# Big Tech’s Fifteen Most Interesting New Patents This Week (9/18/2026) > Source: > Published: 2026-09-18 07:56:43+00:00 [Get the best of each week in your inbox, free →](#get-weekly) *A weekly read of what the world’s biggest technology companies just told the U.S. patent office.* A heavy week by the numbers: we wrote up 383 filings, with [Samsung](https://patentlyze.com/samsung/) out front at 77, then [Apple](https://patentlyze.com/apple/) at 52, [Sony](https://patentlyze.com/sony/) at 51, [Google](https://patentlyze.com/google/) at 49, and [Nvidia](https://patentlyze.com/nvidia/) at 43. [Tesla](https://patentlyze.com/tesla/) and [OpenAI](https://patentlyze.com/openai/), who go quiet for months at a time, each published three. The full run lives under [this week’s Big Tech patents](https://patentlyze.com/); these fifteen stood out. ## 1. Apple Patents a Laptop With Touch Screens Built Into Both Sides of the Keyboard The two flat patches of aluminum beside a laptop keyboard are the most touched and least used surface on the machine. Apple has filed for [a laptop base with a display under each palm rest, covered by clear glass that also reads touch](https://patentlyze.com/patent/apple-displays-both-sides-laptop-keyboard/). Claim 1 is plain hardware: a keyboard in the center, a light-transmissive cover that defines a touch region on either side of it, and a display under each region. The cover is the same idea as the glass over a MacBook trackpad, except the panel beneath can show whatever the software wants instead of a fixed grey rectangle. The claims say nothing about what appears there or who controls it. The Touch Bar failed because it took over a row people already used. This puts the extra surface where nothing lived before, and gives a video editor a scrub strip and a musician a fader bank without a second device in the bag. Single inventor, Chang Zhang, filed in May as a continuation of an August 2024 application, twenty claims. Two open questions: whether the glass survives a decade of wrists, and whether Apple, having killed one secondary screen, wants to explain a second one. ## 2. Sony Patents a Display That Beams Images Directly Onto Your Retina Every headset on the market puts a screen a few centimeters from your eye and asks a lens to fix the geometry. Sony has filed for [a projector that skips the screen and lands the image on the retina itself](https://patentlyze.com/patent/sony-retina-projection-display-system-explained/). The image light is a bundle of beams. Each one is focused to a point in front of an optical element that sits near the pupil, which re-collects the diverging light and sends it through. The central rays of every beam arrive parallel to the optical axis, a textbook condition that makes distortion easy to compute. The optical element and the eye are held in a fixed relationship while the thing runs. The prize is the one every AR glasses team is chasing: a sharp image from a package with no display panel in it. This is the optics layer of that product, nothing above it. One inventor, Masanori Iwasaki, and a long paper trail: filed in May as a continuation of an application from April 2021. The phrase to watch is “fixed positional relationship.” Glasses slide, heads turn, and a design that assumes a still eye has a fit problem to solve before the optics pay off. ## 3. Google Patents a System That Generates Custom Ad Images for Each Individual User An ad today is one picture shown to millions of people. Google has filed for [a pipeline that feeds your personalization data and a merchant’s brand assets through a text model, then an image model, and paints an ad for you alone](https://patentlyze.com/patent/google-ai-generated-ads-personalized-per-user/). Two stages. A text-generation model takes what the system knows about you (interests, demographics, history) together with the advertiser’s products, colors, and slogans, and writes a set of terms that bridge the two. A text-to-image model turns those terms into one or more pictures, and the ad unit on your screen is assembled from them. The claim runs from data ingestion to display. The hiking boots you see would be rendered fresh, in a style the system thinks you like, and nobody else would ever see that image. That is a change in what appears on your phone, even if you never know it happened. Single inventor, Arash Sadr, filed in May as a continuation of a March 2024 application. There is no step in the document where a person checks the picture before it ships, so the failure mode is not a boring ad but an odd one, with the brand’s name on it. ## 4. Apple Patents a Way to Stretch Your Phone Screen Into Thin Air Using AR A phone screen is a small rectangle, and everything about it is a compromise with that fact. Apple has filed for [a headset that sees the phone in your hand and draws a larger version of its interface in the space around it](https://patentlyze.com/patent/apple-3d-ar-expansion-phone-screen-explained/). The headset’s cameras capture the room, including the phone. It presents a 3D environment holding three things: the real phone, a virtual copy of whatever interface the phone is showing, and a separate object for data that lives on the