Apple Patent Grants

Device removal indication using different object proximity thresholds

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204289
An electronic device includes a device body having a back surface, a band configured to fasten the device body to a user with the back surface facing a body part of the user, an optical sensor system, and a device removal detector. The optical sensor system has a first optical measurement path and a second optical measurement path. The first optical measurement path has a first optical path length that differs from a second optical path length of the second optical measurement path. The…

Light-emitting diode displays

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12207512
A display may have an array of pixels. Display driver circuitry may supply data and control signals to the pixels. Each pixel may have seven transistors, a capacitor, and a light-emitting diode such as an organic light-emitting diode. The seven transistors may receive control signals using horizontal control lines. Each pixel may have first and second emission enable transistors that are coupled in series with a drive transistor and the light-emitting diode of that pixel. The first and…

Intelligent portrait photography enhancement system

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12205249
Devices, methods, and non-transitory program storage devices are disclosed to provide enhanced synthetic Shallow Depth of Field (SDOF) images, e.g., by using information from images captured by image camera devices and one or more Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) trained to determine how much blurring should be applied to pixels in a mask region (e.g., a region of pixels having an indeterminate foreground or background status and threshold level of gradient magnitude) within an image, given…

Distributed personal assistant

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204932
An exemplary method for using a virtual assistant may include, at an electronic device configured to transmit and receive data, receiving a user request for a service from a virtual assistant; determining at least one task to perform in response to the user request; estimating at least one performance characteristic for completion of the at least one task with the electronic device, based on at least one heuristic; based on the estimating, determining whether to execute the at least one…

Portable electronic device performing window operations with gestures on a touchscreen

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204747
A portable electronic device with a touch-sensitive display is disclosed. One aspect of the invention involves a computer-implemented method in which the portable electronic device: displays an application on the touch-sensitive display; and when the application is in a predefined mode, performs a predefined operation in response to each gesture of a set of multiple distinct gestures on the touch-sensitive display. Another aspect of the invention involves a computer-implemented method in…

Methods and interfaces for initiating communications

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204734
The present disclosure generally relates to methods and user interfaces for establishing communications.

Self-capacitance and mutual capacitance touch sensor panel architecture

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204730
A touch sensor panel includes a first set of touch electrodes configured to operate as drive lines and that are disposed in a first layer of the touch sensor panel. The touch sensor panel also includes a second set of touch electrodes configured to operate as sense lines and that are disposed in a second layer of the touch sensor panel, different than the first layer of the touch sensor panel, such that one or more mutual capacitance touch nodes are formed by the first set of touch…

Systems and methods for flex circuit connections in touch screens

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204717
A touch screen (500) can include electrodes (520, 540) (e.g., first and second touch electrodes, reference electrodes) on opposite sides (e.g., top and bottom) of a substrate (510). In some examples, vias (618, 638) can be used to couple the touch electrodes (520, 540) to conductive connections (518, 538) of flex circuits (502, 522) such that the connections (604, 624) to the flex circuits (502, 522) can be on the same side of the substrate (510) even if the touch electrodes (520, 540)…

User interfaces for a podcast browsing and playback application

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204584
In some embodiments, an electronic device receives, via one or more input devices, an input corresponding to a request to search content available on the electronic device, wherein the input includes one or more search terms. In some embodiments in response receiving the input corresponding to the request to search content available on the electronic device, an electronic device displays, via a display device, one or more representations of one or more search results including a first…

Identification of watch bands

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204292
A watch can include a watch body and a band for securing the watch to the user. The watch body can detect an identification of the band or combination of band portions, which can serve as an input to initiate actions performed by the watch body. For example, a type, model, color, size, or other characteristic of a band can be determined and used to select a corresponding action performed by the watch body. Identification of the band can be performed by components of the watch body that…

Display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: D1058582

Multi-chain measurement circuit

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204287
A multi-chain measurement circuit is disclosed. The measurement circuit includes first and second chains of serially-connected buffer circuits coupled in parallel, each of which propagates an input signal. A set of storage circuits is configured to store logic values generated by the first and second sets of buffer circuits in response to the transitioning of a clock signal. The logic values stored in the storage circuits result in a digital value indicative of a total number of…

Chip-to-chip optical coupling for photonic integrated circuits

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204155
A photonic integrated circuit including multiple elements formed by different processes onto separate chips can be manufactured by defining, via photolithography processes for example, complementary geometries onto each separate chip. Thereafter, the complementary geometries can be aligned and engaged, thereby optically and mechanically intercoupling the several chips to define a single photonic integrated circuit.

Camera actuator with magnet holder having magnetic field

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204115
In some embodiments, a camera includes a lens assembly in a lens carrier, an image sensor for capturing a digital representation of light transiting the lens, and a voice coil motor. In some embodiments, the voice coil motor includes a spring suspension assembly for moveably mounting the lens carrier to an actuator base, a plurality of permanent magnets mounted to the actuator base through a magnet holder assembly and a focusing coil fixedly mounted to the lens carrier and mounted to the…

Folded telephoto camera lens system

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12204076
A folded telephoto lens system may include multiple lenses with refractive power and a light path folding element. Light entering the camera through lens(es) on a first path is refracted to the folding element, which changes direction of the light on to a second path with lens(es) that refract the light to form an image plane at a photosensor. At least one of the object side and image side surfaces of at least one of the lens elements may be aspheric. Total track length (TTL) of the lens…

Temperature determination using a camera

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12203813
A camera attachment for measuring a temperature of a surface, and related methods of measuring the temperature of the surface, employ a temperature reactive material that is thermally coupled with the surface and imaged to provide image data of the temperature reactive material that is analyzed to measure the temperature. A camera attachment for measuring a temperature of a surface includes a distal surface configured to be thermally coupled with the surface, a frame configured to be…

Systems with sensor deployment mechanisms

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12202413
A vehicle may have a vehicle body and one or more movable sensors mounted to the body. A movable sensor may be rotated, linearly translated, or otherwise moved between multiple positions in response to location information, driving mode information, vehicle speed, and/or other information. The movable sensor may be moved to track objects, to provide pedestrians and others with visual feedback, to allow the sensor to gather desired sensor information to support driver assistance and…

Laminated polymer windows

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12202245
A system may have structure. The structures may include laminated structures formed by attaching inner and outer layers together with a layer of adhesive. The inner and outer layers in a structure may be formed from polymer such as polycarbonate. Forming the structure layers from polymer may allow the structure to have desired curvature. To improve safety and/or acoustic performance of the structure, the inner and outer structure layers may be formed from different materials. The outer…

Product display stand with reduced movement

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12201227
A product display stand for reducing displayed product movement can be used in a retail environment to reduce movement of a product displayed by the product display stand. Such product display stand includes a damping assembly configured to attach to a display platform. The damping assembly includes a housing configured to attach to the display platform. The housing defines a damping chamber. The assembly also includes within the chamber a damping flange and damping material. The product…

Attachment system for watchband

Granted: January 21, 2025
Patent Number: 12201196
Wearable electronic devices, such as watches, can be provided with an attachment system for connecting and releasing a removable module that interfaces with some portion of the electronic device. For example, a watch housing includes a main body having a channel for receiving a watchband and a first opening extending to the channel. A rear cover coupled to the main body provides a second opening. A unibody button is positioned between the main body and the rear cover. The button is…