A handful of Apple patents has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office, several of which relate to the company's iLife suite, FaceTime and Aperture software.

Patent number 20110102457 involves brushing tools for digital image adjustments. Among other things, methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed for applying an image adjustment to an image. A choice of image adjustments is presented to a user of a data processing device. A user selection is received from among the choice of image adjustments at least one image adjustment that a user desires to apply to an area of interest of the image.

The user selected image adjustment is applied to an entirety of an image. A preview of the user selected image adjustment applied to the entirety of the image is displayed. Also, user input comprising user selection of a brushing application is received. The user selected image adjustment is applied to the area of interest of the image and a remainder of the image is restored to a pre-adjustment state using the user selection of the brushing application. Nikhil Bhatt and Mark Kawano are the inventors.

Patent number 20110102671 is for a picture-in-picture video display for a low power device (think FaceTime). Per the patent, a memory that stores values is coupled to a display screen. The display screen displays images according to the values stored in the memory. A first receiver receives a first sequence of images and stores image data in a first portion of the memory. A second receiver receives a second sequence of images and stores image data in a second portion of the memory that is different than the first portion of the memory.

The memory may be a multi-ported memory and the first and second receivers store image data independently of one another. The memory may include independent first and a second memories respectively coupled to the receivers and a data selector may selectively connect the display to one of the memories to display images with a picture-in-picture effect. Richard Tsai is the inventor.

Patent number 20110103684 involves managing raw and processing image file pairs. Among other things, methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed for managing image files. In one aspect, a method includes displaying, at a data processing device, a preview of images available for import from a storage device, wherein each image is associated with a pair of corresponding image files comprising a compressed image file and a raw image file obtained from a single image capture.

At the data processing device, both the raw image file and the compressed image file of the pair associated with at least one of the images are imported. At the data processing device, at least one of the pair of corresponding image files is identified as a master image file for the associated image. At the data processing device, the identified master image file for the associated captured image is displayed. The inventors are Nikhil Bhatt, Mark Shackelford, Mark Lee Kawano and Allen Langmaier.

Patent number 20110103685 is for image adjustment using extended range curves. Per the patent, a digital image having associated tonal data, including tonal data in an extended range above a normalized value of 1.0, can be accessed. An extended range curve tool corresponding to the digital image can be instantiated, the extended range curve tool including a curve defining a relationship between input tonal values and output tonal values, wherein at least a portion of the input tonal values and output tonal values are associated with the extended range.

An extended range histogram also can be generated based on the tonal data associated with the digital image, the extended range histogram including data corresponding to the extended range. Further, the extended range histogram can be presented in conjunction with the extended range curve tool. Additionally, user input specifying an adjustment to at least a portion of the curve can be received and a modified curve can be presented in response to the specified adjustment. Nikhil Bhatt is the inventor.

Patent number 20110106544 involves adapting masking thresholds for encoding a low frequency transient signal in audio data. It's for an improved audio coding technique encodes audio having a low frequency transient signal, using a long block, but with a set of adapted masking thresholds. Upon identifying an audio window that contains a low frequency transient signal, masking thresholds for the long block may be calculated as usual.

A set of masking thresholds calculated for the 8 short blocks corresponding to the long block are calculated. The masking thresholds for low frequency critical bands are adapted based on the thresholds calculated for the short blocks, and the resulting adapted masking thresholds are used to encode the long block of audio data. The result is encoded audio with rich harmonic content and negligible coder noise resulting from the low frequency transient signal. Shyh-Shiaw Kuo and Frank Baumgarte are the inventors.

Patent number 20110107320 involves managing digital content in hierarchies. Methods, apparatuses, and systems for managing digital content in hierarchies are described. A first version of a digital image is received from an external device which tracks changes to the first version. It is determined that a second version of the digital image, changes to which have been tracked, exists. Based on comparing the tracked changes of both versions, the versions are combined. The first version is created by splitting the second version, which is stored in a master hierarchy, and transmitting the split version to the external device.

During splitting, a child hierarchy of information is split from the master hierarchy, the child hierarchy including portions of the master hierarchy to access the second version such that the second version can be accessed independent of the master hierarchy. Changes to the versions are tracked in change tables, for example, using values that are mashed into a single record. The inventors are Shawn Patrick Flisakowski and Keith Walter Rauenbuehler.

-- Dennis Sellers