Electronic devices with skin sensors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12317024-B2
Application number	US-202117149552-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 14, 2021
Priority date	Jan 14, 2021
Publication date	May 27, 2025
Grant date	May 27, 2025

Abstract

A wearable electronic device such as an earbud, wristwatch, or other device may be provided with a skin sensor. The skin sensor may use optical measurements to detect the presence of skin adjacent to the electronic device. The sensor may have first and second light-emitting devices such as infrared devices that emit light at respective first and second infrared light wavelengths. Reflected light is monitored by a photodetector. Control circuitry can initiate or pause audio playback or take other actions in response to determining from the reflected light measurements that skin is present. The sensor may have a thin-film interference filter or other optical structure that overlaps the first and second light-emitting devices to narrow the angular spread of light emitted from the skin sensor. This reduces tilt sensitivity and helps enhance skin sensor accuracy.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A skin sensor configured to detect a presence of skin using reflectance measurements from a target at a first wavelength and at a second wavelength at which skin reflects less than at the first wavelength, comprising:
a first light-emitting device configured to emit light at the first wavelength;
a second light-emitting device configured to emit light at the second wavelength;
a first bandpass filter that has a first pass band at the first wavelength and that overlaps the first light-emitting device;
a second bandpass filter that has a second pass band at the second wavelength and that overlaps the second light-emitting device, wherein the second bandpass filter meets the first bandpass filter at a seam, and wherein the emitted light at the first and second wavelengths that has passed respectively through the first and second bandpass filters is characterized by an angular spread of less than +/−30°;
an opaque masking layer that overlaps a portion of the first bandpass filter, a portion of the second bandpass filter, and the seam; and
a photodetector configured to measure the emitted light at the first wavelength after passing through the first bandpass filter and reflecting from the target and configured to measure the emitted light at the second wavelength after passing through the second bandpass filter and reflecting from the target.

2. The skin sensor defined in claim 1 wherein the first and second bandpass filters are formed on a common substrate.

3. The skin sensor defined in claim 2 wherein the first and second bandpass filters are thin-film interference filters.

4. The skin sensor defined in claim 3 wherein the first light-emitting device comprises a first infrared light-emitting device and wherein the second light-emitting device comprises a second infrared light-emitting device.

5. The skin sensor defined in claim 4 wherein the first infrared light-emitting device comprises a 1065 nm light-emitting diode and wherein the second infrared light-emitting device comprises a 1465 nm light-emitting diode.

6. The skin sensor defined in claim 1 further comprising a filter overlapping the photodetector that is configured to pass light at the first and second wavelengths.

7. The skin sensor defined in claim 1 further comprising a printed circuit on which the first and second light-emitting devices and the photodetector are mounted.

8. The skin sensor defined in claim 7 further comprising a package with a first aperture aligned with the first and second light-emitting devices through which the emitted light at the first and second wavelengths passes and a second aperture aligned with the photodetector.

9. The skin sensor defined in claim 1 wherein the first and second light-emitting devices are infrared light-emitting devices.

10. The skin sensor defined in claim 9 wherein the first and second light-emitting devices comprise infrared light-emitting diodes.

11. An earbud, comprising:
an earbud housing;
a speaker in the earbud housing;
a skin sensor in the earbud housing, wherein the speaker is configured to output sound at least partly in response to detection of skin with the skin sensor and wherein the skin sensor comprises:
a first light-emitting device configured to emit light at a first wavelength;
a second light-emitting device configured to emit light at a second wavelength;
a thin-film interference filter overlapping the first and second light-emitting devices that has a first area with a first pass band that is aligned with the first wavelength and that has a second area with a second pass band that is aligned with the second wavelength, wherein the first and second areas are formed on a shared substrate that overlaps the first and second light-emitting devices; and

a photodetector configured to detect reflected light at the first and second wavelengths.

12. The earbud defined in claim 11 wherein the thin-film interference filter has a substrate, a first bandpass filter on the first area of the substrate configured to pass light in the first pass band, and a second bandpass filter on the second area of the substrate configured to pass light in the second pass band.

13. The earbud defined in claim 11 wherein the first light-emitting device comprises a first infrared light-emitting device and wherein the second light-emitting device comprises a second infrared light-emitting device.

14. The earbud defined in claim 13 wherein the first infrared light-emitting device comprises a 1065 nm light-emitting device.

15. The earbud defined in claim 14 wherein the second infrared light-emitting device comprises a 1465 nm light-emitting device.

16. The earbud defined in claim 15 wherein the 1065 nm light-emitting device comprises a 1065 nm light-emitting diode and wherein the 1465 nm light-emitting device comprises a 1465 nm light-emitting diode.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Allec Nicholas P
• Kuboyama Yuta
• Zhang Xiaoyang
• Chen Xi
• Buck Ryan M
• Chandran Praveesh
• Wang Yifei
• Xu Tingjun

Classifications

• A61B5/681

  Wristwatch-type devices · CPC title

• H04R1/1016

  Earpieces of the intra-aural type · CPC title

• A61B5/441

  Skin evaluation, e.g. for skin disorder diagnosis · CPC title

• A61B5/0059

  using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence (photoacoustic A61B5/0093; optical measurement of heart rate A61B5/02416; optical measurement of blood flow A61B5/0261; optical measurement of analytes A61B5/1455) · CPC title

• A61B2503/12

  Healthy persons not otherwise provided for, e.g. subjects of a marketing survey · CPC title