Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a major patent relating to possible future smart rings that could be used to control displays such as an iMac, MacBook, iPad, iPad, AirPods, Smart Glasses, Vision Pro and more The ring could act as an in-air touch pad. It could allow an off-the-shelf pencil to act as a smart pencil or pen and more.

Smart Rings that could Control Mac & iDevice Displays

Apple's granted patent covers smart rings that may be used to gather user input and to provide a user with output. A Smart Ring (finger device) may, as an example, include an inertial measurement unit with an accelerometer for gathering information on finger motions such as finger taps or free-space finger gestures, may include force sensors for gathering information on normal and shear forces in the finger device and the user's finger, and may include other sensors for gathering information on the interactions between the finger device (and the user's finger on which the device is mounted) and the surrounding environment.

The finger device may include a haptic output device to provide the user's finger with haptic output and may include other output components.

One or more finger devices may gather user input from a user. The user may use finger devices in operating a display and/or a virtual reality or mixed reality device (e.g., head-mounted equipment such as glasses, goggles, a helmet, or other device with a display). During operation, the finger devices may gather user input such as information on interactions between the finger device(s) and the surrounding environment (e.g., interactions between a user's fingers and the environment, including finger motions and other interactions associated with virtual content displayed for a user).

The user input may be used in controlling visual output on the display. Corresponding haptic output may be provided to the user's fingers using the finger devices. Haptic output may be used, for example, to provide the fingers of a user with a desired texture sensation as a user is touching a real object or as a user is touching a virtual object. Haptic output can also be used to create detents and other haptic effects.

Finger devices can be worn on any or all of a user's fingers (e.g., the index finger, the index finger and thumb, three of a user's fingers on one of the user's hands, some or all fingers on both hands, etc.). To enhance the sensitivity of a user's touch as the user interacts with surrounding objects, finger devices may have inverted U shapes or other configurations that allow the finger devices to be worn over the top and sides of a user's finger tips while leaving the user's finger pads exposed. This allows a user to touch objects with the finger pad portions of the user's fingers during use. If desired, finger devices may be worn over knuckles on a user's finger, between knuckles, and/or on other portions of a user's finger. The use of finger devices on a user's finger tips is sometimes described herein as an example.

Users can use the finger devices to interact with any suitable electronic equipment. For example, a user may use one or more finger devices to supply input to a desktop computer, tablet computer, cellular telephone, watch, ear buds, or other accessory, to interact with a virtual reality or mixed reality system (e.g., a head-mounted device with a display), or to interact with other electronic equipment.

User input may include air gestures (sometimes referred to as three-dimensional gestures or non-contact gestures) gathered with sensors #18 (e.g., proximity sensors, image sensors, ultrasonic sensors, radio-frequency sensors, etc.). Air gestures (e.g., non-contact gestures in which a user's fingers hover and/or move relative to the sensors of ring which hovers and/or moves relative to external surfaces) and/or touch and/or force-based input may include multi-finger gestures (e.g., pinch to zoom, etc.). In some arrangements, a user may wear one or more finger devices 10 on both hands, allowing for two-hand tracking.

For example, finger devices 10 on one hand may be used for detecting click or tap input and finger devices 10 on the other hand may be used for detecting more complex finger gestures. In some embodiments, a user may wear multiple rings on one hand (e.g., on a thumb and index finger) and these devices may be used to gather finger pinch input such as pinch click gesture input, pinch-to-zoom input, and/or pinch force input. For example, a pinch click input may be detected when a tap (e.g., a peak in an accelerometer output signal) for a thumb device correlates with a tap for an index finger device and/or pinch force input may be gathered by measuring strain gauge output with strain gauges in rings as they're pressed against each other.

Pinch force can also be detected by measuring the size of the contact patch produced when a finger presses against a two-dimensional touch sensor (larger contact area being associated with larger applied force). In other arrangements, pinch click gesture input and pinch force input may be gathered using only a single finger device (e.g., by measuring motion or forces of the finger pad or finger pulp of the finger wearing the finger device as the user pinches, presses, or taps on the finger pad with a thumb finger or other finger).

To review the full details of this invention, check out granted patent 12229341.

Apple inventors

• Paul X Wang: Senior Manager, Product Design
• Tim Cornelissen: Experience Prototyping Engineer
• Richard Hulzar: Prototyping Mechanical Engineer
• Paul Johnson:  Hardware Engineering Manager