headset, floating outside the phone’s edges. An input such as a look and a pinch moves that data onto the phone. The claims cover the phone whether it is physically visible or only represented. This is the iPhone and Vision Pro as one instrument: the phone is the drop zone, the headset is the desk. It is also the most concrete description yet of what Apple thinks a headset is for when you already own a phone. Four inventors, twenty-four claims, filed in May as a continuation of a February 2024 application. Whether a floating iPhone holds up in a bright, crowded room is not a question a patent can answer. ## 5. Sony Patents Shutter Glasses That Add a Private Layer to Massive Public Screens Everyone in a stadium sees the same screen. Sony has filed for [glasses that read a giant display’s frame rate and slip a personal layer of content on top of it, visible only to the wearer](https://patentlyze.com/patent/sony-shutter-glasses-giant-spherical-displays/). The trick is old 3D-cinema hardware pointed at a new job. The big display cycles frames at a set frequency. The headset’s transparent lens opens and shuts in sync, clear for the frames meant for you and opaque for the rest. A processor knows where each headset sits relative to the screen and scales and positions the extra content, which the filing calls XR objects, to your angle of view, so a label over a player still points at the player from your seat. The document names a spherical display, which is not a coincidence. This is a Sphere-style venue where the show is shared and the stats, subtitles, and replays are yours. Two inventors, Xiaoyong Ye and Mario Sarria, filed in May as a continuation of a November 2024 application. Syncing shutters for one seat is solved; doing it for thousands of people moving at different distances is the infrastructure this would need before a single venue opens. ## 6. Google Patents a Fingertip Blood Pressure Sensor Built Into Everyday Devices The blood pressure cuff lives in a drawer, which is why most people’s number is a guess. Google has filed for [a four-electrode sensor small enough to sit under one fingertip on a phone or tablet](https://patentlyze.com/patent/google-fingertip-blood-pressure-sensor-devices/). The method is impedance plethysmography: two excitation electrodes push a tiny alternating current through the fingertip, two sensing electrodes read how resistance shifts as each pulse of blood passes, and all four fit in the footprint of a fingerprint. The processor builds a pulsatile waveform from the readings and derives blood pressure, or what the claim carefully calls a proxy for it. A reading you take by resting a finger on the back of a phone you are already holding is a different proposition from a cuff. The value is the trend: a week of creeping numbers that sends someone to a doctor who would otherwise never go. Six inventors, including Shwetak Patel, filed in March 2025 with no parent, which makes this a fresh idea rather than a continuation. “Proxy” is the honest word and also the regulatory one; nothing here claims a clinical measurement. ## 7. Apple Patents a System That Tracks Who Looked at Your Health Records You can see your medical records on an iPhone. You cannot see who else has. Apple has filed for [an audit trail that logs every access to a patient’s health data without the log ever holding the data itself](https://patentlyze.com/patent/apple-privacy-preserving-health-record-access-logs/). A clinician’s query names a specific encrypted node inside the provider’s data structure. The provider returns that node plus a piece of access information confirming the request happened. The requesting system folds those into a transaction record: which block, which user, when. A mapping table ties user identifiers to patient identifiers, so the output is a list of exactly which of your records each person opened, built from encrypted references. Health Records in the Health app already pulls clinical data in. This is the receipt that goes with it, and it turns “who saw my file” from a records request into a screen. Five inventors, filed in May as a continuation of an April 2022 application. The records are assembled on the institution’s side, not the patient’s, so seeing your own access history still means asking for it. ## 8. IBM Patents an AI That Tracks Daily Device Habits to Flag Alzheimer’s Risk Cognitive decline shows up in behavior years before it shows up in a clinic. [IBM](https://patentlyze.com/ibm/) has filed for [a model that reads how you use your devices over time and raises a flag when an Alzheimer’s risk score crosses a line](https://patentlyze.com/patent/ibm-ai-system-alzheimer-early-detection/). Device data builds a user profile. A model is trained on that profile together with historical profiles from other people, so it knows what normal aging looks like across a population and what normal looks like for you. It produces two numbers: a long-term cognitive state score and a real-time one. When a risk score derived from both drops below a threshold, a notification goes out. A bad afternoon does not trip it; drift does. For a family with a history of the disease, the difference between a yearly checkup and a phone