Patents Assigned to BlackBerry
  • Patent number: 9288808
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for configuring a power sharing carrier set on a user equipment having multiple component carriers, the method receiving an indication from a network that carrier configuration information is supported in a cell of the network; providing at least one of capability information regarding carriers and bands supported by the user equipment and power sharing information the user equipment is capable of supporting; and obtaining configuration information for power sharing carrier sets. Furthermore, a network element for to providing a power sharing carrier set configuration, the network element configured to: send an indication from a network that carrier configuration information is supported in a cell of the network; receive at least one of capability information regarding carriers and bands supported by a user equipment and power sharing information the user equipment is capable of supporting; and provide configuration information for power sharing carrier sets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Youn Hyoung Heo, Mo-Han Fong, Sean McBeath, Zhijun Cai, Mark Earnshaw, Hua Xu
  • Patent number: 9287935
    Abstract: A system and method may dynamically (a) adjust signal characteristics of individual portions of a Near Field Communication (“NFC”) transmission, and/or (b) change NFC wireless communication channels. A transmitting device may transmit to a receiving device via multiple NFC channels. For instance, a transmitting device may have multiple spatially-separated antennas and/or transmitters, and a transmission required to complete a financial transaction (or other wireless communication) with a receiving device may have several portions. Each transmission portion may be sequentially and/or individually transmitted from the transmitting device to the receiving device using a different antenna and/or transmitter, i.e., a different communication channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Michael Eoin Buckley, Shirook M. Ali
  • Patent number: 9286879
    Abstract: A scheme for localizing a wireless user equipment (UE) device's relative position with respect to a spatial configuration based on audio signatures received via a multi-channel audio system, e.g., an audio system of a vehicle or home entertainment system. The wireless UE device is configured to capture the audio signatures received from a head unit that are placed in an out-of-hearing band of a captured signal. The wireless UE device includes a persistent memory module having program instructions for processing the captured signal including the out-of-band signatures, which may comprise either channel-specific pseudo-random noise (PN) sequences or single-frequency tones, in order to compute time delays or power levels associated with the speaker channels. A localization module is configured to estimate the wireless UE device's relative position based on the time delays or power levels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Nam Nguyen, Sagar Dhakal
  • Patent number: 9286288
    Abstract: An improved method of learning character segments during text input enables facilitated text input on an improved handheld electronic device. In response to a series of inputs, segments and other objects are analyzed to generate a proposed character interpretation of the series of inputs. Responsive to detecting a replacement of a character of the character interpretation with another character, a character learning string comprising the another character and a number of additional characters of the character interpretation are stored as a candidate. In response to another series of inputs, another proposed character interpretation is generated. Responsive to detecting another replacement of a character of the another character interpretation with a different character, another character learning string comprising the different character and a number of characters of the another character interpretation are compared with the stored candidate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Vadim Fux, Sergey Kolomiets
  • Patent number: 9286602
    Abstract: A method of securely communicating a message for a financial transaction from a first correspondent to one or more recipients. The method comprises dividing the message into at least two portions. Each portion is intended for a recipient. Each portion intended for receipt by one of the recipients is encrypted with that recipient's public key. The message is signed and transmitted to one of the recipients to enable the recipient to verify the message and further transmit the message to a further recipient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignees: BlackBerry Limited, Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Anthony Rosati, Matthew John Campagna, Gregory Marc Zaverucha, Scott Alexander Vanstone
  • Patent number: 9285836
    Abstract: According to one aspect, a portable electronic device includes a body having a front face, a touch-sensitive display exposed at the front face of the body, a keyboard at the front face, the keyboard associated with a first plurality of characters excluding numerical characters, such that keys of the keyboard are each associated with a respective single one of the first plurality of characters, a memory, and a processor. The processor is coupled to the touch-sensitive display, the keyboard, and the memory to execute a program stored in the memory to cause the portable electronic device to display a second plurality of characters utilizing the touch-sensitive display in response to receipt of an input to display the second plurality of characters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventor: Jason Tyler Griffin
  • Patent number: 9288772
