Patents Assigned to Apple
  • Publication number: 20250106587
    Abstract: Methods and devices are provided for allowing a mobile device (e.g., a key fob or a consumer electronic device, such as a mobile phone, watch, or other wearable device) to interact with a vehicle such that a location of the mobile device can be determined by the vehicle, thereby enabling certain functionality of the vehicle. A device may include both RF antenna(s) and magnetic antenna(s) for determining a location of a mobile device relative to the vehicle. Such a hybrid approach can provide various advantages. Existing magnetic coils on a mobile device (e.g., for charging or communication) may be re-used for distance measurements that are supplemented by the RF measurements. Any device antenna may provide measurements to a machine learning model that determines a region in which the mobile device resides, based on training measurements in the regions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2024
    Publication date: March 27, 2025
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Brent M. Ledvina, Robert W. Brumley, Robert William Mayor, William J. Bencze, Alejandro J. Marquez, Shang-Te Yang, Xu Chen, Indranil S. Sen, Mohit Narang
  • Publication number: 20250102821
    Abstract: Various embodiments include a camera system that includes one or more voice coil motor (VCM) actuators having curved electromagnetics. In various embodiments, the VCM actuator(s) may include an optical image stabilization (OIS) VCM actuator configured to tilt/rotate a lens group, together with an image sensor, about multiple axes orthogonal to an optical axis of the camera system. Additionally, or alternatively, the VCM actuator(s) may include a theta-Z correction VCM actuator configured to rotate the lens group, together with the image sensor, about an axis parallel to the optical axis. The OIS VCM actuator and/or the theta-Z correction VCM actuator may have curved electromagnetics.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2023
    Publication date: March 27, 2025
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew S. Jozefov, Zachary W. Birnbaum
  • Publication number: 20250106627
    Abstract: Some aspects of this disclosure include a system, apparatus, article of manufacture, method, and/or computer program product and/or combinations and/or sub-combinations thereof, for implementing multi-credential mapping mechanisms in wireless communication networks, such as a wireless local area network (WLAN). The multi-credential mapping mechanisms can use pointer schemes for communicating multiple credentials (e.g., Authentication and Key Managements (AKMs) and ciphers) in the wireless communication networks. The multi-credential mapping mechanisms can reduce congestion in the communication medium and improve the communications between an access point (AP) and stations (STAs).
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2024
    Publication date: March 27, 2025
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Sidharth R. Thakur, Yong Liu, Jarkko L. Kneckt, Su Khiong Yong, Ahmad Reza Hedayat, Charles F. Dominguez, Neelakantan Nurani Krishnan, Daniel R. Borges, Jinjing Jiang, Lochan Verma, Qi Wang, Tianyu Wu
  • Publication number: 20250106546
    Abstract: An earphone comprising: a device housing that defines an internal cavity within the device housing; an acoustic port formed through the device housing and having an opening at an exterior surface of the device housing; an audio driver disposed within the device housing and aligned to emit sound through the acoustic port; a plurality of capacitive pixels disposed within the internal cavity, wherein at least two of the capacitive pixels are disposed radially around the acoustic port and spaced apart from each other by at least 90 degrees; and sensor control circuitry disposed within the internal cavity and operatively coupled to drive the plurality of capacitive pixels at a predetermined frequency to readout a capacitance at each of the plurality of capacitive pixels and determine if the earphone is within an ear of a user
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2024
    Publication date: March 27, 2025
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Karan S. Jain, Michael M. Nannini
  • Patent number: 12260045
    Abstract: Differential driving and/or differential sensing can reduce noise in the touch and/or display systems of a touch screen. In some examples, the touch sensor panel can include column and row electrodes routed vertically to a first edge of the touch sensor panel. In some examples, a touch sensor panel can be divided into banks. In some examples, the routing traces for rows can be implemented using four routing tracks per column for three banks. In some examples, the arrangement of routing traces within routing tracks can improve optical characteristics and/or reduce routing trace resistances and loading. In some examples, interconnections between routing traces and row electrodes can have a chevron pattern, an S-shape pattern, or a hybrid pattern. In some examples, differential sense routing can reduce cross-coupling within the touch sensor panel. In some examples, staggering differential drive signals can reduce parasitic signal loss.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Sagar R. Vaze, Marduke Yousefpor
  • Patent number: 12261649
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for conveying directionality and distance information from a transmitter to a receiver within the coordinate system of the transmitter. Conveying the directionality and distance information to the receiver may, for example, reduce computational loads at the receiver. The signal from the transmitter may include information for rendering digital content and information indicating the direction and distance of the transmitter, and the receiver may render the digital content using the direction and distance to reduce processing at the receiver. Alternatively, the signal may include pre-rendered content based on the direction to further reduce processing at the receiver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jack Erdozain, Jr., Travis J. McQueen
  • Patent number: 12261761
