The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 68 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover a patent relating to wearable electronic device systems and more specifically, systems designed to ensure that the HMD fits on a user's face comfortably.

In Apple's newly granted patent they note that an electronic device such as a head-mounted device (HMD) may have a display for displaying image content. Head-mounted support structures in the device may be used to support the display. The head-mounted support structures may include straps coupled to a main unit. The main unit may house the display. The display may be used to display content for a user while the user is wearing the head-mounted support structures.

An additional display may be coupled to the head-mounted support structures. The additional display may be formed on external surfaces of the head-mounted support structures or other portion of the head-mounted device.

The head-mounted device or external equipment that communicates with the head-mounted device may include a three-dimensional image sensor. The three-dimensional image sensor may capture a three-dimensional image of a user's face.

Control circuitry may analyze the three-dimensional image to determine which of multiple versions of a customized face-fit module should be used in the head-mounted device to optimize the fit of the head-mounted device on the user's head.

Information on the identified face-fit module may be displayed on one of the additional display and can be viewed by the user when the user is not wearing the head-mounted device.

The customized face-fit module may be selected based on user facial feature characteristics in the three-dimensional image of the user's face such as facial size and the shapes of a user's forehead, nose, and cheeks.

After identifying which version of the face-fit module is to be used by the user, that version of the face-fit module may be coupled to a non-custom portion of a main unit for the head-mounted device using magnets or other coupling structures. The head-mounted device may then be used to display content for the user while the user is wearing the head-mounted device.

Apple's patent FIG. 2 below is a side view of an illustrative head-mounted device being worn on a head of a user; FIG. 4 is a top view of an illustrative head-mounted device having a removable face-fit module; FIG. 5 is a flow chart of illustrative operations associated with using a head-mounted device.

For more details, review Apple's granted patent 10,838,203 that was originally filed in Q1 2019 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.