View source for US Patent Application 18216219. Force-Activated Earphone simplified abstract

=Force-Activated Earphone=


==Organization Name==

[[Apple Inc.]]


==Inventor(s)==

[[Nahid Harjee of Sunnyvale CA (US)]]


[[Brian R. Twehues of Campbell CA (US)]]


[[Teera Songatikamas of San Jose CA (US)]]


[[Aonan Li of Berkeley CA (US)]]


[[Travis N. Owens of Lakeway TX (US)]]


[[Kyle J. Campiotti of San Jose CA (US)]]


==Force-Activated Earphone - A simplified explanation of the abstract==


*This abstract for appeared for US patent application  number 18216219 Titled 'Force-Activated Earphone'

==Simplified Explanation==

The abstract describes an earphone that has a speaker housing and a stem with an input surface. Inside the stem, there is a conductive object and a flexible circuit. The flexible circuit has a force sensor electrode and a touch sensor electrode. The earphone also has a controller that can detect changes in capacitance through the force sensor electrode, allowing it to determine the amount of force applied to the input surface.


==Original Abstract Submitted==

An earphone includes a speaker housing; a speaker positioned in the speaker housing; a stem extending from the speaker housing, the stem defining an input surface; a conductive object disposed within the stem; a flexible circuit positioned between the stem and the conductive object; a member positioned between the flexible circuit and the conductive object operable to allow the flexible circuit to move with respect to the stem; a force sensor electrode disposed within the flexible circuit; and a controller operable to determine an input to the earphone using a change in capacitance detected using the force sensor electrode, the change in capacitance corresponding to a non-binary amount of a force applied to the input surface. In some examples, the earphone further includes a touch sensor electrode disposed within the flexible circuit.