The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 42 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we briefly cover three granted patents for Apple's measuring app, the MacBook Touch Bar, customizing the iconic smiley emoticon and Electrostatic Haptic Output. 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.

Measuring App

In October 2019 Patently Apple covered Apple's first granted patent for their virtual Measuring App. Apple's patent figures below illustrate examples of user interfaces for making measurements of a physical space using an augmented reality environment.

Apple's latest patent wins for their measuring app amounts to adding new patent claims. The first is granted patent 11,073,374 which adds 30 new patent claims mainly covering first and second "virtual annotations." Apple's second granted patent 11,073,375 adds yet another 18 new patent covering "three-dimensional space" and more.

Customizing the Iconic Smiley-Face Emoji

Apple has been granted a patent titled "Multi-pass object rendering using a three- dimensional geometric constraint." The patent relates to both Memoji and customizing the iconic smiley face emoticon.

Apple states that a device for performing multi-pass object rendering using a three-dimensional geometric constraint may include at least one processor configured to receive a mesh of points corresponding to a head of a user. The at least one processor may be further configured to render an image of a sphere and to render elements corresponding to facial features based at least in part on the mesh of points. The at least one processor may be further configured to render an element visibility mask based at least in part on the mesh of points, the element visibility mask being constrained to the surface of the sphere. The at least one processor may be further configured to composite the sphere, the elements, and the element visibility mask to generate an output image. The at least one processor may be further configured to provide the output image for display.

Users may use two-dimensional images (e.g., stickers, emoticons, etc.) and/or three-dimensional models/representations (e.g., avatars / Memoji) to customize/personalize messages and other content. For example, a user may create a three-dimensional model of themselves and may use the model in conjunction with face/head tracking technology to, e.g., generate and communicate animated messages that mirror the user's facial movements.

It may be appealing and/or desirable for users to transform one or more of the two-dimensional images (e.g., stickers, emoticons, etc.) into a three-dimensional model.

For example, some of the emoticons, e.g., the smiley face emoticon, may be considered particularly iconic and therefore may be appealing/desirable to transform into a three-dimensional model.

Apple's patent FIG. 4 below illustrates examples of rendering passes for multi-pass object rendering using a three-dimensional geometric constraint; FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process of multi-pass object rendering using a three-dimensional geometric constraint.

For more details, review granted patent 11,074,753.

MacBook Touch Bar

Apple's MacBook Touch Bar patent was first covered by Patently Apple back in April 2017. You could review the details and more patent figures here. Today Apple was granted patent 11,073,954 for this invention.

Electrostatic Haptic Output

Patently Apple posted a patent application report back in late March 2019 covering electrostatic haptic output. The invention relates to providing electrostatic haptic output through coating a surface of an idevice with a conductive coating and a passivation coating over the conductive coating. Instead of haptics primarily being vibratory in nature such as to inform a user of an incoming message, electrostatic haptic output is far more advanced in that it could be localized to a very specific part of a display such as a volume button on a display that provides very distinct feedback and/or friction to the user's touch.

This next generation of electrostatic haptic feedback may provide tactile sensations to a user in contact with the input surface, such as changes in friction.

Apple's patent FIGS. 9A, 9B and 9B below depict various top views of an iDevice illustrating electrostatic haptic feedback on various localized portions of an input surface that developers could direct to correspond to a part of an app or game.

You could review our 2019 report here or review today's granted patent  11,073,934.

The Remaining Patents Granted to Apple Today