Patents Assigned to Apple
  • Patent number: 12184232
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a transceiver with mixer circuitry that up-converts or down-converts signals based on a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) signal. The transceiver circuitry may include first, second, third, and fourth VCOs. Each VCO may include a VCO core that receives a control voltage and an inductor coupled to the VCO core. Fixed linear capacitors may be coupled between the VCO cores. A switching network may be coupled between the VCOs. Control circuitry may place the VCO circuitry in one of four different operating modes and may switch between the operating modes to selectively control current direction in each of the inductors. The VCO circuitry may generate the VCO signal within a respective frequency range in each of the operating modes. The VCO circuitry may exhibit a relatively wide frequency range across all of the operating modes while introducing minimal phase noise to the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Abbas Komijani, Hongrui Wang, Sohrab Emami-Neyestanak
  • Patent number: 12184111
    Abstract: A wireless power transmitter can include a coil, an inverter coupled to the coil, and control circuitry coupled to the inverter that, responsive to receiving a burst request pulse from a wireless power receiver, initiates inverter operation, driving the coil and powering the receiver. The control circuitry can operate inverter switches so bandwidth of the wireless power transfer signal falls within a specified range by: (a) extending a minimum on time of the switches, (b) modifying pulse width modulation (PWM) drive signals supplied to the switches to shape a coil current burst envelope, and/or (c) modifying PWM signal amplitude supplied to the switches. Modifying the PWM drive signals can include using a symmetrical PWM scheme in which the positive and negative pulses are symmetrical in width on a cycle-by-cycle basis or using a complementary PWM scheme in which the positive and negative pulse widths are complementary on a cycle-by-cycle basis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ye Li, Antoin J. Russell, Stephen C. Terry, Adam L. Schwartz, Sumant Ranganathan, Gianpaolo Lisi
  • Patent number: 12181919
    Abstract: A head-mounted display includes a display unit and a facial interface. The display unit includes a display for displaying graphical content to a user. The facial interface is coupled to the display unit and configured to engage a face of the user to support the display unit thereon. The facial interface includes an upper portion that engages a forehead of the user and side portions that engage temple regions of the user. The facial interface converts forward force applied to the upper portion by the forehead into inward force applied by side portions to the temple regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2024
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Dustin A. Hatfield, Daniel M. Strongwater, Kristi E. Bauerly
  • Publication number: 20240427800
    Abstract: In some implementations, a user device can maintain a multi-device context store. For example, the user device can receive device and/or user context information from multiple devices and store the context information in a local data store. The user device can collect local device and/or user context information and store the context information in the local context store. The user device can receive user/device context queries from client processes and send the client processes user/device context information from multiple devices in response to the queries.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2024
    Publication date: December 26, 2024
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Kartik Venkatraman, Umesh Vaishampayan
  • Publication number: 20240427122
    Abstract: Various embodiments include a tilt actuator and a spring suspension arrangement for use in a camera having a folded optics arrangement. In some embodiments, the folded optics arrangement may include a light path-folding element that is coupled with a carrier and that is tilted using the tilt actuator. The spring suspension arrangement may suspend the carrier and the light path-folding element from a base structure, and may allow motion of the light path-folding element enabled by the tilt actuator. The spring suspension arrangement may include one or more springs attached to the carrier and to the base structure. In some embodiments, the spring suspension arrangement may further include one or more suspension wires attached to the spring(s) and to a stationary structure of the camera.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2024
    Publication date: December 26, 2024
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Scott W. Miller, Alfred N. Mireault, Junwei Liu, Hao Zheng
  • Publication number: 20240426960
    Abstract: In some aspects, a mobile device may receive, from a transmitting device, the signal by a plurality of antennas. The mobile device may measure one or more phase differences among the signal received at the plurality of antennas. The mobile device may determine a first set of possible values for the angle of arrival that are consistent with the one or more phase differences. The mobile device may measure one or more signal values using one or more sensors of the mobile device. The mobile device may for each of the first set of possible values, determining a confidence score based on the one or more signal values. The mobile device may select, based on the confidence scores, one of the first set of possible values as the angle of arrival.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2024
    Publication date: December 26, 2024
