Abstract: Disclosed herein are global shutter image sensors and methods of operating such image sensors. An image sensor includes a semiconductor wafer having a light receiving surface opposite an electrical connection surface; an oxide extending from the light receiving surface toward the electrical connection surface and at least partially surrounding a pixel region; a photodiode disposed within the pixel region; and a set of storage nodes disposed under the photodiode, between the photodiode and the electrical connection surface. The set of storage nodes comprises a first storage node and a second storage node. The storage nodes may be disposed vertically beneath the photodiode, or side by side.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 29, 2022
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Dajiang Yang, Hong Wei Lee, Xiaofeng Fan, Oray O. Cellek, Xiangli Li, Kai Shen
Abstract: An example process includes: displaying, on a display of an electronic device, an extended reality (XR) environment corresponding to a copresence session including the electronic device and a second electronic device; while displaying the XR environment: sampling, with a microphone of the electronic device, a first audio input; determining whether the first audio input is intended for a first digital assistant operating on an external electronic device; and in accordance with a determination that the first audio input is intended for the first digital assistant: causing the first digital assistant to provide an audible response to the first audio input, where the audible response is not transmitted to the second electronic device over a shared communication channel for the copresence session.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
February 23, 2022
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Jessica J. Peck, James N. Jones, Ieyuki Kawashima, Lynn I. Streja, Stephen O. Lemay
Abstract: An electronic device may include a display panel. When content of an image frame is expected to consume relatively higher amounts of power, a controller of the electronic device may operate a switch to change a power supply of the display panel to be a power management integrated circuit of the electronic device. However, when content of an image frame is expected to consume relatively less amounts of power, the controller may operate the switch to change the power supply of the display panel to be a power supply of an electronic display, such as a power supply used to power driver circuitry of the electronic display.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 21, 2022
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Ramana V. Rachakonda, Peter F. Holland, Rohit K. Gupta, Brad W. Simeral
Abstract: Some examples of the disclosure are directed to selective display of avatars corresponding to users of electronic devices in a multi-user communication session. In some examples, when immersive content is shared in the communication session, the avatars remain displayed when presenting the content in the three-dimensional environment. In some examples, when perspective-limited immersive content is shared in the communication session, the avatars cease being displayed when presenting the content in the three-dimensional environment. In some examples, when content presented in a full-screen mode is shared in the communication session, the avatars remain displayed when presenting the content in the full-screen mode in the three-dimensional environment. In some examples, when object-bounded content is shared in the communication session, the avatars remain displayed when presenting the object-bounded content in the three-dimensional environment.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
February 24, 2023
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Miao Ren, Connor A. Smith, Hayden J. Lee, Bruno M. Sommer
Abstract: The creation of synthetic scenes from a combination of synthetic data and real environment data to allow for testing of extended reality (XR) applications on an electronic device is disclosed. In order to efficiently test an XR application, a scene data configuration can be specified within a synthetic service, representing a combination of different synthetic data and real environment data. In addition, scene understanding and alignment metadata can be added to the scene data. When the XR application is initiated, a synthetic scene in accordance with the scene data configuration and the added metadata can be rendered and presented on a display of the electronic device. The XR application can then be tested within the presented synthetic scene, with the application interacting with both the synthetic data and the real environment data of the synthetic scene as though it were interacting with real objects in a real environment.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 17, 2023
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Przemyslaw M. Iwanowski, Joshua J. Taylor
Abstract: User equipment includes a first antenna, a second antenna, a first transceiver coupled to the first antenna, a second transceiver coupled to the second antenna, and processing circuitry communicatively coupled to the first transceiver and the second transceiver. The first transceiver receives or transmits a first signal via the first antenna, and the second transceiver receives or transmits a second signal via the second antenna. The processing circuitry receives an indication that a signal characteristic of the first signal is less than a first threshold, and decreases power to the first antenna, the first receiver, or both, based on the signal characteristic of the first signal being less than the first threshold.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 22, 2024
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Xuan Guo, Xu Zhao, Mohamed L Haidara, Syed A Rahim, Baohua Zheng, Wenping Lou
Abstract: Disclosed herein are apparatuses, systems, and methods using or implementing dynamic beamforming in control channels, by transmitting downlink control channels to user equipment (UEs) in a number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols of a downlink subframe. A first OFDM symbol of the number of OFDM symbols can be transmitted using first beamforming parameters in a first direction, and a second OFDM symbol of the number of OFDM symbols can be transmitted using second beamforming parameters different from the first beamforming parameters and in a second direction different from the first direction. The number of OFDM symbols used, as well as other parameters, can be dynamically adjusted in subsequent subframes. Other embodiments are described.
Abstract: The present disclosure relates to devices, apparatuses, and methods for enhanced PHR reporting in support of UE antenna scaling. A wireless device, which comprises at least one antenna array each comprising a plurality of antenna elements may perform antenna scaling by activating or deactivating at least one of the plurality of antenna elements (with corresponding RF chains) of one or more antenna arrays. The wireless device may generate a power headroom (PHR) report based at least on a difference between beamforming gains obtained after the antenna scaling and before the antenna scaling. The wireless device may then send the PHR report to a base station in communication with the wireless device.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 24, 2021
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
APPLE INC.
