Last month Samsung introduced their Galaxy Ring focused on AI-Powered Health as presented in the video below.

Patently Apple was first to cover Apple's first ring patent back in October 2015 in a report titled "Apple introduces us to the Apple Ring in all its Glory." Since then there's been many other sophisticated patent reports on ring-related patents (01, 02, 03 and 04)

Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple yet another granted patent relating to a future smart ring that could be used for monitoring health and controlling other devices like Vision Pro, future smartglasses, a Mac, TV and more.

Electronic Device System With Ring Devices

Apple's granted patent covers a  system that may include one or more items that interact with each other. As an example, the system may have a device with a display such as an iPhone, iMac, HMD (Vision pro or smartglasses), HomePod, AirPods/AirPods Max or other devices that produce audio output, lights, thermostats, household appliances, or other household devices, and/or other electronic devices.

The system may include wearable devices such as a wristwatch, ring device, head-mounted device, or other equipment worn on a user's finger, wrist, arm, head, or other body part. The devices in the system may communicate with each other. For example, wireless communications circuitry may be used to convey information between devices in the system. This allows devices to control each other.

Devices with displays may display content for a user. Devices with audio components may provide audible output. Equipment that contains haptic output devices may use the haptic output devices to provide a user with haptic output. Environmental data (ambient light measurements, environmental temperature measurements, humidity readings, etc.) and user input may be gathered using sensors.

If desired, a device like a ring may be operated in isolation. For example a wearable device that is operating in a stand-alone operating mode may perform health monitoring operations.

Gathered health data may or may not be shared with other devices. In other scenarios, the system may use one or more electronic devices to gather input from the user to control the operation of one or more electronic devices. In this type of scenario, a user may, for example, provide input to one device that causes one or more additional devices to take particular actions.

A user may, for example, provide touch input, gesture input, force input, or button press input with a first device that is used to control content that is being displayed on a display, audio that is being played with a speaker, and/or haptic output that is being generated with a haptic output device in a second device.  

Additional devices (e.g., a third device) may be used to provide additional processing power and/or to facilitate communications and/or coordination between devices. For example, a third device may receive the user input from the first device and may be used in controlling the second device based on the received user input from the first device. In general, both direct and indirect control schemes may be used.

During operation, a ring worn on a user's finger may, if desired, be used in gathering information on interactions between the user's finger and the system in addition to tracking movement of the finger and other user interactions. For example, circuitry in a ring may be used to capture real-time readings on the location (e.g., the position in three dimensions), orientation (e.g., the angular orientation), and motion (e.g., the change in position as a function of time) of the ring. These activities may be used in controlling devices in the system. 

An illustrative electronic device is shown in patent FIG. 1 below. Electronic device 10 of FIG. 1 may be a computing device such as a MacBook, an iMac, an iPad, Apple Watch a tablet computer, an iPhone, headphones, eyeglasses (FIG. 2), Vision Pro and more.

In particular, Apple's patent FIGS. 5 and 6 below illustrate a finger-mounted device such as a ring worn on a user's finger or a finger-mounted device with a U-shaped housing that is worn on a user's finger while leaving part of the finger (e.g., a finger pad of the finger) exposed or part of a glove.

The Sensors

The sensors #18 of FIG. 1: May include optical sensors such as optical sensors that emit and detect light, ultrasonic sensors, optical touch sensors, optical proximity sensors, and/or other touch sensors and/or proximity sensors, monochromatic and color ambient light sensors, visible light image sensors, infrared image sensors (e.g., thermal image sensors), fingerprint sensors, temperature sensors (e.g., thermal sensors that sense contact by fingers and other user body parts by measuring temperature changes), 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, radio-frequency sensors (e.g., sensors that gather position information such as information on the orientation of the sensor and distance of the sensor relative to a device that emits associated radio-frequency signals, Bluetooth? circuitry that performs location and tracking operations using angle-of-arrival and angle-of departure information, sensors using ultra-wideband radio technology to perform indoor positioning using time-of flight information, other radio-frequency sensors that use time-of-flight information, radio-frequency sensors that gather three-dimensional radio-frequency images, and/or radio-frequency sensor circuitry that gathers other information using radar principals or other radio-frequency sensing techniques), depth sensors (e.g., structured light sensors and/or depth sensors based on stereo imaging devices that capture three-dimensional images and/or gather other three-dimensional data), optical sensors such as self-mixing sensors and light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors that gather time-of-flight measurements, humidity sensors, moisture sensors, pressure sensors, gaze tracking sensors that track a user's point-of-gaze and/or eye motion relative to a user's head, retinal scanning sensors that gather biometric information such as information on a user's unique pattern of blood vessels in the user's retina, iris scanning, and/or other eye-based biometric authentication 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.

