In June of this year Patently Apple posted a patent application report titled "Apple Reveals Finger Sensor Devices for Future HMDs & Glasses to assist users touch & control Objects in AR/VR Environments & Beyond." Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple this patent.

Apple's granted patent relates to systems with electronic devices such as finger-mounted electronic devices that are to be used with Apple's future HMD and smartglasses. Apple has been working on this for some time and Patently Apple has covered a series of future finger devices for use with AR/VR headsets and/or glasses that you could review here:  01, 02, 03, 04 and 05.  

Apple's invention published today covers a system that may include electronic devices that are finger devices configured to be worn on fingers of users in conjunction with Augmented Reality (AR) and Augmented Virtuality (VR) head mounted devices and glasses.

The finger devices may include sensors. As a user interacts with a real-world object in the environment surrounding the user, one or more sensors may be used to measure information on real-world-object physical attributes associated with the real-world object.  

The physical attributes that are measured may include attributes such as a surface contour, a texture, an object color or other visual attribute, a temperature, acoustic attributes, force-versus-distance characteristics, weight, and/or other physical attributes.

Apple's patent FIG. 2 below is a top view of an illustrative finger of a user on which a finger device has been placed; FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative finger device on the finger of a user; FIG. 4 is a top view of an illustrative head-mounted device having support structures configured to support a display and sensors such as a forward facing camera and gaze tracker.

Apple's patent FIG. 5 above is a perspective view of an illustrative real-world object with which a user is interacting while gathering measurements and/or receiving output using a finger device; FIG. 16 is a flow chart of illustrative operations associated with operating a system with electronic devices.

Apple's granted patent 10,845,894 was published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. You could review our full patent application report on this invention here for more information and patent figures.