Patents Examined by Richard Hong
  • Patent number: 9390032
    Abstract: The amount of power and processing capacity needed to process gesture input for a computing device can be reduced by utilizing one or more relatively low power, low resolution gesture sensors. The gesture sensors can have relatively large pixels, which provide enhanced sensitivity in low light situations. Further, the low resolution and high frame rates of the gesture sensors can enable relatively low bandwidth buses to be used, rather than dedicated image buses. These low bandwidth buses can conserve a significant amount of power, and can provide the image data from the gesture sensors to low power PIC-class microprocessors, or other such components, which can analyze image data and make basic gesture determinations without having to wake up an application processor or send data over a main bus, which can further reduce power consumption.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Leo B. Baldwin
  • Patent number: 9390642
    Abstract: A flexible display includes a flexible display panel, a curved formation unit for forming a curved surface of the flexible display panel, and a curved signal generating unit which supplies a curved signal to the curved formation unit so that a radius of curvature of the flexible display panel is controlled based on at least one of user setting conditions, external environmental conditions, and displaying image conditions. The curved formation unit forms the curved surface of the flexible display panel in response to the curved signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: LG Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Taegung Kim, Jinyoung Bang
  • Patent number: 9373302
    Abstract: Methods and electronic devices for identifying a location of a top electronic device stacked on top of a bottom electronic device are described. In one example embodiment, the top electronic device and the bottom electronic device are configured to communicate. In one example embodiment, the method includes: receiving camera data associated with a camera of the top electronic device; obtaining display data identifying a pixel arrangement on at least a portion of a display of the bottom electronic device; and identifying the position of the top electronic device relative to the bottom electronic device based on the camera data and the display data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2016
    Assignee: BLACKBERRY LIMITED
    Inventors: David Ryan Walker, Jerome Pasquero, Donald Somerset McCulloch McKenzie, Steven Henry Fyke
  • Patent number: 9372558
    Abstract: Vibration portions are set in electronic data displayable on a display device. In response to a first portion in the one or more pieces of electronic data being specified on the display device, an embodiment sets the specified first portion as a first vibration portion. The first vibration portion triggers a first vibration in response to the first vibration portion being specified with a movable object. Moreover, in response to a second portion in the one or more pieces of electronic data being specified on the display device, an embodiment sets the specified second portion as a second vibration portion. The second vibration portion triggers the second vibration in response to the second vibration portion being specified with a movable object. The data storing settings for generating the first vibration and the second vibration include an order in which the first vibration and the second vibration are generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2016
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Satoshi Muto, Satoshi Yokoyama
  • Patent number: 9367140
    Abstract: A keyboard device includes an operation surface. One long side of the operation surface is referred to as a proximal side, which nears a user operating the keyboard device; and the other long side is referred to as a distal side. A key unit is positioned on the proximal side, wherein the key unit includes a plurality of keys. A camera module is positioned on the distal side. An angle between a border of a field of view of the light sensor and the operation surface is set at a particular angle thus user's hand lays outside the field of view of the light sensor when the user is manipulating the key unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2016
    Assignee: QUANTA COMPUTER INC.
    Inventors: Chee-Chun Leung, Yun-Cheng Liu, Chien-Hung Lin
  • Patent number: 9310997
    Abstract: The disclosure is related to a method, a touch device and a computer program product for converting touch points into characters. In particular, through an input interface, the converting method can be applied to the touch device and the computer program product. The converting method for example includes the following steps of: sensing at least one touch point triggered by a user on the input interface to obtain touch point number information and touch point position information; generating a touch point distribution of the sensed touch point(s) according to the touch point number information and the touch point position information; and determining an input character according to the touch point distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Assignee: MSTAR SEMICONDUCTOR, INC.
    Inventor: Hung-Chi Huang
  • Patent number: 9286020
    Abstract: A system and method for allocating power to a plurality of displays is disclosed. An exemplary system preferably includes an AC current sensor, a power load sharing controller, ambient light sensors for each display, and a brightness controller for each display. A maximum total current draw may be selected. The ambient light contacting each display may be measured and a corresponding desired brightness calculated. Depending on the present amount of current draw, the system determines if the displays can be driven at the desired brightness without exceeding the maximum total current draw. If yes, the displays are driven at their desired brightness. If no, the desired brightness for each display may be slightly reduced to prevent exceeding the maximum total current draw. Thus, as the ambient light varies between the displays, the available power may be shared.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: MANUFACTURING RESOURCES INTERNATIONAL, INC.
    Inventors: William Dunn, Jerry Wasinger, Dave Williams, John Schuch
  • Patent number: 9256306
    Abstract: A sensing apparatus including a first scan line, a second scan line, a readout line, a first sensing device and a second sensing device is provided. The first sensing device is coupled to the first scan line and the readout line, and senses a first energy, and outputs a first readout signal corresponding to the first energy to the readout line in response to a first scan signal on the first scan line. The first sensing device is reset in response to the first scan signal and a reference signal on the readout line. The first sensing device includes a first reset unit configured for resetting the first sensing device, where a first terminal of the first reset unit is coupled to the first scan line, and a control terminal of the first reset unit is coupled to the readout line. A driving method thereof is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2016
    Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
    Inventors: Isaac Wing-Tak Chan, Chen-Wei Lin, Chih-Chieh Hsu
  • Patent number: 9229590
    Abstract: A display device includes a display panel including data lines, gate lines crossing the data lines, and pixels arranged in a matrix form, a touch screen which is embedded in the display panel or is installed on the display panel, a data driving circuit supplying a data voltage to the data lines, a gate driving circuit supplying a gate pulse to the gate lines, and a touch sensing circuit which supplies a driving signal to lines of the touch screen and senses a touch input. The gate driving circuit alternately drives pull-down transistors connected in parallel to one gate line. The gate driving circuit drives one of the pull-down transistors or simultaneously drives the pull-down transistors during a drive period of the touch screen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2016
    Assignee: LG Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Sungchul Kim
  • Patent number: 9123681
    Abstract: A display panel includes a plurality of scan lines, a plurality of data lines, a plurality of power lines, a plurality of light emitting units, a plurality of first pixel circuits and a plurality of second pixel circuits. The plurality of light emitting units are arranged in an array and adapted to display different colors. In the organic light emitting units with the same color, some parts are connected to the first pixel circuits, and other parts are connected to the second pixel circuits. A first terminal and a second terminal of a first control transistor in the first pixel circuit are sequentially arranged on a forward direction of a first direction, and a first terminal and a second terminal of a second control transistor in the second pixel circuit are sequentially arranged on a reverse direction of the first direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: Au Optronics Corporation
    Inventors: Peng-Bo Xi, Lee-Hsun Chang, Li-Fong Lin
  • Patent number: 9116552
    Abstract: A method, including receiving an input of a character from a virtual keyboard displayed on a display; generating at least two sets of predicted input characters based on the input character; displaying at least two of the generated sets of predicted input characters at an input field, wherein each displayed set is displayed at a position in a defined arrangement; and selecting one of the displayed sets of predicted input characters in accordance with a gesture received at a partition of the virtual keyboard is disclosed. An electronic device and a non-transitory computer-readable medium to perform the method are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Jason Tyler Griffin, Jerome Pasquero, Donald Somerset Mckenzie
  • Patent number: 9099038
    Abstract: A pixel circuit includes: a writing circuit that samples a voltage of a signal line; and a driving circuit that generates from the signal line a current that depends on an output of the writing circuit, and delivers the current to a light-emitting device of a current-drive type.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: JOLED INC.
    Inventor: Keisuke Omoto
  • Patent number: 9047814
    Abstract: A pixel circuit including: an electrooptic element; a hold capacitor; a write transistor writing a drive voltage corresponding to a video signal supplied to one of main electrode terminals thereof to the hold capacitor; and a drive transistor driving the electrooptic element in accordance with the drive voltage written to the hold capacitor. A pixel circuit is adapted such that it can suppress turn ON of the electrooptic element during a first processing in which a current is supplied to the hold capacitor through the drive transistor while the drive voltage corresponding to the video signal is written to the hold capacitor through the write transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naobumi Toyomura, Katsuhide Uchino
  • Patent number: 8970525
    Abstract: In response to detecting a predetermined pressure change between two consecutive contacts on a trackpad of a computing device, the two consecutive contacts are ignored. In response to detecting a predetermined pressure change of a single contact on the trackpad, the single contact is ignored. After detecting a new contact on the trackpad after a predetermined period of time without any contact on the trackpad, any movement tied to a predetermined amount of increasing pressure on the trackpad for the new contact is temporarily discarded, for a preset amount of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: Andrew de los Reyes
  • Patent number: 8970573
    Abstract: A display driver maps a selection code (a digital signal) to a reference voltage which is then used to produce a particular intensity of the radiation emitted from a pixel on a display screen (e.g., a LCD display). This mapping may be performed by one or more DACs in the display driver. However, instead of transmitting all of the different possible reference voltages to the DACs, only a subset of the reference voltages are transmitted. Each DAC may include an interpolator circuit that uses the received reference voltages to interpolate the reference voltages that were not transmitted. In this manner, the display driver may still provide the same number of unique reference voltages to a display screen while transmitting fewer reference voltages along the driver's optical channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventors: Imre Knausz, Clint Meyer
  • Patent number: 8866736
    Abstract: A gaze detection apparatus is disclosed. The gaze detection apparatus includes: a gaze detection section that detects gaze of a target person; a display section that includes a display screen for displaying an image; a gaze position determination section that determines, based on a result of detection by the gaze detection section, whether or not the display screen lies in the gaze of the target person; and a first display control section that displays a first detection result image at an intersection point between the gaze of the target person and the display screen when the first gaze position determination section determines that the display screen lies in the gaze of the target person.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Junya Inada
  • Patent number: 8860660
    Abstract: Determining pupil center position. At least some illustrative embodiments are methods including: creating a video signal of an eye, the video signal comprising a stream of frames; and finding an indication of pupil position. The finding may include: calculating a set of feature points within a first frame of the video signal; dividing, by the computer system, the first frame of the video signal into a plurality of sections; selecting a plurality of feature points from the first frame, at least one feature point selected from each section; and determining an ellipse from the plurality of feature points. The method may further include moving a cursor on a display device responsive to change in location of a feature of the ellipse with respect to a previous feature of an ellipse from a previous frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Grinbath, LLC
    Inventor: Nathan A. Jahnke
  • Patent number: 8854351
    Abstract: A method of driving an electrophoretic display device displays an image during an image frame divided into a plurality of sub-frames. Sub-frame periods of the plurality of sub-frames are determined based on a predetermined resolution of the image. The plurality of sub-frames have sub-frame periods that differ from one another. A plurality of unit pixels are initialized by applying a common voltage to a common electrode and by applying a first voltage to a plurality of pixel electrodes. Each pixel electrode corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of unit pixels. Gray levels of the plurality of unit pixels are controlled by selectively applying one of the common voltage and a second voltage to each pixel electrode during each sub-frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Do-Yeon Kim, Sun-Cheol Kwon