Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 55 newly granted utility patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we briefly cover patents for an Apple Watch with a detachable camera, a Home Security System, Visualization of non-Visible Phenomena and more. 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.

Apple Watch with Detachable Camera

Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to a possible future Apple Watch with a detachable watch segment that has a camera at the bottom of the watch. It was originally designed for James Bond and is now available for us mere mortals.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 below is an illustration of a watch housing held by a user's hand to take a picture; FIG. 4 is a cross section view of a watch having a bottom-facing camera.

Apple's patent FIG. 5 above is a perspective view of a watch having a release mechanism; FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the watch of FIG. 5 with a watch housing released from a watch band. For full details, review Apple's granted patent 12127641

Visualization Of Non-visible Phenomena

Today the US Patent & Trademark Office granted Apple a patent that relates to extended reality (XR) environments and future devices that will provide visualization of non-visible phenomena. No, this isn't a script for a future X Files film but it certainly reads like one at times. Describing a user visualizing "Augmented Reality" in eyewear as one seeing "non-visible phenomena" is a new descriptive twist, based on environmental sensor feedback.

Apple's patent FIG. 6 below illustrates a flow chart of an example process for providing computer-generated visualizations of non-visible phenomena; In the example of FIG. 3, a visualization #302 of a non-visible ultrasonic fence generated by ultrasonic fencing device #210 is also displayed, to be perceived by a user of electronic device 105 at the three-dimensional location of the non-visible ultrasonic fence.

For full details, review Apple's granted patent 12131533

A Home Security System

Apple has been granted a patent for a home security system. Apple notes that their patent covers techniques are disclosed for providing a notification that a person is at a particular location. For example, a resident device may receive from a user device an image that shows a face of a first person, the image being captured by a first camera of the user device. The resident device may also receive, from another device having a second camera, a second image showing a portion of a face of a second person, the second camera having a viewable area showing a particular location. The resident device may determine a score indicating a level of similarity between a first set of characteristics associated with the face of the first person and a second set of characteristics associated with the face of a second person. The resident device may then provide to the user device a notification based on determining the score.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below is a simplified block diagram of an example home security system; FIG. 3 is another simplified block diagram illustrating at least some example techniques for providing a notification based on determining the presence of a person at a location.

For full details, review Apple's granted patent 12131583. Other aspects of Apple's home security project were covered in the following Patently Apple reports: 01, 02 03,  04 and 05 

This Week's Remaining Granted Patents