Apple granted patent for AirPower features, iPhone w/ touch sensitive rear glass, more

9to5 Staff | Dec 18 2018 - 4:20 pm PT

Apple was granted 37 patents today, notably receiving approval for AirPower’s primary selling point, “multi-device charging.” The company was also granted a patent related to an iPhone with a full-body display spanning the front through rear and sides.

The latter patent details having touch-sensitive input capabilities on the rear glass, with the patent specifying users could turn pages, scroll, and game while utilizing the rear input.

The same patent further covers detecting device tilt, with “scroll speed proportionate to tilt angle” when viewing content while “detect absence of tilt and halt scrolling” would offer when the device was steady.

Here’s how the patent describes tilting between pages:

The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the control circuitry changes the content by flipping pages of text displayed on the flexible display layer based on the tilt angle.

Further, the patent describes how touch input from the rear would affect content displayed on the main display.

The electronic device defined in claim 1 further comprising a touch sensor, wherein the electronic device has a front face and a rear face and wherein the flexible display layer is configured to display content on the front face based on touch input gathered using the touch sensor on the rear face.

Last week, we detailed some of the security features Apple filed a patent application for regarding AirPower. Here’s how the security feature was described:

…nearby malicious devices attempting to snoop on information transmitted between the computing device and the wireless charging apparatus will only be able to gather innocuous data.

Moreover, the embodiments described herein can involve periodically refreshing the unique IDs of the computing devices to further-thwart any malicious activity that may be attempted.

Finally, Apple won patents related to smart fabrics being integrated with remote controls. An excerpt describes the possibility below.

The fabric-based item may include control circuitry that gathers user input from the input circuitry and wireless communications circuitry that the control circuitry uses to transmit remote control commands and other wireless signals in response information from the input circuitry.

Although Apple’s patents today spark some life into AirPower, patents aren’t a reliable indicator of product launch information in any way.