    Abstract: A communications system may include user equipment (UE) devices, communications satellites, gateways, a satellite communications (satcom) network, and network performance monitoring devices. The monitoring devices may generate forward link signal information associated with forward link signals received from the satellites and may generate reverse link packets transmitted to the gateways via the satellites. The monitoring devices and the gateways may generate reverse link signal information associated with the reverse link packets. The satcom network may identify differences between the first and second reverse link signal information or between the forward link signal information and predicted forward link signal information for the monitoring devices. When the differences exceed a threshold value, the satcom network may generate and transmit error information used to diagnose, debug, and/or repair the potential errors in the constellation or gateways.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel P Ellis, Daniel V Chioreanu, Gino Joachim L Ledesma, Jarett M Morrow
  • Patent number: 12260560
    Abstract: Various implementations track an eye using both camera images and light sensor data, e.g., from a photosensitive surface or set of photodetectors. The camera need not capture images at a high capture rate since the light sensor data captured from the light sensor provides information about the eye during the time periods between camera frames. An eye tracking device may thus provide eye tracking with high temporal resolution using less power and resources and prior devices. The eye tracking device includes a lens (e.g., a diffractive optical element (DOE)) that splits received light onto the camera and light sensor. The camera and light sensor may be aligned, e.g., co-centered. Using such a lens to provide light to an aligned camera and light sensor facilitates tracking the eye characteristics by reducing the need for matching the data and/or accounting for multiple environmental light sources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Siddharth S. Hazra, Aleksandar M. Movshovich, Nicholas C. Soldner, Tushar Gupta
  • Patent number: 12260493
    Abstract: The method includes: obtaining a first image of an environment from a first image sensor associated with first intrinsic parameters; performing a warping operation on the first image according to perspective offset values to generate a warped first image in order to account for perspective differences between the first image sensor and a user of the electronic device; determining an occlusion mask based on the warped first image that includes a plurality of holes; obtaining a second image of the environment from a second image sensor associated with second intrinsic parameters; normalizing the second image based on a difference between the first and second intrinsic parameters to produce a normalized second image; and filling a first set of one or more holes of the occlusion mask based on the normalized second image to produce a modified first image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Bertrand Nepveu, Vincent Chapdelaine-Couture, Emmanuel Piuze-Phaneuf
  • Patent number: 12260500
    Abstract: Some embodiments provide a mapping application that has a novel way of displaying traffic congestion along roads in the map. The mapping application in some embodiments defines a traffic congestion representation to run parallel to its corresponding road portion when the map is viewed at a particular zoom level, and defines a traffic congestion representation to be placed over its corresponding mad portion when the map is viewed at another zoom level. The mapping application in some embodiments differentiates the appearance of the traffic congestion representation that signifies heavy traffic congestion from the appearance of the traffic congestion representation that signifies moderate traffic congestion. In some of these embodiments, the mapping application does not generate a traffic congestion representation for areas along a road that are not congested.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2024
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher D. Moore, Aroon Pahwa, Yaohua Hu
  • Patent number: 12259933
    Abstract: A user device can be used to generate medical term expressions, which represent medical terms of a health record. The user device can identify a medical concept present in the health record based on a medical term expression. The user device can generate a node in a personalized relational graph that corresponds to the medical concept. One or more sub-nodes can be added to the node. Responsive to a request, a user interface is presented that identifies the medical concept and some of the additional information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: David W. Padgett, Jason B. Morley, Christian Schroeder, Zhe Li, Mark E. Pennell, Kevin M. Lynch
  • Patent number: 12260511
    Abstract: Embodiments relate to a front-end scaler circuit configured to receive and process demosaiced image data in different modes depending on if the demosaiced image data was demosaiced from Bayer or Quad Bayer raw image data. The front-end scaler circuit shares memory with a demosaicing circuit, and is configured to perform different operations that use different amounts of the shared memory based on the original image format of the demosaiced image data being processed, to compensate for additional memory utilized by the demosaicing circuit when demosaicing certain types of image data. For example, when processing image data demosaiced from Quad Bayer image data, the front-end scaler circuit discards a portion of the chrominance component data for the received image data before performing chromatic suppression, compared to when processing image data demosaiced from Bayer image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Sarvesh Swami, David R Pope, Sheng Lin
  • Patent number: 12260052
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a speaker device may have a curved housing characterized by a vertical longitudinal axis. A layer of fabric may cover the curved housing. A touch sensor may be used to detect touch input on the layer of fabric. The touch sensor may include capacitive touch sensor electrodes including drive lines and sense lines. In some arrangements, the touch sensor is formed from conductive strands in the layer of fabric. In other arrangements, the touch sensor is formed from conductive traces on a substrate. The substrate may be formed from portions of the curved housing or may be formed from a layer that is separate from the housing. Light-emitting components and/or fabric with different visual characteristics may be used to mark where the touch-sensitive regions of the fabric are located. The touch-sensitive regions may be shaped as media control symbols.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Zhengyu Li, Elvis M. Kibiti, Ming Gao, Qiliang Xu, Chen Zhang
  • Patent number: 12261815
    Abstract: A device implementing a system for initiating a business messaging session includes at least one processors configured to receive a selection of a telephone number on a device. The at least one processor is further configured to transmit an encoded identifier corresponding to the telephone number to a server. The at least one processor is further configured to determine whether the telephone number is registered for a business messaging system based at least in part on a response received from the server. The at least one processor is further configured to provide a first display element for initiating communication with the telephone number via the business messaging system when the telephone number is registered for the business messaging system, otherwise providing a second display element for initiating communication with the telephone number via a user messaging system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Grant C. Ritchie, Mithilesh Kumar, Austin A. Marusco, Akshay Bapat, John N. Meehan, Elmira Petrenco, Malay Mallick, Sampath Sree Kumar Kolluru, Adam R. Podstawczynski, Zhaoyuan Ye, Jae Woo Chang, Marcel Van Os
  • Patent number: 12261385
    Abstract: Power connector systems that can have an asymmetric insertion-to-extraction force ratio such that they are easy to mate and can reliably remain connected during use. The power connector systems can have a low-profile for use in thin electronic devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Mahmoud R. Amini, Deep Karpe, James M. Jeon, Richard P. Howarth, Rui Zhou, Unhyi Yang
  • Patent number: 12260331
    Abstract: Embodiments described herein provide a technique to crowdsource labeling of training data for a machine learning model while maintaining the privacy of the data provided by crowdsourcing participants. Client devices can be used to generate proposed labels for a unit of data to be used in a training dataset. One or more privacy mechanisms are used to protect user data when transmitting the data to a server. The server can aggregate the proposed labels and use the most frequently proposed labels for an element as the label for the element when generating training data for the machine learning model. The machine learning model is then trained using the crowdsourced labels to improve the accuracy of the model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Abhishek Bhowmick, Ryan M. Rogers, Umesh S. Vaishampayan, Andrew H. Vyrros
  • Patent number: 12260880
    Abstract: In some implementations, a computing device can guide a user of the computing device through creation of media content using storyboard templates. For example, the user may invoke a media editing application on the computing device. The media editing application can be configured with a plurality of different storyboard templates to be used for the creation of different types or categories of content. A storyboard template corresponding to a particular type of content can include suggested media segments and suggested media clips for the particular type, or topic, of content. Thus, a particular storyboard template can include suggested media segments and suggested media clips that are different from other storyboard templates. The media editing application can include features that allow the user to edit the storyboard template and/or the media content corresponding to a storyboard project created by the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel J. Wiersema, Teresa F. Perera, Jennifer L. Nassef Anderson, David R. Black, Ivan Pinzon, Nathalie Castel, Andrea L. Angquist, Kain Osterholt, Peter A. Steinauer, Shawn M. Spencer, Hans H. Kim
  • Patent number: 12262077
    Abstract: In one or more embodiments, a computing device is configured to display a first frame, of a media composition, corresponding to a first position of a moveable playhead along a timeline. The first frame is displayed in a first display area of a GUI, while the timeline is concurrently displayed in a second display area of the GUI. The computing device also detects an initiation of a hover user input associated with a second position along the timeline. Responsive to detecting the initiation of the hover user input, the computing device replaces, in the first display area of the GUI, the display of the first frame with a display of the second frame of the media composition. Thereafter, responsive to detecting termination of the hover user input, the computing device resumes a display of the first frame of the media composition in the first display area of the GUI.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Itrat U Khan, Nathan T Bingham, Muhammad H Khawar
  • Patent number: 12262406
    Abstract: Uplink transmissions of a mobile device (UE) may be improved in a number of ways. Uplink Transmission Time Interval (TTI) bundling, including both Type-A and Type B PUSCH repetitions, may be implemented with variable TTI bundle sizing. The TTI bundle size may be determined by a base station and communicated to the UE explicitly, or may be determined by the UE implicitly, based on an indicated repetition number and frequency hopping number. The UE may also report frequency hopping (FH) assist information to the base station for use by the base station to more efficiently configure FH for the uplink transmissions. Finally, the UE may use (or maintain) the same transmission power, for each TTI transmit occasion of the same TTI bundle in order to improve (cross-slot) channel estimation accuracy. Power allocation may be prioritized to ensure that at the same time a total power for the uplink transmissions of the UE does not exceed a specified threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Hong He, Dawei Zhang, Wei Zeng, Haitong Sun, Chunhai Yao, Yushu Zhang, Chunxuan Ye, Seyed Ali Akbar Fakoorian, Weidong Yang
  • Patent number: D1067912
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    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, Alexandre B. Girard, Jonathan Gomez Garcia, M. Evans Hankey, Anne-Marie Heck, Moises Hernandez Hernandez, Julian Hoenig, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Julian Jaede, Duncan Robert Kerr, Kainoa Kwon-Perez, Nicolas Pedro Lylyk, Marc A. Newson, Peter Russell-Clarke, Benjamin Andrew Shaffer, Joe Sung-Ho Tan, Robert V. Tang, Clement Tissandier, Eugene Antony Whang