The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series 61 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we briefly cover patents relating to future foldable devices and wrist gesture input for Apple Watch. Our report also covers two design patents 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.

Foldable Devices

Patently Apple first covered this invention eight years ago, January 11, 2014 to be specific which was discovered in a European patent filing. The invention had been originally filed in 2011. So, Apple started their folding device project eleven years ago, well before many of their competitors who have since come to market with such devices, like the new foldable from OPPO, Vivo and others like those from Samsung. Today Apple was granted their fifth patent for this invention. Below are various patent figures associated with their invention.

Apple's latest granted patent presents advances in its patent claims that point to emphasis on the foldable device's hinge system and more. Review granted patent 11,304,316 for more details.

Motion & Gesture Input for Apple Watch

Apple's granted patent generally relates to Apple Watch detecting a user's motion and gesture input to provide commands to the device or to other devices. In particular, Apple Watch can use one or more sensors to determine a user's motion and gesture input based on movements of the user's hand, arm, wrist, and fingers.

One or more optical sensors, inertial sensors, mechanical contact sensors, and myoelectric sensors, to name just a few examples, can detect movements of the user's body. Based on the detected movements, a user gesture can be determined. The device can interpret the gesture as an input command, and the device can perform an operation based on the input command.

Apple's patent FIG. 4 below illustrates an exemplary configuration of an Apple Watch on a user's wrist; FIG. 6 below illustrates a plan view of an Apple Watch with motion and gesture sensing using inertial sensors; FIGS. Shown below in the 3-series illustrate exemplary finger and wrist movements.

You could review Patently Apple's original report dated 2019 for a quick review of the invention or  review Apple's granted patent 11,301,048 in full.

Key Design Patents Granted Today

The Remaining Patents Granted to Apple Today