that watches every day is the whole game. Nobody has to feel worried enough to book the appointment. Six inventors, filed in March 2025, no parent. The filing does not say which signals it reads or who receives the alert, and an alarm with no next step is fear, not help. ## 9. Sony Patents a Way to Patch Video Games Without Stopping the Session An update lands, the game closes, the progress bar crawls, and the co-op session is gone. Sony has filed for [patching a game’s compiled code while the game keeps running](https://patentlyze.com/patent/sony-live-game-updates-without-restarting/). The binary is built from at least two compiled blocks. While the game executes, a patch arrives carrying a third block, either to replace one of the existing ones or to be added beside them, and the binary is updated in place with the loop still ticking. This is machine code being swapped, not assets or config files, which is why nobody does it today: one wrong pointer and the console crashes. The moment you would notice this feature is the moment you notice nothing. A fix arrives mid-match the way a website updates without asking you to close the browser. Two inventors, David Ross Coles and Steve Agoston, filed in March 2025. The examiner has not acted yet, but the claim is narrow and specific enough that it reads as one of the more grantable filings on this list. ## 10. Samsung Patents a Display That Switches Between Public and Private Viewing Angles The stranger on the train can read your screen as easily as you can. Samsung has filed for [a panel with two kinds of pixels, one wide-angle and one narrow, so the phone can switch between a shareable view and a private one with no clip-on filter](https://patentlyze.com/patent/samsung-dual-angle-privacy-display-explained/). The first pixel type is ordinary. The second sits beside it inside a raised barrier, with a shield layer above and an extra shield member between them, so its light leaves in a tight cone. The processor lights the two populations in different ratios from one pixel group to the next to keep brightness even. Public mode drives the wide pixels; private mode drives the narrow ones, and anyone off-axis sees nothing. Privacy filters exist and everyone hates them because they are always on. A screen that is private when you tap a toggle and normal when you do not is the version people would actually keep. Seven inventors, fourteen claims, filed in May as a continuation of a July 2025 application. This is glass, not software: the panel has to be manufactured differently, which puts a product years out and at the mercy of a factory retool. ## 11. Sony Patents a Way to Pay for Games Through Your PS5 Controller Put down the controller, find the phone, open it, type sixteen digits. Most impulse purchases die somewhere in that sentence. Sony has filed for [a controller that notices your phone nearby and relays its payment details to the console](https://patentlyze.com/patent/sony-ps5-controller-transfers-payment-info/). The controller checks for a known device within a set distance and emits a signal when it finds one. The phone answers with a notification, the handshake. Then the phone sends a message carrying the payment method, the controller wraps it in a second message and passes it to the console. The claim ties the relay to an event at the console, a purchase prompt, so the controller is not broadcasting card data in the background. Abandoned checkout is the most measured loss in retail, and Sony’s storefront is inside a device the customer is already holding. This closes the gap between wanting a game and owning it to a single motion. Four inventors, filed in March 2025. The controller becomes a hop in a payment chain, which means it becomes a target; the filing describes the relay, not the encryption around it. ## 12. Tesla Patents a Steering Wheel Button That Pushes Back When You Press It Tesla moved most controls to the screen and put the rest on flat pads with no travel. Tesla has filed for [a steering wheel switch that senses your press and answers with a click, using one piezoelectric part for both jobs](https://patentlyze.com/patent/tesla-haptic-feedback-steering-wheel-buttons/). A piezoelectric material makes electricity when squeezed and moves when electricity is applied. Your finger presses the switchpack, the actuator produces a signal, and a processor decides what the gesture was: tap, hold, or swipe. The processor then sends a control signal back to the same actuator, which vibrates in a pattern you feel. No mechanical switch underneath, so the whole thing is flat, sealed, and thin. This is the iPhone 7 home button on a steering wheel. Apple proved the fake click works; Tesla’s contribution is putting it where a driver’s thumb lands without looking. Four inventors, filed in October 2025 as the U.S. stage of an April 2024 international application. The material science is mature; what the filing skips is heat, sunlight, sweat, and a decade of palms, which is where the engineering actually lives. ## 13. Sony Patents a Parental Control System That Uses Your Location to Filter Who Can Play With Your Kids Online Online parental controls ask a parent to judge strangers by their