Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to a vehicle environment that provides the driver and passengers with a dynamic window system that offers privacy and tinting features.

Overall, Apple's granted patent covers a vehicle that includes a tinting system that includes components to identify and determine objects, locations, and zones within the vehicle to protect and shield the objects, locations, and zones from sunlight and/or provide privacy by controlling the tint of window systems or otherwise.

The tinting system recognizes the objects, locations, and zones within the vehicle to be protected or shielded, and responds to explicit requests or commands for tinting, anticipates implicit requests or commands for tinting, and/or operates to activate tinting functions based on settings and/or sensor inputs.

The tinting system automatically adjusts tinting of a window for a location associated with an occupant, an object, or a zone. As a result, the tinting system provides automatic tint adjustment to prevent light from entering the interior of the vehicle to increase the comfort of occupants of the vehicle, provide privacy to the occupants of the vehicle, and reduce light leakage from the interior of the vehicle, among other advantages.

Apple's patent FIG. 1A presented below illustrates a block diagram of a vehicle system #100 according to an example embodiment. The vehicle system includes a vehicle #102 having a computing device #103 that is in communication with sensors #107 and tinting hardware modules #105.

The sensors may include sensors and imaging devices, among other hardware devices for determining various attributes of the vehicle or occupants. The vehicle may be considered one that transports people and/or cargo including a terrestrial motor vehicle, a watercraft, and an aircraft, among other vehicles. The vehicle may include engines or motors such as an internal combustion engine, an electric motor, or a hybrid configuration.

Further, Apple's patent FIG. 1A below illustrates that the vehicle may include zones #109 that may be shielded, protected, and/or obstructed by any given tinting hardware module #105 or combination of modules in combination with adjustable tinting film #104 covering adjustable exterior facing surfaces.

The adjustable exterior facing surfaces may be transparent or partially transparent and may include windshields, windows, a roof, a floor, and other surfaces of the vehicle. There may be occupants #111 located in each zone #109 as noted in FIG. 1A above. The tinting hardware modules may together operate and control adjustable tint film located within an exterior facing surface that shield and protect particular locations and a particular zone within the vehicle. The adjustable tint film has an adjustable absorption level, among other adjustable and controllable variables.

Apple also notes that sensors and imaging devices in the vehicle may determine that an occupant is squinting and uncomfortable due to sunlight #113 (in FIG. 1 above) shining into the occupant's eyes. The sensors and the imaging devices may determine that the occupant is looking outside of the vehicle to observe scenery. The vehicle's tinting application may activate the tinting hardware module based on the intent of the occupant or the perceived intent of the occupant. The intent may be determined by determining a vector from a finger or hand from the occupant and/or a vector to the eyes of the occupant.

Apple's patent FIG. 1B below illustrates a cross-section diagram of an adjustable tint film with dye in a first orientation and FIG. 1C illustrates a cross-section diagram of the adjustable tint film with dye in a second orientation.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 above illustrates a flowchart for activating and controlling adjustable tint film of a vehicle.

For more details, review Apple's granted patent 10,843,535 that was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office today. Apple was also granted a different patent on this type of feature that we covered in an August 5th report.