Patents Assigned to Apple
  • Publication number: 20220167407
    Abstract: Some embodiments of this disclosure include systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer-readable media for a shared channel occupancy time (COT) procedure in a wireless channel of unlicensed spectrum. The shared COT can be utilized among one or more user equipment (UE) and a 5G Node B (gNB). A UE contends for access to the channel to acquire the COT, and transmits in the uplink (UL) according to the UEs time-domain configuration. When the UL transmission does not utilize the entire COT, the UE can signal to the gNB that the COT can be shared. In particular, the UE transmits an indication of a COT boundary that the gNB can use to determine when to transmit DL data in the shared COT. The COT can also be shared between two or more UEs in addition to the gNB.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 16, 2020
    Publication date: May 26, 2022
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jose Armando OVIEDO, Yingyang LI, Salvatore TALARICO, Yongjun KWAK
  • Patent number: 11337654
    Abstract: A wearable electronic device includes a body, a housing component, a band operable to attach the body to a body part of a user, and a force sensor coupled to the housing component. The force sensor is operable to produce a force signal based on a force exerted between the body part of the user and the housing component. A processing unit of the wearable electronic device receives the force signal from the force sensor and determines the force exerted on the housing component based thereon. The processing unit may use that force to determine a tightness of the band, determine health information for the user, adjust determined force exerted on a cover glass, and/or to perform various other actions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Tyler S. Bushnell, Steven J. Martisauskas, Erik G. de Jong, Andrzej T. Baranski, Serhan O. Isikman, Steven J. Banaska, Todd K. Whitehurst, Ming L. Sartee
  • Patent number: 11343931
    Abstract: An electronic device can include a housing that defines an internal volume. The electronic device can also include a component within the internal volume that divides the internal volume into a first volume and a second volume. The first volume and second volume can be fluidically isolated except at an aperture defined by the component. An air-moving system can produce a positive air pressure in the first volume and a negative air pressure in the second volume.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Brett W. Degner, Eric R. Prather, Michael E. Leclerc
  • Patent number: 11342395
    Abstract: An organic light-emitting diode display may have thin-film transistor circuitry formed on a substrate. The display and substrate may have rounded corners. A pixel definition layer may be formed on the thin-film transistor circuitry. Openings in the pixel definition layer may be provided with emissive material overlapping respective anodes for organic light-emitting diodes. A cathode layer may cover the array of pixels. A ground power supply path may be used to distribute a ground voltage to the cathode layer. The ground power supply path may be formed from a metal layer that is shorted to the cathode layer using portions of a metal layer that forms anodes for the diodes, may be formed from a mesh shaped metal pattern, may have L-shaped path segments, may include laser-deposited metal on the cathode layer, and may have other structures that facilitate distribution of the ground power supply.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Chin-Wei Lin, Stephen S. Poon, Warren S. Rieutort-Louis, Cheng-Ho Yu, ChoongHo Lee, Doh-Hyoung Lee, Ting-Kuo Chang, Tsung-Ting Tsai, Vasudha Gupta, Younggu Lee
  • Patent number: 11341988
    Abstract: A hybrid machine learning-based and DSP statistical post-processing technique is disclosed for voice activity detection. The hybrid technique may use a DNN model with a small context window to estimate the probability of speech by frames. The DSP statistical post-processing stage operates on the frame-based speech probabilities from the DNN model to smooth the probabilities and to reduce transitions between speech and non-speech states. The hybrid technique may estimate the soft decision on detected speech in each frame based on the smoothed probabilities, generate a hard decision using a threshold, detect a complete utterance that may include brief pauses, and estimate the end point of the utterance. The hybrid voice activity detection technique may incorporate a target directional probability estimator to estimate the direction of the speech source. The DSP statistical post-processing module may use the direction of the speech source to inform the estimates of the voice activity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ramin Pishehvar, Feiping Li, Ante Jukic, Mehrez Souden, Joshua D. Atkins
  • Patent number: 11342800
    Abstract: A magnetic alignment system can include a primary annular magnetic alignment component and a secondary annular magnetic alignment component. The primary alignment component can include an inner annular region having a first magnetic orientation, an outer annular region having a second magnetic orientation opposite to the first magnetic orientation, and a non-magnetized central annular region disposed between the primary inner annular region and the primary outer annular region. The secondary alignment component can have a magnetic orientation with a radial component. Additional features, such as a rotational magnetic alignment component and/or an NFC coil and circuitry can be included.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Aaron A. Oro, Karl Ruben F. Larsson, Timothy J. Rasmussen, Christopher S. Graham, Eric S. Jol, James C. Wu, Demetrios B. Karanikos
