Apple has filed for a patent (number US 11762422 B1) for “Electronic Devices with Drop Protection.” The tech giant wants to make the upcoming Vision Pro durable enough to withstand being dropped.
About the patent filing
The US$3,499 “Spatial Computer” will, according to Apple, be available in “early” 2024. However, it will, apparently, only be available in limited quantities at first.
In the patent Apple notes that in electronic devices such as head-mounted devices, optical component alignment can be adversely affected if the device is subjected to excessive stress. To help prevent optical component misalignment due to drop events or other events that may impart stress on electronic devices, the Vision Pro could lie provided with an internal frame to which optical components are mounted.
The internal frame may be surrounded by an external housing that is coupled to the internal frame with an elastic coupling member or other structures that can help isolate the internal frame and its components from excessive stress.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “An electronic device may have a housing that separates an exterior region from an interior region. The housing may have a front layer on a front face of the housing and a rear layer on an opposing rear face of the housing. Sidewall structures may extend between the front and rear layers. The housing may form a head-mounted housing that is configured to be worn on a user’s head.
“An internal frame may be mounted in the interior region. The internal frame may have a nose bridge structure that is coupled to the housing with a coupling member such as a coupling member formed from an elastomeric vibration damping material. Other portions of the frame such elongated laterally extending support members may not contact any portion of the housing and may therefore be isolated from the housing during drop events.”
