Patent issued on July 31, 2007.
7,250,566 Evaluating and correcting rhythm in audio data 
(13 pages)
Archive for the ‘Non-iPod audio-related patents’ Category
Correcting rhythm in audio data
Monday, September 3rd, 2007Patents issued on June 19, 2007
Tuesday, July 24th, 20077,234,067 Autonomous thermal management (9 pages)
Managing the temperature of peripherals by regulating power consumption.
7,234,026 Media player with instant play capability (13 pages)
Playing a media file before it is fully loaded into memory, using caching.
7,233,985 Providing a reliable operating system for clients of a net-booted environment (23 pages)
One example is a network computer booting from a boot image stored on a server. See Figure 3.
Claims priority back to October 1999.
7,233,972 Method and apparatus for coordination of client/server processes (16 pages)
Making sure that processes, including I/O requests, are completed. Claims priority back to September 1998.
7,233,832 Method and apparatus for expanding audio data (19 pages)
Time stretching methods for audio. Useful for creating sound effects in movies, for example.
7,233,318 Multi-button mouse (24 pages)
Structure for providing multi-button mouse functionality in a unibody mouse. For example, the Mighty Mouse (but without the track nub). Various button arrangements are possible; see Figure 6.
The claims are all directed to a unibody mouse.
Patents issued on May 22, 2007
Tuesday, June 19th, 20077,222,310 Graphical user interface(GUI), a synthesiser and a computer system including a GUI (6 pages)
A GUI for displaying three or more input signals. Used in audio and video editing. Uses the GUI to simulate a hardware audio/video editing board.
7,221,570 Heat dissipating device for an integrated circuit chip (14 pages)
Heat dissipation for a chip. Order of stacked components, starting from the bottom: support board, chip, thermal gap filler pad, support structure, heat dissipating device.
Applications published on April 12, 2007 (Part 2 of 2)
Tuesday, May 1st, 200720070083911 Intelligent media navigation (69 pages)
Navigating sequential media content (i.e., the Front Row interface).
20070083825 Method and apparatus for displaying a window for a user interface (30 pages)
Displaying different kinds of user informational windows (e.g., system alerts) in a GUI that automatically disappear after a user-triggered event or input or after a set period of time. Also includes windows that fade out, like the volume adjustment window.
20070083822 Method and apparatus for use of rotational user inputs (17 pages)
Rotational input in a GUI is transformed into linear action (i.e., using an iPod scroll wheel to navigate through a GUI).
20070083616 Multi-media center for computing systems (15 pages)
A modular architecture for a multimedia center. (To be reviewed in greater detail soon.)
20070083471 Techniques and systems for electronic submission of media for network-based distribution (49 pages)
Submitting media to a media distribution site, which is then later encoded for subsequent purchase and downloading.
Applications published on April 12, 2007 (Part 1 of 2)
Thursday, April 19th, 200720070083467 Partial encryption techniques for media data (22 pages)
Partial encryption still makes a media file useless to a potential thief, as the encrypted portion affects the whole file; e.g., you can’t play a partially encrypted song without it being interrupted. Plus, partial encryption is faster to decrypt.
20070080945 Mouse having a button-less panning and scrolling switch (18 pages)
Mouse that has different modes of operation based on how it is held by the user. These claims are related to switching operation modes of the mouse based on the user’s hand position. See discussion of a related issued patent.
20070080938 Method and apparatus for use of rotational user inputs (17 pages)
Scrolling through lists on an iPod. Claims are directed to a device and method that allows rotational input (i.e., the scroll wheel on an iPod). (Priority to February 25, 2002.)
20070080936 Method and apparatus for accelerated scrolling (26 pages)
Scrolling through lists on an iPod. Claims are directed to scrolling through portions of a data set. (Priority to February 25, 2002.)
20070080823 Techniques for pairing remote controllers with host devices (20 pages)
Pairing the Apple Remote with a computer. In general terms, only the paired remote can control the computer.
Patents issued on March 13, 2007
Sunday, March 18th, 20077,189,913 Method and apparatus for time compression and expansion of audio data with dynamic tempo change during playback (18 pages)
7,190,577 Cooling system with integrated passive and active components (15 pages)
7,191,118 Method for dynamic context scope selection in hybrid N-gram+LSA language modeling (13 pages)
7,191,242 Methods and apparatuses for transferring data (27 pages)
7,191,266 Method and apparatus for supporting and presenting multiple serial bus nodes using distinct configuration ROM images (12 pages)
Method and apparatus for on-the-fly DVD encoding
Wednesday, March 7th, 2007Title: Method and apparatus for on-the-fly DVD encoding
Type: issued patent
Patent number: 7,187,852
Issue date: March 6, 2007
Filing date: October 24, 2001
Link to PDF: (8 pages)
AIPW Summary: A method for single pass encoding of audio information and video information. The length (in seconds) and the size (in bytes) of each video object is determined. The length and size information is used to generate a navigation sector, which permits a determination of the relative location of the video objects to the start of the information stream. An output stream is generated by multiplexing the audio, video, and navigation information using the length and size information.
Music synthesizer; generating a synthesizer output with a constant beat
Thursday, February 15th, 2007Title: Music synthesizer and a method of generating a synthesizer output with a constant beat
Type: issued patent
Patent number: 7,176,374
Issue date: February 13, 2007
Filing date: November 14, 2005 (priority to April 30, 2003)
Link to PDF: (4 pages)
AIPW Summary: A music synthesizer that provides a constant beat across a range of tones. The beat frequency is independent of pitch or octave. For those of you who thought music and math were different, this invention shows otherwise by deriving the beat frequency according to an equation. This patent is rather short, so there’s not much to discuss.
Method and apparatus for media data transmission
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007Title: Method and apparatus for media data transmission
Patent application publication number: 20070022215
Publication date: January 25, 2007
Filing date: July 18, 2006 (priority to July 19, 2005)
Link to PDF:
AIPW Summary: A method for preparing and transmitting (preferably in packet form) of time related sequences of media data, i.e., the QuickTime file format. This file format uses and manipulates meta-data, which is then used to map to the associated media data. “Hints” for packetizing a sequence of the media data are created and can be stored separately from the media data. A hint is an executable instruction for the server to packetize a portion of the media data (see paragraph 0086). The packetized media data is then sent to an intended recipient.
QuickTime user interface
Thursday, January 18th, 2007Title: User interface for presenting media information
Patent application publication number: 20070013609
Publication date: January 18, 2007
Filing date: September 14, 2006 (priority back to April 15, 1999)
Link to PDF:
AIPW Summary: Another application relating to the QuickTime user interface. The claims of this application are directed to a graphical representation of a time line relating to time-based media, including a start indicator and a stop indicator. Either the start indicator or the stop indicator can be dragged along a portion of the time line to select a portion of the time-based media being displayed.