The Ring

More specific to the ring: In Patent FIG. 5 above we see a top view of device #10 (Ring) in an illustrative arrangement in which housing #36 is configured to form a ring that is worn on a user's finger such as finger 40 (e.g., the user's ring finger or other finger). FIG. 6 is an end view of the ring  of FIG. 5. The top portion #42 of the housing or other portions of the ring of FIGS. 5 and 6 may overlap one or more sensors.

For example, portion #42 may overlap a fingerprint sensor for gathering user fingerprints (e.g., for user authentication), portion #42 and/or other exposed portions of the outer surface of the housing may overlap a touch sensor for gathering one-dimensional or two-dimensional touch input, may overlap a force sensor for gathering force input, and/or may overlap other sensors.

Ring devices such as the illustrative ring of FIGS. 5 and 6 may include radio-frequency sensor circuitry, inertial measurement unit circuitry, and/or other sensor circuitry to gather information on the position of finger #40 (e.g., information on the current location, movement, and/or orientation of the finger). This information can be gathered in three dimensions so that a user may provide a system with three-dimensional gesture input, may include user pointing input (e.g., input associated with the direction in which finger 40 and ring are pointing), may include tap input (e.g., input associated with abrupt striking motions of finger 40 against a surface that can be detected using an accelerometer or other sensor), etc.

If desired, sensor circuitry in the ring (e.g., touch and/or force sensors, etc.) may wrap around some or all of the ring's exposed outer surface. A user may provide finger input to the sensor (e.g., touch and/or force input) using the user's thumb or other finger (e.g., an index finger of an opposing hand from the ring finger on which the ring is being worn).

Further, the user may press against a particular location on the sensor (e.g., a particular portion of the outer surface of the ring) or may move a finger along the surface of the ring in one dimension or two dimensions. As an example, a user may move the tip of a finger around the circumference of the ring or may move the fingertip across the ring parallel to the length of the user's finger.

As another example, two-directional touch input may be gathered (e.g., as the user moves a finger around the ring and/or across the ring). In this way, the user may provide touch input such as touch gesture input, touch scrolling motions, touch selection input (e.g., tap input), etc. The touch input may be used as pointing control input (e.g., to move a cursor or other visual element in the user's field of view). If desired, multitouch input (e.g., pinch-to-zoom input) may also be gathered using the touch sensor.

User input to the ring may be used for scrolling commands, up/down adjustment commands (e.g., for adjusting parameters such as audio playback volume, television channel, etc.), source selection, joystick commands and/or other pointing input, and/or other user input.

Health Sensors

Sensor(s) in the ring may be used for health monitoring. For example, a ring that is being worn on a user's finger may gather heart rate information, blood oxygen readings, skin temperature readings, and/or other health data by measuring the user's finger. Electrocardiogram readings may be gathered using a ring. The ring may have a first electrocardiogram electrode on an inner surface that contacts a user's finger on one side of the user's body (e.g., the right side). The ring may also have a second electrocardiogram electrode on an outer surface that can be placed in contact with a user's finger, hand, arm or other exposed skin on an opposing side of the user's body (e.g., the left side). When the electrodes form a circuit through the user's body in this way, electrocardiogram data may be gathered by electrocardiogram sensor circuitry in the ring.

Ring in use with a Mac or TV  

In connection with operating an additional electronic device such as a television or computer, commands from devices may be used to authenticate the user's identity to the additional device (e.g. to unlock a screensaver or otherwise log into a device), to specify a user's identity (e.g., when choosing which user account to use on the additional device), to adjust audio playback settings (volume level, bass and treble settings, mute, etc.), to adjust video playback settings (brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, pause, fast forward, rewind, play, next track, previous track, stop, channel up/down, channel number, channel name, etc.), to adjust an application (e.g., by selecting which application to launch on a television or computer, to adjust settings within a running application), to make a source selection (e.g., by selecting a video input port on a television, by selecting an audio port on a stereo system, by selecting video and/or audio tracks from a library, by selecting whether a speaker should play internal audio or should play an audio stream that is wirelessly transmitted from another external device, and/or by otherwise selecting which audio and/or video content to play back on one or more additional devices in system 8), and/or may be used in taking other suitable action on the additional electronic device(s).

For full details, review granted patent 12061680.