In 2015 Patently Apple posted a patent application report titled "Apple introduces us to the Apple Ring in all its Glory." Apple was granted a patent for that last year in a report titled "Apple has won its First Smart Ring Patent. Apple was granted their third patent back in April. Today Apple's latest continuation patent was published by the US Patent & Trademark Office. Once again Apple is refining their patent claims for their future ring so as to ensure that it is appropriately covered legally against competitors and patent trolls.

As a reminder to those not familiar with Apple's possible future ring accessory, Apple notes that their ring is to be worn on the user's index finger of the user's predominant hand. The user may use the ring computing device to control one or more external electronic devices, such as a smart television, cellular telephone, laptop computer, tablet computer, automobile audio or telephone system, game console, smart watch, automation devices or any other such device.

The ring computing device may employ a touch pad, touch screen, microphone, or motion sensors to capture user input via touches, audio commands, or hand gestures.

In some embodiments, the user controls the device using a second finger (one of a thumb, fore or index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and pinky finger of either hand, different from the first finger). In those embodiments where the ring is worn on the user's index finder, the user will generally control the device using the thumb of that same hand.

In some embodiments, the device provides feedback to the user via speech or other audio or haptic feedback (e.g., vibrations), or via a display.

Apple's patent FIG. 9 below illustrates a ring computing device communicating with an external electronic device

So, what has been added today? When Apple files a "continuation-patent," the only thing that changes are patent claims that Apple legal believes should be added to better protect Apple's invention against copycats or patent trolls.

The bulk of the additions are found below in Apple's first ten patent claims with a new focus on "A wireless finger-worn device" as follows:

1. A wireless finger-worn device configured to be disposed on one or more fingers of a hand of a user, comprising: a touch-sensitive input device; one or more tactile output generators; one or more processors; memory; and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for: detecting, via the touch-sensitive input device, an input; in response to detecting the input: in accordance with a determination that the input corresponds to a respective touch event of a plurality of touch events: transmitting, to an external electronic device, a command associated with the respective touch event; and generating, via the one or more tactile output generators, a first tactile output indicative of the transmission of the command.

2. The wireless finger-worn device of claim 1, wherein generating the first tactile output is performed in accordance with a determination that the command was successfully transmitted to the external electronic device, and the one or more programs include instructions for: in response to detecting the input: in accordance with the determination that the input corresponds to the respective touch event of the plurality of touch events: in accordance with a determination that the command was not successfully transmitted to the external electronic device, forgoing generating the first tactile output.

3. The wireless finger-worn device of claim 2, wherein the one or more programs include instructions for: in response to detecting the input: in accordance with the determination that the input corresponds to the respective touch event of the plurality of touch events: in accordance with the determination that the command was not successfully transmitted to the external electronic device, generating a second tactile output indicative of unsuccessful transmission of the command, wherein the second tactile output is different from the first tactile output.

4. The wireless finger-worn device of claim 1, wherein the one or more programs include instructions for: in response to detecting the input: in accordance with a determination that the input does not correspond to a respective touch event of the plurality of touch events: forgoing transmitting the command associated with the respective touch event; and forgoing generating the first tactile output indicative of the transmission of the command.

5. The wireless finger-worn device of claim 1, wherein determining that the input corresponds to the respective touch event of the plurality of touch events includes recognizing the input as a gesture.

6. The wireless finger-worn device of claim 1, wherein the command associated with the respective touch event is different from the respective touch event.

7. The wireless finger-worn device of claim 1, wherein transmitting the command associated with the respective touch event includes transmitting the respective touch event to the external electronic device for processing at the external electronic device.

8. The wireless finger-worn device of claim 1, wherein the command transmitted to the external electronic device includes instructions to perform a respective operation, and the one or more programs include instructions for, in response to detecting the input, and in accordance with the determination that the input corresponds to a respective touch event of a plurality of touch events, performing the respective operation at the wireless finger-worn device.

9. The wireless finger-worn device of claim 1, wherein the command includes instructions to change an appearance of a user interface element displayed on a display of the external electronic device, instructions to change an audio volume of the external electronic device, or instructions to change a brightness of one or more lights associated with the external electronic device.

10. The wireless finger-worn device of claim 1, wherein the one or more programs include instructions for: in response to detecting the input: in accordance with the determination that the input corresponds to the respective touch event of the plurality of touch events: in combination with generating the first tactile output indicative of the transmission of the command, generating an audio notification indicative of the transmission of the command.

Apple's continuation patent 20200241641 that was published today by the U.S. Patent Office was originally filed back in April 2020. Considering that this is a continuation patent, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.

For the record, Amazon was first to introduce a smart ring back in September 2019 called "Echo Loop" as illustrated below. They beat Microsoft to market who had filed for a ring patent back in 2016.