Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to a series of possible future iPad form factors that could be added to their iPad lineup over time that includes a creative built-in stand that could include a projection feature that provides a virtual keyboard and more.

Peripheral Housing of an iPad

Apple's patent relates to a computing device like an iPad having a peripheral housing that defines a cavity and an internal housing volume. The computing device includes a display disposed with the cavity and moveably attached to the peripheral housing. A battery, a processor, and memory are disposed entirely within the internal housing volume. The cavity defined by the housing can be an aperture and the display can have a peripheral shape that corresponds to the shape of the aperture. In some instances, the peripheral housing has a constant cross-section.

Apple's patent FIG. 1A below shows a perspective view of a computing device; FIG. 1B shows a perspective view of multiple computing devices. two or more devices #100 can include components that allow the devices to communicate with each other, for example, via electromagnetic waves or wireless protocols such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ultra-wideband, and the like.

Apple's patent FIG. 7 below illustrates a perspective view of computing device 100 wherein the built-in stand allows it to stand in portrait mode; In patent FIG. 14b, Apple notes that the keyboard is a virtual keyboard, described as "a projected image of a keyboard. The keyboard can also detect gestures such as a swipe, pinch, finger movements and more.  

Apple's patent FIG. 15 below illustrates a perspective view of computing device #500 that can include one or more portions of the peripheral housing #503 that can include one or more portions #521, #522 that are movably or rotatably attached to another portion or portions #523 of the peripheral housing; FIG. 16 shows how Apple Pencil is built into the periphery of the iPad.

In patent figure 17 above Apple notes that "a keyboard or other component configured to receive input from a user. In the example depicted in FIG. 17, the keyboard can be a flexible keyboard and can be retracted or rolled up entirely within the constant cross-sectional area defined by the peripheral housing 703, when not in use.

In patent FIG. 20 above we're able to see the right-side bezel/frame #1003 can also include a portion #1020 other than the display #1004 that can provide visual content or information to a user.

In some embodiments, the portion #1020 can include one or more LEDs and can, in some embodiments, be an LED display. The portion #1020 can display any visual content as desired by a user, such as a battery level, a level of signal strength, weather information, and the like.

Lastly in Patent FIG. 22 Apple describes the user being able to turn the display into a full mirror and is Face ID ready.

For more details, review Apple's granted patent 11,169,574. This is Apple's third granted patent for this invention. In this granted patent, Apple has added 19 new patent claims.