iPad Pro

Today, Apple has been granted patent 10,645,521 covering a possible future 8-Speaker iPad Pro that will "create a sense of depth." The patent also appears to advance the audio of the iPad Pro quad speaker set-up with a new "Decorrelation Metric Generator" and a "Decorrelation Engine" as illustrated in patent FIG. 9 above.

Immersive Virtual Display

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Today, Apple was granted patent 10,643,391 titled "Immersive Virtual Display." Apple's winning patent covers an HMD that is specifically designed to be for passengers riding in an autonomous vehicle to either keep the passenger entertained in one form or another allow the passenger to get work done in their personal virtual office.

Patently Apple first covered Apple's patent application in a 2018 report titled "Patent of the Decade: Apple Reveals an Unbelievable VR Experience System for Next-Gen Autonomous Vehicles."

AR Apple Maps

Today, Apple was granted patent 10,643,373 titled "Augmented reality interface for interacting with displayed maps." Apple's invention provides for an augmented reality and/or virtual reality interface that allows for interaction with a displayed map. The interface may be implemented in association with a map or navigation application.

For example, the interface may be used by a tourist to easily and intuitively interact with a three-dimensional map of an unfamiliar city, without requiring fingertip manipulation on the display. This is likely related to Apple's latest version of Apple Maps that offers interactive 3D experiences and provides a user with a 360‑degree view of a place.

Patently Apple first covered this as a patent application back in December 2018 titled "Apple Reveals a Future AR Version of Apple Maps that could be display Maps on a Tabletop." The invention also takes Apple Maps to yet another dimension in that it will allow 3D maps to be presented on a table top via an iPad, iPhone or future HMD.

At Apple's 2017 WWDC we were able to see how an augmented reality game was played on an iPad yet shown on a blank table as presented in the video below. Next-gen Apple Maps may allow a user to have that same experience like they do with a game but with a map scene in true 3D.

Finger Tracking in Wet Environment

In October 2028 Patently Apple posted a patent application report titled "Apple Invents iDevice Displays that Remain Functional even when Wet." This water resistance related patent was granted to Apple today under number 10,642,418.

Apple's granted patent covers new ways to ensure that liquid on an iDevice multitouch display won't interfere with touch controls as they once did. Our graphic above shows Apple's SVP Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller talking about their new premium iPhones that provide better liquid resistance, including spilt beer. 

Apple patent FIGS. 14A-C presented below illustrate exemplary representations of input patches corresponding to floating water and one or more fingers on a touch-sensitive surface.

Apple's patent FIGS. 15A to 15C presented above illustrate another exemplary representation of input patches corresponding to floating water and/or one or more fingers on a touch-sensitive surface. You could check out original report for more details and patent figures here.

Apple Design Patents Granted Today

Apple was granted an Apple Store related design patent titled "Display Structure Group; was granted an Apple Watch related design covering the backside sensor and lastly another design win for an iPhone case believed to be associated with iPhone 5S.

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today