Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Naftalis & Frankel LLP
  • Patent number: 7813697
    Abstract: Systems and methods for utilizing multiple wireless communication protocols are provided. In one embodiment, the portable device includes circuitry for providing wireless communications utilizing a low power, relatively slow communications protocol, such as Bluetooth, to establish a communications path between two wireless devices. When high speed communications are preferred, the two devices can agree to switch to a different, high speed protocol, such as Wi-Fi, for communications. In this manner, power loss is minimized while one of the devices is seeking another communications node. In another embodiment, the high speed communications are performed utilizing a private network established between the two devices in which a non-standard protocol is utilized. That protocol could be, for example, a minimized subset of 802.11 instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher D McKillop
  • Patent number: 7813545
    Abstract: An image window is subdivided into a plurality of sub-windows arranged in a rectangular grid pattern. The average brightness of the window and each sub-window is determined. A sub-window is tagged as dark if its average brightness is a predetermined percentage of the window average brightness. If the sub-window in the center of the grid pattern is considered to be dark, a segmentation is performed to detect a main backlit subject. The comparison of sub-window brightness is continued from the center sub-window in outward sequential, side adjacent rows and columns of sub-windows. Each sub-window that meets the above-described criterion for being dark is tagged as dark. The image is considered to have a main backlit subject if, in one embodiment, the subject is comprised of a predetermined quantity of continuous, dark sub-windows.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2010
    Assignee: Aptina Imaging Corporation
    Inventor: Ilia Ovsiannikov
  • Patent number: 7798831
    Abstract: A headset connector assembly that includes a connector plate, a casing, and electrical contact members is provided. The connector plate can have a first mating surface, a second mating surface, and at least two apertures existing between the first and the second mating surfaces. The casing can have a first side in contact with the first mating surface and a second side. The casing can include a protruding cavity member for each of the at least two apertures. Each protruding cavity member can extend from the first side and be constructed to fit within one of the at least two apertures. Each protruding cavity member can house an electrical contact member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Emery A. Sanford, M. Evans Hankey, Christopher D. Prest, Way Chet Lim, Toshihiko Kato
  • Patent number: 7780478
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for connecting together two audio components that have different size connectors and/or a different configuration of electrical contacts between them. In one embodiment of the present invention, an audio adaptor is designed having an audio plug of one size to mate with a first electrical device, such as an integrated mediaphone such as the iPhone™, and an audio jack having a different size to mate with a second electrical device, such as a conventional cell phone headset having a single earpiece. In that instance, the plug would be a four-prong, 3.5 millimeter stereo device, while the jack would be a three-prong, 2.5 millimeter monaural device. The adaptor includes circuitry that takes one audio channel (i.e., the left or right channel), and couples it to the audio input on the monaural jack.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: John Tang, Robert Sean Murphy
  • Patent number: 7778335
    Abstract: A communication system (10) using hierarchical modulation includes at least one satellite (12 & 13) transmitting a data stream and a hierarchical modulated data stream, and at least one terrestrial station (16) transmitting the data stream and the hierarchical modulated data stream. The communication system can further include at least one receiver (18) for demodulating and combining the data stream from at least one satellite and from at least one terrestrial station and for hierarchically demodulating and combining the hierarchical modulated data stream from at least one satellite and the hierarchical modulated data stream from at least one terrestrial station. The terrestrial station can be a terrestrial repeater repeating the data stream and the hierarchical data stream from at least one satellite. The system can also include an uplink (11) having a hierarchical modulator for modulating both the data stream and the hierarchical data stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2010
    Assignee: XM Satellite Radio, Inc.
