Although smartglasses are a few years away, Apple's engineers are continuing to pound out various inventions that could apply to future smartglasses. This report briefly covers and/or links to three new smartglasses patents of interest.   

Stretchable Displays

You could tell when an invention is important to Apple when 55 engineers want to have their names associated with it for the record as presented below. I think that has to be a record for a single invention.

Displays, such as OLED displays are considered "ridged" displays. Apple's invention relates to a display that may have a stretchable portion with hermetically sealed rigid pixel islands. A flexible interconnect region may be interposed between the hermetically sealed rigid pixel islands.

Apple notes that for some electronic devices, it may be desirable for display #14 in FIG. 2 below to be stretchable. The stretchable display may allow for the display to have portions with compound curvature (curvature along multiple axes), for example. To allow for the display to be highly stretchable, the display may have rigid pixel islands connected by a highly stretchable interconnect region.

Apple's patent FIG. 2 below is stretchable #14 may allow for the display to have portions with compound curvature (curvature along multiple axes), for example. To allow for the display to be highly stretchable, the display may have rigid pixel islands connected by a highly stretchable interconnect region.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 below is a top view of an illustrative stretchable display with rigid pixel islands and a highly stretchable interconnect region. The flexible interconnect region #46 may be formed by, for example, a flexible substrate #48 (sometimes referred to as polymer layer or highly stretchable polymer material that may be formed as a blanket layer across the entire display. In rigid pixel islands #42, additional pixel components are included on top of the highly stretchable polymer material such that the flexibility is mitigated in the rigid pixel islands. However, between the rigid pixel islands the highly stretchable polymer material maintains its flexibility.

In patent FIG. 8 above, the display has a central portion #120 with a first pixel density (e.g., pixels per inch or PPI) and an edge portion 122 with a second pixel density. The central portion 120 is therefore rigid whereas the edge portion 122 is stretchable.

To review the full details of this invention, check out patent application 20240210995.

Configurable Arm Tip

Last week Patently Apple posted an IP report titled "Apple Invents Smartglasses with Adjustable Arm Mechanisms that provide users with a Secure Fit & more." Today another invention in that same vein was published by the U.S. Patent Office titled "Configurable Arm Tip."

Wearable electronic device, such as computer glasses or smart glasses are worn on a user's head and incorporate an optical display and computing capabilities. Computer glasses are typically supported on the user's head by support arms that are connected to either side of the glasses. With the advent of computer glasses comes an increased demand on the support arms to support the increased weight and movement of the computer glasses. Further, the inclusion of sensitive electrical components heightens the need to reduce drop events that could damage the glasses. As described herein, the support arms can include adjustable arm tips that allow for fit adjustment.

For full details, review Apple's patent application 20240210728.

Lastly, Apple has filed for another smartglasses patent titled "Systems With Position Sensors" that you could check out under patent application 20240210712