Apple Patent Grants

Ultrasonic proximity sensors, and related systems and methods

Granted: April 1, 2025
Patent Number: 12267647
An ultrasonic proximity sensor can determine one or more characteristics of a local environment. For example, the sensor can emit an ultrasonic signal into a local environment and can receive an ultrasonic signal from the local environment. From a measure of correlation between the emitted and the received signals, the sensor can classify the local environment. By way of example, such a sensor can assess whether an in-ear earphone is positioned in a user's ear. A media device in…

Electroosmotic flow valve for an electronic device

Granted: April 1, 2025
Patent Number: 12267641
A portable electronic device comprising: an enclosure having an enclosure wall that defines a first chamber, a second chamber and an acoustic opening from the first chamber or the second chamber; and an electroosmotic flow valve operable to open and close the acoustic opening.

Camera-less representation of users during communication sessions

Granted: April 1, 2025
Patent Number: 12267623
An example process includes receiving, from a user, an input corresponding to a request to render, without using a camera, and during a communication session with an external electronic device, an avatar associated with the user; and in accordance with receiving the input: in accordance with a determination that the electronic device is coupled to an external accessory device: during the communication session with the external electronic device, and while a camera corresponding to the…

Wide angle video conference

Granted: April 1, 2025
Patent Number: 12267622
The present disclosure generally relates to embodiments for video communication interface for managing content that is shared during a video communication session.

Lens flare detection circuit using raw image

Granted: April 1, 2025
Patent Number: 12267601
Embodiments relate to identifying locations in an image where a green ghost is likely to occur by processing a raw version of the image. A block of pixels in the raw image is extracted and then each pixel value in the block is compared with a threshold value of a corresponding color channel. The compared results are then processed to generate bright light information for the block, indicating whether the green ghost is likely to be present at a location of the image diagonally opposed to…

Systems and methods of video jitter estimation

Granted: April 1, 2025
Patent Number: 12267553
A method and apparatus of a device that uses a video jitter buffer to buffer the video frames for a received video stream is described. The device uses the video jitter buffer to estimate the delay variability of the frames and pick a target delay that will help harmonize the playback with minimal loss and delay. This is achieved by estimating the delay spread, which is the result of performing statistical analysis of the measured lags of the video frames received. The video jitter…

Smoothed directional and DC intra prediction

Granted: April 1, 2025
Patent Number: 12267506
Techniques are disclosed for deriving prediction pixel blocks for use in intra-coding video and combined inter- and intra-coding video. In a first aspect, the techniques may include deriving value(s) for pixel location(s) of the prediction pixel block by, when a prediction direction vector assigned to the prediction vector points to quadrants I or III of a Cartesian plane, deriving the pixel location's value from pixel values in two regions of previously-decoded pixel data intercepted by…

SRS collision handling

Granted: April 1, 2025
Patent Number: 12267270
Apparatuses, systems, and methods for SRS collision handling. A wireless device may determine whether simultaneous transmission of at least two sounding reference signals (SRSs) is allowed; if it is determined that the simultaneous transmission of the at least two SRSs is allowed, transmit the at least two SRSs simultaneously; and if it is determined that the simultaneous transmission of the at least two SRSs is not allowed, transmit one SRS of the at least two SRSs, and drop the other…

Structure and method for sealing a silicon IC

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12261132
Chip sealing structures and methods of manufacture are described. In an embodiment, a chip structure includes a main body area formed of a substrate, a back-end-of-the-line (BEOL) build-up structure spanning over the substrate, and chip edge sidewalls extending from a back surface of the substrate to a top surface of the BEOL build-up structure and laterally surrounding the substrate and the BEOL build-up structure. In accordance with embodiments, the chip structure may further include a…

