Several Apple patents have popped up at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Here’s a summary of each.
Patent number 7,697,283 is for an enclosure foot assembly and manufacture. Wall portions, such as wall portions of electronic device housing components, are provided with one or more foot assemblies. A foot assembly can be formed by creating an internal cavity in an internal surface of the wall portion, an external cavity in an external surface of the wall portion, and a hollow passageway extending through the wall portion and between the cavities. The foot assembly can be completed by inserting a foot at least partially through the external cavity and hollow passageway and into the internal cavity, such that an external portion of the foot is at least partially contained within and contacting the surfaces of the external cavity, and such that an internal portion of the foot is at least partially contained within the internal cavity. A portion of the foot may be deformable to at least partially conform to the surfaces defining the internal cavity. The inventors are Dinesh Mathew, Brett William Degner, Thomas W. Wilson Jr. and John Brock.
Patent number 7,698,579 involves a multiplexed graphics architecture for graphics power management. A computer system includes a processor, a memory, first and second graphical processors that have different operating characteristics, a switching mechanism coupled to the graphical processors, and a display coupled to the switching mechanism. The switching mechanism is configured to couple a given graphical processor to the display, and is initially configured to couple the first graphical processor to the display. Furthermore, a program module, which is stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, is configured to change a configuration of the switching mechanism thereby decoupling the first graphical processor from the display and coupling the second graphical processor to the display. Note that the changing of the configuration and switching module operations are configured to occur while an operating system is running and are based on the operating condition of the computer system. The inventors are Ian C. Hendry and Brian D. Howard.
Patent number 7,698,328 is for user-directed search refinement. Per the patent, a search query is used to search on a corpus of documents. A statistical collocation analysis is performed on the search results. A list of collocations is determined and can be presented to a user. The search can be refined by modifying the search query, so that the search results include documents with desirable collocations or exclude documents with undesirable collocations. The inventors are Matthew G. Sachs and Jonathan A. Sagotsky.
Patent number 7,698,008 involves content-based audio comparisons. A content-based comparison of a plurality of digital audio signals can be performed by generating, for a portion of a corresponding channel, a first set of spectral characteristics associated with a first audio signal and a second set of spectral characteristics associated with a second audio signal; comparing the first set of spectral characteristics with the second set of spectral characteristics to identify a degree of difference; and determining, for the portion of the corresponding channel, whether the first audio signal is substantially identical to the second audio signal based on the identified degree of difference. Further, one or more match criteria can be received from a user and utilized to determine, for the portion of the corresponding channel, that the first audio signal is substantially identical to the second audio signal if the identified degree of difference is within the received match criteria. The inventor is Daniel Steinberg.
Patent number 7,697,017 is for 16:9 aspect ratio and anamorphic image processing. It involves a method and apparatus is described for receiving a first data stream comprising a graphic image having an aspect ratio of 16:9 into a computer system, capturing the image within a storage device of the computer system, and displaying the image on a graphical user interface of the computer system in a 16:9 aspect ratio format. The inventor is Randall Hayes Ubillos.
Patent number 7,698,297 involves accessing media data. The present invention generally allows for media to be provided across a network. A client requests media information from a server so the client can create a local representation of the server’s database. The client is then able to manage the media information locally. When the client selects the desired media, it requests the selection from across the network. The server then delivers the selected media. The inventors are Amandeep Jawa, Jeffrey L. Robbin and David Heller.
Patent number 7,698,478 is for managed credit update. In one embodiment, a system comprises at least one processor and a peripheral interface controller coupled to the processor. Further coupled to receive transactions from a peripheral interface, the peripheral interface controller is configured to accumulate freed credits for a given transaction type of a plurality of transaction types that are not yet returned to a transmitter on the peripheral interface. The peripheral interface controller is also configured to cause transmission of a flow control update transaction on the peripheral interface responsive to a number of the freed credits exceeding a threshold amount that is less than a total number of credits allocated to the given transaction type. The inventors are James Wang, Choon Ping Chng, Mark D. Hayter and Ruchi Wadhawan.
Patent number 7,695,665 involves the housing of an electronic device formed by doubleshot injection molding. A method for forming an enclosure for enclosing internal electronic components of an electronic device is provided, which comprises: performing a first injection molding process, the first injection molding process forming at least a first wall of the enclosure; allowing the at least a first wall of the enclosure to solidify; thereafter performing a second injection molding process, the second injection molding process forming at least a second wall of the enclosure, the at least a second wall of the enclosure fusing with the at least a first wall of the enclosure during the second injection molding process, the at least second wall of the enclosure forming at least one different side of the enclosure than the at least first wall of the enclosure; and allowing the at least a second wall of the enclosure to solidify, the at least a second wall of the enclosure being integrally formed with the at least a first wall of the enclosure to thereby form a single-piece multi-walled enclosure. The inventors are Stephen Paul Zadesky, Evans Hankey, Jonathan P. Ive and Rico Zorkendorfer.
Patent number 7,697,000 is for a method and apparatus for typographic glyph construction including a glyph server. A system for typographic glyph construction includes a graphics system, a glyph server coupled to the graphics system, and an operating system coupled to the glyph server. An apparatus for typographic glyph construction of input text in a graphics system running on a computer system and output on an output device of the computer system includes a line layout core unit, a glyph cache unit coupled to the line layout core unit, an open font architecture services unit coupled to the glyph cache unit, at least one scaler unit coupled to the open font architecture unit, a font object management unit coupled to the at least one font scaler, and an attribute group support unit supporting a data structure for communication among the units of the apparatus. A method for processing input text in a graphics system running on a computer system and displaying typographic glyphs on a display device of the computer system includes mapping the input text into glyph codes, forming an initial glyph record array, the initial glyph record array comprising a plurality of glyph records for the glyph codes, processing a layout of the glyph codes to produce an updated glyph record array, rendering the updated glyph record array to produce a final glyph record array, and rendering a display of the typographic glyph output from the final glyph record array. The inventors are Alexander B. Beaman, Richard W. Becker, David G. Opstad and Michael R. Reed.