Patents Assigned to Apple
  • Patent number: 11184415
    Abstract: Techniques presented herein provide an improved relay user experience and improved management of scarce computing and network resources as the number of relay endpoints increases. A sourcing endpoint device may generate a media feed, such as video and/or audio feed, representing contribution from a conference participant. The sourcing endpoint device may generate a priority value for the media feed, and the priority value may be transmitted to other members of the relay along with the input feed. Priority values of the different relay participants may be used by other devices, for example, intermediate servers or receiving endpoint devices, to manage aspects of the relay. For example, a relay server may prune streams from select endpoint devices based on relative priority values received from those devices. Alternatively, receiving endpoint devices may alter presentation of received feeds based on their associated priority values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher M. Garrido, Dazhong Zhang, Karthick Santhanam, Patrick Miauton, Xiaoxiao Zheng, Bess Chan, Peter Shiang, Sudeng Hu, Peikang Song, Xiaosong Zhou
  • Patent number: 11182420
    Abstract: Management or coordination of playback of digital media assets by an electronic device (e.g., a computing device), that supports media playback is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the electronic device can be controlled such that a user is able to schedule playback of distinct digital media assets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Fletcher R. Rothkopf, John Benjamin Filson, Kyle Yeates
  • Patent number: 11184353
    Abstract: The embodiments set forth systems and techniques to authenticate a user device for device services, such as by transferring or extending a trusted device status from a separate and trusted associated user device, which can be paired with the user device. This can be done automatically without requiring the user to sign in at or on behalf of the user device, and the automated process can include verifying a trusted status for the associated user device, receiving data items from both devices, evaluating the data items, and facilitating an authentication of the user device when the evaluating returns a favorable result. Data items can include provisioned machine identifiers, temporally limited one-time user passwords, and a provisioned password reset key. Authentication or trusted device status transfer can be achieved by way of an authentication token that is given to the user device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: James C. Wilson, Lestat Ali, Aniwat Arromratana
  • Patent number: 11183193
    Abstract: This relates to intelligent automated assistants and, more specifically, to intelligent context sharing and task performance among a collection of devices with intelligent automated assistant capabilities. An example method includes, at a first electronic device participating in a context-sharing group associated with a first location: receiving a user voice input; receiving, from a context collector, an aggregate context of the context-sharing group; providing at least a portion of the aggregate context and data corresponding to the user voice input to a remote device; receiving, from the remote device, a command to perform one or more tasks and a device identifier corresponding to a second electronic device; and transmitting the command to the second electronic device based on the device identifier, wherein the command causes the second electronic device to perform the one or more tasks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Bryan Hansen, Nikrouz Ghotbi, Yifeng Gui, Xinyuan Huang, Benjamin S. Phipps, Eugene Ray, Mahesh Ramaray Shanbhag, Jaireh Tecarro, Sumit Wattal
  • Publication number: 20210360147
    Abstract: Some embodiments include a camera voice coil motor (VCM) actuator that includes an additive coil structure for shifting a lens along one or multiple axes. The additive coil structure may include a base portion configured to couple with a lens carrier and at least partially surround a perimeter of the lens carrier. In various examples, the additive coil structure may include folded portions that individually include a respective coil that is located proximate a respective magnet. According to various embodiments, the additive coil structure may be formed using an additive process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 2021
    Publication date: November 18, 2021
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Douglas S. Brodie, Aurelien R. Hubert, Scott W. Miller, Shashank Sharma
  • Publication number: 20210360480
    Abstract: Provided herein are apparatus and method for signal RAN-assisted codec adaptation capabilities via IMS. An apparatus for a UE includes a RF interface to receive an SDP offer message from the remote UE, the SDP offer message including a first dedicated SDP attribute parameter to indicate support of ANBR capability of the remote UE; and processor circuitry. The processor circuitry is to decode the SDP offer message to determine the support of ANBR capability of the remote UE; encode an SDP answer message in response to the SDP offer message, the SDP answer message including a second dedicated SDP attribute parameter to indicate support of ANBR capability of the UE; and cause transmission of the SDP answer message to the remote UE. Other embodiments may also be disclosed and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2019
    Publication date: November 18, 2021
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ozgur OYMAN, Thomas LUETZENKIRCHEN, Sudhir SHANKAR POLA, Usharani AYYALASOMAYAJULA
  • Publication number: 20210359816
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods, apparatuses, storage media, and systems for mapping a phase-tracking reference signal to resource elements. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 16, 2019
    Publication date: November 18, 2021