    Inventors: Joseph Smallcomb, Paul Marko
  • Patent number: 7776146
    Abstract: A method of preparing a universal base composition disclosed which consists of milling a pigment in a resin that is soluble in both water and organic solvent and wherein the resin contains both hydrophobic and hydrophilic monomers such that the total weight of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic monomers is at least about 20% of the total weight of the resin and the weight ratio of hydrophobic monomers to hydrophilic monomers is from about ? to about 5.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2010
    Assignee: Sun Chemical Corporation
    Inventors: Juanita Parris, Ning Wu, Jeannette Simoni-Truncellito, Robert Catena, Jitu Modi, William P. Keaveney, Robert Auerbach
  • Patent number: 7771240
    Abstract: This invention is directed to systems and methods for providing a port in an electronic device housing that is electrically isolated from a conductive portion of a connector inserted in the port. In some embodiments, the connector may include a non-conductive flange or ring operative to contact the housing and the portions of the housing within the port. In some embodiments, a thin layer of non-conductive material may be applied to the portions of the housing within the port to prevent conductive portions of the connector from coming into contact with the housing (e.g., and grounding the conductive portion. This invention may be of particular interest when the conductive portion that may come into contact with the housing is not used to ground the connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen Brian Lynch, Emery Sanford, Cameron Frazier
  • Patent number: 7771704
    Abstract: The present invention provides radioactive metal heterocomplexes of formula (I): [(Me=N—R)L1L2]+Z? wherein Me, R, L1L2 and Z? have the meanings indicated in the description. The complexes include a trivalent radioactive metal-imido group, typically a technetium-or rhenium-imido group, strongly stabilized by the presence of an ancillary tridentate hetero-diphosphine ligand L1, which allows the formation of substitution-inert [(Me=N—R)L1] moieties. Such moieties are fixed in an intermediate [(Me=N—R)Y2L1)]+ compound which contains two labile, cispositioned, Y ligands, where Y is preferably an halide group. The latter are easily replaced by a bidentate ligand L2 to give the final [(Me=N—R)L1L2]+ Z?heterocomplexes. The complexes of the invention are useful for the preparation of radiopharmaceuticals: in fact, a bioactive fragment which confers biological target-seeking properties can be introduced either on the L2 framework or the imido R group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2010
    Assignee: Bracco Imaging S.p.A.
    Inventors: Francesco Tisato, Cristina Bolzati, Marina Porchia, Fiorenzo Refosco
  • Patent number: 7764493
    Abstract: An electronic device can be provided with a heat-generating component and a cooling module for dissipating heat. In some embodiments, the cooling component may include a fan configured to produce an outflow of air, and a divider configured not only to direct a first portion of the outflow between a first surface of the divider and the heat-generating component, but also to direct a second portion of the outflow along a second surface of the divider. In other embodiments, the cooling component may include a divider and a pressure clip. A first portion of the pressure clip may be configured to exert a pressure on a first surface of the divider such that the pressure may hold a portion of a second surface of the divider in contact with the heat-generating component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ihab A. Ali, Dinesh Mathew, Thomas W. Wilson, Jr., Keith Hendren
  • Patent number: 7760528
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for generating low EMI display driver power supply. The methods and apparatus include switching circuits that utilize two groups of parallel circuit traces, each of which is coupled to one end of a switching device. The two groups of traces are configured to be interleaved with each other such that no two traces from either group are next to any other traces from the same group. When the switching device is activated, current flows through the circuit and charges an energy storage element. When the switching device is deactivated, the energy storage element discharges a portion of its energy to a second energy storage element and to the driver circuits. In another embodiment, an additional circuit trace is provided which is only connected on one end and is free floating on the other end to capture the majority of EMI remaining that was generated by the switching circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Yongman Lee
  • Patent number: 7756553
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for media devices including a housing, a frame disposed adjacent to the housing, a support panel that is integrated with the frame, and a flexible circuit that is disposed adjacent to the support panel such that the support panel provides support for the flexible circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Richard Hung Minh Dinh, Tang Yew Tan, Erik L. Wang, Philip Michael Hobson
  • Patent number: 7753885
    Abstract: An angiographic injector system includes a manifold and valve which selectively connects either a syringe pump or a low pressure system to a catheter which is inserted into a patient. The valve is normally biased to a state which connects the low pressure system to the catheter for pressure monitoring, saline flushing, or aspirating functions. When an injection is to be made, the valve automatically switches so that the low pressure system is disconnected and not exposed to high pressure, while the syringe pump is connected through the manifold to the catheter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: ACIST Medical Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Doug Duchon, Thomas Paulson, Robert F. Wilson, Jiyan Liu
  • Patent number: 7750392
