Back in November 2023, Patently Apple posted a report titled "Former Apple Designers officially Introduced their company's first product called the Humane AI Pin, a completely new smartphone concept."

Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to an all-new handheld device that could also be pinned to a user's clothing like the AI Pin from Humane. Whether Apple's new device will work with AI as well is unknown at this time.

Apple notes in their patent background that electronic devices such as cellular telephones and voice-controlled assistant devices may be used to gather user input and provide a user with output.

It can be cumbersome to interact with electronic devices. For example, electronic devices may be bulky and awkward to handle or may have complicated user interfaces that require the user to take multiple actions in order to perform desired functions. Apple's solution is presented below.

Handheld Electronic Devices With Contextual Input-output Capabilities

Electronic devices that are configured to be held in the hand of a user may be used to gather user input and to provide a user with output. For example, a handheld electronic device may have a small, touch-sensitive display for gathering touch input and providing visual output, one or more microphones for gathering voice input, one or more speakers for providing audio output, and location tracking circuitry for tracking the location of the handheld electronic and/or for tracking the location of external electronic devices. If desired, the handheld electronic device may include haptic output devices for providing haptic output to a user.

The handheld electronic device may serve as a voice-controlled assistant, may serve as a stand-alone electronic device running one or more software applications (e.g., a weather application, a music streaming application, a calculator application, a calendar application, a payment application, etc.), may serve as a remote control for household items such as speakers, lights, kitchen appliances, etc., may serve as an anchor or visual marker in an augmented reality or virtual reality system, may serve as an accessory device for gathering input and/or providing output associated with an external electronic device such as a pair of headphones, a loudspeaker, a cellular telephone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a head-mounted device, etc., and/or may be used for other functions.

Due to its small size (e.g., smaller than a user's palm, the size of a pebble or stone, the size of coin, or other suitable size) and selective input-output capabilities, the handheld electronic device may be used for focused, contextual applications.

If desired, the handheld electronic device may be used for one application at a time (e.g., a calculator application, a remote control application, a music application, a weather application, a news application, etc.).

Voice commands received by the handheld electronic device may be processed differently depending on the application being used (e.g., control circuitry may listen for calculator-related voice commands when the handheld electronic device is operated in calculator mode, may listen for music-related voice commands when the handheld electronic device is operated in music mode, may listen for weather-related commands when the handheld electronic device is operated in weather mode, etc.).

The mode or application may be set or adjusted based on user input (e.g., voice commands, touch input, etc.), sensor data, and/or location.

For example, the handheld electronic device may automatically launch into remote control mode when approaching an external electronic device, may automatically launch into contactless payment mode when approaching a payment terminal, may automatically launch into a museum application when entering a museum, etc.

Lastly, when used with Vision Pro in the future, it may display virtual images based on the location of the handheld electronic device. The virtual images may include a live video feed from a video call, a virtual control interface, virtual images associated with voice commands, or other virtual images.

Apple's patent FIG. 2 below is a cross-sectional side view of an all-new illustrative handheld electronic device; FIG. 3 is a diagram of an illustrative system with a handheld electronic device that may be used in conjunction with one or more external electronic devices; FIG. 9 is a diagram of multiple handheld electronic devices providing output based on the relative locations of one another.

Various Use Scenarios 

Miscellaneous Points

The housing of device #10 may be formed of plastic, glass, ceramics, fiber composites, metal (e.g., stainless steel, aluminum, etc.), fabric, leather, other suitable materials, or a combination of any two or more of these materials. The Housing #58 (FIG. 1) may be formed using a unibody configuration in which some or all of housing is machined or molded as a single structure or may be formed using multiple structures (e.g., an internal frame structure, one or more structures that form exterior housing surfaces, etc.). The Housing may be rigid, may be soft and flexible, or may have rigid and flexible portions.