  • Patent number: 11340466
    Abstract: Head-mountable devices can include an arrangement of components that include a waveguide that is decoupled from the ability of system loads to be transferred into the waveguide. Such decoupling can be achieved by utilizing an elastic bond with low stiffness to bond certain components together. This allows the system to flex and deform without transferring stress to the waveguide. Such decoupling can also be achieved by selectively bonding in regions that have relatively lower displacements between a support structure and the waveguide. These measures can help preserve component alignment while allowing a head-mountable device to be lightweight and small in size.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Cameron A. Harder, David A. Kalinowski
  • Patent number: 11343335
    Abstract: Certain embodiments of the present invention can detect and evaluate new messages at a coordinating device to determine whether to forward the message to a wearable device. In this manner, a server can reduce a number of devices that it is to communicate a message to, while still allowing the message to be availed to multiple devices. Further, certain embodiments relate to coordinating alerts (e.g., audio or haptic alerts) to reduce redundant alerts of a single message amongst spatially clustered devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: James B. Cary, David A. Schimon, Christopher P. Saari, Karen L. Bechtel, Antony J. Dzeryn, Tyler D. Hawkins, Eliza C. Block, Curtis Rothert, Gustavo R. Chaurais, Gregory B. Novick
  • Patent number: 11343465
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a computing device receives, from one or more cameras, a video stream comprising multiple frames, where the video stream is received at a first quality. The computing device analyzes, using a machine-learning model, images in the frames, where the machine-learning model has been trained to detect one or more objects-of-interest in the images. The computing device identifies a sequence-of-interest including consecutive frames of the video stream, where at least one object-of-interest was detected in at least one of the consecutive frames. The computing device generates a video package including the sequence-of-interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Peter Zatloukal
  • Patent number: 11343052
    Abstract: A network device such as an evolved NodeB (eNB) or next generation NodeB (gNB) can configure a set of user equipment (UE) for cell reference signal (CRS) muting in order to provide better channel quality and power efficiency in communications. Where an eNB mutes CRS transmissions that are not needed by any UE, an improvement in downlink throughput and reduce connection drop rate can be generated. A CRS muting capability can be determined based on a user equipment (UE) capability information. According to the CRS muting capability of a UE, CRS muting can be generated in a physical channel outside of a narrow band (NB) or a wide band (WB) plus/minus X physical resource blocks (PRBs), wherein X is a non-negative integer, based on the CRS muting capability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Qiaoyang Ye, Debdeep Chatterjee, Salvatore Talarico
  • Patent number: 11343709
    Abstract: Apparatuses, systems, and methods for a wireless device and base station using a first radio access technology to monitor traffic load on a second radio access technology. A wireless device may monitor traffic of the second radio access technology and may transmit one or more traffic load reports to the base station. The base station may, based on the report(s) and its own observations, determine whether a hidden network of the second radio access technology is present at the wireless device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Wei Zhang, Tianyan Pu, Haitong Sun, Wei Zeng, Dawei Zhang, Sami M. Almalfouh, Johnson O. Sebeni
  • Patent number: 11343048
    Abstract: Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, apparatus of an evolved NodeB (eNB) comprises circuitry to configure one or more parameters for a 5G master information block (xMIB). The xMIB contains at least one of the following parameters: downlink system bandwidth, system frame number (SFN), or configuration for other physical channels, or a combination thereof. The apparatus of the eNB comprises circuitry to transmit the xMIB via a 5G physical broadcast channel (xPBCH) on a predefined resource, the xPBCH comprising a xPBCH. The xPBCH may use a DM-RS based transmission mode, and a beamformed xPBCH may be used for mid band and high band.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Gang Xiong, Hyejung Jung, Ralf Bendlin, Jong-Kae Fwu, Alexei Davydov
  • Patent number: 11343057
