On March 25, the US Patent & Trademark Office published four of Apple’s newly granted patents respectfully titled Split Edits, Spacing for microphone elements, Computer controlled display device and Touch pad for handheld device. The latter two patents cover Apple’s iPod Click Wheel and a flex arm mechanism which had been implemented in-part within an earlier iteration of the iMac.

Patent: Touch Pad for Handheld Device

A part of Apple’s summary covering their iPod Click Wheel states that the invention relates “to a pocket sized handheld computing device. The computing device includes computing hardware for providing at least one application. The computing device also includes a display screen configured to display text and graphics associated with the at least one application. The computing device additionally includes a touch pad configured to provide one or more control functions for allowing a user of the computing device to provide inputs to the at least one application.”

Apple lists the inventors of this patent as Stephen Paul Zadesky (San Carlos, CA), Tang Yew Tan (San Francisco, CA). Apple’s patent was originally filed in March 2006.

Patent: Computer Controlled Display Device

Apple’s patent abstract relates to a flex arm device (which in-part was used in an earlier iteration of the iMac), as follows: The present invention is a computer controlled display device. In one embodiment, the display device includes a flat panel display having an input for receiving display data. Additionally, a moveable assembly may be coupled to the display. The moveable assembly may provide at least three degrees of freedom of movement for the flat panel display device. Additionally, the moveable assembly may have a cross-sectional area, which is substantially less than a cross-sectional area of a display structure of the flat panel display. Additionally, the moveable assembly may include a plurality of stacked ball-and-socket assemblies.

Apple lists the inventors of this patent as Jobs; Steven P (Palo Alto, CA), Ive; Jonathan (San Francisco, CA), Hillman; Michael D. (Campbell, CA), Tsai; Frank (Huntington, CA), McBroom; Michael D. (Leonard, TX), McBroom; Daniel L. (Leonard, TX), Sudderth; Brian T (Leonard, TX), Brigham; Arthur S. (Sunnyvale, CA), Jensen; Joel F. (Redwood City, CA), Brownell, Jr.; Robert B. (Decatur, GA), Kim; Sung (Palo Alto, CA), McDonald; Anwyl M. (Oakland, CA), Mead, Jr.; Russell C. (Mountain View, CA), Meuniot; Arturo (San Francisco, CA), Beltran; Jesus (Stanford, CA), Andre; Bartley K. (Menlo Park, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Pacifica, CA), Riccio, Jr.; Daniel J. (Los Gatos, CA). Although the original patent was filed in 2001, this particular patent edition was filed in September 2006.

Patent: Spacing for Microphone Elements

Apple’s patent abstract states that a “speech recognition device with a frequency range with an upper frequency limit f.sub.max is provided. The speech recognition device has more than two microphones with distances between the microphones, wherein the greatest common factor of the distances between the microphones is less than the speed of sound divided by f.sub.max. More particularly, where the microphones are spaced a total distance, the number of the more than two microphones is less than the one half the total distance times the upper frequency limit divided by the speed of sound.”

FIG. 4 is a schematic bird’s eye view of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Apple lists the inventors of this granted patent as Kim E. Silverman (Mountain View, CA) and Devang K. Naik (San Jose, CA). Apple originally filed for this patent in July 2002.

Patent: Split Edits

Apple’s patent abstract states that “a method and apparatus is described that is related to split editing. An indicia of a first time based stream of information is displayed at a source media. An indicia of a second time based stream of information is displayed at the source media. This is followed by an editing of the first time based stream of information and the second time based stream of information together in an operation that uses no more than six edit points between the source media and a destination media combined. The editing is performed such that the selected amount of time of the first time based stream of information differs from the selected amount of time of the second time based stream of information, and the destination media includes a third time based stream of information.”

Apple’s patent FIG. 3a is a diagram of a Graphics User Interface (GUI) that may be used with an embodiment of the invention; FIGS. 3b and 3c illustrate a split edit being performed on two timelines in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

Apple lists Randy Ubillos (Cupertino, CA) as the sole inventor of this granted patent which was originally filed in August 2003.

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.