The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 62 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we briefly cover several patents. The first covers a future VR Content Store; the second covers an iPhone with a toughened ceramic material casing; the third covers the Magic Keyboard hinges; and a fourth covers a coating process for improving loudspeaker sound quality. 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.

A VR Store for those wearing an HMD

As we get closer to Apple debuting their first HMD, Apple was granted a patent that demonstrates their work on a Virtual Reality Store for HMD users.  

Apple's granted patent provides techniques for the user device to detect and measure one or more biometric characteristics of the user that include one or more physiological states (e.g., vital signs, heart rate) while the user is viewing virtual reality content. The measured biometric characteristics are used to determine a criterion used to recommend virtual reality content to the user that is catered to the user's fitness level.

Apple's patent FIG. 2 below depicts an example of obtaining biometric characteristics of the user while the user is viewing virtual reality content in a new Apple VR Store; FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary affordance to access the virtual reality content store while the user is viewing virtual reality content; FIG. 5A depicts an example of the virtual reality content store displaying suggested virtual reality content based on the biometric characteristics of a first user.

For more details, check out granted patent 11,107,282.

Other Mildly Interesting Granted Patents

Toughened Ceramic iPhone Case

Apple was granted a patent for a possible future iPhone with a toughened ceramic material casing that includes thermal expansion. For details, check out granted patent 11,104,616.

Magic Mouse Hinge System

Patently Apple covered Apple's first granted patent for their Magic Keyboard in June 2019. Today Apple was granted their second patent for this invention which has added 20 new patent claims to protect their invention against patent trolls and competitors. You could review Apple's added patent claims in patent 11,106,249 here.

Apple's patent FIG. 27 presented below illustrates an isometric view of an embodiment of an accessory device designed for use with an iPad; FIG. 1 illustrates an isometric view of an embodiment of a hinge assembly.

Coating for Loudspeaker Sound Quality 

Apple was granted patent 11,109,150 titled "Coating for improving loudspeaker sound quality." The patent covers an audio speaker that includes a housing defining a back volume behind a speaker driver, so that the speaker driver can convert an electrical audio signal into a sound and the sound can propagate through a gas in the back volume. A highly porous acoustically active coating is deposited on at least one interior surface of the back volume, the highly porous coating including a binder and an adsorptive substance.

Aspects are described of an acoustically active coating. In one aspect the coating is a highly porous coating having a thickness and including between 2% and 30% by mass of a binder and between 70% and 98% by mass of a zeolite. The coating comprises an irregular matrix formed by a plurality of convex shapes connected by concave connectors and has a distribution of pore sizes. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

Aspects are described of a process including preparing a slurry including a binder and a zeolite. The slurry is sprayed through a nozzle having a nozzle diameter. A highly porous acoustically active coating is deposited on a substrate by directing the sprayed slurry through an environment onto the substrate, the substrate being positioned at a distance from the nozzle.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 loosely represent a smartphone/iPhone where the invention is applied; FIG. 5 is drawing of an aspect of a hardware setup used to implement a process for forming an acoustically active coating on a wall of a loudspeaker back volume.

Click here for more details.

The Remaining Patents Granted to Apple Today