    Abstract: A method, network element and user equipment, where in one embodiment at a network element within a secondary cell for self-optimizing operation with a primary cell, the method transmitting using an initial transmit power from the network element; requesting feedback from sensors located near a location; receiving the feedback from the sensors; and adjusting a transmit power based on the received feedback.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Sophie Vrzic, Yongkang Jia, Takashi Suzuki, Rene Waraputra Purnadi
  • Patent number: 9285988
    Abstract: A method of controlling the repeat rate of a button displayed on a touch-sensitive display of a portable electronic device is described. In accordance with one embodiment, there is provided a method of controlling touch input on a touch-sensitive display of a portable electronic device, the method comprising: displaying a user interface screen having at least one button on the touch-sensitive display; activating a variable repeat control mode in response to activation input; and repeating an action associated with the button at a rate in dependence on predetermined control input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Jeffrey Brent Kenney, Deepankar Banshilal Jain
  • Publication number: 20160070379
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a capacitive touch sensor for an electronic device. The touch sensor has a trace carrier having a sensing surface, a connecting surface, and a number of electrically conductive traces on the trace carrier. The traces form a sensing pattern on the sensing surface and pass from the sensing surface to the connecting surface. The sensor also includes a capacitive sensing circuit operable to electrically couple to the traces at the connecting surface of the trace carrier, and to sense a capacitance change. A touch position on the sensing surface is determined dependent upon the sensed capacitance change.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2014
    Publication date: March 10, 2016
    Applicant: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Timothy Herbert KYOWSKI, Li HUANG, Albert Murray PEGG
  • Publication number: 20160072746
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method for processing an e-mail message addressed to an e-mail client is disclosed. The method comprises receiving at a mail server an e-mail message addressed to the e-mail client, the e-mail message including an attachment which is characterized by a size; reducing the size of the attachment to create a reduced size attachment; preparing a formatted message, which includes the reduced size attachment and a link to the attachment, wherein the attachment is downloadable from the mail server using the link; and delivering the formatted message to the e-mail client for display on a computational device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 13, 2015
    Publication date: March 10, 2016
    Applicant: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Erez Halahmi, Eran Fuchs
  • Patent number: 9282099
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates generally to the management of privileges associated with certain applications that are accessible by users of electronic equipment, such as, for example, networked computers, mobile wireless communications devices, and the like. In a broad aspect, a method for managing privileges associated with applications comprises: monitoring a plurality of electronic devices within a system; detecting a change in privileges associated with one or more applications resident on the plurality of electronic devices, wherein one or more privileges that are to be revoked are identified; and in response to a detection of the change in privileges, revoking the one or more privileges, such that each of the one or more applications resident on the plurality of electronic devices no longer has access to the one or more privileges.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Neil Patrick Adams, Herbert Anthony Little
  • Patent number: 9279680
    Abstract: Methods and electronic devices for determining orientation are described. In one aspect, a processor-implemented method of determining a corrected orientation of a gyroscope on an electronic device includes: generating a gyroscope reading using the gyroscope; determining, by the processor, a first orientation estimate based on the gyroscope reading and a past corrected orientation; determining, by the processor, whether the gyroscope was saturated when the gyroscope reading was generated; adjusting, by the processor, a saturation correction learning rate for the gyroscope based on the result of the determination of whether the gyroscope was saturated; and calculating, by the processor, the corrected orientation based on the first orientation estimate, a second orientation estimate and the saturation correction learning rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Nathan Daniel Pozniak Buchanan, Nazih Almalki
  • Patent number: 9282543
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to avoid mobile station transmission of duplicate event-based and polled acknowledgments are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein for a mobile station include determining whether an acknowledgment status of a first downlink data block classified as unreported is to be reported by a polled acknowledgment response to be sent in response to a poll received from a network, sending event-based acknowledgment information to report the acknowledgment status of the first downlink data block after determining that the acknowledgment status of the first downlink data block is not to be reported by the polled acknowledgment response, and refraining from sending the event-based acknowledgment information to report the acknowledgment status of the first downlink data block after determining that the acknowledgment status of the first downlink data block is to be reported by the polled acknowledgment response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Satish Venkob, Dennis Conway, David Philip Hole
