Patents Assigned to Apple
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Patent number: 11031195Abstract: An electronic device such as a cover for a portable device or other electronic equipment may have circuitry mounted in a housing. The housing may be formed from layers of material such as fabric and polymer layers. The circuitry of the electronic device may include components mounted on a printed circuit. The components may include movable components such as keys in a keyboard. A fabric layer may overlap the keys. Border regions of the fabric layer that surround each key may be characterized by a stiffness. To ensure that the keys or other movable components in the device exhibit satisfactory stiffness levels, the keys can be tested and selected border regions or other fabric layer portions may be laser ablated or otherwise processed to locally reduce fabric layer stiffness.Type: GrantFiled: May 15, 2018Date of Patent: June 8, 2021Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Paul X. Wang, Joel N. Ruscher, Christopher T. Lebedeff, Sean Murphy, Melody Kuna
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Patent number: 11032930Abstract: This application relates to a method for forming an enclosure for a portable electronic device. The enclosure includes a metal substrate having a first b* value. The method includes forming an anodized layer that overlays and is formed from the metal substrate, wherein the anodized layer has a second b* value that is no greater than 0.3 of the first b* value and no less than 0.3 less than the first *b value.Type: GrantFiled: September 6, 2019Date of Patent: June 8, 2021Assignee: APPLE INC.Inventors: James A. Curran, Todd S. Mintz, Daniel T. McDonald
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Patent number: 11030474Abstract: Implementations disclosed herein more accurately and efficiently identify planar region boundaries corresponding to surfaces in a physical environment based on identifying intersections. In some implementations a detected planar region is altered, e.g., trimmed or extended, based on detecting an intersection of the planar region with an expansion of another planar region. In other implementations, a detected planar region is altered, e.g., trimmed or extended, based on detecting an intersection of the planar region with a detected edge line.Type: GrantFiled: May 28, 2019Date of Patent: June 8, 2021Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Aitor Aldoma Buchaca, Michael Jaison Gnanasekar, Oliver M. Dunkley
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Patent number: 11030728Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with a display. A content generator such as a camera may capture images in high dynamic range mode or standard dynamic range mode. The images may have associated image metadata such as face detection information, camera settings, color and luminance histograms, and image classification information. Control circuitry in the electronic device may determine tone mapping parameters for the captured images based on the image metadata. The tone mapping parameters for a given image may be stored with the image in the metadata file. When it is desired to display the image, the control circuitry may apply a tone mapping process to the image according to the stored tone mapping parameters. The algorithm that is used to determine tone mapping parameters based on image metadata may be based on user preference data gathered from a population of users.Type: GrantFiled: September 11, 2018Date of Patent: June 8, 2021Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Ramin Samadani, Gregory B. Abbas, Teun R. Baar, Nicolas P. Bonnier, Victor M. de Araujo Oliveira, Zuo Xia
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Patent number: 11032781Abstract: Described is an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE). The apparatus may comprise a first circuitry and a second circuitry. The first circuitry may be operable to establish that Downlink (DL) transmissions from a second Evolved Node-B (eNB) will interfere in one or more subframes with Uplink (UL) transmissions from the UE to a first eNB. The second circuitry may be operable to modulate a UL transmission power based upon the established interference condition.Type: GrantFiled: December 29, 2017Date of Patent: June 8, 2021Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Wenting Chang, Huaning Niu, Qiaoyang Ye
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Patent number: 11032501Abstract: An image sensing system and methods for operating the same are disclosed. An image sensing system includes a plurality of pixel circuits, a multiplexer configured to select one of the pixel circuit and provide analog pixel data without sampling, and a successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to convert the analog pixel data into digital data. The SAR ADC includes a capacitive digital-to-analog converter (CDAC) configured to convert contents of the SAR into a corresponding analog signal for comparison, by a comparator, with the analog pixel data. The CDAC includes a two-dimensional array of circuit elements. A control circuit in the image sensing system is configured to cause random ones of the circuit elements of the CDAC to be selected for generation of the corresponding analog signal and add a dithering signal so a CDAC output and shuffle a multiplexer switch sequence to improve fixed pattern noise.Type: GrantFiled: February 11, 2019Date of Patent: June 8, 2021Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Dusan Stepanovic, Sedigheh Hashemi, Mansour Keramat, Hyunsik Park
