The Shape-Shifting Devices in 10 Apple Patents

What is it?

Look at the dashed lines from the small device to the recess below the keyboard. The patent describes a host device supplying computing resources to an accessory with little or no independent processing capability.

The accessory can add a larger display, keyboard and battery. In one arrangement, the docked host touchscreen also serves as a trackpad, so the same device provides both computation and an input surface.

What is it?

Compare the raised module with the opening it leaves in the keyboard. The drawings show different ways to release an input device that normally occupies part of the keyboard.

In the proposed arrangement, the module acts as a key while attached and as a pointing device when removed. The document describes position sensing, including optical tracking of movement across a surface, as well as click input.

What is it?

Follow the arrow from the object on the right to the tablet. A sensor at the tip or opposite end of the stylus measures the color of an external object, and the stylus can send that information to another device.

The measured color can then be used for drawing or editing. It extends the idea of an on-screen eyedropper tool to physical things that are not already part of the image.

What is it?

Notice the separate arrows for the audio stream and for commands and status information. In the pictured arrangement, music comes from another device, while the case provides a touch interface for controlling playback.

The lower drawing shows a finger selecting the next-track control. The patent gives the case a display and touch-sensitive surface, turning the object that stores and charges the earbuds into an interactive controller.

What is it?

The overview separates the ring on the hand from the display it controls. The document describes an outer ring that can rotate relative to an inner ring, with sensors detecting the input.

That motion can be assigned to scrolling, selecting a value, or adjusting settings such as volume and display brightness. The rotation mechanism is described in the document; the overview here shows how the ring fits into the wider system.

What is it?

Look at the camera opening near the end of the band held between the fingers. The camera is on the band, rather than fixed to the face of the watch.

The flexible section can bend and twist so the user can aim the camera without pointing the watch body in the same direction. The patent also describes using the watch display as a viewfinder.

What is it?

Compare the extended display above with the curved version on the wrist below. The patent combines a flexible display with a bi-stable spring, a structure with two stable shapes, like a slap bracelet.

The spring can change from a flat form to one that curls around the wrist. This gives the display a different supporting structure from a rigid watch face attached to a separate band.

What is it?

Read the drawing from top to bottom. The device begins flat, then bends so the display surface stays above the line representing the ground. The patent describes detecting a fall and reducing the angle between display portions to less than 180 degrees.

The intended result is for the edges to receive the impact instead of the display. A separate embodiment describes a motorized hinge; the drawing here shows the protective motion, not a guarantee that every fall ends this way.

What is it?

This is a cross-section of the layers, not a before-and-after demonstration of a repaired screen. The patent describes self-healing material intended to reduce scratches or dents in the display cover; the illustrated arrangement also places an elastomer in the flexible region.

Other arrangements in the document describe healing without an external prompt or with heat, light or electric current initiating or accelerating the process. These are proposed material and layer configurations, not measured durability results.

What is it?

Compare the canoe, aerial view and street scene. The patent describes presenting a passenger with a virtual environment whose events correspond to the movement of the real vehicle.

A turn on the road could become a bend in a virtual river, while a bump could be represented as the canoe passing over an obstacle. The point is to connect felt movement with events in the scene, rather than merely play a video inside a car.