Apple keeps on coming out with interesting patent applications. I am indebted to the free newspaper Metro on the 14 June for an item titled "Apple eyes the power of the sun" (a title which somehow changed in the Web version).
It concerns a patent application published in April called Integrated touch sensor and solar assembly. The solar cell "stack-ups" are integral with the touch sensor, so the same area is used to recharge the media player or phone. The same area can also be used for optical sensing.
The smaller devices get, the less area that is available for solar cells, so this sounds like a great advance, provided of course that the device is given an opportunity to charge up. The article quotes Flora Graham, mobile phone editor at website CNET, as saying "the problem with solar charging is that it takes a long time and we have relatively little sunshine in the UK". The article speculates that the new iPhone 4, with a glass back, may pave the way for the solar panels. My impression was that the solar panels would be on the other side, where the user selects the applications. Using that side also makes it more likely that the device will pick up the solar energy in the first place.
The patent application has 26 pages including 17 pages of technical drawings offering lots of detail. It's a pity that the article didn't mention how to find it, such as quoting its published number (US 2010/0078230). The Imjustcreative site reproduces a couple of drawings from the patent application.
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