US Patent Issued to Apple on April 22 for "Crown for an electronic watch" (California Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,282,302, issued on April 22, was assigned to Apple Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.).

"Crown for an electronic watch" was invented by Michael J. Beyhs (San Francisco).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An electronic watch includes a housing defining a side surface of the electronic watch, a transparent cover coupled to the housing and defining a front surface of the electronic watch, an image-sensing element, and a crown extending from the side of the housing and defining an imaging surface. The crown may include a light-directing feature configured to direct, onto the image-sensing element, an image of an object in contact with the imaging surface." ...