New Apple patent: Ultrasound 3D Touch

3DTouch Technology Compared to multi-touch operation in planar two-dimensional space, 3DTouch technology increases the perception of strength and finger area, and can quickly preview/view the contents of your desired SMS/image/hyperlink by long presses, Peek and The response time of the Pop gesture can be as fast as 10ms and 15ms. ForceTouch and 3DTouch are based on the same technology and are based on Apple's Taptic engine, but whether you admit it or not, 3DTouch is indeed better than ForceTouch. For this new technology, Apple has more perfect plans.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently announced a new Apple patent that describes techniques related to the use of ultrasonic pulses in 3D Touch. Apple introduced the technology in this ultrasound 3DTouch patent to be able to determine the strength and strength of the user's touch as the user touches the surface of the device. And this technology can also be integrated into devices that use fingerprinting, GUIs with touch elements, or integrated into touch input or control applications.

According to Apple's introduction, this technology can also be used to generate ultrasonic pulses from inside the device to reflect pulsed ultrasonic waves at the interface between the surface of the device and the air or the user's finger, and to measure the strength and position of the user's force on the surface of the device. .

Ultrasound pulses can be used on pressure sensitive components on the surface of the device. These components can identify the force applied by the user when it is applied at different locations on the surface of the device. According to the intensity and position of the user's force on the surface of the device, the ultrasonic pulse will also have different expressions on the surface of the device.

Ultrasound 3DTouch will be suitable for iOS devices, MacBook laptop touchpads, iMacs, AppleTV and MagicTrackpad and other similar peripheral devices, but unfortunately we do not know whether Apple intends to use this technology.

In fact, the industry has studied the possibility of using ultrasonics in fingerprint identification and other technologies. Ultrasonic fingerprinting has been unveiled at the 2015 Mobile World Congress (MWC2015). At present, the fingerprint recognition principle of Apple TouchID is to use a capacitive sensor to scan fingerprints. Ultrasonic fingerprinting, on the other hand, uses ultrasound to scan the fingerprints, which has a higher recognition accuracy than current sensors. The traditional contact fingerprint recognition technology can only draw a "plane", but this new technology can identify the fingerprint more three-dimensional.

Another advantage of ultrasound technology is that it does not require direct contact. Basically, you do not need to place your finger on a specific button. Simply place your finger over the identification area to scan. And because ultrasound can penetrate a variety of materials - including glass, metal, and sapphire, we can integrate the sensor behind the touch screen, the phone's shell, or a smart watch.

Devices that use this technology will not require capacitive sensors or buttons and will no longer require a variety of touch controls. Fingerprint recognition can be hidden in any part of the body, such as glass, plastic or even metal, such as on the screen of a mobile phone, on the frame, etc., thereby further increasing the screen share. Ultra-narrow frames and ultra-thin bodies have become more and more common. With the help of this new technology, equipment may be able to create new thin and light records.