usernames. Sony has filed for [a geofence drawn around the child’s real location that decides which players are allowed to make contact](https://patentlyze.com/patent/sony-geofencing-parental-controls-online-gaming/). A geofencing application runs on the platform side, inside the game environment. It reads location from the child’s device, takes the parent’s criteria (a radius, plus rules such as age or an approved list), and builds the fence. When another player tries to start something, a friend request, a voice invite, a session, the system checks that player’s location against the boundary and the rules before letting it through. Because it runs at the platform layer, one setup covers every title. For a parent, the pitch is one sentence: set a distance, and nobody outside it can reach your kid in the game. The neighbor’s child gets in; a stranger three time zones away does not. Seven inventors, filed in March 2025, and already under examination with a first office action mailed. The open question is the location of every player the fence has to screen, which gets pulled in just to check eligibility. ## 14. Disney Patents a System That Resyncs Body Language When It Dubs Video Into Another Language Bad dubbing is two failures: the mouth says one thing and the hands land a beat late. [Disney](https://patentlyze.com/disney/) has filed for [a pipeline that translates the dialogue and then moves the gestures, or retimes the audio, so both line up again](https://patentlyze.com/patent/disney-multilingual-video-translation-synced-gestures/). The audio track is pulled off the video and translated. The frames are scanned for body gestures and the moment each occurs, and the system records the temporal alignment between an utterance and its gesture. Translations run long or short, so the alignment breaks; the filing fixes it either by shifting the gesture to a new spot on the timeline or by pacing the translated clip to end where the original gesture does. Lips get regenerated to match the new words. The output is one synchronized file. Disney+ ships everything in dozens of languages, and this is the difference between a dub that reads as a dub and one that reads as the film. Single inventor, Duy Nguyen, filed in March 2025, with a first office action already mailed. Deciding which arm movement belongs to which word is the hard step, and a wrong guess is visible to everyone on the couch. ## 15. Samsung Patents a Call-Blocking System That Stops Spam Calls Before Your Phone Rings A blocked number today still gets one ring in before the phone shuts it down. Samsung has filed for [killing the call inside the signaling layer, before the phone prepares to ring at all](https://patentlyze.com/patent/samsung-blocking-calls-before-they-ring/). The incoming call arrives as a signaling message. The processor tells the IMS layer, the part of the phone that manages voice over 4G and 5G, to pull the blocked list from memory and compare. On a match the phone sends a rejection back to the network and skips every connection-setup step, so the audio stack, the screen, and the vibration motor are never told anything happened. A number not on the list proceeds as normal. Spam blocking has been an app feature stacked on top of the phone; this pushes it down into the radio stack, which is the only place a ring can be prevented rather than muted. Three inventors, filed in May as a continuation of a November 2024 Korean international application. The list has to be right before any other check can run, and a number blocked by mistake gets a rejection with no chance for the phone to catch the error. ## What ties them together Seven of the fifteen are about a screen that is not where you expect it. Apple puts two under your palms and stretches a third into the air. Sony puts one on your retina and another that only your seat can see. Samsung builds a panel that is public or private on command. The display was the most settled part of a device for a decade. This week it is the part these companies are least settled about. The other column is privacy at the plumbing level. Apple logs who opened your medical file. Google takes a blood pressure reading you never have to schedule. IBM watches your typing for a disease. Sony fences your child’s online world by street address, and Samsung stops a spam call before the phone knows it exists. None of these is an app setting. Every one sits underneath the apps, which is where the arguments about consent are going to happen next. The one that cuts across both columns is Google’s custom ad: a screen that is different for every person who looks at it. Patentlyze reads every new patent application that Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, Samsung, OpenAI, Qualcomm, Sony, Intel, AMD, IBM, Adobe, Salesforce, Tesla, Amazon, and Disney file at the USPTO, and writes a plain-English breakdown of the ones that say something about where products are heading. New filings drop every Thursday. The full archive lives in our [patent library](https://patentlyze.com/patents/). ### Get lists like this in your inbox We read every patent application Big Tech publishes and send you the ones worth knowing. Plain English, free, every week.