The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 25 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover three distinct inventions. The first is for a possible future MacBooks with Wi-Fi + Cellular capabilities that may also support a phone call app. The second invention envisioned an audio user interface like Siri as far back as 2003 that would work with a future phone, an iPod, in a vehicle (like CarPlay) and on a wearable device (like a watch), all before the iPhone ever debuted. The last invention relates to camera motion stabilization which continues to improve on the new iPhone 6. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Apple Granted Patent for a Cellular MacBook

Apple has been granted a patent today for their invention relating to cavity antennas for the iPhone and future MacBooks designed for cellular telephone bands. There have been many patents on this possible future product and you could review them in our Cellular MacBook archive.

Whether the idea is to design a MacBook with cellular data capabilities like the iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular offers today or to go beyond that to offering a telephone application, as the patent suggests, is unknown at this time.





A schematic diagram of device 10 showing how device 10 may include one or more antennas 26 and transceiver circuits that communicate with antennas 26 is shown in FIG. 3. Electronic device 10 of FIG. 3 may be a portable computer such as a laptop computer, a portable tablet computer, a mobile telephone, a mobile telephone with media player capabilities, a handheld computer, a remote control, a game player, a global positioning system (GPS) device, a desktop computer, a combination of such devices, or any other suitable electronic device.

As shown in FIG. 3, electronic device 10 may include storage and processing circuitry 16. With one suitable arrangement, storage and processing circuitry 16 may be used to run software on device 10, such as internet browsing applications, voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) telephone call applications, email applications, media playback applications, operating system functions, etc. As noted above, the MacBook in FIG. 1A is noted as a device 10 equally to an iPhone. The schematic of FIG. 3 confirms telephone call capability could be made available to a future MacBook.





Apple credits Bing Chiang, Douglas Kough, Enrique Ayala Vazquez, Gregory Springer, Hao Xu, Robert Schlub, Eduardo Camacho, Mattia Pascolini, Jerzy Guterman, Yi Jiang, Rodney Gomez Angulo and Ruben Caballero as the inventors of granted patent 8,896,487 which was originally filed in Q3 2009 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. To review today's granted patent claims and details, see Apple's patent.

Apple Granted Patent for an Audio User Interface

Apple has been granted a patent today for their invention relating to audio user interfaces and, more specifically, to techniques for providing audio user interfaces for computing devices.

Here's an idea/invention that was way ahead of its time. It's a vision that foresaw a Siri-like interface for CarPlay as well as for the iPhone and iPod before there ever was an iPhone. In fact, Apple's engineers saw this audio interface being able to work with "wearables" before wearables were even on the lips of engineers in Silicon Valley. Apple Watch will use Siri when it debuts in 2015. This patent, which has aspects of it dating back to 2003, shows you how long it takes for a great idea to work through the system and eventually into products.

Apple's invention relates to the experience of a user interactive with an electronic device, such as a media player or portable media device, can be enhanced through the incorporation of an audio user interface that provides an intelligent path for determining whether appropriate audio dialogs for the audio user interface are available. For example, based on whether the electronic device has a broadband connection to a communications network (e.g., the Internet), a determination may be made to request audio files of a first type or category (e.g., high quality voice recordings) from a voice server to be streamed to the electronic device for output with the audio user interface.

Apple notes that various embodiments can be well suited for electronic devices having audio playback capabilities, such an iPod (as media devices e.g., digital media players or portable MP3 players) or other portable multi-function devices such as a cellular phone (iPhone - e.g., mobile telephone or Personal Digital Assistant). Interestingly the patent covers "miniaturized or wearable" devices as well.





Apple's patent filing further states that "The audio prompts may include audio indicators that allow a user to focus his or her visual attention upon other tasks such as driving an automobile, exercising, or crossing a street, yet still enable the user to interact with user interface 130.

As examples, the audio prompts may audibilize the spoken name or description of a depressed hardware button, the spoken activation of a virtual button or control, or the spoken version of a user interface selection, such as a selected function or a selected (e.g., highlighted) menu item of a display menu. The audio prompts may include pre-recorded voice data or be produced by voice or speech generation techniques.

Apple credits William Bull, Ben Rottler and Jonathan Schiller as the inventors of granted patent 8,898,568 which was originally filed in Q3 2008 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Apple Granted Patent for Motion-Based Video Stabilization

Apple has been granted a patent today for their invention relating to Systems, methods, and computer readable media for stabilizing video frames based on information from a motion sensor. The transformations may be used to counter-balance or compensate for unwanted jitter occurring during video capture due to, for example, a person's hand shaking.

The iPhone 6 offers "Auto image Stabilization" which makes up for motion blur hand shakiness.





Apple's patent FIG. 4 shows, in flowchart form, a video stabilization operation.

In one embodiment the invention provides a method to stabilize a captured video sequence. The method includes obtaining a video sequence having a number of sequential images (each image associated with one or more image capture parameter values based on the video capture device) and associated motion data from the video capture device (e.g., accelerometer and/or gyroscopic data). Unwanted motion of the video capture device may then be estimated (based on the motion data and image capture parameters) and used to remove the estimated motion from the video sequence. The modified sequence of images may then be (compressed) stored in a memory.

Apple credits Brandon Corey, George William and Jianping Zhou as the inventors of granted patent 8,896,713 which was originally filed in Q3 2011 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today





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