Apple Files for Semantic Reconstruction & Content Encoding/ Rendering Patents

On October 25, the US Patent & Trademark Office published two of Apple’s patent applications titled Semantic reconstruction and Context-aware content conversion and interpretation-specific views .

Patent: Semantic Reconstruction

Apple’s Patent Background: Often electronic content data do not consistently adhere to one standard on format, organization, and use in consistent software. For example, each individual content data creator may choose to save electronic content data in various formats including a variety of text formats, document formats, spread sheet formats, presentation formats, visual graphic formats (e.g. chart, graph, map, drawing, image formats), audio formats, multimedia (e.g. video formats) formats, and database formats. Even when content data is encoded using standards-based formats, such as xml, often many different schemas are used. This heterogeneous nature of the electronic content data can pose challenges when the various content need to be re-purposed, re-styled, searched, combined, transformed, rendered or otherwise processed. Existing solutions typically require a user to convert heterogeneous content to a specific format required for desired processing. In some cases, it is difficult for a user to determine both the specific content format and the content formatting application best suited for the desired processing. Many standard tools for format conversion operate at inconsistent semantic levels, or encode an inappropriate semantic level, potentially causing information needed to perform desired content management and/or electronic publishing functions, for example, to be lost. Therefore, there exists a need for a better way to process electronic content.

Apple lists Philip Andrew Mansfield (Vancouver, CA) as the sole inventor of this patent. For full details of this patent, see 20070250762

Patent: Context-aware content conversion and interpretation-specific views

Apple’s Patent Abstract: Content encoding rendering is disclosed. An indication of a desired interpretation of a starting content having a first encoding is received. The starting content is processed to generate a representation data comprising a second encoding of the starting content, wherein the second encoding is determined automatically and at least in part by the desired interpretation. The representation data is rendered using a view associated with the desired interpretation.

Apple’s patent background for “Context-aware content conversion and interpretation-specific views” is identical to that listed for their Semantic Reconstruction patent noted above.

Apple lists Philip Andrew Mansfield (Vancouver, CA), Michael Robert Levy (Vancouver, CA), Yuri Khramov (Richmond, CA) and Darryl Will Fuller (Burnaby, CA) as the inventors of this patent. For more details of this patent, see 20070250497.

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Written and researched by Neo.