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Patent number: 11030609Abstract: A device implementing a system for preventing duplicate wireless transactions includes a wireless communication controller that is configured to receive a signal for conducting a wireless transaction with a wireless transaction terminal. The wireless communication controller is further configured to determine whether a transaction type of the wireless transaction is associated with a signal strength threshold. The wireless communication controller is further configured to measure a signal strength associated with the wireless transaction upon determining that the transaction type of the wireless transaction is associated with the signal strength threshold. The wireless communication controller is further configured to prevent the wireless transaction from completing when the transaction type of the wireless transaction is associated with the signal strength threshold and the measured signal strength fails to satisfy the signal strength threshold, otherwise allow the wireless transaction to complete.Type: GrantFiled: January 25, 2018Date of Patent: June 8, 2021Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Vincent Chauvin, Jordi Agud Ruiz, Kenyu Abe, Seunghoi Kim, Tatsuya Nagae, Vusthla Sunil Reddy, Peter Agboh
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Publication number: 20210165194Abstract: Lens systems are described that may be used in small form factor cameras. An imaging lens system may include a front aperture and five lens elements, and provides a low F-number (<32 2.4), wide field of view (>=82 degrees), and short total track length (TTL). Lens system parameters and relationships may be selected at least in part to reduce, compensate, or correct for optical aberrations and lens artifacts and effects across the field of view.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 12, 2021Publication date: June 3, 2021Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventor: Yuhong Yao
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Publication number: 20210168610Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods, apparatuses, storage media, and systems for performing a restricted local operator services (RLOS) authorization procedure. Various embodiments enable a network to authorize a user equipment (UE) with an RLOS access or subscription properly while aiding in minimizing or preventing potential denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 13, 2019Publication date: June 3, 2021Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Farid ADRANGI, Abhijeet KOLEKAR
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Publication number: 20210166490Abstract: An AR system that leverages a pre-generated 3D model of the world to improve rendering of 3D graphics content for AR views of a scene, for example an AR view of the world in front of a moving vehicle. By leveraging the pre-generated 3D model, the AR system may use a variety of techniques to enhance the rendering capabilities of the system. The AR system may obtain pre-generated 3D data (e.g., 3D tiles) from a remote source (e.g., cloud-based storage), and may use this pre-generated 3D data (e.g., a combination of 3D mesh, textures, and other geometry information) to augment local data (e.g., a point cloud of data collected by vehicle sensors) to determine much more information about a scene, including information about occluded or distant regions of the scene, than is available from the local data.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 12, 2021Publication date: June 3, 2021Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Patrick S. Piemonte, Daniel De Rocha Rosario, Jason D. Gosnell, Peter Meier
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Publication number: 20210168289Abstract: In some embodiments, a camera actuator includes an actuator base, an autofocus voice coil motor, and an optical image stabilization voice coil motor. In some embodiments, the autofocus voice coil motor includes a lens carrier mounting attachment moveably mounted to the actuator base, a plurality of shared magnets mounted to the base, and an autofocus coil fixedly mounted to the lens carrier mounting attachment for producing forces for moving a lens carrier in a direction of an optical axis of one or more lenses of the lens carrier. In some embodiments, the optical image stabilization voice coil motor includes an image sensor carrier moveably mounted to the actuator base, and optical image stabilization coils moveably mounted to the image sensor carrier within the magnetic fields of the shared magnets, for producing forces for moving the image sensor carrier in a plurality of directions orthogonal to the optical axis.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 12, 2021Publication date: June 3, 2021Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Aurelien R. Hubert, Qiang Yang, Douglas S. Brodie, Scott W. Miller, Shashank Sharma
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Publication number: 20210162996Abstract: Some embodiments provide a vehicle that includes a protection system configured to mitigate hazards to vehicle occupants posed by dynamic elements located within proximity of the vehicle. The vehicle can, in response to determining that a dynamic element is moving along a trajectory that intersects a sweep volume of a vehicle portal, can selectively restrict operation of the portal so that an occupant is restricted from opening the portal into a volume through which the dynamic element may pass. The vehicle can restrict portal operation in response to detecting external dynamic elements that are not within an occupant's field of vision. The vehicle can communicate a limited selection of vehicle sensor data, including representations of a detected dynamic element, to a user device supporting an authorized user in response to detecting that the dynamic element is located within a certain proximity of the vehicle.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 12, 2021Publication date: June 3, 2021Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Tie-Qi Chen, Benjamin B. Lyon, Byron B. Han, Ahmad Al-Dahle
