Apple Inc.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Clark Della Silva

Travis J McQueen

Scott G Johnston

Wade R Barnett

Joseph Hakim

Bernd W Adler

William Burchill

Charles A Schwalbach

Jean-Marc Gery

Paul Puskarich

David Samuel Kumka

Hiroshi Ishii

Jifei Ou

Lining Yao

Daniel I Wang

Chin-Yi Cheng

Paulina Mustafa

Wen Wang

Guanyun Wang

Trevor McQueen

Helene Steiner

Christopher Merrill

Jay C Couch

Andy Weidner

A system may include one or more processors and a host unit installed in a support structure of a building, the host unit including a communication module configured to send or receive communication data with at least one or more additional host units installed in the building, where the one or more processors are configured to measure an attribute of the sent or received communication data and detect a presence of an object based on a threshold change in the measured attribute of the sent or received communication data between the host unit and the one or more additional host units. The attribute can be an angle-of-signal (AoS) arrival of the communication between the host unit and each of the one or more additional host units, where the threshold change in the measured attribute is a threshold change in the measured AoS arrival.

Object tracking and authentication using modular wall units

In some embodiments, a data-secure sensor system includes one or more processors configured to receive sensor data (e.g., image data, audio data, etc.) and generate descriptive data based on the sensor data that corresponds to a physical area that corresponds to information about identified objects or activity in physical area, an input/output (I/O) port, and an I/O choke communicatively coupled between the one or more processors and the I/O port, the I/O choke configured to limit a communication bandwidth of the I/O port to a maximum data rate. The one or more processors can be configured to prevent the sensor data from being accessible via any external port of the data-secure camera system, including the I/O port, and allow the descriptive data to be accessible via the I/O port.

Data-secure sensor system

A modular host system may include one or more processors and a host unit installed in a support structure of a building. The host unit can be configured to receive and house an accessory (e.g., modular accessory) and electrically couple to an electrical source. The host unit can include a power gating module configured to couple electrical power from the electrical source to the accessory, and a communication module configured to communicate with one or more additional host units installed in the building. The one or more processors may be configured to determine a distance between the host unit and each of the one or more additional host units based on the communication with the one or more additional host units, and determine a floor plan of the building based at least on a distance from the host unit to each the one or more additional host units.

Modular wall unit system

A levitator is disclosed. The levitator may include a repulsion wire coil having a vertical coil axis, a position control wire coil having a vertical coil axis, a rotation control wire coil having a horizontal coil axis, and a controller coupled to each of the repulsion wire coil, position wire coil, and rotation wire coil, where the controller is configured to independently control currents provided to each of the repulsion wire coil, position wire coil, and rotation wire coil to levitate an item.

Electromagnetic levitator

A composite film includes a substrate that is not responsive to relative humidity, and also one or more layers of hygromorphic material. The hygromorphic material expands in response to an increase in relative humidity and contracts in response to a decrease in relative humidity. In some cases, the composite film is bi-layer or tri-layer. The composite films are fabricated such that they undergo a desired bending pattern in response to changes in relative humidity. In some cases, these bending patterns are combinations of two bending primitives: a smooth curve and a sharply angled curve. These two primitives are combined to create a variety of shape transformations including 1D linear transformation, 2D surface expansion and contraction, 2.5D texture change and 3D folding. Any type of hygromorphic material may be employed, including living gram positive and gram negative bacterial cells, yeast cells, plant cells, mammalian cells, cell debris, or hydrogel.

Methods and apparatus for hygromorphic shape control

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Clark Della Silva