Shape of Device #10 may have a circular shape, a round shape, an oval shape, a rectangular shape, a pebble or rock shape, a cube shape, and/or other suitable shape. The device may have a lateral dimension D between 25 mm and 50 mm, between 50 mm and 100 mm, between 10 mm and 200 mm, between 5 mm and 75 mm, less than 50 mm, or greater than 50 mm, and may have a thickness T between 0.1 mm and 1 mm, between 0.5 mm and 2 mm, between 1 mm and 2 mm, between 0.1 mm and 5 mm, greater than 5 mm, or less than 5 mm. The form factor of FIG. 2 is merely illustrative. Display 44 may be mounted in housing 58. Display 44 may be round (e.g., circular, oval, etc.), may be rectangular, or may have other suitable shapes.

Attachment Structure: The Device may include an attachment structure for coupling the device to an item such as an external surface, a user's body or clothing, or other item. For example, the device may include an attachment structure such as adhesive (e.g., a semi-permanent adhesive, a skin-safe adhesive, etc.), magnets, clips, hooks, a strap or other band, and/or other structures for attaching the device to an item. This is like the Humane AI Pin Device.

Electrical components #54 (FIG. 1) may include a low-power transmitter (e.g., a Bluetooth® Low Energy transmitter, an ultra-wideband radio-frequency signal transmitter, an RFID transmitter, a near-field communications transmitter, and/or other transmitter) that transmits signals.

Sensors may include force sensors (e.g., strain gauges, capacitive force sensors, resistive force sensors, etc.), audio sensors such as microphones, touch and/or proximity sensors such as capacitive sensors (e.g., two-dimensional touch sensors), optical sensors such as optical sensors that emit and detect light, ultrasonic sensors, and/or other touch sensors and/or proximity sensors, monochromatic and color ambient light sensors, image sensors, fingerprint sensors, temperature sensors, sensors for measuring three-dimensional non-contact gestures (“air gestures”), pressure sensors, sensors for detecting position, orientation, and/or motion (e.g., accelerometers, magnetic sensors such as compass sensors, gyroscopes, and/or inertial measurement units that contain some or all of these sensors), health sensors such as sensors for measuring blood oxygen content and heart rates sensors, radio-frequency sensors (e.g., sensors that gather position information, three-dimensional radio-frequency images, and/or other information using radar principals or other radio-frequency sensing, sensors that detect position, orientation, and/or motion relative to other objects using Bluetooth® positioning techniques or using ultra-wideband positioning techniques), muscle activity sensors (EMG) for detecting finger actions, optical sensors such as self-mixing sensors and light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors that gather time-of-flight measurements, optical sensors such as visual odometry sensors that gather position and/or orientation information using images gathered with digital image sensors in cameras, gaze tracking sensors, visible light and/or infrared cameras having digital image sensors, humidity sensors, moisture sensors, three-dimensional sensors (e.g., time-of-flight image sensors, pairs of two-dimensional image sensors that gather three-dimensional images using binocular vision, three-dimensional structured light sensors that emit an array of infrared light beams or other structured light using arrays of lasers or other light emitters and associated optical components and that capture images of the spots created as the beams illuminate target objects, and/or other three-dimensional image sensors), facial recognition sensors based on three-dimensional image sensors, and/or other sensors, gas sensors, and/or other sensors.

In some arrangements, new device #10 and/or HMD #24 may use sensors and/or other input-output devices to gather user input (e.g., buttons may be used to gather button press input, touch sensors overlapping displays can be used for gathering user touch screen input, touch pads may be used in gathering touch input, microphones may be used for gathering audio input, accelerometers may be used in monitoring when a finger contacts an input surface and may therefore be used to gather finger press input, etc.). If desired, device #10 and/or HMD #24 may include rotating buttons (e.g., a crown mechanism on a watch or finger device or other suitable rotary button that rotates and that optionally can be depressed to select items of interest). Alphanumeric keys and/or other buttons may be included in devices.

For more details, review Apple's granted patent 11930420. Apple's invention was not made public first as a patent application under Apple's name but rather their engineering team members s so as to not be easily noticed publicly. When Apple wants to keep an invention secret for as long as they can, this is their process. Apple has to be listed on a granted patent in order to own its IP.