New Apple Watch patent replaces independent engine with battery

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At present, with the upgrade of human-computer interaction experience, people's requirements for haptic feedback are getting higher and higher. With the increase in the share of smart watches, manufacturers are paying more and more attention to smart watches. Among them, haptic feedback has almost become the standard configuration of smart watches.

However, in the haptic feedback experience of smart watches that people are pursuing today, in addition to the requirement of good performance for haptic drivers, there are actually many pain points, such as the introduction of touch feedback increases power consumption, or lacks a real high-quality experience, etc. . In fact, these pain points can also be seen in the products of haptic driver manufacturers, and manufacturers of major smartwatches also want to try their best to solve these problems.

Recently, a new Apple patent shows Apple's efforts to optimize the haptic feedback of smartwatches. Apple is continuing its efforts to make the Apple Watch thinner, and it wants to eliminate the need for a separate Taptic engine — rather than letting the engine take up space, Apple is looking into whether it can make the battery do double duty as a source of haptic feedback.

Apple's newly awarded patent for "Portable Electronic Device with Mobile Battery Element Haptic Device" is the latest in a long line of attempts to relocate the haptic engine. Apple has previously considered using a haptic wristband and has considered modifying the charging coil to do the same thing.

Traditionally, electronic devices include one or more buttons or electromechanical switches for providing input, and some devices include a touch sensor or touch screen for receiving input, Apple said in the patent. However, touch sensors often lack mechanical feedback to alert the user that the input has been registered. As such, Apple wants to develop a patent for a haptic device capable of moving its battery elements to generate haptically perceptible pulses or vibrations along the device's outer surface.

The description in this patent application is for a haptic device that moves a battery element to generate tactilely perceptible pulses or vibrations along the outer surface of the device. This means that there is a battery "electrically connected to the display" and a "coil assembly" that is configured to induce oscillating motion of the battery element parallel to the display to produce a haptic output.

In addition to potentially eliminating the need for a separate haptic engine to save space on the Apple Watch, Apple could potentially use that space for other reasons. Specifically, Apple notes that the current watch battery elements may be smaller than when the haptic device is not included, reducing possible battery life . And if it can be replaced by battery vibration, it will be expected to increase the battery capacity and then increase the battery life.

Much of the patent, though, is about the physics of what has to be done to the battery and how much it has to move to be effective.