The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 39 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover an Apple patent that describes a future OLED display being able to operate in two modes with one of them being in optical mode to be used as Touch ID under the display. Our report also presents two design patents covering MacBooks.

OLED based Touch Sensing and user Identification

Apple's granted patent relates to a touch-sensitive display and, more particularly, to a touch screen configured for optical touch sensing and user identification using organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).

Apple's patent points to the OLED touch screen of a device configured in an optical sensing mode. Optical Sensing is mentioned 108 times in the patent. Apple's patent FIG. 8C illustrates an exemplary method for user identification.  

Touch screen #800 can be configured for displaying one or more images during one time period and can be configured for touch sensing during another time period.

For touch sensing, touch screen 800 can be configured for capacitive touch sensing and/or optical touch sensing. By using capacitive and optical touch sensing, fine features can be resolved with higher resolution touch sensing.

Apple's granted patent 10,541,280 that was issued today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was originally filed in Q3 2017.

MacBook Design Patents

Apple was granted two design patents today (D873,263 and 264) for their slick 2015 MacBook that is now defunct.