Patents by Inventor Christopher P. Tann

Christopher P. Tann has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20150379918
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and device are provided to provide inversion techniques for dynamic variable refresh rate electronic displays. One embodiment of the present disclosure describes An electronic display including a display panel that display images with varying refresh rates and a timing controller that receives image data from an image source, determines a counter value, and instructs a driver in the electronic display to apply a voltage to the display panel to write an image on the display panel, in which a negative voltage is applied when the counter value is positive and a positive voltage is applied when the counter value is less than or equal to zero. Additionally, the timing controller update the counter value based at least in part on duration the image is displayed on the display panel, wherein the counter value increases when the voltage is positive and decreases when the voltage is negative.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 29, 2015
    Publication date: December 31, 2015
    Inventors: Christopher P. Tann, Taesung Kim, Sandro H. Pintz
  • Publication number: 20150379970
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and device are provided to perform refresh-rate dependent dithering. One embodiment of the present disclosure describes a computing device that includes an image source that generates spatially dithered image data and an electronic display communicatively coupled to the image source. More specifically, the electronic display receives the spatially dithered image data from the image source and determines a refresh rate with which to display an image by comparing a local histogram and an artifact histogram, in which the local histogram describes pixel grayscale distribution of a portion of the image and the artifact histogram describes a pixel grayscale distribution that when displayed will cause a perceivable artifact.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2014
    Publication date: December 31, 2015
    Inventors: Marc Albrecht, Christopher P. Tann
  • Patent number: 9215501
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and devices for adding contextual matte bars to format image data to another aspect ratio are provided. For example, a method may include receiving image data of a first aspect ratio into a processor. The processor may receive a characteristic of a destination display of a second aspect ratio, an indication of ambient lighting, an indication of a characteristic of the image data, or any number of these factors. The processor may add matte bars to the image data to cause the image data to be formatted to the second aspect ratio. The appearance of the matte bars may depend on the factors received by the processor. The formatted image data with these contextual matte bars then may be sent from the processor to the destination electronic display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2015
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Christopher P. Tann, Robert L. Ridenour, Sandro H. Pintz
  • Publication number: 20150084973
    Abstract: Devices and methods for providing an indication of an active frame start, while reducing a number of line buffers utilized by conventional systems are provided herein. By way of example, an electronic display panel may include a host device (e.g., a processor) that provides an indication of a pending active frame start. The indication may be provided at a predetermined and fixed time/line interval before the active frame start. Next, a timing controller of the display circuitry may generate a vertical start pulse during vertical blanking based upon the indication and the fixed time/line interval. The vertical start pulse may be used to drive multi-clock integrated row driver circuits.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2013
    Publication date: March 26, 2015
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Taesung Kim, Christopher P. Tann, Sandro H. Pintz
  • Publication number: 20140359257
    Abstract: This paper describes various embodiments that relate to personal computer systems, and accurate initialization of computer hardware of personal computer systems from a low-power and/or power-off state. According to one embodiment of the invention, a computer system includes a device operative to be powered down to the power-off state dependent upon an amount of user activity on the computer system. The computer system also includes a device controller operative to initialize the device from the power-off state to a power-on state responsive to user activity on the computer system. The device controller has at least one sensor device operative to determining a physical variable related to the device, and operating characteristics of the device are related to the physical variable.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 30, 2013
    Publication date: December 4, 2014
    Inventors: Christopher P. TANN, Marc ALBRECHT, Keith COX
  • Publication number: 20140204127
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and devices for adding contextual matte bars to format image data to another aspect ratio are provided. For example, a method may include receiving image data of a first aspect ratio into a processor. The processor may receive a characteristic of a destination display of a second aspect ratio, an indication of ambient lighting, an indication of a characteristic of the image data, or any number of these factors. The processor may add matte bars to the image data to cause the image data to be formatted to the second aspect ratio. The appearance of the matte bars may depend on the factors received by the processor. The formatted image data with these contextual matte bars then may be sent from the processor to the destination electronic display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2013
    Publication date: July 24, 2014
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Christopher P. Tann, Robert L. Ridenour, Sandro H. Pintz
  • Publication number: 20140198138
    Abstract: The disclosure describes procedures for dynamically employing a variable refresh rate at an LCD display of a consumer electronic device, such as a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a mobile phone, or a music player device. In some configurations, the consumer electronic device can include a host system portion, having one or more processors and a display system portion, having a timing controller, a buffer circuit, a display driver, and a display panel. The display system can receive image data and image control data from a GPU of the host system, evaluate the received image control data to determine a reduced refresh rate (RRR) for employing at the display panel, and then transition to the RRR, whenever practicable, to conserve power. In some scenarios, the transition to the RRR can be a transition from a LRR of 50 hertz or above to a RRR of 40 hertz or below.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 14, 2014
    Publication date: July 17, 2014
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Prasanna Nambi, Jason N. Gomez, Fenghua Zheng, Paolo Sacchetto, Sandro H. Pintz, Taesung Kim, Christopher P. Tann, Marc Albrecht, David W. Lum
  • Publication number: 20140198114
    Abstract: The disclosure describes procedures for dynamically employing a variable refresh rate at an LCD display of a consumer electronic device, such as a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a mobile phone, or a music player device. In some configurations, the consumer electronic device can include a host system portion, having one or more processors and a display system portion, having a timing controller, a buffer circuit, a display driver, and a display panel. The display system can receive image data and image control data from a GPU of the host system, evaluate the received image control data to determine a reduced refresh rate (RRR) for employing at the display panel, and then transition to the RRR, whenever practicable, to conserve power. In some scenarios, the transition to the RRR can be a transition from a LRR of 50 hertz or above to a RRR of 40 hertz or below.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 14, 2014
    Publication date: July 17, 2014
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Prasanna Nambi, Jason N. Gomez, Fenghua Zheng, Paolo Sacchetto, Sandro H. Pintz, Taesung Kim, Christopher P. Tann, Marc Albrecht, David W. Lum
  • Publication number: 20140198093
    Abstract: The disclosure describes procedures for dynamically employing a variable refresh rate at an LCD display of a consumer electronic device, such as a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a mobile phone, or a music player device. In some configurations, the consumer electronic device can include a host system portion, having one or more processors and a display system portion, having a timing controller, a buffer circuit, a display driver, and a display panel. The display system can receive image data and image control data from a GPU of the host system, evaluate the received image control data to determine a reduced refresh rate (RRR) for employing at the display panel, and then transition to the RRR, whenever practicable, to conserve power. In some scenarios, the transition to the RRR can be a transition from a LRR of 50 hertz or above to a RRR of 40 hertz or below.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 14, 2014
    Publication date: July 17, 2014
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Prasanna Nambi, Jason N. Gomez, Fenghua Zheng, Paolo Sacchetto, Sandro H. Pintz, Taesung Kim, Christopher P. Tann, Marc Albrecht, David W. Lum
  • Patent number: 6215432
    Abstract: A mixed signal IC comprising analog circuitry for converting between analog and digital signals and digital circuitry includes circuitry to produce a conversion enable signal which causes the analog circuit to perform a conversion between an analog signal and a digital signal. The circuitry also asserts a warning signal prior to production of the enable signal to momentarily disable the digital circuitry during operation of the analog circuitry. By so doing, noise artifacts from operation of the digital circuitry is eliminated when the analog circuitry is making a conversion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2001
    Assignee: Atmel Corporation
    Inventor: Christopher P. A. Tann