Apple patent hints at the company making smart furniture, including an ‘Apple Chair’

Apple has been granted a patent (number US 11995253 B1) for “Systems With Deployable Controllers And User Identification” that hint that the company is considering making its own smart furniture — including an “Apple Chair” (my name, not Apple’s).

About the patent

In the patent Apple notes that homes, offices, commercial facilities such as restaurants, theaters, and other venues, mobile systems, and other systems have lighting, air-conditioning, adjustable seating, and adjustable components that perform other functions. System users can use buttons and other controls to adjust the operation of these components.

An Apple Chair could be programmed to adjust to different users. For example, it could sport a controller having an input device and associated sensor for determining which seat occupant is currently using the chair and use an input device in to adjust height, tilt, amount of lumbar support, and more.

Summary of the patent

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “A controller may have an input device and a sensor adjacent to the input device. The input device may be a touch sensor, a touch screen display, a button, a rotatable knob, or other device that gathers user input. The input device may be reachable by different users occupying different respective seats. 

“The sensor may be an infrared optical sensor that emits infrared light and measures the emitted infrared light after the emitted infrared light has reflected from the hand of a user. The sensor may determine from these hand measurements which of the different users is supplying user input to the input device. Hand distance information and other information on the current user of the input device may also be gathered. The input device may be deployed by an actuator based on hand speed information.”

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