Wearable electronic device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016378071-A1
Application number	US-201615261917-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 10, 2016
Priority date	Sep 2, 2014
Publication date	Dec 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A consumer product that is a portable and, in some cases, a wearable electronic device. The wearable electronic device may have functionalities including: keeping time; monitoring a user's physiological signals and providing health-related information based on those signals; communicating with other electronic devices or services; visually depicting data on a display; gather data form one or more sensors that may be used to initiate, control, or modify operations of the device; determine a location of a touch on a surface of the device and/or an amount of force exerted on the device, and use either or both as input.

First claim

1 . A wearable electronic device, comprising:
a housing comprising:
a flat bottom portion;
a top portion defining a cavity; and
a curved side portion that extends from the bottom portion to the top portion;
a band attached to the housing and configured to secure the wearable electronic device to a user; a display at least partially disposed within the cavity and having a viewable area; and
a cover disposed above the display and comprising:
a flat middle portion larger than the viewable area of the display; and
a curved edge portion surrounding the flat middle portion and coinciding with the curved side portion along a perimeter of the cavity to form a continuous contoured surface.

2 . The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein:
the continuous contoured surface is tangent with the flat bottom portion of the housing at a first end of the contour; and the continuous contoured surface is tangent with the flat middle portion of the cover at a second end of the contour.

3 . The wearable electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the continuous contoured surface has a constant radius.

4 . The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein
the cavity has a rectangular shape; the curved edge portion of the housing has four sides that surround the cavity; each side is orthogonal to two adjacent sides; and each side is connected to an adjacent side by a rounded corner.

5 . The wearable electronic device of claim 4 , wherein:
the rounded corners have a curvature that corresponds to a curvature of the continuous contoured surface formed by the curved edge portion of the cover and the curved side portion of the housing.

6 . The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a crown module positioned at least partially within an aperture formed within the curved side portion of the housing; wherein:
the crown module comprises an outer surface configured to receive a rotary user input.

7 . The wearable electronic device of claim 6 , wherein:
the crown module is offset with respect to a centerline of the housing between the top portion and the flat bottom portion; and the offset is toward the top portion of the housing; and the crown module includes a dial having a portion that is higher than an interface between the cover and the housing.

8 . The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a port formed in the curved side portion of the housing; an acoustic module disposed within the housing and configured to produce an audio output through the port, the acoustic module comprising:
an acoustic element; and
an acoustic cavity that acoustically couples the acoustic element to the port; wherein:
the port includes an orifice that is offset with respect to the acoustic cavity to prevent the direct ingress of liquid into the acoustic module.

9 . The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a gasket positioned between the housing and the cover; and a ledge formed along a perimeter of the cavity, wherein:
the gasket is positioned along the ledge that is formed along the perimeter of the cavity; and
the gasket, the cover, and the housing are configured to cooperate to form a substantially water-proof seal.

10 . The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a biosensor module disposed in an opening formed in the flat bottom portion of the housing, the biosensor module comprising:
a chassis positioned in the opening of the housing and defining an array of windows;
an array of light sources attached to the chassis and configured to emit light into the user through the array of windows; and
an optically transparent rear cover disposed over the chassis and over the array of windows and operative to pass light emitted from the array of light sources into the user.

11 . The wearable electronic device of claim 10 , wherein the rear cover has a convex outer contour.

12 . An electronic device, comprising:
a housing comprising a bottom portion defining an opening; a band attached to the housing and configured to secure the electronic device to a user;
a biosensor module disposed within the opening;
a rear cover disposed over the biosensor module and comprising
an edge protruding outwardly from the bottom portion of the housing; and
an outer surface having a convex curved contour.

13 . The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein:
the outer surface of the rear cover defines one or more windows that provide operational access to one or more optical components of the biosensor module; and the one or more windows have a curvature that matches the convex curved contour of the outer surface.

14 . The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the biosensor module comprises:
an array of light sources configured to emit light into a body of the user; and a photodetector configured to receive light produced by a light source of the array of light sources that is reflected from the body and produce a sensor signal.

15 . The electronic device of claim 14 , further comprising:
a processing unit configured to compute a health metric associated with the user based on the sensor signal; and a display disposed within the housing and configured to display the health metric

16 . The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the biosensor module is removably coupled to the housing.

17 . A wearable electronic device, comprising:
a housing comprising:
a top portion;
a cavity formed within the top portion; and
a curved side portion that surrounds the cavity; and
a transparent cover disposed over the cavity of the housing and comprising:
a flat middle portion at a center of the transparent cover;
a curved outer portion that emanates from and surrounds the flat middle portion and extends outwardly to an edge of the transparent cover; and
a mask positioned relative to an internal surface of the transparent cover, wherein the mask has an outer boundary located proximate to the edge of the transparent cover and an inner boundary located within the curved outer portion of the transparent cover.

18 . The wearable electronic device of claim 17 , further comprising:
a display disposed below the transparent cover, wherein a perimeter portion of a viewable area of the display is disposed below the mask.

19 . The wearable electronic device of claim 17 , wherein the device further comprises:
an antenna having a shape that corresponds to a shape of the cavity formed within the housing, wherein:
the antenna is disposed in a groove formed in the internal surface of the transparent cover; and
the groove is formed between the outer boundary and the inner boundary of the mask.

20 . The wearable electronic device of claim 19 , wherein:
the cover is formed from a sapphire material; and the antenna is configured to facilitate wireless communication between the wearable electronic device and an external device.

21 - 34 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Rothkopf Fletcher R

Classifications

• G06F1/1643

  the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads (details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615) · CPC title

• A61B5/02427

  Details of sensor · CPC title

• G04B3/04

  Rigidly-mounted keys, knobs or crowns {(jointed winding-stem G04B37/06)} · CPC title

• G06F1/169

  the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes (G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033) · CPC title

• G04B39/02

  Sealing crystals or glasses {(sealing the case and the winding stem G04B37/08)} · CPC title