Apple has filed for another patent (number 20200241641) for a “wearable electronic ring computing device.” The “Apple Ring” could be used to control, among other things, a Mac. At least eight other patents have been filed for or granted to the company.
In the patent filing, Apple says that use of existing touchpads and touch-screen displays “may be cumbersome, inconvenient, or inefficient for certain tasks and applications”. A user’s hands may be preoccupied with another task, for example, or the user’s hands and/or arms may become fatigued after holding the device in a viewing position for extended periods of time.
What’s more switching back-and-forth between different input modes, such as a keyboard and mouse on a Mac, may be “inefficient,” Apple says. The company says there’s a need for “a more discreet, safer, more efficient, or more ergonomic way to interact with touch pads or touch screens.” Apparently, Apple thinks an “Apple Ring” could be a solution.
Here’s the summary of the invention: “A user controls an external electronic device with wireless ring device; the ring is disposed on one or more fingers of a hand of the user. The ring detects, via a touch-sensitive input device, an input. In response to detecting the input, in accordance with a determination that the input corresponds to a respective touch event of a plurality of touch events, the ring transmits, to the external electronic device, a command associated with the respective touch event, and generates, via the one or more tactile output generators, a first tactile output indicative of the transmission of the command.”
