The USPTO has officially revealed a series of seven newly Issued Apple Patents today. The notables include one relating to Apple’s MagSafe connector technology, another relating to animation software that supports behavior like Macromedia’s Director MX (now Adobe Director). Apple’s other Issued Patents cover power management, copy protection, a video coding system and reducing voltage noise in an IC device.

Issued Patent: MagSafe

Apple’s MagSafe connector is a power connector that was first introduced in conjunction with the MacBook Pro at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco on January 10, 2006. The MagSafe connector is held in place magnetically. As a result, if it is tugged on—for instance, by someone tripping over the cord—it comes out of the socket safely, without damaging it or the computer its connected to. It helps to avoid pulling your computer off a table or desk.

Apple’s patent FIGS. 13A and 13B illustrate embodiments of magnetic connectors having electromagnets.

It should be noted that while Apple did have some initial problems with MagSafe, it was reported last summer that Apple replaced the faulty units free of charge.
Apple lists the following engineers as inventors of Issued Patent 7,517,222 as follows: Rohrbach; Matthew Dean (San Francisco, CA), Doutt; Mark Edward (San Jose, CA), Andre; Bartley K. (Menlo Park, CA), Lim; Kanye (Sunnyvale, CA), Difonzo; John C. (Emerald Hills, CA) and Gery; Jean-Marc (Los Angeles, CA). The patent was originally filed in October 2007.

Issued Patent: Extensible Library for Storing Objects of Different Types

This particular Issued Patent generally relates to computer animation and, more specifically, to animating an object using behaviors.

In patent FIG. 204, Apple illustrates one example of a Dashboard for a Grow/Shrink behavior where the special control specifies a high grow rate whereas in FIG. 205, we see an example of a Dashboard for a Grow/Shrink behavior where the special control specifies no movement. It should be noted that Apple’s patent presents more than 200 detailed illustrations or figures.

Some examples of animation software that support behaviors are Anark Studio and Macromedia Director MX. A behavior is an animation abstraction and can be thought of as a macro, script, or plugin. When a behavior is applied to an object, the object is animated in a particular way (e.g., by growing or shrinking or by moving in a specific direction).

Although behaviors make it easier to animate objects, software that supports behaviors can still be difficult to use. Many types of behaviors may be applied to one object, and each type of behavior can be customized based on several parameters. Understanding each of these parameters and its effect on the behavior can be confusing. Providing values for all of these parameters can also be time-consuming.
This is what Apple’s patent attempts to correct by creating a superior user interface for animating objects using behaviors.

Various embodiments of the invention cover and work with various aspects of behaviors. In one way, the patent covers behaviors themselves, including animations that can be produced by applying a behavior to an item and the algorithms underlying these animations. In another, it covers using behaviors in conjunction with keyframes. Yet in another, it covers working with behaviors, including setting parameters of behaviors, saving behaviors, and creating new behaviors. The patent also covers objects to which behaviors may be applied, including, for example, images, text, particle systems, filters, generators, and other behaviors. It also covers dynamic rendering of objects to which behaviors have been applied, including changing an animation in real-time after the value of a behavior parameter has been changed. And finally, it covers hardware acceleration methods that enable users to work effectively with behaviors.

The patent also covers a library that could store different types of multimedia objects, including effects (for example, behaviors, filters, fonts, and particle effects) and content (for example, audio clips, video clips, and still images). The library could store both pre-defined objects and objects that have been created by a user. The library is extensible, so that it can store objects of unknown type.

Apple lists Martin Boyd (Marina del Rey, CA) and Stephen Sheeler (Santa Monica, CA) as the inventors of Issued Patent 7,518,611, originally filed in April 2006.

Other Issued Patents Apple Received Today

Apple received 5 additional Issued Patents today including one titled Method and apparatus for quickly reanimating devices from hibernation – which is illustrated here in Figure 1 in conjunction with a Mac Pro. Additionally, Apple was issued a second power management patent titled Method and apparatus for managing power in computer systems. The remaining issued patents are respectfully titled Method and apparatus for copy protection, Interposer containing bypass capacitors for reducing voltage noise in an IC device, and Video coding system providing separate coding chains for dynamically selected small-size or full-size playback.

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

Jack Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor.