Apple Watch IP published by the US Patent Office

Sep 23, 2014 21:13 GMT  ·  By

Apple is still a few good months away from shipping the Apple Watch. However, that doesn't seem to stop the Cupertino, California-based tech giant to get as many patents as possible to protect their new category of devices. 

The Apple Watch brings a good number of innovations and Apple got some approvals from the United States Patent and Trademark Office today. According to Patently Apple, Apple hides some patents information in plain sight. For example, the company would present drawings of an iPhone-like device when in fact, they are designing features for a smartwatch.

One of the newer patents reveals that Apple may introduce Zirconia in the Apple Watch. Zirconia is a substance that can be used as diamond replacement. They admit that alumina has good RF transmission properties, but for small media players and devices the strength of zirconia is more useful.

Apple is thinking of using a housing that has a sandwich-like structure with zirconia on the outside and alumina in the outside. Such a case would be resistant to pressure, chemical and mechanical impacts but would allow the RF transmission to work.

Several other patents filled back in 2013 have been now linked to the Apple Watch capabilities to recognize force applied to its display. So, for example, the device would recognize a simple tap as an "open" app command, but a long, hard press would be the equivalent of a right click in desktop computers.