Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a patent application from Apple that reveals an interesting new concept for the iPhone. It's kind of a spin-off of the idea of added a magnetic backer to add a battery or wallet accessory. In this invention, Apple envisions the back panel of the iPhone being a component that could simply be swapped out for added functional panels such as adding better speakers or a health device such as a blood glucose testing system that accepts test strips and more.

As described in the patent application, a supplemental housing component may be provided that can be used in place of a removable rear cover assembly to both replace the rear cover, as well as to provide additional protective structures for the mobile phone.

For example the supplemental housing component may include a rear wall that replaces the glass rear cover of the rear cover assembly (e.g., after the rear cover assembly is removed), as well as protective side walls that extend from the rear wall and cover (and optionally completely cover) the peripheral wall of the housing structure when the supplemental housing component is attached. The supplemental housing component thus provides protection to the device while eliminating redundant structures.

Further, because the supplemental housing component is used instead of (and not in addition to) the rear cover assembly, the supplemental housing component may mechanically couple to the same attachment features as the rear cover assembly (e.g., the internal clips, fasteners, and the like, that the rear cover assembly were coupled to).

Additionally, the supplemental housing component may include supplemental versions of the same components that are included in the rear cover assembly, such as a supplemental charging coil, a supplemental flash, and a supplemental microphone.

The supplemental housing component may thus also include an electrical connector that couples these (and optionally other) systems directly to the internal circuit board of the device. The supplemental housing components may also provide additional functionality, such as supplemental batteries, physiological sensors and/or health-monitoring devices, cameras, auxiliary displays, and the like.

The removable rear cover assemblies of a mobile phone facilitate the attachment of various supplemental housing components that provide supplemental and/or enhanced functionality to the phone, while also providing a protective shell along the back and sides of the device, removing redundant components, and providing a high degree of environmental sealing.

In this way, a user can select the particular supplemental housing component that provides the desired additional functionality, without compromising the basic functionality, operation, and design of the device.

Apple's patent FIG. 8 below illustrates a system with an example set of supplemental housing components that may be available to be attached to the iPhone (#device 400), using the same attachment mechanisms as the removable rear cover assembly #402 that may be provided with the device in its standard configuration. In each case, the supplemental housing component conductively couples to the circuit board assembly of the device via the same electrical connector as the removable rear cover assembly, and communications and/or power is sent and received between the supplemental housing component and the circuit board assembly via that same conductive coupling.

As another example, a supplemental housing component #810 may include a physiological sensor and/or a health-monitoring device #812. As shown, the physiological sensor and/or a health-monitoring device is a blood glucose testing system that accepts test strips to determine a blood glucose value, though other sensors and/or devices are also contemplated, including but not limited to temperature sensors, photoplethysmographs, blood-oxygen sensors, and electrocardiograph sensors.

As yet another example, a supplemental housing component #818 may include a rear-facing display #820 that may be a touch-screen display, or an output-only display. The rear-facing display may have various sizes, resolutions, and other performance parameters. For example, in some cases, the rear-facing display is a high-resolution color display, while in other cases, it is a low-resolution monochrome display. The information to be displayed on the rear-facing display may be provided by the iPhone to the supplemental housing component #818.

To review the full details of this invention, check out patent application 20240205315.