Intel's CES Keynote 2010, Apple and iLife 3D
Apple's Media Players will One Day be Both Portable TV & DVR

Apple Wins Final Cut Studio Motion & MagSafe Patents

MagSafe Connector, B4 Cover

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of seven newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The notables within this group include one that relates to Apple's Final Cut Studio's Motion technology, two patents for MagSafe that relate to both the design and technology behind it, another one covering a power savings technology relating to reducing replay occurrences in processors and finally, Apple wins their third iPod nano third generation design patent.

 

Granted Patent: Related to Final Cut Studio's Motion

 

Apple's patent generally relates to analysis of motion in video sequences and, more particularly, to identifying pan and zoom global motion in video sequences. This Apple patent is likely related to Final Cut Studio's Motion 4.

 

The analysis of motion information in video sequences has typically addressed two largely non-overlapping applications: video retrieval and video coding. In video retrieval systems, the dominant motion, motion trajectories and tempo are computed to identify particular video clips or sequences that are similar in terms of motion characteristics or belong to a distinct class (e.g., commercials). In video coding systems, global motion parameters are estimated for global motion compensation and for constructing sprites. In both video retrieval and video coding systems, it is desirable to identify pan and zoom global motion. For video retrieval systems, pan and zoom detection enables classification of video sequences (e.g., documentary movies) for efficient retrieval from video databases. For video coding systems, pan and zoom detection enables the adaptive switching of coding parameters (e.g., the selection of temporal and spatial Direct Modes in H.264).

 

One aspect of the present invention includes a method of detecting pan and zoom in a video sequence. The method comprises selecting a set of frames from a video sequence (e.g., by identifying scene cuts), determining a set of motion vectors for each frame in the set of frames, identifying at least two largest regions in each frame in the frame set having motion vectors with substantially similar orientation in a reference coordinate system (e.g., polar coordinates), determining percentages of each frame covered by the at least two largest regions, determining a statistical measure (e.g., variance) of the motion vector orientations in the reference coordinate system for at least one of the two largest regions, and comparing the percentages and statistical measure to threshold values to identify a pan or zoom in the video sequence.

 

Look Ahead for Pan & Zoom Detection  

Apple's patent FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a look-ahead method for pan and zoom detection in video sequences, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

 

Look-Ahead Video Clip Example

 

Apple's patent FIG. 4 illustrates the identification of the two largest regions in a video frame k, which form part of a look-ahead video clip, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

 

Another aspect of the present invention includes a system for detecting pan and zoom sequences in a video sequence. The system comprises: a preprocessor for selecting a set of frames from a video sequence, and a motion analyzer for determining a motion vector for each frame in the set of frames, identifying the two largest regions in each frame having motion vectors with substantially similar orientation in a reference coordinate system, determining percentages of each frame covered by the two largest regions, determining a statistical measure of the motion vector orientations in the reference coordinate system for at least one of the two largest regions, and comparing the percentages and statistical measure to threshold values to identify a pan or zoom in the video sequence.

 

The present invention as defined by the claims herein provides a computationally efficient solution for identifying pans and zooms in video sequences, including but not limited to the enabling of parameter switching for improved encoding in video standards (e.g., H.264) and improved video retrieval of video sequences from databases and other video storage devices.

 

Apple credits Adriana Dumitras and Barin Haskell as the inventors of Granted Patent 7,646,437, originally filed in Q3 2003. For more information, view this temporary link. Patent Title: Look-ahead system and method for pan and zoom detection in video sequences.

 

Industrial Design Win: MagSafe Connector

 

Apple has been granted a design win for their MagSafe Connector. One of the applications for the connector is in connection with the LED Cinema Display that includes a MagSafe connector that powers and charges a new MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.

 

MagSafe Connector

 

Apple credits Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard Howarth, Jonathan Ive, Duncan Kerr, Hankey Evans, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas Satzger, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer as the inventors of Granted Patent D607, 831, originally filed in Q1 2008. 

 

MagSafe Patent: Apple has also been granted a related patent for the actual technology behind MagSafe, under patent number 7,645,143. For more information, view this temporary link.

 

Industrial Design Win: iPod nano (Third Generation)

 

IPod Nano 3rd Gen

 

Apple has won yet another design patent for Apple's third generation iPod nano under D607, 869. They were granted two earlier patents for their third generation iPod nano in 2009 under design patents D606, 264 published on December 29, 2009 and another under D598, 451 published on August 18, 2009.

 

Granted Patent: Replay Reduction for Power Saving

 

Apple's invention/patent  is related to the field of processors and, more particularly, to reducing replay occurrence in processors.

 

Managing power consumption in processors is increasingly becoming a priority. In many systems, the power supply is at least sometimes a battery or other stored-charge supply. Maximizing battery life in such systems is often a key selling feature. Additionally, even in systems that have effectively limitless power (e.g. systems plugged into a wall outlet), the challenges of cooling the processors and other circuits in the system may be reduced if power consumption can be reduced in the processors.

 

Some processors implement replay, in which an instruction (or instruction operation) is issued for execution and, during execution, a condition is detected that causes the instruction to be reissued again at a later time. Instructions can also be replayed if a preceding instruction is replayed (particularly if the instructions depend on the previous instructions). If an instruction is replayed due to a condition that may take some time to clear, it is likely that the instruction will be issued and replayed repeatedly until the condition is cleared. The power consumed in issuing the instruction, only to be replayed, is wasted. Apple's patent remedies this waste.

 

Reducing Replay Occurrence in Processors

 

Apple's patent FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a scheduler state machine. FIG. 5 is a table illustrating one embodiment of replay types. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating operation of one embodiment of a replay source.

 

In one embodiment of Apple's patent, a processor comprises a scheduler configured to issue a first instruction operation to be executed and an execution core coupled to the scheduler. The execution core is configured to execute the first instruction operation, wherein the execution core comprises a plurality of replay sources configured to cause a replay of the first instruction operation responsive to detecting at least one of a plurality of replay cases. Each of the plurality of replay sources is configured to detect one or more of the plurality of replay cases. The scheduler is configured to inhibit issuance of the first instruction operation subsequent to the replay for a subset of the plurality of replay cases. The scheduler is coupled to receive an acknowledgement indication corresponding to each of the plurality of replay cases in the subset, and is configured to inhibit issuance of the first instruction operation until the acknowledge indication is asserted that corresponds to an identified replay case of the subset. A similar method is also contemplated.

 

Apple credits Po-Yung Chang, Wei-Han Lien, Jesse Pan, Ramesh Gunna, Tse-Yu Yeh and James Keller as the inventors of granted patent 7,647,518, originally filed in Q4 2006.

 

Other Granted Patents Published Today

 

Systems and Methods for Color Managing Content Elements on a Display Device: Apple's invention generally relates to display devices, and more particularly to color managing content elements on display devices. For more information, view this temporary link. 

 

Multi-Point Latch Mechanism with a Single Control: An electronic device such as a notebook computer may include one or more removable modules such as a battery module or a data storage module (e.g., a data drive). The patent covers a latch mechanism for removably securing a module in a bay of an electronic device, such as the MacBook. For more information, view this temporary link.

 

Notice: Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or Granted 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. For additional information on any granted patent noted above, simply feed the individual patent number(s) into this search engine.

 

Please note that any of the temporary links presented in today's report are in fact temporary and may redirect you to unrelated patents in the future. In such cases refer back to the search engine instructions above.  

 

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.