Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published an update to Apple's AirPods Pro patent regarding force sensing controls built into its stem as illustrated in Apple's image presented above. The controls assist the user navigate their music, manage calls and provide three noise-control modes: Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency mode and 'Off'. A user can switch between them, depending on how much their surroundings they want to hear. Today, Apple has updated their patent covering force activated AirPods Pro.

Apple's patent FIG. 1A below depicts a block diagram illustrating example functional relationships between example components that may be implemented in an electronic device (AirPods Pro); FIG. 1B depicts an example implementation of the AirPods Pro of FIG. 1A; FIG. 1C depicts a user wearing AirPods Pro.

Apple's patent FIG. 1D below depicts the AirPods Pro of FIG. 1C forming an acoustic chamber with an ear canal of the user; FIG. 4 depicts the assembly of the AirPods Pro with the housing removed. 

Apple's patent FIG. 11 above depicts a flow chart illustrating an example method for operating AirPods Pro which includes a force sensor; FIG. 12 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example method for assembling AirPods Pro.

Apple was granted this patent in April 2020. In patent updates, known as continuation patents, Apple updates what's at the heart of every patent, its patent claims which protect an invention from competitors and patent trolls. In Apple's AirPods Pro force touch patent, Apple has added 20 new patent claims.

Apple's initial patent covered their first 20 claims broken down in two categories with 8 claims for "An Electronic Device" and 12 claims for "An Earphone."

In today's published update, Apple has added 20 new patent claims and all of them are under the single category of "An Earphone."

The one big theme added relates to the inclusion of  the exact terms "touch sensor electrode" and "force sensor electrode," which weren't present in Apple's original patent claims or even the body of the previous patent.

The same is true for the newly added claim relating to the deformable material comprises at least one of foam or gel." Whether these additions  or clarifications were simply omitted in the original patent by accident or are matters reserved for the creation of the next-gen AirPods Pro is unknown at this time. Below are just a few highlights.

Added Patent Claim #1: "An earphone, comprising: a speaker housing; a speaker positioned in the speaker housing; a stem extending from the speaker housing, the stem defining an input surface; a conductive object disposed within the stem; a flexible circuit positioned between the stem and the conductive object; a deformable material positioned between the flexible circuit and the conductive object operable to deform when a force is applied to the input surface; a touch sensor electrode disposed within the flexible circuit facing the stem; a force sensor electrode disposed within the flexible circuit facing the deformable material; and a shield disposed between the touch sensor electrode and the force sensor electrode.

Added Patent Claim #2. The earphone of claim 1, further comprising a controller that is operable to determine a first input to the earphone using a touch detected using the touch sensor electrode.

Added Patent Claim #3. The earphone of claim 2, wherein the controller is operable to determine a second input to the earphone using a non-binary amount of the force, the non-binary amount of the force determined according to a change in capacitance detected using the force sensor electrode.

Added Patent Claim #4. The earphone of claim 1, further comprising a controller, wherein: the touch sensor electrode comprises a first touch sensor electrode and a second touch sensor electrode; and the controller is operable to detect a touch moving along the input surface using the first touch sensor electrode and the second touch sensor electrode.

Added Patent Claim #5. The earphone of claim 1, further comprising a controller that is operable to determine an input to the earphone using a touch detected using the touch sensor electrode and a non-binary amount of the force, the non-binary amount of the force determined according to a change in capacitance detected using the force sensor electrode.

Added Patent Claim #10. The earphone of claim 1, wherein the deformable material comprises at least one of foam or gel."

To review remaining 14 patent claims that were added in this update, check out Apple's continuation patent 20210219042. The original patent was a patent fulfilled.