Slip ring for an electronic device

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12261359
An electronic device may include a first set of antennas, a second set of antennas, and a slip ring disposed between the first set of antennas and the second set of antennas. The slip ring may include a waveguide that provides a pathway for signals transmitted between the first set of and the second set of antennas. A diameter and a length of the waveguide may enable efficient transmission of the signals between the sets of antennas by reducing signal attenuation. Additionally, gaps…

Fabric-covered electronic device with touch sensor

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12260052
An electronic device such as a speaker device may have a curved housing characterized by a vertical longitudinal axis. A layer of fabric may cover the curved housing. A touch sensor may be used to detect touch input on the layer of fabric. The touch sensor may include capacitive touch sensor electrodes including drive lines and sense lines. In some arrangements, the touch sensor is formed from conductive strands in the layer of fabric. In other arrangements, the touch sensor is formed…

Media editing using storyboard templates

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12260880
In some implementations, a computing device can guide a user of the computing device through creation of media content using storyboard templates. For example, the user may invoke a media editing application on the computing device. The media editing application can be configured with a plurality of different storyboard templates to be used for the creation of different types or categories of content. A storyboard template corresponding to a particular type of content can include…

Interrupt for noise-cancelling audio devices

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12260870
Implementations of the subject technology provide systems and methods for determining whether to interrupt a user of an audio device that is operating in a noise-cancelling mode of operation. For example, the user may desire to be interrupted by one or more pre-designated contacts that are identified at an associated electronic device as interrupt-authorized contacts, or by a person who speaks a designated keyword to the user.

Method and device for multi-camera hole filling

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12260493
The method includes: obtaining a first image of an environment from a first image sensor associated with first intrinsic parameters; performing a warping operation on the first image according to perspective offset values to generate a warped first image in order to account for perspective differences between the first image sensor and a user of the electronic device; determining an occlusion mask based on the warped first image that includes a plurality of holes; obtaining a second…

Family accounts for an online content storage sharing service

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12260452
A computing device provides methods and workflow for setting up a shared family account on a content storage system, including the creation of accounts for child family members. A computing device supports the creation of a family account using an account on the content storage system associated with an adult family member acting as a family organizer. The family organizer can designate a specific account as a purchase account for allowing other family member to purchase content from…

Distributed labeling for supervised learning

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12260331
Embodiments described herein provide a technique to crowdsource labeling of training data for a machine learning model while maintaining the privacy of the data provided by crowdsourcing participants. Client devices can be used to generate proposed labels for a unit of data to be used in a training dataset. One or more privacy mechanisms are used to protect user data when transmitting the data to a server. The server can aggregate the proposed labels and use the most frequently proposed…

Application integration with a digital assistant

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12260234
Systems and processes for application integration with a digital assistant are provided. In accordance with one example, a method includes receiving an audio input including a natural-language user input and identifying an intent object of a set of intent objects. The intent object may be derived from the natural-language user input. The method further includes identifying a software application associated with the intent object of the set of intent objects, providing the intent object…

Transfer of the display of content between devices with animation

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12260145
In one implementation, a method of transferring the display of video content from a first location to a second location is performed at a first device including an image sensor, a first display, one or more processors, and non-transitory memory. The method includes detecting a second device in a field-of-view of the image sensor displaying video content at a first location in the physical environment on a second display. The method includes detecting a transfer trigger to display the…

Controlling external devices using reality interfaces

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12260144
In some exemplary processes for controlling an external device using a computer-generated reality interface, a view of a physical environment that includes the external device is provided through the display, and information specifying a function of the external device is received from the external device. While the view of the physical environment is being provided, an affordance corresponding to the function is displayed at a position on the display that overlays at least a portion of…

Shared-content session user interfaces

Granted: March 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12260059
The present disclosure generally relates to user interfaces for managing shared-content sessions. In some embodiments, content is shared with a group of users participating in a shared-content session. In some embodiments, the content is screen-share content that is shared from one device to other participants of the shared-content session. In some embodiments, the content is synchronized content for which output of the content is synchronized across the participants of the…