Patents Assigned to Apple
  • Patent number: 10690986
    Abstract: An electronic device has an electrically adjustable shutter. The shutter may be placed in a transparent state or a nontransparent state. The shutter may overlap a portion of a display, may overlap a liquid contact indictor or a structure with text in a device, or may overlap an optical component such as an optical proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, visible light-emitting diode or laser, infrared light-emitting diode or laser, visible light image sensor, or infrared light image sensor. Control circuitry in the electronic device may place the shutter in an opaque state to hide an overlapped component from view or may place the shutter in a transparent state to allow the overlapped component to transmit or receive light. The adjustable shutter may exhibit changes in its transmission spectrum in different modes of operation and may be used as a camera filter or neutral density filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Michael W. Firka, Ashley E. Fletcher, Benjamin J. Pope, Lee E. Hooton, Scott A. Myers, Benjamin Shane Bustle, Garam Young, Blake M. Coughenour
  • Patent number: 10692191
    Abstract: Embodiments relate to enhancing local contrast in an image. A bilateral high pass filter generates a high frequency value for each pixel of an input image, based on a convolution using photometric kernel coefficients associated with other pixels around the pixel. A noise control circuit generates a modulated high frequency value for the pixel based on a noise model for the image defining a noise threshold value for modifying the high frequency value. The modulated high frequency value for the pixel is then combined with a pixel value of the pixel to generate an enhanced value for the pixel. Enhanced values for pixels of the image may be generated to provide the local contrast enhancement for the input image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Maxim Smirnov
  • Patent number: 10691211
    Abstract: A module includes a permanent magnet biased electromagnetic haptic engine having a stator and a rotor; a constraint coupled to the stator and the rotor; and a force sensor at least partially attached to the permanent magnet biased electromagnetic haptic engine and configured to sense a force applied to the rotor. The constraint is configured to constrain closure of a gap between the rotor and the stator and bias the rotor toward a rest position in which the rotor is separated from the stator by the gap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Darya Amin-Shahidi, Alex M. Lee, Brenton A. Baugh
  • Patent number: 10690488
    Abstract: An optoelectronic device includes a semiconductor substrate and a monolithic array of light-emitting elements, including first and second sets of the light-emitting elements arranged on the substrate in respective first and second two-dimensional patterns, which are interleaved on the substrate. First and second conductors are respectively connected to separately drive the first and second sets of the light-emitting elements so that the device selectably emits light in either or both of the first and second patterns.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Benny Pesach, Zafrir Mor
  • Patent number: 10694449
    Abstract: An apparatus and methods are provided for automatically detecting and connecting to a Wi-Fi network. In these methods, a wireless device listens for beacons that are sent using a low-power wireless protocol. Once the wireless device detects a first beacon at a first location, the wireless device extracts a first beacon region identifier from the beacon and correlates the first beacon region identifier with a first Wi-Fi network that is located at the first location. Next, the wireless device retrieves a first set of credentials for connecting to the first Wi-Fi network. Once the first set of credentials is retrieved, the wireless device uses the first set of credentials to connect to the first Wi-Fi network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Artiom Shamis, Kapil Chhabra
  • Patent number: 10692537
    Abstract: A method to author music. The method includes generating, based on a collection of media clips stored on a device, an audio component for an audio/video (A/V) presentation, determining a plurality of locations within the audio component where a beat, onset, segment boundary, or stinger occurs within the audio component, selecting a particular location in the plurality of locations as a transition location, generating, based the collection of media clips and the transition location within the audio component, a video component for the A/V presentation, and generating the A/V presentation based on the audio component and the video component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Aaron M. Eppolito, Conner Stuart Richardson, Wendy L. DeVore
  • Patent number: 10694411
    Abstract: Embodiments include apparatuses, methods, and systems that may test a UE for its idle period distribution. A test system may identify a set of bins in which a union of the set of bins may be equal to a contention window, wherein each individual bin of the set of bins may have an associated probability. A first bin of the set of bins may have a first associated probability, and a second bin of the set of bins may have a second associated probability that is larger than the first associated probability. Each individual idle period may be assigned to a corresponding bin of the set of bins. A UE may have a pass status or a failure status based on the individual idle periods assigned to the corresponding bin of the set of bins, and the associated probability for the bin. Other embodiments may also be described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Markus Dominik Mueck, Biljana Badic
