Patents Assigned to Apple
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Patent number: 11854568Abstract: An electronic device includes a microphone, an array of coherent optical emitters, an array of balanced coherent optical vibration sensors, and a processor. Each balanced coherent optical vibration sensor in the array of balanced coherent optical vibration sensors is paired with a coherent optical emitter in the array of coherent optical emitters. The processor is configured to analyze a set of waveforms acquired by the array of balanced coherent optical vibration sensors; identify, using the analysis of the set of waveforms, a set of one or more voices in a field of view; and adjust an output of the microphone to accentuate a particular voice in the set of one or more voices.Type: GrantFiled: September 16, 2021Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Eran Tal, Ariel Lipson
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Patent number: 11853527Abstract: While displaying a first view of a three-dimensional environment corresponding to a first viewpoint, a computer system detects user inputs specifying a navigation target in the three-dimensional environment and triggering a navigation operation toward the navigation target. The computer system displays an updated view of the three-dimensional environment corresponding to a second viewpoint closer to the navigation target than the first viewpoint, but the second viewpoint is spaced apart from the navigation target and the second viewpoint is selected in accordance with a predefined characteristic of the navigation target in conjunction with the respective position of the navigation target.Type: GrantFiled: February 8, 2023Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: APPLE INC.Inventors: Philipp Rockel, William A. Sorrentino, III, Stephen O. Lemay, Peter D. Anton
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Patent number: 11856293Abstract: Various embodiments disclosed herein include techniques for determining autofocus for a camera on a mobile device. In some instances, depth imaging is used to assist in determining a focus position for the camera through an autofocus process. For example, a determination of depth may be used to determine a focus position for the camera. In another example, the determination of depth may be used to assist another autofocus process.Type: GrantFiled: December 2, 2022Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Mark N. Gamadia, Abhishek Dhanda, Gregory Guyomarc'h, Andrew D. Fernandez, Moshe Laifenfeld
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Patent number: 11853536Abstract: Systems and processes are disclosed for operating a digital assistant in a media environment. In an exemplary embodiment, a user can interact with a digital assistant of a media device while content is displayed by the media device. In one approach, a plurality of exemplary natural language requests can be displayed in response to detecting a user input of a first input type. The plurality of exemplary natural language requests can be contextually-related to the displayed content. In another approach, a user request can be received in response to detecting a user input of a second input type. A task that at least partially satisfies the user request can be performed. The performed task can depend on the nature of the user request and the content being displayed by the media device. In particular, the user request can be satisfied while reducing disruption to user consumption of media content.Type: GrantFiled: March 5, 2021Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Lia T. Napolitano, Grace H. Hwang, Henrique D. Penha, Jeremiah D. Shaw, Jorge S. Fino
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Patent number: 11853016Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch device may have a housing with metal sidewalls and a display module having conductive display structures. The conductive display structures may be separated from the sidewalls by a slot element for a first antenna that runs around the display module. A feed element for the first antenna may be coupled between the display structures and the sidewalls. An antenna resonating element for a second antenna may be disposed within the slot element. A printed circuit may include additional antenna elements for the second antenna. The antenna resonating element may extend away from the feed element for the first antenna to provide improved isolation between the two antennas. The first antenna may be operable to provide coverage for frequencies that are lower than frequencies for which the second antenna may be operable to provide coverage.Type: GrantFiled: September 26, 2019Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Andrea Ruaro, Eduardo Jorge Da Costa Bras Lima, Mario Martinis, Dimitrios Papantonis, Jayesh Nath, Mattia Pascolini
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Patent number: 11852938Abstract: To minimize the width of a non-light-emitting border region around an opening in the active area, data lines may be stacked in the border region. Data line portions may be formed using three metal layers in three different planes within the border region. A metal layer that forms a positive power signal distribution path in the active area may serve as a data line portion in the border region. A metal layer may be added in the border region to serve as a data line portion in the border region. Data line signals may also be provided to pixels on both sides of an opening in the active area using supplemental data line paths. A supplemental data line path may be routed through the active area of the display to electrically connect data line segments on opposing sides of an opening within the display.Type: GrantFiled: December 2, 2022Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Shin-Hung Yeh, Warren S Rieutort-Louis, Abbas Jamshidi Roudbari, Chien-Ya Lee, Lun Tsai
