Apple won 62 patents today covering Smartglasses, a Zoom Lens for iPad, Progress Tracking In a Classroom & Future Bright Color Coatings
Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 62 newly granted utility patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we briefly cover patents relating to a zoom lens for iPad using an induction heating assembled lens unit; Smartglasses with Nose Bridge Displays; Bright Color Coatings For Electronic Devices and Software Framework For Progress Tracking In a Classroom Setting. And, as always, we wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple this week.
Induction Heating Assembled Lens Unit
Apple's granted patent relates to optical systems, and more specifically to magnification in small form factor cameras and lens systems. If you like to know more about Apple's zoom lens system that may be coming to the iPad in the future,, then check out patent 12050360. For Safari users, click here
Smartglasses with Nose Bridge Displays
Apple's granted patent covers a head-mounted device that may have a a support structure such as a glasses frame coupled to left and right temples by left and right hinges. The frame may have left and right portions that are coupled at a nose bridge portion. The left and right portions may support respective clear transparent members that form left and right lenses. During operation of the head-mounted device, a user with eyes located in left and right eye boxes may view real-world objects through the left and right lenses. For more, review granted patent 12050324. For Safari users, click here
Bright Color Coatings For Electronic Devices
Every year iPhones sport new colors that have become a selling point from many. In today's granted patent we learn that Apple is working on delivering bright colors to their line-up in the future. Apple notes that coatings may be formed on the conductive structures to reflect particular wavelengths of visible light so that the conductive structures exhibit a desired color. A high-brightness, visible-light-reflecting coating may be deposited on a conductive substrate. The coating may include transition and adhesion layers on the substrate and an uppermost coloring layer on the transition and adhesion layers. The uppermost coloring layer may include a TiCrN film, a TiCrCN film, a TiCN film, or a metal nitride film that contains Ti, Zr, Hf, or Cr. The coating may be deposited using a high impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) process. The coating may exhibit a bright gold color without using real gold in the uppermost coloring layer. For full details, review granted patent 12050436. For Safari users, click here
Software Framework For Progress Tracking In a Classroom Setting
Apple's granted patent relates to a client-server architecture that enables progress tracking related to assignments generated by an instructor. A hand-out can include attachments that specify placeholders for hand-ins and/or activities to be performed by the student as part of the assignment. Some activities can be performed using third-party applications that implement at least a portion of a software framework that causes the applications to generate progress tracking information provided to a daemon executing in the background of a client device. The daemon and/or a client application interface with one or more network services to enable an instructor to utilize the progress tracking information. The network services can include a hand-out service utilized to generate hand-outs assigned to a group of students. The network services can also include a progress pipeline including a number of services configured to process progress tracking information received from a plurality of client devices. for full details, review granted patent 12052320. For Safari users, click here
Note: It appears that the links in our report don't work on iPhones using Safari. I tried the links in the Chrome browser on my iPhone and they work fine.
This Week's Remaining Granted Patents