    Abstract: An embodiment of an embedded cache memory in an image sensor comprises a memory cell array wherein the memory cells are substantially isolated from laterally adjacent memory. The memory cell array includes a plurality of memory cells. Each of the memory cells is formed in a standard CMOS image sensor process without the need for SOI processes. Each cell includes first and second n-type and p-type regions arranged around a vertically integrated gate. Data is written to a cell by causing carriers to accumulate in the body of the device through carrier generation mechanisms that may include impact ionization, band-to-band tunneling and/or channel-initiated secondary hot electrons.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignee: Aptina Imaging Corporation
    Inventor: Chandra Mouli
  • Patent number: 7751199
    Abstract: The present invention can relate to an electronic device having one or more support tabs that protect a circuit board disposed inside the device from externally applied compressive forces. In particular, when a force is applied to a housing of the device, the support tabs can buttress the housing of the device, either directly or through other intervening components disposed within the device, to reduce the likelihood that the housing or intervening components will contact and damage the circuit board. The present invention also can relate to methods for manufacturing such an electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Douglas Joseph Weber, Pinida Jan Moolsintong, Stephen Brian Lynch
  • Patent number: 7751198
    Abstract: The present invention can relate to multiple-connector assemblies for use in, for example, electronic devices. Each of the connectors are constrained to another connector by aligning one or more complementary sets of reference features. A locating bracket may be used to couple multiple connectors together. Alternatively, the connectors may be coupled to each other directly. The electronic device also may include a retainer coupled to the connectors (either directly or indirectly through the locating bracket). The retainer and a surface of one of the connectors may form a single plane to which an end cap of the housing may be coupled, thereby accurately locating the end cap with respect to the connectors. The present invention also can relate to methods of manufacturing such an electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Douglas Joseph Weber, Pinida Jan Moolsintong
  • Patent number: 7746631
    Abstract: An electronic device can be provided with a first housing at least partially containing a first electronic component, a second housing, and a hinge assembly coupled to the first housing and the second housing. The hinge assembly may be configured to dissipate heat generated by the first electronic component away from the first housing. In some embodiments, the hinge assembly may be configured to dissipate heat generated by the first electronic component away from the first housing and on to the second housing. The second housing may include a heat spreader for dissipating the heat from the hinge assembly throughout the second housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Ihab A. Ali
  • Patent number: 7742750
    Abstract: Systems and methods are presented for digital antenna diversity combining. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, at least two antenna signal paths can be communicably connected to a receiver. Each antenna signal path can be provided with an RF tuner communicably connected to a demodulator, which can estimate the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and time of arrival of its respective antenna signal. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a time alignment circuit can be communicably connected to each antenna signal path, and a maximum ratio combiner can be communicably connected to the time alignment circuit. In operation, the time alignment circuit can use the time of arrival estimate to align the multiple signals and the maximum ratio combiner can use the SNR estimate obtained for each antenna signal to respectively weight each signal and thereby generate a combined output signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2010
    Assignee: Sirius XM Radio Inc.
    Inventors: Carl Scarpa, Sharif Sazzad, Christopher Strolle
  • Patent number: 7738149
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a system and method for electronically communicating, coordinating and disseminating product designs, specifications and production-related data between a plurality of parties. More particularly, the invention relates to the coordination of parties that create color and graphic designs, including manufacturers, designers, suppliers and printers for new or existing color products.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2010
    Assignee: Sun Chemical Corporation
    Inventors: Danny C. Rich, James Christopher Putney, Gordon Robert Stone, Stephen Roderick Postle
  • Patent number: 7737168
    Abstract: Methods of using di, tri, and tetracyclic acylhydrazide derivatives and analogs, as well as pharmaceutical compositions containing the same, for the treatment or prophylaxis of viral infections and diseases associated therewith, particularly those viral infections and associated diseases cased by the orthopoxvirus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2010
    Assignee: Siga Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Jordan, Thomas R. Bailey, Susan R. Rippin
  • Patent number: 7728726
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for generating customized labels having electronic circuitry such as RFID circuitry. A printing system generates the label by selectively transfer printing elements (e.g., electronic circuitry, physical components, etc.) and donor layers (e.g., conductive materials, non-conductive materials, etc.) from a ribbon to a receiver (e.g., an item that receives the indicia). In addition, the printing system can program and test the label or indicia thereof, thereby providing the ability to customize each label according to predetermined criteria and to ensure that each label functions properly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2010
    Inventor: William Berson