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Patent number: 11853515Abstract: Touch screens with ultra-thin stack-ups can provide for a lower profile device, can improve the optical image on the display by reducing the display to cover glass distance, and can reduce the weight of the device. In some examples, the thickness of the touch screen stack-up can be reduced and/or the border region reduced, by removing the flex circuit connection from the stack-up. A flexible substrate can be used to enable routing of touch electrodes to touch circuitry. In some examples including a shield layer, the thickness of the touch screen stack-up can be reduced by routing the shield layer to a shield electrode on the touch sensor panel. The shield layer can then be routed to touch sensing circuitry via the flexible substrate. In some examples, the touch sensor panel or a portion of thereof can be integrated with the polarizer.Type: GrantFiled: December 12, 2019Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Jeffrey M. Weisse, Chun-Hao Tung, Ji Hun Choi, Wenqing Dai
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Patent number: 11853306Abstract: Disclosed herein is a technique for providing software application recommendations to a user of a computing device. The technique can include: (1) receiving, from the computing device, a request for at least one software application recommendation, (2) identifying, among a plurality of user profiles, a user profile associated with the user, (3) accessing a plurality of software application profiles (SAPs), wherein each SAP of the plurality of SAPs is associated with a respective software application managed by the server computing device, (4) analyzing the user profile against a subset of the plurality of SAPs to identify, among the respective software applications associated with the subset of the plurality of SAPs, at least one software application to recommend, (5) associating the at least one software application recommendation with the at least one software application, and (6) causing the computing device to display the at least one software application recommendation.Type: GrantFiled: September 28, 2018Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Jayasimha R. Katukuri, Peter Leong, Chandrasekar Venkataraman, Rabi S. Chakraborty, Hardik Vala
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Patent number: 11853129Abstract: This application relates to a portable electronic device. The portable electronic device includes a housing including (i) a lower case, and (ii) an upper case pivotally coupled to the lower case with a hinge assembly. The housing includes a processor capable of providing instructions, an operational component in communication with the processor, where the processor is capable of executing a function, and a magnetic detection system included within the hinge assembly. The magnetic detection system includes a magnetic element capable of generating a magnetic field, and a magnetic sensor capable of determining an angle between the lower case and the upper case based on the magnetic field, where when the processor determines that the angle between the lower case and the upper case satisfies a predetermined threshold angle, the processor provides the instructions to the operational component to execute the function.Type: GrantFiled: January 18, 2019Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Mehrdad Hooshmand, John C. Difonzo, Chi Xu, Keeley M. Maher, Liangyuan Xiang, James D. Kelly
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Patent number: 11853117Abstract: In one implementation, an apparatus includes a display having a front surface and a back surface. The display includes a plurality of pixel regions that emit light from the front surface to display a displayed image and a plurality of apertures that transmit light from the front surface to the back surface. The apparatus includes a camera disposed on a side of the back surface of the display. The camera is configured to capture a captured image. The apparatus includes a processor coupled to the display and the camera. The processor is configured to receive the captured image and apply a first digital filter to a first portion of the captured image and a second digital filter, different than the first digital filter, to a second portion of the captured image to reduce image distortion caused by the display.Type: GrantFiled: January 26, 2023Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: APPLE INC.Inventors: Manohar B. Srikanth, Marduke Yousefpor, Ting Sun, Kathrin Berkner-Cieslicki, Mohammad Yeke Yazdandoost, Ricardo J. Motta
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Patent number: 11856180Abstract: One disclosed embodiment includes techniques for temperature-dependent reference image correction in structured light projectors that may be used for generating three-dimensional (3D) scene depth maps. The techniques disclosed herein include receiving an indication of a temperature (e.g., an actual current operating temperature or a change in the current operating temperature relative to an established reference temperature) associated with one or more components of a projector and then determining, based on the temperature indication, an amount of adjustment needed to correct a reference pattern image based on an estimated effective focal length change of the projector. Next, a reference pattern image may be appropriately adjusted, e.g.Type: GrantFiled: June 30, 2022Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Boris Morgenstein, Assaf Avraham, David Pawlowski, Gidi Lasovski, Refael Della Pergola, Tom Levy, Yohai Zmora
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Patent number: 11854112Abstract: A system compresses and decompresses attribute information for visual volumetric content, such as a mesh representation. Attribute values are included in the visual volumetric representation, wherein at least some of the attribute values include unitary vectors, such as surface normal vectors or surface tangent vectors having a magnitude of one unit. In order to compress the attribute information the three-dimensional unit vectors are mapped into two dimensional parametric coordinates for a planar representation of a unit sphere. To reduce negative effects on compression due to distortion or discontinuities in the planar representation, mappings for compressing respective unit vectors are adaptively selected.Type: GrantFiled: May 17, 2022Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Khaled Mammou, Deepak S Tolani, Alexandros Tourapis