  • Patent number: 9280259
    Abstract: An electronic device, method and interface for the device, for performing an action with a processor through a three-dimensional desktop environment is disclosed. A three-dimensional desktop environment is generated by a display and projected into a real space. At least one ultrasonic transducer propagates an ultrasonic pulse into the real space and receives a reflection of the ultrasonic pulse from a user object in the real space. A user action of the user object within the three-dimensional desktop environment is determined using the reflection of the ultrasonic pulse. The processor performs the action based on the determined user action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventor: Peter Mankowski
  • Patent number: 9282588
    Abstract: An architecture, system and associated method for dynamic coordination of radio resource usage in a network environment. In one aspect, a relay communication method comprises detecting, by a first wireless mobile device, sensory data associated with multiple radio channels relative to at least one radio element in a sensing area of the first wireless mobile device. If the first wireless mobile device is out of range of a wide area cellular network, a short-range wireless communication path is established with a second wireless mobile device having a wide area cellular communication connection. The sensory data is transmitted by the first wireless mobile device to the second wireless mobile device for reporting to a network element via a wide area cellular network serving the second wireless mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Robert Novak, David Gywn Steer, Dongsheng Yu
  • Patent number: 9281572
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for improving capacity in wireless communications systems for use in areas having a high user traffic density. For reception, signals received from an antenna array are processed by performing a transformation comprising aperture synthesis to map signal content received from the antenna array to at least one element of a plurality of elements in an image plane storage to produce a time series of values for the at least one element, and then by assigning the at least one element to at least one radio access transceiver of a plurality of radio access transceivers for receiving the time series of values from the at least one element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: David G. Steer, Robert Novak, Dongsheng Yu
  • Patent number: 9280214
    Abstract: A handheld device and method of operation for determining motion of the handheld device relative to a stylus is presented, in which the stylus is used to provide a frame of reference for the handheld device rather than as a user input device. Stylus orientation data, descriptive of an absolute orientation of a stylus, and handheld device orientation data, descriptive of an absolute orientation of the handheld device, are used to determine motion of the handheld device relative to the stylus. The handheld device has orientation and/or motion sensors, a communication module operable to receive stylus orientation data, and a processor operable to determine the motion or orientation of the handheld device relative to the stylus and execute an application dependent thereon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Cornel Mercea, Andrew Ashraf Fergusson, Jacek S. Idzik
  • Patent number: 9280283
    Abstract: Methods, devices and sensors for detecting a gesture are described. In an embodiment, a gesture sensor includes a time of flight sensor having a sensing element configured to generate an electrical signal responsive to received light. The time of flight sensor also includes a light source for emitting a burst of light. The sensing element has a sensing side for receiving light and a non-sensing side which is opposite the sensing side. The gesture sensor also includes one or more light inhibitors positioned relatively nearer the sensing side of the sensing element than the non-sensing side. The light inhibitors are asymmetric about a first center line of the sensing element. The first center line is located midway between first and second sides of the sensing element. The gesture sensor further includes a processor coupled to the time of flight sensor configured to detect a gesture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Yu Gao, Antanas Matthew Broga, Priyadarshini Krishnaswamy
  • Patent number: 9280219
    Abstract: An apparatus and method pertaining to detecting user input, such as a signature, with respect to a stylus and the transmission of information regarding that input. The detected input can comprise, for example, characteristics of the input and transmit them to a secondary device to verify the input matches a stored template.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Jacek S. Idzik, Cornel Mercea, Andrew Ashraf Fergusson
  • Patent number: 9282444
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for interworking a session by a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) server enhanced for IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Centralized Services (ICS), the method comprising receiving at the MSC an invite message and the MSC sending a setup message comprising an information element indicating a call waiting tone on when the invite message comprises a call waiting indication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventor: Jan Hendrik Lucas Bakker