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Qiang Chen, Robert W. Brumley
  • Patent number: 12174785
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a coprocessor may include a bypass indication which identifies execution circuitry that is not used by a given processor instruction, and thus may be bypassed. The corresponding circuitry may be disabled during execution, preventing evaluation when the output of the circuitry will not be used for the instruction. In another embodiment, the coprocessor may implement a grid of processing elements in rows and columns, where a given coprocessor instruction may specify an operation that causes up to all of the processing elements to operate on vectors of input operands to produce results. Implementations of the coprocessor may implement a portion of the processing elements. The coprocessor control circuitry may be designed to operate with the full grid or partial grid, reissuing instructions in the partial grid case to perform the requested operation. In still another embodiment, the coprocessor may be able to fuse vector mode operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Aditya Kesiraju, Andrew J. Beaumont-Smith, Boris S. Alvarez-Heredia, Pradeep Kanapathipillai, Ran A. Chachick
  • Patent number: 12174391
    Abstract: A head-mounted device may have head-mounted support structures configured to be worn on a head of a user. The head-mounted device may have stereo optical components such as left and right cameras or left and right display systems. The optical components may have respective left and right pointing vectors. Deformation of the support structures may cause the camera pointing vectors and/or the display system pointing vectors to become misaligned. Sensor circuitry such as strain gauge circuitry may measure pointing vector misalignment. Control circuitry may control the cameras and/or the display systems to compensate for measured changes in pointing vector misalignment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Patton, Clas M. Oldenbo, Scott M. DeLapp
  • Patent number: 12175945
    Abstract: A light emitting assembly is described. In one embodiment, one or more light emitting diode (LED) devices and one or more microcontrollers are bonded to a same side of a substrate, with the one or more microcontrollers to switch and drive the one or more LED devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Kapil V. Sakariya, Andreas Bibl, Kelly McGroddy
  • Patent number: 12175069
    Abstract: In accordance with some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with a device with a touch screen display is disclosed. In the method, a movement of an object on or near the touch screen display is detected. In response to detecting the movement, an electronic document displayed on the touch screen display is translated in a first direction. If an edge of the electronic document is reached while translating the electronic document in the first direction while the object is still detected on or near the touch screen display, an area beyond the edge of the document is displayed. After the object is no longer detected on or near the touch screen display, the document is translated in a second direction until the area beyond the edge of the document is no longer displayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2024
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Bas Ording
  • Patent number: 12177796
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods, apparatuses, storage media, and systems for determining dynamic power sharing in a dual connectivity network. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Gang Xiong, Hong He, Yushu Zhang
  • Patent number: 12175065
    Abstract: Context-specific user interfaces for use with a portable multifunction device are disclosed. The methods described herein for context-specific user interfaces provide indications of time and, optionally, a variety of additional information. Further disclosed are non-transitory computer-readable storage media, systems, and devices configured to perform the methods described herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Wilson, Lee S. Broughton, Kevin Will Chen, Eric Lance Wilson
  • Patent number: 12177028
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer programs for enhancing HARQ-ACK timing procedure. In one aspect, a method can include encoding, by a next generation NodeB (gNB), one or more sets of physical downlink shared channels (PDSCHs) with respect to a listen before talk (LBT) operation on an unlicensed spectrum, transmitting, by the gNB, the encoded one or more sets of PDSCHs to the UE, and determining, by the gNB, scheduling for receiving a HARQ-ACK from the UE corresponding to the one or more sets of PDSCHs based on the LBT operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Yingyang Li, Yongjun Kwak
  • Patent number: 12177378
    Abstract: A mobile device can include ranging circuitry to determine distance to another mobile device. A first wireless protocol can establish an initial communication session to perform authentication and/or exchange ranging settings. A second protocol can perform ranging, and other wireless protocols can transmit content. In one example, the distance information can be used to display a relative position of another device on a user interface of a sending device. The user interface can allow a user to quickly and accurately select the recipient device for sending the data item. As another example, the distance information obtained from ranging can be used to trigger a notification (e.g., a reminder) to be output from a first mobile device or used to display a visual indicator on a receiving device. Proximity of a device (e.g., as determined by a distance) can be used to suggest recipient for a new communication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Brent M. Ledvina, Marc J. Krochmal, Robert W. Brumley, Sriram Hariharan