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Patent number: 11856203Abstract: Advances in deep generative models (DGM) have led to the development of neural face video compression codecs that are capable of using an order of magnitude less data than “traditional” engineered codecs. These “neural” codecs can reconstruct a target image by warping a source image to approximate the content of the target image and using a DGM to compensate for imperfections in the warped source image. The determined warping operation may be encoded and transmitted using less data (e.g., transmitting a small number of keypoints, rather than a dense flow field), leading to the bandwidth savings compared to traditional codecs. However, by relying on a single source image only, these methods can lead to inaccurate reconstructions. The techniques presented herein improve image reconstruction quality while maintaining bandwidth savings, via a combination of using multiple source images (i.e., containing multiple views of the first human subject) and novel feature aggregation techniques.Type: GrantFiled: March 22, 2022Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Michael Tschannen, Ali Benlalah, Anna Volokitin, Brian Amberg, Sebastian Martin, Stefan Brugger
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Patent number: 11853148Abstract: An apparatus includes a memory circuit, and an integrated circuit formed on a single semiconductor substrate and coupled to the memory circuit. The integrated circuit includes a watchdog timer, a plurality of functional circuits coupled together via a communication fabric, and a system management circuit coupled to the watchdog timer and to a subset of the functional circuits via respective dedicated point-to-point interfaces. A given functional circuit may be configured to repeatedly reset the watchdog timer before the watchdog timer expires. The system management circuit may be configured, in response to an expiration of the watchdog timer, to access information in the subset of the functional circuits via the respective point-to-point interfaces. The system management circuit may be further configured to store the accessed information in the memory circuit.Type: GrantFiled: March 23, 2022Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: John H. Kelm, Richard H. Larson, Charles J. Fleckenstein
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Patent number: 11853642Abstract: A method performed by an audio source device. The method obtains an input audio signal and determines a sound output level of a headset based on the input audio signal, a user volume setting, and a sound output sensitivity of the headset. The method determines whether the sound output level is above a threshold. In response to determining that the sound output level is above the threshold, a scalar gain is applied upon the input audio signal to produce an output audio signal for output by the headset.Type: GrantFiled: April 9, 2021Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Tyrone T. Chen, Joseph M. Williams, Juan C. Martinez Nieto, Tony S. Verma
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Patent number: 11853512Abstract: Touch sensing performance can be improved using display noise correction. In some examples, a touch sensor panel in proximity to a display can capture first touch data at a first time interval and second touch data at a second time interval, different from the first-time interval. In some examples, third touch data can be generated by removing noise from the first touch data using at least a portion of the first touch data and at least a portion of the second touch data.Type: GrantFiled: September 21, 2022Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Daniel Ganjali, Michael Robert White
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Patent number: 11852463Abstract: Optical apparatus includes a beam source, which is configured to generate an optical beam having a pattern imposed thereon. A projection lens is configured to receive and project the optical beam so as to cast the pattern onto a first area in space having a first angular extent. A field multiplier is interposed between the projection lens and the first area and is configured to expand the projected optical beam so as to cast the pattern onto a second area in space having a second angular extent that is at least 50% greater than the first angular extent.Type: GrantFiled: June 7, 2021Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: APPLE INC.Inventors: Benny Pesach, Zafrir Mor, Shimon Yalov, Alexander Shpunt
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Patent number: 11854539Abstract: Systems and processes for operating an intelligent automated assistant are provided. In one example process, a speech input is received from a user. In response to determining that the speech input corresponds to a user intent of obtaining information associated with a user experience of the user, one or more parameters referencing a user experience of the user are identified. Metadata associated with the referenced user experience is obtained from an experiential data structure. Based on the metadata, one or more media items associated with the referenced are retrieved based on the metadata. The one or more media items associated with the referenced user experience are output together.Type: GrantFiled: August 11, 2020Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Marcos Regis Vescovi, Eric M. G. Circlaeys, Richard Warren, Jeffrey Traer Bernstein, Matthaeus Krenn
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Patent number: D1009043Type: GrantFiled: May 13, 2022Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Jody Akana, Molly Anderson, Bartley K. Andre, Shota Aoyagi, Anthony Michael Ashcroft, Marine C. Bataille, Jeremy Bataillou, Lucy E. Browning, Abidur Rahman Chowdhury, Clara Geneviève Marine Courtaigne, Markus Diebel, Richard Hung Minh Dinh, Jonathan Gomez Garcia, Jun Sik Ham, M. Evans Hankey, Julian Hoenig, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Julian Jaede, Duncan Robert Kerr, Peter Russell-Clarke, Benjamin Andrew Shaffer, Sung-Ho Tan, Clement Tissandier, Eugene Antony Whang, Rico Zörkendörfer
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Patent number: D1009054Type: GrantFiled: September 10, 2020Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Kevin Will Chen, Alan C. Dye, Christopher I. Wilson