The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 45 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular granted patent report, we cover Apple’s invention about a system that may include one or more U-shaped finger-mounted devices configured to be mounted on a user's fingers while gathering sensor input and supplying haptic output to users wearing a Head Mounted Display system (glasses or full headset for gaming etc.).

Apple notes that sensors associated with the finger devices may include force sensors, inertial measurement units, proximity sensors, touch sensors, and other sensors.

Haptic output devices in the finger-mounted devices may provide vibrations and other haptic output to the fingers of a user as the user interacts with real-world objects and computer-generated virtual objects in virtual reality and mixed reality environments.

Apple’s patent FIG. 1 below is a schematic diagram of an illustrative system with a finger device in accordance to their invention; FIG. 2 is a top view of an illustrative finger of a user on which a finger device has been placed; FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative finger device on the finger of a user.

Apple’s patent FIG. 8 below is a perspective view of an illustrative battery case with a hinged lid for storing and charging a finger device; FIG. 9 is a top view of an illustrative storage case for a set of three finger devices; FIG. 10 is a perspective view of an illustrative head-mounted device to which finger devices have been coupled for storage and charging; FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a portion of a device such as a head-mounted device that has a recess for receiving a finger device.

Apple's granted patent 10,795,438 was published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. For more details you could also check out Patently Apple's patent application report posted in October 2019.