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Guotong WANG, Alexei DAVYDOV, Yushu ZHANG
  • Patent number: 11175762
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are liquid-crystal display (LCD) touch screens that integrate the touch sensing elements with the display circuitry. The integration may take a variety of forms. Touch sensing elements can be completely implemented within the LCD stackup but outside the not between the color filter plate and the array plate. Alternatively, some touch sensing elements can be between the color filter and array plates with other touch sensing elements not between the plates. In another alternative, all touch sensing elements can be between the color filter and array plates. The latter alternative can include both conventional and in-plane-switching (IPS) LCDs. In some forms, one or more display structures can also have a touch sensing function. Techniques for manufacturing and operating such displays, as well as various devices embodying such displays are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Steve Porter Hotelling, Wei Chen, Christoph Horst Krah, John Greer Elias, Wei Hsin Yao, Andrew Bert Hodge, Brian Richards Land, Willem den Boer, John Z. Zhong
  • Patent number: 11176089
    Abstract: Representative embodiments set forth herein disclose techniques for implementing dynamic file system volumes that can share storage space with other file system (FS) volumes within the same partition/storage device. According to some embodiments, techniques are disclosed for establishing an FS volume within a container. According to other embodiments, techniques are disclosed for handling input/output (I/O) requests across different FS volumes. According to yet other embodiments, techniques are disclosed for efficiently establishing, within a storage device, an FS volume from an image of the FS volume.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: John Garvey, Michael S. Mackovitch, Peter J. Rutenbar
  • Patent number: 11176643
    Abstract: Embodiments relate to axial chromatic aberration (ACA) reduction of raw image data generated by image sensors. A chromatic aberration reduction circuit performs chromatic aberration reduction on the raw image data to correct the ACA in the full color images through sharpening that has been clamped to reduce sharpening overshoot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Sheng Lin
  • Patent number: 11173766
    Abstract: A suspension component includes a suspension spring, a screw actuator that is operable to compress and decompress the suspension spring upon supply of electrical power to the screw actuator, and locking structure that engages a portion of the screw actuator to restrain motion of the screw actuator to maintain a current degree of compression of the suspension spring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jonathan L. Hall, Neal M. Lackritz, Troy A. Carter
  • Patent number: 11176196
    Abstract: In some implementations, a computing device may perform a method for providing a unified pipeline for media metadata to converge disparate schemas and data structures into a global unified graph. The method includes receiving media metadata from disparate media sources that may each have a different metadata schema that defines the structure and attributes of the metadata provided by each media source. The computing device may compare media metadata received from the different media sources to determine that metadata received from the different media sources correspond to similar, or the same, media entities (e.g., songs, movies, books, etc.). The metadata for the similar media entities may then be combined into a global unified graph that may include metadata attributes and/or values of the metadata received from the various media sources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ashish Sharma, Han Jia, Jianqing Sun, Philip Edward Lamond, Darren Seeto, Edward J. Roberts, Michael H. Walker, Christopher J. Powell
  • Patent number: 11175929
    Abstract: The present disclosure generally relates to user interfaces for enabling an activity using a computer system. In some embodiments, exemplary user interfaces for invoking an activity associated with an application are described. In some embodiments, exemplary user interfaces for customizing displayed content based on circumstances under which the content was invoked are described. In some embodiments, exemplary user interfaces for managing applications that were used to enable activities are described. In some embodiments, exemplary user interfaces for managing settings for applications used to enable activities are described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Yongjun Zhang, Reza Abbasian, Darin Adler, Ada Chan, Dana J. Dubois, Steven Falkenburg, Craig M. Federighi, Kenneth Arthur Abraham Ferry, Christopher Patrick Foss, Sam H. Gharabally, Brian Erik Goldberg, Nicholas Stephen Doherty, Heena Ko, Keith P. Kowalczykowski, Grant Paul, Jeffrey L. Robbin, James S. Savage, Matthew Sibson, Gurshamnjot Singh, Caelan G. Stack, Luming Yin, Charles H. Ying, Mark M. Xue, Hengliang Zhang, Xiaoyue Zhang, Patrick L. Coffman
  • Patent number: 11177291
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display having an array of display pixels on a substrate. The display pixels may be organic light-emitting diode display pixels or display pixels in a liquid crystal display. In an organic light-emitting diode display, hybrid thin-film transistor structures may be formed that include semiconducting oxide thin-film transistors, silicon thin-film transistors, and capacitor structures. The capacitor structures may overlap the semiconducting oxide thin-film transistors. Organic light-emitting diode display pixels may have combinations of oxide and silicon transistors. In a liquid crystal display, display driver circuitry may include silicon thin-film transistor circuitry and display pixels may be based on oxide thin-film transistors. A single layer or two different layers of gate metal may be used in forming silicon transistor gates and oxide transistor gates. A silicon transistor may have a gate that overlaps a floating gate structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Osawa, Kyung-Wook Kim, Ming-Chin Hung, Shih Chang Chang, Yu-Cheng Chen
