The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 51 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover a folding smartphone component, hover sensing devices, a magnetics based iPad stand and biometric EarPods or possible AirPods.

Electronic Device Display with Multi-Layer Flexible Encapsulation

Apple's patent application for this invention only came to light in January and today they were granted a patent for it. Apple invention relates to a device display with flexible encapsulation. The flexible display may bend about a bend axis when portions of a housing for the electronic device rotate with respect to each other. The flexible display may have a flexible substrate layer, a thin-film transistor layer on the flexible substrate layer, and an array of pixels having organic light-emitting diodes on the thin-film transistor layer.

See our report January report here or review granted patent 9,838,085 which was issued earlier today by USPTO.

On November 23 Patently Apple was first to report on Apple's patent application for a foldable iPhone under the report title "Future Foldable iPhone may use a micro-LED Display and Liquid Metal as a Shape Memory Alloy," and you check out our archives on foldable/bendable smartphones here.

Touch & Hover Sensing Device

Apple had one granted for a hover sensing device dating back to 2011. Today Apple was granted a second patent for a hover sensing device under patent number 9,836,158. Apple first filed for this invention in June 2015 and we covered it in a report titled "Apple Advances Touch and Hover Sensing Technologies for Future iDevices." You could review today's granted patent in full here.

Magnetic iPad Stand

2013: Apple Invents Advanced iPad Magnetics System for Dual iPad Notebook, Tripod Stands, Gaming Controller & Much More. Apple was granted their first patent on the iPad stand in September 2014 and filed in 2011, the year the iPad came to market. If the iPad stand hasn't surface by now, it probably never will.

Sports Oriented AirPods with Biometrics & Noise Cancellation Features

Apple noted that "In some embodiments, biometric sensor can take the form of a photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor. A PPG sensor utilizes a pulse oximeter to illuminate a patch of skin and measure changes in light absorption of the skin. The pulse oximeter can include one or more light emitting devices and one or more light collecting devices.

By capturing wave forms associated with the cycling profusion of blood to the skin, multiple biometric parameters can be collected including, for example, heart rate, blood volume and respiratory rate.

In some embodiments, biometric sensor 204 can take the form of a core temperature sensor. Other embodiments of a biometric sensor include embodiment in which the biometric sensor takes the form of an electrode. When the earbud is a wired earbud electrically coupled to another earbud with an electrode, the electrodes can cooperatively measure a number of different biometric parameters. In some embodiments, the electrodes can be configured to measure the galvanic skin response (GSR) of a user. A GSR can be useful in determining an amount of stress being experienced by the user at any given moment in time. In some embodiments, the electrodes can be used to measure more detailed parameters of the heart by taking the form of an electrocardiogram (EKG) sensor or an impedance cardiography (ICG) sensor.

Apple won their first granted patent for this invention in March as covered in our report here. Apple has won their second patent for this invention today under number 9,838,775.

And while we're on the topic of EarPods, Apple was also granted a patent for their "Seamless Earbud Structure" under patent number 9,838,770.

Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.