Apple wins a patent for Touch ID & color sampling sensors under the Apple Watch face to match a user's clothing color with the watch face color+
In February, Patently Apple posted an IP report titled "Apple invents a Fabric Apple Watch Band with an Electrochromic feature that allows users to set 3 colors in 3 band zones." The cover graphic of the patent is presented above. Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a technical Watch Band patent with the same theme titled "Electronic Devices with Color Sampling Sensors." The watch sensors under the display could detect a user's clothing color and match it to the background color of the Apple Watch face. The granted patent also covers the use of an under display sensor supporting Touch ID.
Apple's granted patent relates to Apple Watch that may include a display and a light sensor located behind the display. The light sensor may be used to measure the color of external objects.
During color sampling operations, the display may emit light towards the external object in front of the display while the light sensor gathers color measurements. The display may emit a sequence of red, green, and blue light and the light sensor may detect an amount of reflected red light, reflected green light, and reflected blue light to determine the reflectance of the external object. Control circuitry in the electronic device may determine the color of the external object based on its measured reflectance.
The control circuitry may use a watch-band-specific algorithm to determine the color of watch bands and may use a clothing-specific algorithm to determine the color of clothing. The watch-band-specific algorithm may be used to map different sensor readings to different watch band colors from a predetermined list of watch band colors.
The clothing-specific algorithm may be used to map sensor readings to any color within a color gamut. The control circuitry may display the color on the display so that the face of the watch matches the user's clothing or matches the user's watch band. The control circuitry may apply constraints to map measured colors to acceptable display colors that meet desired criteria.
Apple's patent FIG. 1 confirms that the patent relates to Apple Watch; FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display that at least partially covers a sensor; FIG. 6 is a front view of an illustrative display screen that may be used to display color matching options; FIG. 7 is a front view of an illustrative display screen that may be used to display one or more color options after color sampling operations have taken place; FIG. 8 is a flow chart of illustrative steps involved in matching a display color to a color on an external surface in accordance with an embodiment.
Further, patent FIG. 4 illustrates sensor #46 that may be formed under the display #14 in Apple Watch #10. The sensor may be an optical sensor such as a camera, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, fingerprint sensor, or other light-based sensor (e.g., other light-based sensors.
For more details, review Apple's granted patent 11735126.
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