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Patent Suggests AR Functions Coming to iPhone Measure App

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple is looking to incorporate AR technology into the iPhone’s Measure app in a bid to improve accuracy and allow automatic annotation of the object you’re interested in. That’s according to a new patent, seen by AppleInsider.

In future, pointing your iPhone camera at an object could automatically get you an on-screen notification of its measurements. It will do it through AR, and it will do it in part through Machine Learning on different types of objects. “Automatic measurements based on object classification,” is a newly-revealed patent application. It’s concerned with how to determine which object you’re interested in, then how measure it accurately. The patent application is particularly broad, including “devices, systems, and methods that obtain a three-dimensional (3D) representation of a physical environment.” The detail generated is based on a whole series of different sensors and measurements to do with “depth data and light intensity image data.”

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Patent Suggests Apple Looking to Make iPhone Display Glass Thinner

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple is looking to make the glass used for the iPhone’s display thinner. That’s according to a patent spotted by AppleInsider.

In a patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday titled “Insert molding around glass members for portable electronic devices,” Apple says you can have the same glass cover that can stick out from the rest of the enclosure like curved glass, but while also maintaining the thinness of the main glass sections across the screen. Apple’s solution is to incorporate a glass structure around the edge of where the glass cover will sit. This glass section acts as an intermediary between the main enclosure and the thin glass cover.

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Future MacBooks Could Offer Multiple Haptic Areas, Patent Suggests

Charlotte Henry ·

Upcoming MacBooks could incorporate multiple discrete haptic areas. That’s according to a new patent, spotted by Patently Apple.

Apple’s granted patent generally relates to electronic devices with one or more input areas that also function to provide spatially localized haptics via the Taptic Engine. “Spatially localized” haptics (or haptic output) generally refers to any haptic signal, e.g., haptic output, that is tactilely perceptible to a person touching a particular active region of the electronic device, but imperceptible outside that region. The surface area over which a single haptic output is perceptible is referred to as a “discrete haptic region.” There may be any number of discrete haptic regions in an input area of a laptop computing device. The discrete haptic regions may be separated from each other, or they may overlap. Either way, they remain discrete haptic regions each associated with an individual haptic actuator. An “input area” is a structure or surface configured to accept a user input.

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Apple Wins a Patent for Displays with Multiple Refresh Rates

Charlotte Henry ·

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple a patent for displays with multiple refresh rate modes. It was spotted by Patently Apple.

Apple notes that displays may be operable at a native refresh rate that is equal to the highest refresh rate at which the display has full resolution. When operating at the native refresh rate, each row of pixels may be scanned sequentially. Displays may also be operable in a high refresh rate mode with a high refresh rate. In the high refresh rate mode, the display may operate at a refresh rate that is twice the native refresh rate, three times the native refresh rate, or four times the native refresh rate (as examples). The native refresh rate may be 120 Hz and the high refresh rate may be 240 Hz, as one example. The native refresh rate may be 60 Hz and the high refresh rate may be 120 Hz, 180 Hz, or 240 Hz, as another example.