Apple devices may respond to where an Apple Watch location on the wearer’s body

Apple has been granted a patent (number 11579693 B) for “systems, methods, and graphical user interfaces for updating the display of a user’s body.” It involves electronic devices such as Apple Watches, iPhones, iPads, and Macs that can provide virtual reality and mixed reality experiences via a display.

About the patent

In the patent data, Apple says the development of computer systems for augmented reality (AR) has increased significantly in recent years. Example AR environments include at least some virtual elements that replace or augment the physical world. 

Input devices, such as cameras, controllers, joysticks, touch-sensitive surfaces, and touch-screen displays for computer systems and other electronic computing devices are used to interact with virtual/augmented reality environments. Examples of virtual elements include virtual objects include digital images, video, text, icons, and control elements such as buttons and other graphics.

However, Apple says that methods and interfaces for interacting with environments that include at least some virtual elements (e.g., applications, augmented reality environments, mixed reality environments, and virtual reality environments) are “cumbersome, inefficient, and limited.”

For example, systems that provide insufficient feedback for performing actions associated with virtual objects, systems that require a series of inputs to achieve a desired outcome in an augmented reality environment, and systems in which manipulation of virtual objects “are complex, tedious and error-prone, create a significant cognitive burden on a user, and detract from the experience with the virtual/augmented reality environment.” In addition, Apple says these methods take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. 

The tech giant’s idea is to develop methods and interfaces may complement or replace conventional methods for interacting with a three-dimensional environment. One such method is interaction between the wearer of an Apple Watch and a Mac, iPhone, or iPad. What’s displayed on the device screens would be determined by where the smartwatch is being held in conjunction with the wearer’s body.

Summary of the patent

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “An electronic device, while the electronic device is worn over a predefined portion of the user’s body, displays, via a display generation component arranged on the electronic device opposite the predefined portion of the user’s body, a graphical representation of an exterior view of a body part that corresponds to the predefined portion of the user’s body. The electronic device detects a change in position of the electronic device with respect to the predefined portion of the user’s body. 

“The electronic device, in response to detecting the change in the position of the electronic device with respect to the predefined portion of the user’s body, modifies the graphical representation of the exterior view of the body part that corresponds to predefined portion of the user’s body in accordance with the detected change in position of the electronic device with respect to the predefined portion of the user’s body.”