  • Patent number: 10694607
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a housing with a display. A transparent portion of the housing may serve as a display cover layer and may overlap an array of pixels in the display. The array of pixels may form an active area of the display for displaying images for a user. An ambient light sensor window may be formed in an inactive area of the display that does not overlap pixels. An ambient light sensor may be mounted in an interior region of the housing. A metal-coated light guide may have a first end aligned with the ambient light sensor window to receive ambient light from an exterior region surrounding the device and may have a second end at which the ambient light is provided to the ambient light sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Tingjun Xu, Guocheng Shao, Lei Yu, Ove Lyngnes, Sunggu Kang, Tianbo Sun, Xianwei Zhao, Xiaoyong Fu, Xingxing Cai
  • Patent number: 10694603
    Abstract: An LED driver circuit is disclosed. The LED driver circuit includes an amplifier having a first input coupled to receive a reference voltage and a second input coupled to receive a feedback voltage. The circuit further includes first and second transistors each having respective gate terminals coupled to an output of the first amplifier. In a first mode, a first switch alternately couples a source terminal of the first transistor to the second input of the amplifier (when the pulse is asserted) and a source terminal of the second transistor to the second input (when the pulse is de-asserted). A third transistor includes a gate terminal that is coupled to ground, by a second switch, when operating in the first mode. When operating in the second mode, the switch couples the third transistor to the output of the amplifier, while the pulse remains asserted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Cristian Grecu, Bogdan-Eugen Matei, Angelo Bassi, Andrei-Cosmin Gaidam, Alessandro Molari
  • Patent number: 10694284
    Abstract: An audio speaker having a speaker housing surrounding a back volume that is divided into a rear cavity behind a speaker driver and an adsorption cavity separated from the rear cavity by a permeable partition, is disclosed. More particularly, the adsorption cavity may be defined between the speaker housing and the permeable partition, and may be directly filled with adsorptive particles to adsorb gas during sound generation. The permeable partition may allow the gas to flow between the rear cavity and the adsorption cavity, and may retain the adsorptive particles within the adsorption cavity. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Wilk, Ruchir M. Dave, Scott P. Porter
  • Patent number: 10691837
    Abstract: Embodiments described herein enable multi-user storage volume encryption via a secure enclave processor. One embodiment provides for a computing device comprising a first processor to execute a first operating system having one or more user accounts; a second processor to execute a second operating system, the second processor including a secure enclave, the secure enclave to receive a first encrypted key from the first processor and decrypt a volume encryption key via a key encryption key derived from the first encrypted key, the first encrypted key derived via the secure enclave without user-provided entropy; and a non-volatile memory controller to access encrypted data within non-volatile memory using the volume encryption key.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Pierre Olivier Martel, Arthur Mesh, Wade Benson
  • Patent number: 10693535
    Abstract: A high-order Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmitter implementing a covariance-based precoding scheme that exploits transmit channel correlation and a method of operation thereof are provided. In one embodiment, covariance-based precoding is performed at the high-order MIMO transmitter based on feedback from a remote high-order MIMO receiver regarding a covariance-based precoding matrix. The covariance-based precoding matrix is, or is derived from, a transmit channel correlation matrix determined by the high-order MIMO receiver for the high-order MIMO transmitter. The covariance-based precoding provides a beam-forming effect when there is a relatively high degree of transmit channel correlation, thereby improving performance of the high-order MIMO transmitter. Further, because changes in the transmit channel correlation occur relatively slowly over time, feedback overhead requirements are substantially reduced as compared to that required for traditional MIMO precoding schemes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ming Jia, Jianglei Ma, Peiying Zhu, Wen Tong
  • Patent number: 10693863
