The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 34 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's latest transit related patent that uniquely covers subways where using GPS is close to impossible to rely on. We also cover Apple's design patent for the iPod touch with WiFi and wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Granted Patent: Modeling Connectivity of Transit Systems

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to methods, program products, and systems for building a location fingerprint database for a transit system. The transit system can be a subway system including underground train stations and routes where location determination using GPS signals is difficult or impossible. A sampling device can measure signals, e.g., radio frequency (RF) signals detected at the stations or on the routes. A location server can construct a location fingerprint for each of the stations and the routes. Each location fingerprint can represent expected signal measurements by a user device if the user device is located at the respective station or route. The location server can provide the location fingerprint to a user device for the user device to determine a location of the user device within the station or on the route.

Apple's patent FIG. 2 illustrates exemplary survey techniques for generating location fingerprint data for a transit system; Fig. 15B is a flowchart of an exemplary procedure of improving location fingerprint data using motion cues and a ride-the-line survey.

Apple's granted patent 9,392,415 was originally filed in Q3 2015 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. One of the inventors is iOS location engineer Johan Bergerengen who worked at eRide Inc. Apple's first granted patent related to transit was published in November 2015.

Our Cover Graphic covers Apple's transit patent FIG. 3A which illustrates exemplary survey techniques for generating location fingerprint data for a platform in a station of a transit system. The techniques can be used in in-station surveys.

Apple Granted iPod Touch with WiFi Design Patent

Apple was granted design patent D761,250 today covering the iPod touch with WiFi model as noted below.

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today

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Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 5am to 6pm MST and sporadically over the weekend.