Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 36 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we briefly cover patents relating to an under display camera system and a next-gen vehicle headlight system that includes a unique 'corner' lighting feature. 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 this week.

Under Display Camera System

Apple has been granted a patent for an electronic device display that may have an active area with pixels. An optical sensor (camera) may be formed under a sensor region in the active area. During operation, ambient light and/or other light associated with the optical sensor may pass through the sensor region. To ensure that the light for the optical sensor can pass through the display, the display may have one or more layers with sensor openings such as a metal layer and a pressure sensitive adhesive layer that attaches the metal layer to the pixels of the display. To help minimize visibility of the openings in the sensor region, the pressure sensitive adhesive layer may be configured to have a reflectivity that matches the appearance of the display in the sensor region to surrounding areas. Undesired light output uniformity can be reduced by ensuring that the substrate material in the display has a low light absorption coefficient.

To clarify that the patent relates to Apple's TrueDepth camera for Face ID under the display, Apple's patent notes that "The optical sensors that operate through the display may include infrared light-emitting devices (e.g., flood illuminators for infrared light sources), cameras (e.g., visible light image sensors and associated camera flashes, infrared cameras, etc.), optical proximity sensors such as proximity sensors that emit infrared light and detect the infrared light after the infrared light has reflected from external objects, three-dimensional sensors (e.g., infrared structured light sensors that include infrared image sensors and associated infrared light sources), time-of-flight sensors, lidar sensors, and/or other sensors that emit and/or detect light."

For more on this, review granted patent 11882752.

Project Titan Patent: Multi-mode Lights

Today, Apple was granted another Project Titan patent that relates to a system that may have components that emit light such as headlights and other lights. Headlights may provide visible light illumination in front of the vehicle to illuminate roadways and other objects. In order to illuminate roadways and other objects on the outboard sides (e.g., in the vicinity of the left and right sides flanking the front side) of the vehicle, headlights may also provide visible cornering light illumination.

The illumination provided by the headlights allows vehicle occupants to view objects at night or in other dim ambient lighting conditions. In particular, the cornering light illumination may be selectively provided in scenarios warranting illumination of an outboard side such as when the vehicle is turning, when the vehicle is changing to a different lane, or in other scenarios.

To provide a compact headlight with front illumination (e.g., having high-beam and low-beam modes) and cornering light illumination, a light source and a reflector for the front illumination and a light source and a reflector for the cornering light illumination may be housed in the same headlight housing and may emit light through a shared aperture of a projection lens. To further enhance the (front) illumination (e.g., in the high-beam mode) of the headlight, one or more additional light sources may also be provided within the headlight housing.

For full details, review Apple's granted patent 11879610.

This Week's Remaining Granted Patents