    Abstract: A method of enabling applications to reference user information is provided, including receiving a request for a user identifier that references a user of the application and sending a second request for the user identifier to a server. The second request may include a second user identifier that references the user and a second authentication token for the second user identifier. Furthermore, the second user identifier and the second authentication token are not accessible by the user. The method includes receiving the user identifier and an authentication token for the first user identifier. The user identifier corresponds to the second identifier; and providing the user identifier and authentication token to the application. A method of enabling an application to identify users associated with a user of the application is provided; the method may include receiving, from the server, user identifiers that reference one or more users scoped to the application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Derrick S. Huhn, Jeremy M. Werner, Amol V. Pattekar
  • Patent number: 10691165
    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: December 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Jeremy C. Franklin, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, John P. Ternus, Kevin D. Gibbs
  • Patent number: 10687752
    Abstract: A method and a system for determining an energy expenditure of a user by detecting unmeasurable loads using heart rate and work rate are described. Time-stamped heart rate data and work rate data can be collected by one or more sensing modules. A processor circuit can calculate a heart rate-based energy expenditure and a work rate-based energy expenditure. The processor circuit can output a hybrid energy expenditure based on a heart rate confidence parameter, an exercise type, a fraction of heart rate reserve, and a hear rate-based metabolic equivalents of task.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Hung A. Pham, Karthik Jayaraman Raghuram, Hengliang Zhang, Edith Merle Arnold
  • Patent number: 10690970
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display may have main column spacers and subspacer column spacers. The column spacers may have cross shapes formed from overlapping perpendicular rectangular column spacer portions respectively located on a color filter layer and a thin-film transistor layer. The column spacers may have a hybrid configuration in which some of the rectangular portions on the thin-film transistor layer extend vertically and some extend horizontally. Column spacers may be formed from planarization layer material, may be formed from locally thickened portions of a planarization layer, and may have circular shapes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Chia Hsuan Tai, Cheng Chen, Da Yu, Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov, Sang Un Choi, Shih-Chyuan Fan Jiang, Tae Woon Cha, Yeon Sik Ham, Yuan Chen, Zhibing Ge, Hossein Nemati
  • Patent number: 10692504
    Abstract: This is directed to processing voice inputs received by an electronic device, and more specifically to receiving a voice input and identifying the user providing the voice input. The voice input can be processed using a subset of words from a library used to identify the words or phrases of the voice input. The subset can be selected such that voice inputs provided by the user are more likely to include words from the subset. The subset of the library can be selected using any suitable approach, including based on the user's interests and words that relate to those interests. For example, the subset can include one or more words related to media items selected by the user for storage on the electronic device, names of the user's contacts, applications or processes used by the user, or any other words relating to the user's interactions with the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Allen P. Haughay
  • Patent number: 10692169
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer readable media to perform out-of-order command scheduling for a graphics processor are described. A graphics driver receives commands committed to a graphics processor for execution. The graphics driver queues a first command to a first graphics driver virtual channel that submits commands to the graphics processor for execution. The first command is associated with a first set of resources. The graphics driver determines whether a second set of resources associated with the second command depends on the first set of resources. The graphics driver queues the second command to the first graphics driver virtual channel based on a determination that the second set of resources depends on the first set of resources. The graphics driver queues the second command to a second virtual channel based on a determination that the second set of resources does not depend on the first set of resources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jason P. Jane, Michael J. Swift
  • Patent number: D888035
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jody Akana, Bartley K. Andre, Shota Aoyagi, Jeremy Bataillou, Daniel J. Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, M. Evans Hankey, Julian Hoenig, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Duncan Robert Kerr, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Mikael Silvanto, Christopher J. Stringer, Eugene Antony Whang, Rico Zörkendörfer
  • Patent number: D888089
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Imran Chaudhri, Jonathan P. Ive, Wan Si Wan, Christopher Wilson, Chun Kin Minor Wong