  • Patent number: 11178613
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure describe devices, methods, computer-readable media and systems configurations for management and/or support of multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) service in a wireless communications network. An evolved Node B (eNB) may transmit MBMS assistance information to a user equipment (UE). The MBMS assistance information may identify a carrier by which one or more upcoming MBMS services are to be provided and an indicator of a carrier selection mode to be used by the UE. The UE may transmit an MBMS interest indication message including information related to one or more targeted MBMS services which the UE wants to receive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Kamran Etemad, Yujian Zhang
  • Patent number: 11175700
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display for displaying images. The display may be coupled to a housing on a front face of the device. The housing may have a transparent portion on an opposing rear face of the device. The electronic device may have structures with an adjustable appearance. The adjustable-appearance structures may include a mask with openings or other mask elements and a corresponding overlapped patterned layer containing an array of visual elements. The visual elements may have different appearances, so that movement of the mask relative to the patterned layer changes the appearance of the adjustable-appearance structures. The state of the adjustable-appearance structure may be changed during use of the device by a user or may be adjusted then fixed during manufacturing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Joseph C. Poole, Christopher D. Jones, Christopher D. Prest, James R. Wilson, Marta M. Giachino, Matthew S. Rogers
  • Patent number: 11178342
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a flexible housing formed from flexible fabric, flexible polymer, or other flexible materials. Cameras may be mounted on the housing. The housing may be bent into different configurations such as a configuration in which the housing has a convex surface facing an exterior region and a configuration in which the housing has a concave surface facing the exterior region. The cameras may have respective camera image capture directions. By reorienting the cameras by bending the housing, the cameras can be used to capture panoramic images or three-dimensional images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Katherine E. Tong
  • Patent number: 11176068
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for a synchronized multi-directional transfer on an inter-processor communication (IPC) link. In one embodiment, the synchronized multi-directional transfer utilizes one or more buffers which are configured to accumulate data during a first state. The one or more buffers are further configured to transfer the accumulated data during a second state. Data is accumulated during a low power state where one or more processors are inactive, and the data transfer occurs during an operational state where the processors are active. Additionally, in some variants, the data transfer may be performed for currently available transfer resources, and halted until additional transfer resources are made available. In still other variants, one or more of the independently operable processors may execute traffic monitoring processes so as to optimize data throughput of the IPC link.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Karan Sanghi, Vladislav Petkov, Radha Kumar Pulyala, Saurabh Garg, Haining Zhang
  • Patent number: 11178202
    Abstract: In one embodiment, systems, methods and non-transitory machine readable media detect differences between the rate of production, by a server, of media segments identified in an HTTP compliant playlist and the rate of consumption, by a client device, of the media segments in streaming media content. These differences, once detected, can be used to adjust a playback rate at the client to reduce the difference between the server rate and the client rate. This detection can be used in low latency streaming media contexts in which the client device is playing back content that is live, such as a live sports event happening during the playback by the client device. The adjustment of the client's playback rate can avoid running out of buffered media segments (when the client's rate is much faster than the server's rate) and can avoid increasing latency at the client device and overloading a buffer with too many media segments (when the client's rate is much slower than the server's rate).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Prashant Nandakumar, Zhenheng Li, Roger N. Pantos, Gregory R. Chapman
  • Patent number: 11178259
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for efficient data transfer within a user space network stack. Unlike prior art monolithic networking stacks, the exemplary networking stack architecture described hereinafter includes various components that span multiple domains (both in-kernel, and non-kernel). For example, unlike traditional “socket” based communication, disclosed embodiments can transfer data directly between the kernel and user space domains. Direct transfer reduces the per-byte and per-packet costs relative to socket based communication. A user space networking stack is disclosed that enables extensible, cross-platform-capable, user space control of the networking protocol stack functionality. The user space networking stack facilitates tighter integration between the protocol layers (including TLS) and the application or daemon. Exemplary systems can support multiple networking protocol stack instances (including an in-kernel traditional network stack).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Cahya Adiansyah Masputra, Sandeep Nair, Karan Sanghi, Mingzhe Zhang, Jason McElrath