    Abstract: Technology for a user equipment (UE) operable to decode a resource mapping pattern of a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) received from a base station in a wireless network is disclosed. The UE can decode control signaling received in a downlink from the base station. The control signaling can indicate a resource mapping pattern for a PT-RS. The UE can identify the resource mapping pattern for the PT-RS based on the control signaling received from the base station. The UE can encode one or more PT-RS for transmission to the base station in an uplink in accordance with the resource mapping pattern for the PT-RS.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Yushu Zhang, Yuhang Guo, Gang Xiong, Hua Li, Yuan Zhu
  • Patent number: 11340994
    Abstract: Techniques for identifying and remedying performance issues of Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) are discussed. An example system includes processor(s) configured to: process VNF Performance Measurement (PM) data received from a network Element Manager (EM) for a VNF; determine whether the VNF has a negative performance issue based on the VNF PM data; request that the EM create a Virtualization Resource (VR) PM job associated with a VR of the VNF when the VNF has the negative performance issue; process VR PM data received from the EM; determine whether to restart the VNF based on the VR PM data and the VNF PM data; and request a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) to restart the VNF based on a determination to restart the VR.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Joey Chou, Stephen Gooch, Meghashree Dattatri Kedalagudde
  • Patent number: 11341893
    Abstract: Hybrid architectures and method methods of operating a display panel are described. In an embodiment, row driver and pixel driver functions are combined in a group of backbone hybrid pixel driver chips, wherein global signal lines are distributed to the backbone hybrid pixel driver chips, where the global signals are manipulated and distributed to a row of pixel driver chips.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Xiang Lu, Mahdi Farrokh Baroughi, Xiaofeng Wang, Derek K. Shaeffer, Henry C. Jen, Hopil Bae
  • Patent number: 11343861
    Abstract: There is are provided methods and apparatus relating to layer 2 relaying and mobility using a sidelink interface, including a remote user equipment (UE) for use in a wireless communication network, the UE comprising: a device to network (D2N) entity, a device to device (D2D) entity, and control logic to: receive a service data unit derived from an IP packet direct the service data unit to the D2N entity for communication with an eNB using a Uu interface in a first mode of operation, and direct the service data unit to the D2D entity for communication with the eNB via a first relay UE using a sidelink interface in a second, relay, mode of operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Richard Burbidge, Sangeetha L. Bangolae, Youn Hyoung Heo, Kyeongin Jeong, Jaemin Han, Mo-han Fong
  • Patent number: 11343605
    Abstract: System for automatic right-left ear detection for headphone comprising: first earcup and second earcup that are identical. Each of first and second earcups includes: first microphone located on perimeter of each earcup, when first earcup is worn on user's right ear first microphone of first earcup is at location farthest from user's mouth when headphone is worn in normal wear position; second microphone located on perimeter of each earcup, when first earcup is worn on user's right ear, second microphone of first earcup is at location closer than first microphone of first earcup to user's mouth; third microphone located inside each earcup facing user's ear cavity, fourth microphone located at perimeter and bottom center portion of each earcup and facing exterior of each earcup, and fifth microphone located on perimeter of each earcup above and to left of second microphone when looking at outside housing of each earcup.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventor: Sorin V. Dusan
  • Patent number: 11340653
    Abstract: Electronic devices may be provided having internal components mounted to a structural glass support member. The structural glass support member may have a planar front surface that forms a front surface of the device. The structural glass support member may have bent portions that form sidewall surfaces of the device. Portions of the structural glass support member may form a transparent display cover layer. A rigid or flexible display may be mounted to the structural glass support member. Additional internal device components may be mounted to the display. A thin enclosure for enclosing the internal components in the device may be mounted to the structural glass support member. The thin enclosure may be mounted to the structural glass support member using a peripheral member. The thin enclosure may be free from attachments to internal components or may be adhesively bonded to one or more internal components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Jeremy C. Franklin, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, John P. Ternus, Kevin D. Gibbs
  • Patent number: D952598
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    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, Jonathan Gomez Garcia, M. Evans Hankey, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Julian Jaede, Duncan Robert Kerr, Peter Russell-Clarke, Benjamin Andrew Shaffer, Joe Sung-Ho Tan, Clement Tissandier, Eugene Antony Whang
  • Patent number: D952683
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Kevin Will Chen, Teofila Connor, Thalia Jimena Echevarria Fiol, Aurelio Guzmán, Vincenzo Vuono, Christopher I. Wilson, Eric Lance Wilson