Patent 9984271 was granted and assigned to Apple (company) on May, 2018 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An electronic device that includes an enclosure having an external surface and a first array of ultrasonic transducers arranged along a first direction and a second array of ultrasonic transducers arranged along a second direction. The first array of ultrasonic transducers may be configured to produce a surface wave along the external surface. A set of scattered waves may be created by the touch on the external surface. The second array of ultrasonic transducers may be configured to receive a portion of the set of scattered waves and produce an output. The device may also include a processing unit that is configured to identify the touch using the output. The processing unit may be further configured to create a reconstruction of at least a portion of a fingerprint associated with the touch on the cover, and to identify the fingerprint using the reconstruction.