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 briefly cover two of Apple's granted patents relating to flexible displays for foldable devices and creating AR Self-Portraits using machine learning. 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.

Devices with Flexible Displays

Apple has been granted their fourth patent for Electronic Devices with Flexible Displays. All three of the previous patents were referenced in this March 2020 report. In July, Patently Apple posted a "continuation patent" report on this invention that laid out the many additions Apple had recently made to their patent claims. Today the U.S. patent office granted Apple that patent. You could review the continuation patent that reveals the latest changes that were made  or review today's granted patent 10,840,474.  

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device having a flexible display that could be used in a foldable device like an iPhone or iPad; FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display cover layer with a flexible portion; and FIG. 33 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having a thinned region that is adjacent to support structures with eased edges.

The timing of this granted patent coincidentally follows a rumor about Apple's work on foldable devices that we covered yesterday in a report titled "A new Rumor Claims that Apple is working with Several Supply Chain Partners in Preparing for Future Foldable Devices."

Creating AR Self-Portraits using Machine Learning

Self-portrait digital photos or "selfies" have become a pop-culture phenomenon. Selfies are typically taken with a digital camera or smart phone held at arm's length, pointed at a mirror or attached to a selfie stick to position the camera farther away from the subject and capture the background scene behind the subject. Selfies are often shared on social networking services (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat etc.).

Augmented reality (AR) is a live view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are "augmented" by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video or graphics. Apple's granted patent covers systems, methods, and apparatuses for generating AR self-portraits or "AR selfies."

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below is a conceptual drawing illustrating the basic concept of an AR selfie; FIGS. 2D and 2E illustrate mapping of a virtual environment to a mobile device viewport; and FIG. 5 illustrates compositing layers used in an AR selfie.

To dive into the details of Apple's granted patent 10,839,577 titled Creating augmented reality self-portraits using machine learning click here.

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today