Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that Apple was fast-tracking work on several wearable products. He’s added that the tech giant is also working on new Home products. Now Apple has been granted a patent for a “Hub Station for Wearable Accessories.”
“Beyond wearables, Apple is developing a range of AI devices for the home,” Gurman said. “That lineup includes a smart display built around the company’s upcoming Siri revamp and a later version with a larger screen and robotic arm. The company is also working on an updated HomePod speaker and a compact indoor sensor for home security and automation.”
About the patent
The newly granted Apple patent relates generally to wearable accessories and specifically to hub stations that organize, support, and communicate with such wearable accessories. In it, Apple notes that wearable accessories are designed in a variety of shapes and sizes with a variety of features and customizations to support connectivity in physical environments, virtual environments, and co-presence (both real and virtual) environments.
Wearable accessories can include head-mounted displays, temple arms or headbands, light seals or face seals, power packs, cords or cables, input devices, headphones, smart watches, and other wearable or holdable devices. Apple says that identification, coordination, and organization of personalized versions of such wearable accessories can be complicated by the number, size, and individual capability of various types of wearable accessories.
Apple’s solution is a hub station that includes a housing with accessory areas and hub indicators associated with at least some of the accessory areas. Each hub indicator can be configured to provide a notification associated with a wearable accessory disposed on a respective accessory area, and registration devices associated with at least some of the accessory areas, each registration device configured to orient a wearable accessory to a respective accessory area.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “Hub stations for wearable accessories include accessory areas, some accessory areas including receptacles configured to receive and support the wearable accessories. The hub stations include hub indicators associated with respective receptacles or accessory areas.
“The hub indicators are configured to provide indications designating at least one of user information for, a charge level of, or an availability of a wearable accessory supported by associated receptacles or accessory areas. The hub stations include processors configured to receive notifications for the wearable accessories and send instructions to activate the associated hub indicators based on the notifications.”
I hope you’ll help support Apple World Today by becoming a patron. Almost all our income is from Patreon support and sponsored posts. Patreon pricing ranges from $2 to $10 a month. Thanks in advance for your support.
