“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday granted Apple a patent for switching docking functions, such as data syncing, diagnostics or charging, based on the orientation of a device while laying on an inductive charging pad,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.
“According to the document, a device’s orientation on the charging mat determines what function will be carried out by the system,” Campbell reports. “Examples of different orientations include rotational position, determination of whether the device face-up or face-down, relative position compared to another device and position in alignment with certain coordinates, among others.”
“In one embodiment, a user places a device face-down — display side down — on the mat. In this case, the system would provide inductive charging to the device. Alternatively, when the device is face-up, both data syncing and charging may be performed,” Campbell reports. “Interestingly, the patent also mentions that the charging surface may be built into a host device like a laptop computer. This particular implementation would be well suited to charging smaller electronics like iPhones and the much-rumored ‘iWatch.'”
Much more, including Apple’s patent application illustrations, in the full article here.
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