Apple Granted Four New Patents, Forced to Reissue One

The US Patent & Trademark Office published four of Apple’s newly granted patents relating to Split Edits, Spacing for Microphone Elements, Computer Controlled Display Device, and Touch Pad for Handheld Device. 

Just a week ago, Apple has been forced to reissue its patent application known as “Multi-Touch System and Method for Emulating Modifier Keys via Fingertip Chords” (US Patent RE40153). The patent relates to a mixture of chord keying, gesture recognition and touch typing techniques.

The USPTO defines reissue of application as “an application for a patent to take the place of an unexpired patent that is defective in one or more particulars.” Here is a brief description of the latest four patent applications filed by Apple (and categorized in no special order):

Split Edits  invention (US Patent 7350148) relates to split media editing (or video editing). Apple describes this patent in more detail:

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…. 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.

Spacing for Microphone Elements invention (US Patent 7349849) relates to speech processing for computer systems. Apple describes this patent in more detail:

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.

Computer Controlled Display Device invention (US Patent 7349203) relates to mechanisms for supporting display devices for computers or data processing systems. Apple describes this patent in more detail:

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.

Touch Pad for Handheld Device invention (US Patent 7348967) relates to touch pads having scrolling features. Apple describes this patent in more detail:

According to one aspect of the invention, a touch pad is provided on a media player to facilitate user interaction therewith. In one embodiment, the media player is a handheld device. According to another aspect of the invention, a touch pad is provided that can sense and resolve angular and/or radial positions of a moving object (e.g., finger) as it is moved in a largely rotational and/or radial manner across the touch pad. In one embodiment, the touch pad that is based on polar coordinates rather than Cartesian coordinates.