  • Patent number: 12177207
    Abstract: The embodiments set forth a technique for enabling a computing device to securely configure a peripheral computing device. According to some embodiments, the method can include the steps of (1) approving a request received from the peripheral computing device to engage in a setup procedure for the peripheral computing device, (2) receiving, from the peripheral computing device: (i) an audio signal that encodes a password and timing information, and (ii) a light signal. Additionally, the method can involve, in response to identifying that the timing information correlates with the light signal: (3) extracting the password from the audio signal, and (4) establishing a communication link with the peripheral computing device based on the password. In turn, the method can involve (5) providing configuration information to the peripheral computing device over the communication link.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jay S. Coggin, Daniel C. Klingler, Kyle C. Brogle, Johannes P. Schmidt, Eric A. Allamanche, Thomas Alsina, Bob Bradley, Alex T. Nelson, Rudolph Van Der Merwe, Joseph M. Triscari, Keun Sup Lee, Pedro Mari, Aaron M. Elder, Richard M. Powell
  • Patent number: 12177925
    Abstract: Systems, apparatus and methods enable layer 2 (L2) relaying optimizations for a remote user equipment (UE) to receive system information (SI) from a relay UE. The relay UE may establish a sidelink communication channel with the remote UE that is in a radio resource control (RRC) idle state, an RRC inactive state, or an out-of-coverage (OOC) state with respect to the base station. The relay UE decodes a relay SI request received through the sidelink communication channel from the first remote UE. The relay SI request indicates requested system information. The Relay UE obtains the requested system information or a subset of the requested system information from a memory device or from the base station and encodes a relay SI response to send to the first remote UE. The relay SI response includes the requested system information or the subset of the requested system information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Zhibin Wu, Fangli Xu, Birgit Breining, Dawei Zhang, Haijing Hu, Longda Xing, Sethuraman Gurumoorthy, Srirang A. Lovlekar, Yuqin Chen
  • Patent number: 12176931
    Abstract: A communication system provides reliable wideband communications with reduced power consumption in a user equipment (UE) receiver. A UE may include receiver circuitry to receive a radio frequency (RF) signal from a wireless network and output an analog baseband signal. The RF signal includes M copies of a duplicated signal in a frequency domain. The analog baseband signal includes the M copies of the duplicated signal uniformly offset from one another in the frequency domain by a bandwidth F and including a gap between adjacent copies. The UE further includes an anti-aliasing analog filter an analog to digital converter (ADC). The ADC samples an output of the anti-aliasing analog filter at a sampling frequency selected to obtain a digital baseband signal comprising a combined digital copy of the M copies of the duplicated signal folded over each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Weidong Yang, Chunhai Yao, Chunxuan Ye, Dawei Zhang, Haitong Sun, Hong He, Huaning Niu, Jie Cui, Manasa Raghavan, Oghenekome Oteri, Seyed Ali Akbar Fakoorian, Sigen Ye, Wei Zeng, Yang Tang, Yingqun Yu, Yushu Zhang
  • Patent number: 12176877
    Abstract: Embodiments presented herein relate to isolating a receiver circuit of an electronic device from a transmission signal and from a noise signal at a frequency range of a received signal. To do so, an isolation circuit is disposed between the receiver circuit and a transmission circuit. The isolation circuit may include multiple variable impedance devices and one or more antennas. The impedances of the variable impedance devices and the one or more antennas may be balanced such that the receiver circuit is effectively removed from the transceiver circuitry and isolated from the transmission signal. The impedance of the variable impedance devices and the one or more antennas may also be configured to isolate the receiver circuit from a noise signal generated at the transmission circuit having a frequency in the range of the receive signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Oliver Georg Dorn, Joonhoi Hur, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 12177703
    Abstract: The present application relates to devices and components including apparatus, systems, and methods to perform measurements on reference signals or synchronization signal. In an example, timing requirements for performing such measurements can be dynamically changed depending on, at least, a measurement on one of the reference signal or the synchronization signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Manasa Raghavan, Yushu Zhang, Dawei Zhang, Haitong Sun, Huaning Niu, Javier Mauricio Parades Riano, Jianshu Zhang, Jie Cui, Qiming Li, Shengshan Cui, Xiang Chen, Yang Tang
  • Patent number: 12177776
    Abstract: Systems and methods provide user equipment (UE) access parameters for access control when, for example, the UE is accessing a non-public network, the UE is accessing a private slice in a public land mobile network (PLMN), the UE is accessing a non-public network for PLMN service, and/or the UE is accessing a private slice in a PLMN for a non-public network service.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventor: Ching-Yu Liao