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Publication number: 20210165229Abstract: A mixed reality system including a head-mounted display (HMD) and a base station. Information collected by HMD sensors may be transmitted to the base via a wired or wireless connection. On the base, a rendering engine renders frames including virtual content based in part on the sensor information, and an encoder compresses the frames according to an encoding protocol before sending the frames to the HMD over the connection. Instead of using a previous frame to estimate motion vectors in the encoder, motion vectors from the HMD and the rendering engine are input to the encoder and used in compressing the frame. The motion vectors may be embedded in the data stream along with the encoded frame data and transmitted to the HMD over the connection. If a frame is not received at the HMD, the HMD may synthesize a frame from a previous frame using the motion vectors.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 5, 2021Publication date: June 3, 2021Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Geoffrey Stahl, Avi Bar-Zeev
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Publication number: 20210165141Abstract: A retroreflector system including an outer body panel coupled to a vehicle, wherein the outer body panel is configured to allow a radar signal originating from an external radar device to pass through the outer body panel. The retroreflector system also includes a plurality of retroreflectors embedded in the vehicle, where the plurality of retroreflectors is configured to reflect the signal to the external signal source as a reflected signal, and where the plurality of retroreflectors is configured to have a peak reflectivity for a radar wavelength range or a light detection and ranging (lidar) wavelength range.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 20, 2021Publication date: June 3, 2021Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Randol W. Aikin, Malcolm J. Northcott, Daniel E. Potter, Matthew E. Last
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Publication number: 20210167871Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods, apparatuses, storage media, and systems for accuracy measurements in UE baseband-demodulation-performance tests in new radio (NR) frequency range 2 (FR2) operations. The accuracy measurements includes, but not limited to, reference signal received power (RSRP) accuracy, reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and signal-to-noise and interference (SINR) accuracy. Various embodiments describe how to measure RSRP/RSRQ/SINR accuracies in an over-the-air (OTA) test environment in NR FR2 operations.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 9, 2019Publication date: June 3, 2021Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Hua LI, Jie CUI, Yang TANG, Tom HAREL, Rui HUANG
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Patent number: 11025569Abstract: Users who are experiencing a shared content stream can exchange messages. Each user device can present a graphical user interface that includes controls to interact with a shared content stream being received and presented at the user device; a control to begin composing a message to other users who are receiving the shared content stream, and a display area to display previously received messages associated with the shared content stream. A message can be associated with a shared content stream, e.g., by providing a tag that identifies the content being played at the time the message was sent.Type: GrantFiled: September 30, 2015Date of Patent: June 1, 2021Assignee: APPLE INC.Inventors: Shaun C. Lind, William Martin Bachman, Alexander C. D. Fringes, Monika E. Gromek, Ofer Morag, Steve S. Gedikian, Jeffrey L. Robbin
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Patent number: 11023081Abstract: Multi-functional keyboard assemblies include an array of keys formed from stacked component layers. A top portion of the key may be capable of travelling vertically with respect to a base of the key. The top portion can include a keycap and a circuitry module coupled to the keycap. The keys may be capable of receive at least two distinct types of inputs and/or receiving at least one type of input and providing at least one type of output. Such output may include use of one or more light sources, displays, and/or haptic feedback devices.Type: GrantFiled: March 1, 2019Date of Patent: June 1, 2021Assignee: APPLE INC.Inventors: Craig C. Leong, James J. Niu, John M. Brock, Keith J. Hendren, Thomas W. Wilson, Jr., Bartley K. Andre, Mikael Silvanto, Dinesh C. Mathew
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Patent number: D921608Type: GrantFiled: January 13, 2020Date of Patent: June 8, 2021Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Shota Aoyagi, Robert Boyd, Robert Brunner, Monica Fernandez, Christopher Kuh, Christopher J. Stringer
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Patent number: D921688Type: GrantFiled: June 5, 2020Date of Patent: June 8, 2021Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Samuel Howard Bebbington, Kevin Will Chen, Alan C. Dye, Christopher Foss, Jonathan P. Ive, Chanaka Karunamuni, Stephen O Lemay, Christopher Daryl Soli, Aled Williams, Christopher Wilson
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Patent number: RE48581Type: GrantFiled: September 9, 2019Date of Patent: June 8, 2021Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Bartley K. Andre, Daniel J. Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Steve Jobs, Duncan Robert Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Douglas B. Satzger, Calvin Q. Seid, Christopher J. Stringer, Eugene Antony Whang, Rico Zörkendörfer