On October 2, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple’s newly granted patent titled Method and apparatus for digital image manipulation to remove image blemishes . The granted patent relates to digital image processing, a feature which is found within Apple’s iPhoto application. Apple was also granted two design patents which cover a power fixture and dock insert.

Method and Apparatus for Digital Image Manipulation to Remove Image Blemishes

Apple’s Abstract: To better realize the great potential of amateur digital photography, the present invention introduces an intuitive system for digital manipulation. The system of the present invention allows a user to simply fix small blemishes in digital images. In one embodiment, the user merely places a cursor on the image blemish and activates a cursor control device such as a mouse button. In one embodiment, the blemish repair system is implemented using one of Dirichlet’s theorems. The theorem provides a method of creating a smooth surface within a circle by using the values of points around the circle. To prevent the result from appearing too smooth, some pixelization may be added.

Apple’s patent FIG. 2b above illustrates the graphical user interface embodiment of FIG. 2a where the blemish removal system is being activated on an area of an image. FIG. 2c illustrates the graphical user interface embodiment of FIG. 2b after the blemish has been removed from the image.

Apple lists Russell Reid (Palo Alto, CA) as the sole inventor of patent 7,277,595.

Power Fixture

Apple has been granted a design patent for a power fixture under D552,034. Apple lists Phil Hobson (Menlo Park, CA), Richard P. Howarth (San Francisco, CA) and Wey-Jiun Lin (Los Altos Hills, CA) as the inventors of this patent.

Apple’s patent FIG. 1 is a top, front and left side perspective view of the first embodiment of a power fixture.

Dock Insert

Apple has been granted a design patent for a dock insert under D552,085. Apple lists the following engineers as the inventors of this patent: Andre; Bartley K. (Menlo Park, CA), Coster; Daniel J. (San Francisco, CA), De Iuliis; Daniele (San Francisco, CA), Howarth; Richard P. (San Francisco, CA), Ive; Jonathan P. (San Francisco, CA), Kerr; Duncan Robert (San Francisco, CA), Nishibori; Shin (San Francisco, CA), Rohrbach; Matthew Dean (San Francisco, CA), Satzger; Douglas B. (Menlo Park, CA), Seid; Calvin Q. (Palo Alto, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Portola Valley, CA), Whang; Eugene Antony (San Francisco, CA), Zorkendorfer; Rico (San Francisco, CA).

Apple’s patent FIG. 17 is an exemplary perspective view of how a docking system can incorporate the dock insert of FIGS. 1 or 9 with a docking station.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Neo.