Apple has been granted several patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each.

Patent number 8086604 is for an universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system and involves Mac OS X. The invention provides convenient access to items of information that are related to various descriptors input by a user, by means of a unitary interface which is capable of accessing information in a variety of locations, through a number of different techniques.

Using a plurality of heuristic algorithms to operate upon information descriptors input by the user, the present invention locates and displays candidate items of information for selection and/or retrieval. Thus, the advantages of a search engine can be exploited, while listing only relevant object candidate items of information. The inventors are Yan Arrouye and Keith Mortensen.

Patent number 8085318 is for real-time image capture and manipulation based on streaming data and involves Apple's Photo Booth software. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes receiving an input stream including image data from a source, displaying the input stream in real-time including displaying a plurality of instantiations of the stream at a same time, each stream different, the step of displaying including applying a filter to each instantiation of the input stream, and receiving a prompt to select one of the instantiations of the stream. The inventors are Jean-Pierre Ciudad, Luke Bellandi, Gregory N. Christie, Richard Dellinger, Scott Forstall, Mike Matas, Erika Misaki, Kevin Tiene, Marcel M. van Os and Steve Lemay.

Patent number 8086915 involves a memory controller with a loopback test interface. In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises an interconnect; at least one processor coupled to the interconnect; and at least one memory controller coupled to the interconnect. The memory controller is programmable by the processor into a loopback test mode of operation and, in the loopback test mode, the memory controller is configured to receive a first write operation from the processor over the interconnect.

The memory controller is configured to route write data from the first write operation through a plurality of drivers and receivers connected to a plurality of data pins that are capable of connection to one or more memory modules. The memory controller is further configured to return the write data as read data on the interconnect for a first read operation received from the processor on the interconnect. The inventors are Luka Bodrozic, Sukalpa Biswas, Hao Chen, Sridhar P. Subramanian and James B. Keller.

Patent number 8085932 is for secure distribution of data or content using keyless transformation. The invention involves ca omputer enabled method and apparatus for encrypting and decrypting data using a keyless transformation cryptographic technique. Data is protected using a keyless (unkeyed) complex mathematical transformation, in contrast to a traditional cryptographic algorithm using a secret key.

This approach is resistant to both static analysis (hacking) performed on executable encryption/decryption code, as well as dynamic analysis performed during execution (runtime) of ciphering or deciphering. The method uses a family of asymmetric data transformations based on Galois field polynomials. The inventors are Augustin J. Farrugia, Jean-Francois Riendeau and Mathieu Ciet.

Patent number 8086535 involves decoupling rights in a digital content unit from a download. The invention is for systems and methods for enabling a user to obtain rights in a legitimate copy of a digital content unit without downloading the copy from a digital content store are provided. The systems and methods provide an encrypted copy of a digital content unit to a first user and transcript the encrypted copy to generate the legitimate copy to a second user.

The encrypted copy is encrypted with a first encrypt key that may be associated with the first user and the legitimate copy is encrypted with a second encrypt key that may be associated with the second user. The inventors are Jonathan M. Zweig and James H. Woodyatt.

Patent number 8086781 is for a serial pass-through device. The invention involves a host device and an accessory exchange information (e.g., commands and data) via an intermediate device. The host device and accessory can each connect to the intermediate device. The host device can exchange commands and data with the intermediate device, while the accessory device can serially exchange data with the intermediate device. The host device and the accessory can also "tunnel" information to each other through the intermediate device, by packaging the tunneled information as a payload of a command recognizable by the intermediate device; the intermediate device can repackage and forward the payload.

In some embodiments, the intermediate device can control serial communication parameters between the intermediate device and the accessory in response to commands received from the host. The inventors are John Ananny, David S. Fischer, Peter Langenfield and Scott Krueger.

Patent number 8086854 involves content protection information using a family of quadratic multivariety polynomial maps. The invention involves a computer based method and apparatus to tie content protection information to recipient devices via a family of deterministic permutations of quadratic multivariate polynomial maps used for computing an HMAC (Hash Message Authentication Code) or a signed digest.

This allows digital rights management (DRM) systems to customize the protection information (such as an HMAC or signed digest) for audio and video content, whereby such protection information for a piece of content differs for different recipient devices or for types of recipient devices. The inventors are Augustin J. Farrrugia, Gianapaolo Fasocli, Mathieu Ciet and Nicholas Sullivan.

-- Dennis Sellers