Inventors:
Xiang Chen, Anatoliy S Ioffe, Dawei Zhang, Fucheng Wang, Huaning Niu, Jie Cui, Manasa Raghavan, Qiming Li, Yang Tang
Abstract: In accordance with some embodiments, the method includes: receiving, via the one or more input devices, a request to access a resource protected by a verification code; after receiving the request to access the resource, receiving, at the electronic device, an electronic message; and after receiving the electronic message and while displaying, via the display device, a user interface for inputting the verification code: in accordance with a determination that the electronic message includes content that meets respective criteria, wherein the respective criteria include a format requirement that the electronic message includes content that matches a predetermined format, displaying an insertion affordance that, when selected, automatically inserts the content that matches the predetermined format as a verification code in the user interface.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
June 27, 2022
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Charilaos Papadopoulos, Maureen Grace Daum, Guillaume Borios, Patrick Robert Burns
Abstract: Described is an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an Evolved Node-B (eNB) on a wireless network. The apparatus may comprise a first circuitry and a second circuitry. The first circuitry may be operable to process a Downlink (DL) transmission carrying one or more Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PT-RSes). The second circuitry may be operable to generate an Uplink (UL) transmission carrying a Layer Indicator (LI) based at least on a number of PT-RS Antenna Ports (APs) associated with the PT-RSes.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
August 4, 2023
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Yushu Zhang, Victor Sergeev, Guotong Wang, Alexei Davydov, Gang Xiong
Abstract: The described embodiments set forth techniques for testing a wireless device configured to use an embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC) and excluding a removable UICC card. A test apparatus processes application protocol data units (APDUs) for conformance with a standardized test specification, where the APDUs are provided by an eSIM command handler client application that interfaces with a baseband processor in communication with the eUICC that includes test profiles with test applets.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
August 18, 2022
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Rajeev Verma, Stanley M. Mayalil, Cole M. Stewart, Jae Oh Chung, Li Li
Abstract: In some embodiments, an electronic device optionally identifies a person's face, and optionally performs an action in accordance with the identification. In some embodiments, an electronic device optionally determines a gaze location in a user interface, and optionally performs an action in accordance with the determination. In some embodiments, an electronic device optionally designates a user as being present at a sound-playback device in accordance with a determination that sound-detection criteria and verification criteria have been satisfied. In some embodiments, an electronic device optionally determines whether a person is further or closer than a threshold distance from a display device, and optionally provides a first or second user interface for display on the display device in accordance with the determination. In some embodiments, an electronic device optionally modifies the playing of media content in accordance with a determination that one or more presence criteria are not satisfied.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
January 13, 2023
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Avi E. Cieplinski, Jeffrey Traer Bernstein, Julian Missig, May-Li Khoe, Bianca Cheng Costanzo, Myra Mary Haggerty, Duncan Robert Kerr, Bas Ording, Elbert D. Chen
Abstract: A user equipment (UE) configured to receive a first cumulative acknowledgement (ACK) from a protocol stack of the UE at a first time, store the first cumulative ACK in a queue, receive a second cumulative ACK from the protocol stack at a second time, wherein the second time occurs after the first time, store the second cumulative ACK in the queue, discard the first cumulative ACK from the queue based on the second cumulative ACK being received after the first cumulative ACK and encapsulate the second cumulative ACK to form a radio link control (RLC) packet data unit (PDU) that is to be transmitted over the air.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 2, 2021
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Sarma V. Vangala, Alexander Sirotkin, Dawei Zhang, Fangli Xu, Haijing Hu, Naveen Kumar R. Palle Venkata, Pavan Nuggehalli, Ralf Rossbach, Sethuraman Gurumoorthy, Yuqin Chen, Zhibin Wu
Abstract: Techniques described herein may include a special scheduling cell (sSCell) provided for dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS). The sSCell may schedule a primary cell of a master cell group (MCG) or a primary cell of a secondary cell group (SCG). The primary cell may be referred to as a special cell or SpCell. The sSCell may be activated and/or deactivated, enter in or exit from a state of dormancy, and radio link monitoring (RLM), beam failure recovery (BFR), and cell grouping parameters may be provided. Techniques described herein include configuring a UE-specific search space (USS) with non-fallback downlink control information (DCI), USS with fallback DCI, and overall search space for DSS enhancement.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 5, 2021
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Haitong Sun, Dawei Zhang, Wei Zeng, Yushu Zhang, Hong He, Chunxuan Ye, Huaning Niu, Jie Cui, Wei Zhang
Abstract: Embodiments described herein provide a network system to enable content playback on multiple devices. An electronic device can receive information associated with media playback request and resolve a media item and intended playback device for the media request based on a set of available media items and player devices. The device can then transmit, via the data interface, a request to play the media item at the player device via a secure device to device communication system.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
August 23, 2021
Date of Patent:
April 8, 2025
Assignee:
Apple Inc.
Inventors:
Bob Bradley, Bryan E. Hansen, Vincent M. Lane, Benjamin S. Phipps, Karl F. Schramm, Andrew J. Sinesio, Jaireh Tecarro
Abstract: In an example computer-implemented method, a user equipment (UE) receives first configuration data including an indication of a search space set for monitoring a wireless network for an uplink cancellation command, and second configuration including an indication to activate monitoring of the wireless network for an uplink cancellation command. The UE further receives a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) including scheduling information for an uplink transmission. The UE monitors the wireless communications network for the uplink cancellation command in accordance with the search space set, and receives a second PDCCH from the wireless including the uplink cancellation command, where the uplink cancellation command includes an indication to cancel a first portion of the uplink transmission. The UE cancels a transmission of the first portion of the uplink transmission.
Inventors:
Jody Akana, Molly Anderson, Bartley K. Andre, Shota Aoyagi, Anthony Michael Ashcroft, Marine C. Bataille, Jeremy Bataillou, Abidur Rahman Chowdhury, Clara Geneviève Marine Courtaigne, Markus Diebel, Jonathan Gomez Garcia, M. Evans Hankey, Moises Hernandez Hernandez, Julian Hoenig, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Julian Jaede, Duncan Robert Kerr, Nicolas Pedro Lylyk, Marc A. Newson, Peter Russell-Clarke, Benjamin Andrew Shaffer, Joe Sung-Ho Tan, Clement Tissandier, Eugene Antony Whang