Apple wins a patent for a MacBook trackpad that provides reconfigurable touch controls, visible icons & other patterns of illumination
Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to a possible future MacBook trackpad that can be configured to illuminate app icons and other patterns of illuminations. It could illuminate an edit mode in a drawing program or word processing program and more.
Apple notes in their patent that a Notebook (future MacBook) may have a touch sensitive surface area that is configured to receive touch input such as a trackpad surface area. Adjustable illumination may be provided that creates illuminated touch sensor controls in the touch sensitive area.
When it is desired to create reconfigurable buttons or other reconfigurable controls on the trackpad surface area, a pixel array under the trackpad surface area may be used to produce illumination.
The portion of the trackpad surface area that is currently active and responding to touch input may be adjusted dynamically. For example, the trackpad surface area may have an active area that can be moved between a left half of the trackpad surface area and a right half of the trackpad surface area.
A louver layer may be interposed between the pixel array and the trackpad surface area. The louver layer may have louvers that are tilted with respect to a surface normal associated with the trackpad surface area. The presence of the louver layer may help prevent the pixel array from appearing black when not illuminated, thereby providing the trackpad surface area of the device with an attractive appearance and an appearance that matches that of other portions of the exterior surface of the device.
Light from the pixel array may pass through the louver layer. The louver layer and/or other layers between the touch sensitive surface and the pixel array may have cores and claddings that are formed from materials that impart a non-black appearance (e.g., a white appearance, a gray appearance, or a non-neutral color), a desired haze (e.g., a frosted appearance), and/or other desired appearance to the touch sensitive surface area when corresponding portions of the pixel array are inactive and not emitting light.
Colored materials, light-scattering structures, and/or adjustable components may be incorporated into the louver layer or other portions of the layers under the trackpad surface area and above the pixel array to impart desired fixed and/or adjustable optical properties. These properties may include, for example, desired neutral or non-neutral colors, desired amounts of haze, desired amounts of opacity, and/or other desired properties that affect the appearance of the trackpad surface area.
In the example of FIG. 1 below, interior region #24 is sandwiched between upper and lower portions of housing #12. Layers #26 may include components that emit light such as pixel array #14P that may have a two-dimensional array of pixels P (e.g., light-emitting pixels formed from respective light-emitting diodes or backlit adjustable-transmission pixels such as liquid crystal pixels in a thin-film liquid crystal display that receive backlight illumination from a separate backlight unit).
During operation, the pixel array may be adjusted to produce light that creates visible icons and other patterns of illumination on the outer surface of the device #10 where these icons and other patterns of illumination can be viewed by a user.
Apple's patent FIG. 2 above is a top view of an illustrative portion of an electronic device showing how the electronic device may have a touch sensitive surface area overlapping a touch sensor with reconfigurable illumination and sensing areas in accordance with an embodiment.
Apple's patent FIG. 3 is a top view of a housing for an electronic device such as a laptop computer having a touch sensor surface area with reconfigurable illumination and sensing areas in accordance with an embodiment.
Selectable illuminated options (e.g., buttons, sliders, knobs, and/or other reconfigurable illuminated touch controls) may be displayed in the active area of track pad #70. If desired, portions of track pad that might otherwise be inactive (e.g., left area #64 in the illustrative third mode of operation) may be active so long as these portions directly coincide with an illuminated touch control.
Apple further noted that different patterns of illuminated touch controls and active touch areas may be used in response to the use of different software programs. The trackpad can transition between a review mode and an edit mode in a drawing program or word processing program.
A Holographic optical element may include a set of diffractive gratings configured to diffract light traveling through light guide layer out of the light guide layer towards a user's eye.
In some embodiments, additional optical elements such as lenticular films may be disposed on top of light guide layer.
To review the full details of this invention, check out granted patent 12153746.