On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 60 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we briefly cover two patents. The first relates to Apple's future autonomous vehicle and the second relates to an ultrasonic water-agnostic touch detection sensor. 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.

Project Titan Patent for "Intention Recognition" Module

In September 2020 Patently Apple posted a report titled "A new Project Titan Patent from Apple covers an Autonomous Navigation System that includes an 'Intention Recognition' Module." The patent relates to an autonomous navigation system of a vehicle which includes various dynamic elements, based on predicting trajectories of the vehicle and real-world dynamic elements based on recognizing contextual cues using a new "intention recognition' module.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below illustrates a schematic block diagram of a vehicle which comprises an autonomous navigation system (ANS); FIG. 3 illustrates an overhead view of an environment in which multiple dynamic elements are located, including a vehicle which is autonomously navigated through the environment and includes a set of sensors which can generate sensor data associated with the dynamic elements and an autonomous navigation system which can determine a particular predicted trajectory of a dynamic element based on contextual cues identified in the sensor data.

For a quick overview of the invention you could review our original Patent Application report here or review Apple's granted patent 11,423,665 here.

Ultrasonic Water-Agnostic Touch Detection Sensor

Earlier today Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple wins a Patent for an Apple Watch that could better function in Wet Conditions using a Force Detection Assembly" that was primarily focused on Apple Watch. Yesterday Apple was granted a second patent about ultrasonic water-agnostic touch detection systems capable of detecting touches and also water on a detection surface for Mac and all mobile device displays. It's certainly an alternative design from the patent published earlier today.

Apple's patent relates to an ultrasonic touch sensing system that uses both compressional wave and shear waves for improved touch and water (or other liquid) detection. For example, an ultrasonic shear transducer can transmit a shear wave through a sensing plate (e.g., cover glass), and can also generate a parasitic compressional wave as well. The shear and compressional waves react differently when a touch or water (or other liquid) is present on the sensing plate.

When a finger is in contact with the sensing plate, both shear and compressional wave energy is absorbed and the reflections of both the shear wave and the compressional wave can significantly decrease in amplitude.

In contrast, when water (or other liquid) is in contact with the sensing plate, compressional energy is absorbed and the reflection of the compressional wave can significantly decrease in amplitude, while little or no energy from the shear wave is absorbed, so the reflection of the shear wave can be received without a significant decrease in amplitude.

For more details, review Apple's granted patent #11,422,113.

This Week's Remaining Granted Patents