Apple patents involve media conferencing, RAW images, more

Several Apple patents have appeared today at the U.S Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each.

Patent number 20120036192 and number 20120036193 are for NAT traversal for media conferencing. Methods for establishing a direct peer-to-peer (“P2P”) connection between two computers are disclosed. In particular, the methods are designed to work in cases where one or both of the computers are connected to a private network, such private networks being interconnected via a public network, such as the Internet. The connections between the private network and the public network are facilitated by network address translation (“NAT”). The inventors are Joe Abuan, Joshua Graessley, Hyeonkuk Jeony and Berkat Tung.

Patent number 20120033103 involves RAW-split mode image capture and involves the camera on the iPhone 4S. Systems, methods and a computer readable mediums for reducing run-time bandwidth requirements within digital image capture devices are disclosed. As the resolution of digital image capture devices increase, the bandwidth needed to support this increased resolution is becoming increasingly difficult to support.

“To reduce the problems associated with run-time bandwidth requirements, it may be beneficial to obtain full-resolution and display-resolution images at the same time from the image capture circuitry–writing both to memory at virtually the same time. The display resolution image may then be delivered to a display unit directly without the need for additional memory operations on the full-resolution image. Only when a user indicates they wish to capture an image need additional memory operations on the full-resolution image be performed. The inventors are Brandon Corey, Nikhil Bhogal and Andrew Yanowitz.

Patent number 201200335753 is for seamless switching between radio and local media, such as on the iPod nano. Systems and methods are provided for seamlessly switching media playback between a media broadcast, such as a radio broadcast, and media from a local media library. When an electronic device determines that an upcoming media item in a media broadcast is not of interest to a user, the electronic device can switch playback from the media stream to a media item from the electronic device local library.

The selected local media item can be related to a previously broadcast media item to ensure continuity in the user’s listening or viewing experience. The electronic device can switch away from the local media item and return to the media stream when the media stream again broadcasts media items or segments of interest to the user. The inventors are Michael Ingrassia and Jeffery Lee.

Patent number 20120033554 is for a method and apparatus for radio link control during network congestion in a mobile device. Per the patent, the mobile wireless communication device detects a pending uplink control message. The mobile wireless communication device determines that an uplink channel on which the pending uplink control message is to be sent has insufficient bandwidth for uplink transmission.

After waiting a congestion delay time interval, the mobile wireless communication device sends the pending uplink control message on an uplink signaling channel instead of on the uplink channel. In some embodiments, the uplink channel is associated with a radio access bearer and the uplink signaling channel is associated with a signaling radio bearer. The inventors are Sundararaman V. Shiva, Longda Xign and Jianxiogn Shi.

Patent number 20120033563 involves packet classification and priorituzation using an IP header in a mobile wireless device. The mobile wireless device includes an application processor and a transceiver. The transceiver in the mobile wireless device receives a higher layer packet from the application processor and reads a value of a field embedded in the higher layer packet. The transceiver creates at least one lower layer protocol data unit from the higher layer packet and maps the at least one lower layer protocol data unit to a wireless access channel having a quality of service property.

The mapping of the lower layer protocol data unit is based on the value of the field read by the transceiver. In representative embodiments, the higher layer packet is an internet protocol datagram, and the field is a differentiated services code point field. The inventors are Cherif Jazra, Sundararaman V. Shiva, Thanigaivelu Elangovan, Tong Liu and Madhusudan Chaudhary.

Patent number 201200335590 is for packet classification and prioritization using an UDP checksum in a mobile wireless device. The mobile wireless device includes an application processor and a transceiver. The application processor sets a value of a field embedded in a higher layer packet and transfers the higher layer packet to the transceiver. The transceiver receives the higher layer packet from the application processor and reads the set value of the embedded field.

The transceiver clears the value in the embedded field and creates at least one lower layer protocol data unit from the higher layer packet. The transceiver maps the lower layer protocol data unit to a wireless access channel having a transmission property based on the read value of the embedded field. In representative embodiments, the embedded field is an optional checksum in a UDP header. The inventors are the same as those above.

Patent number 20120036212 involves data synchronization protocol. Among other things, techniques and systems are disclosed for syncing data between a client device and a server. Synchronizing data includes initiating a sync session by negotiating a sync mode between a client device and a server for each of one or more dataclasses. A status code is generated based on a result of the negotiating.

Based on the generated status code, the client device and the server exchange one or more data items to be updated for the one or more dataclasses using the negotiated sync mode for each dataclass. The exchanged one or more data items are updated at the client device or the server. The updated one or more data items are committed at the client or the server. The inventors are Brendan A. McCarthy and Carsten Guenther.