Other Apple patents revealed during MacWorld week
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jan 13, 2006 at 3:53am
The following report contains three miscellaneous Apple patents that were revealed during the week of January 9, 2006 by the US Patent & Trademark Office, in addition to “Mobile Me,” and “Integrated sensing display,” posted separately on Macsimum News.
Granted Patents:
Patent # 6,985,529: “Generation and use of masks in MPEG video encoding to indicate non-zero entries in transformed macroblocks.”
Apple’s Abstract: During Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) video encoding a two-dimensional discrete cosine transform (DCT) is performed on data representing an original image. The resulting coefficients are then quantized, which typically results in many zero coefficients. Because of the nature of most video data, most higher-order coefficients are typically zero and the lower-order coefficients (i.e., those grouped towards the upper left of the matrix) are more likely to be non-zero. To reduce the lengths of runs among the lower-order coefficients, the coefficients can be encoded in a zig-zag pattern. In one embodiment, the zig-zag pattern is maintained and one or more masks are generated based on the output of the quantization phase. The one or more masks are used to identify the coefficients within the matrix that are non-zero. This reduces the number of accesses to memory required to encode the non-zero coefficients and runs of zero coefficients.
The sole inventor listed on patent 6,985,529 was Jason Klivington. The original filing date was January 2002.
Patent # 6,985,981: “Method and apparatus for preventing loops in a full-duplex bus.”
Apple’s Abstract: A method and device for preventing loops in a high performance serial bus is disclosed. One aspect includes selecting an untested connection by at least one of the plurality of nodes to the bus; establishing dominance of the bus by one of the nodes which selected the untested connection; testing for loops through the connection by the nodes; and joining the untested connection to the bus if no loops are found in the bus.
The inventors listed on this patent were Jerrold V. Hauck and Colin Whitby-Strevens. The original filing date was October 2002.
Patent Application
Patent # 20060010420: “Method and apparatus for storing and replaying creation history of multimedia software or other software content.”
Apple’s Abstract: An authoring or other software tool is provided which allows users of the tool to review the creation and evolution of all or part of a content such as a multimedia title created using a tool incorporating the invention. According to the invention, an authoring tool comprises a recording mechanism for recording actions performed during the development or modification of software content in a manner that preserves, directly or indirectly, the relative chronological order of the actions and a playback mechanism for performing or otherwise simulating recorded actions. Preferably, the playback of an action includes annotation using text, recorded or computer-generated voice, video and/or graphic animation. Preferably, an authoring tool embodying the invention allows an author to specify criteria for which actions are to be played back, thereby providing an author with a mechanism for focusing on a particular subset of the recorded actions.
Related Application: This application is related to co-pending applications entitled “An Authoring Tool Comprising Nested State Machines For Use In A Computer System” and “Method And Apparatus For Capturing Transient Events In A Multimedia Product Using An Authoring Tool On A Computer System”, each filed concurrently herewith, which were commonly assigned or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same corporation at the time of invention, the disclosures of which are herein incorporated by reference.
The inventors listed on this patent were Alan R. Peterson, James C. Spohrer. The original filing date was April 26, 2001.
NOTICE
Macsimum News 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.
neo@macsimunews.com
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
