Apple has has been granted patents for the ornamental design of a computer display (D621,414, for Mac OS X), a keyboard (D631,402), computing device (D621,409, the MacBook Pro), packaging (D621,256) and an electronic device (D621,397, the Mac mini).
The inventors listed on these patents are Andre K. Bartley, Daniel J. Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Steve Jobs, Duncan Robert Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas B. Satzger, Calvin Q. Seid, Christopher J. Stringer, Eugene Antony Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer. Also, several Apple patents have appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Here’s a summary of each.
Patent number 7,773,139 is for an image sensor with photosensitive thin film transistors. It involves an image sensor array includes image sensors having photo TFTs to generate photocurrent in response to received images. The photo TFTs each have their respective gate electrodes and source electrodes independently biased to reduce the effects of dark current. Storage capacitors are coupled to each photo TFT and discharged upon generation of a photocurrent. Each storage capacitor is coupled to a readout TFT that passes a current from the storage capacitor to a data line. The photo TFT may be disposed above the storage capacitor to increase the exposed surface area of the photo TFT. The inventors are Willem Den Boer, tin Nguyen and Patrick J. Green.
Patent number 7,773,127 is for a system and method for RAW image processing. A RAW image and metadata related to the RAW image are obtained from a digital camera or other source. The RAW image and the related metadata are automatically processed using an Operating System service of a processing device to produce a resulting image in an absolute color space. The resulting image is then made available to an application program executing on the processing device through an application program interface with the Operating System service. The inventors are Mark Zimmer, David Hayward and Gabriel G. Marcu.
Patent number 7,773,041 is for an antenna system that includes a dielectrically-loaded loop element electromagnetically coupled to a planar element. The antenna system exhibits uniform, broadband radiation and reception patterns. The inventor is Shu-Li Wang.
Patent number 7,773,038 is for electronic devices with antenna sensors. Electronic devices may be provided with sensors for determining the presence and position of extendable and removable antennas. The antennas may extend by rotating about an axis, by reciprocating along their length, or by flexing from a retracted position to an extended position. The electronic device may determine when a removable antenna is attached or detached using signals from the sensors. The electronic device may determine the extent to which an antenna has been extended using signals from the sensors. The electronic device may control the operation of a radio-frequency transceiver that is coupled to the antenna based on signals from the sensors. The electronic device may turn the transceiver off when the antenna is retracted or removed. When the antenna is partially extended, the electronic device may place the transceiver in a low-power mode or place a dual-band transceiver into a single-band mode. The inventors are Brett William Degner, Chris Ligtenberg, Douglas Blake Kough and Paul Andrew Gojenola.
Patent number 7,773,708 is for a graphical user interface with improved media presentation. Improved graphical user interfaces and techniques for providing remote media content to users are disclosed. According to one aspect, an application window display on a display device can expose a user not only to local media content but also to remote media content that is associated with the local media content. The local media content is stored locally, while the remote media content is stored remotely and available from a remote media server. According to another aspect, the remote media content to be displayed can be determined in a manner that is dependent on a user interaction with the local media content. According to still a further aspect, the manner by which the remote media content is displayed can be dependent on the availability of remote media content at the remote media server. The inventors are Chris Bell, Alan Ward, Colin Meldrum and Timothy Benjamin Martin.
Patent number 7,774,790 is for an event logging system and performance analysis for applications. The patent is for an event logging and analysis mechanism which creates an event object for event of an application to be logged. The event logging mechanism logs into the event object the start time, end time and other information regarding the event. The analysis of the collected event objects may include hierarchical and contextual grouping as well as aggregation of events considered to be identical. The mechanism operates independent of the application whose events it logs and can be turned on and off independently. A user may define the levels of hierarchy and contexts upon which to analyze the event objects. The inventors are Stan Jirman, Charles Lloyd and Patrice Gautier.
Patent number 7,774,774 involves a software set-up system. At least one embodiment of the present invention stores the setup configuration information (e.g., in files and/or in directory servers). The setup configuration information is stored (e.g., using a configuration file naming scheme) so that the configuration information for a particular machine can be found. A setup daemon on the machine searches for suitable configuration information in a number of places, such as: in a location in a local file system, in locations in mounted file volumes, and directory servers. The configuration information may be encrypted, and the setup daemon searches for the decryption key in a similar fashion. The inventors are J. Scott Mulligan and Benjamin Bowes Beasley Jr.
Patent number 7,773,371 is for a computer controlled display device. In one embodiment, the display device includes a flat panel display having an input for receiving display data. Additionally, a moveable assembly may be coupled to the display. The moveable assembly may provide at least three degrees of freedom of movement for the flat panel display device. Additionally, the moveable assembly may have a cross-sectional area, which is substantially less than a cross-sectional area of a display structure of the flat panel display. The inventors are Michael D. Hillman, Frank Tsai, Michael D. McBroom, Daniel L. McBroom, Brian Sudderth, Bartley K. Andre, Christopher Stringer, Daniel Riccio, Sung Kim, Clifford Jue and Bryan Thomas White.
Patent number 7,773,022 involves operating NAND cells using multiple levels for each data value. Each memory cell is adapted to receive charge during a write operation to an analog voltage that corresponds to a data value having a binary representation of more than 4 bits. An analog-to-digital converter converts the analog voltage from each memory cell into a digital representation of the analog voltage during a read operation of each cell. The inventors are Michael J. Cornwell and Christopher P. Dudte.
Patent number 7,774,746 involves generating a format translator. Generating code is disclosed. A specification of one or more translation patterns is received. The one or more translation patterns are used to generate at least a portion of code associated with a translator. Using the one or more translation patterns to generate at least a portion of code associated with the translator results in the translator being configured to create a target object model. Creating the target object model includes populating one or more elements of the target object model in a processing order at least in part associated with an order of elements in the one or more translation patterns. The inventors are Philip Andrew Mansfield and Michael Robert Levy.
Patent number 7,774,326 is for methods and systems for managing data, including including metadata and an index database. In one exemplary method, a first folder, representing a first search query, is stored, and a second folder, representing a second search query wherein the second folder has a predetermined hierarchical relationship to the first folder, is stored, and the search queries are used to search one or both of an index database and a metadata database. In the metadata database, the type of metadata for one file type differs from the type of metadata for another file type. The inventors are Yan Arrouye, Dominic Giampaolo, Bas Ording, Gregory Christie, Stephen Olivier Lemay, Marcel van Os, Imran Chaudhri, Kevin Tiene and Pavel Cisler.
Patent number 7,774,077 involves a sequence grabber for audio content. It involves an an audio context object gathers multiple channels of audio data from an audio device and stores each channel of data separately in a ring buffer. Clients of the audio context can request any number of channels of data at any interval from the audio context. Multiple clients can share the same audio device. The ring buffer used by the audio context object stores the channels of audio data in a two-dimensional array such that each channel of audio data is stored in contiguous memory. The inventor is Bradley D. Ford.
Patent number 7,774,320 involves verifying the integrity of file system data structures. Systems, methods, computer program products, and means are provided for verifying the integrity of data structures. A system includes a first data structure, a second data structure, and a fingerprint block. The first data structure has a first set of unique identifiers. The second data structure has a second set of unique identifiers. The fingerprint block verifies correspondence between the first and second data structures by performing a mathematical function on the first and second sets of unique identifiers to produce a result indicative of correspondence. The inventors are Mark Steven Day, Wenguang Wang, Puja Dilip Gupta and Christopher Yoshito Emura.