Apple Inc.

Yagil Burowski

Robert W Brumley

Robert Golshan

Ayman Fawzy Naguib

Subash Marri Sridhar

Santhoshkumar Mani

Jonathan R Schoenberg

Manuel Roman Cuesta

Brandon S Dewberry

Peter C Tsoi

Jeremiah R Sequoia

Merrick K McCracken

Russell A Bishop

Techniques are disclosed for initiating transient sessions on a communal device. An example method includes a system receiving, from a media streaming device, a request for a transient session token for initiating a transient session of a streaming service. The system can transmit, to the media streaming device, an authentication request for authenticating a user account that is associated with the streaming service. The authentication request can be transmitted based at least in part on the receipt of the request for the transient session token. The system can receive, from the media streaming device, an authentication response based at least in part on transmitting the authentication request. The system can authenticate that the user account is associated with the streaming service based at least in part on receiving the authentication response. The system can transmit the transient session token to the media streaming device. The transient session token comprises an expiration parameter for ending the transient session of the streaming service.

Transient setup of applications on communal devices

Certain embodiments are directed to techniques (e.g., a device, a method, a memory or non-transitory computer readable medium storing code or instructions executable by one or more processors) for communication techniques between an electronic device (e.g., a smart speaker, a smart TV, a smart appliance, etc.) and one or more mobile devices (e.g., a smartphone, a tablet, a wearable device etc.). Techniques can vary the rate the mobile device responds to ranging messages from the smart speaker based on one or more factors. These factors can include a state of the mobile device (e.g., awake or asleep), mobile device orientation (e.g., face down), application state (e.g., music App active), motion of the mobile device (e.g., at rest for period of time), and a range (distance/angle) between the mobile device and the speaker to conserve battery life. The range to the electronic device can activate one or more smart speaker features on the mobile device.

Techniques for changing frequency of ranging based on location of mobile device

Techniques are disclosed for initiating transient sessions on a communal device. An example method includes a device detecting a user device within a threshold distance of the device. The device can transmit control instructions to the user device for a response from the user device based on the detection, the response comprising an indication as to whether to initiate a transient session of a streaming service. The device can transmit, to an application server, a request for a transient session token based on the response from the user device. The device can receive, from the application server, the transient session token, the transient session token including an expiration parameter. The device can initiate the transient session based on the transient session token, the transient session comprising presenting content provided by the application server on a presentation device. The device can terminate the transient session based on the expiration parameter.

A mobile device can include ranging circuitry to determine distance to another mobile device. A first wireless protocol can establish an initial communication session to perform authentication and/or exchange ranging settings. One mobile device acting as a beacon device can define a ranging round including an initial timeslot and a plurality of non-overlapping response slots for discovering and performing ranging with any mobile device in a vicinity of the beacon. The beacon can broadcast a ranging request including a beacon device identifier at a request time. A first mobile device can transmit a first acknowledgement message during a first response slot. A second mobile device can transmit a second acknowledgement message during a second response slot. The beacon device can calculate a first distance from the first mobile device and a second distance from the second mobile device based at least upon information in the first and second acknowledgement messages.

One to many ranging techniques

Certain embodiments are directed to techniques (e.g., a device, a method, a memory or non-transitory computer readable medium storing code or instructions executable by one or more processors) for passive beacon communication techniques. Transmitting devices (e.g., beacons) can transmit advertising messages using a first wireless protocol to provide timing for ranging messages for one of more ranging messages over a second protocol (e.g., UWB). One or more receiving devices can determine using signal strength if the devices are within a threshold range to perform communication techniques. Various ranging communications techniques can be used to determine a range between the receiving device and transmitting device. Other techniques can be used to passively calculate the angle of arrival for transmitter signals. The angle of arrival information can be used for precise position locating for the receiving device or to indicate interest in information provided by the one or more transmitting devices.

Communication techniques using passive beacons

A mobile device can include ranging circuitry to determine distance to another mobile device. Ranging between multiple mobile devices can present challenges due to clock drift between the devices resulting in missed messages due to collisions between ranging messages. Techniques can be implemented to reduce the number of collisions by designating time slots for ranging sessions based on timing from a coordinator mobile device. Alternative techniques allow for splitting up channels at different time amount different pairs of devices. The ranging techniques can be used to share information between devices with a predefined distance for applications such as augmented reality.

Many to many ranging techniques

Certain embodiments are directed to techniques (e.g., a device, a method, or a non-transitory computer readable medium storing code or instructions executable by one or more processors) for many-to-many communication techniques for coordinating communications among a group of mobile devices that can be performed by a first mobile devices. The first mobile device can transmit a request to establish outgoing pairwise ranging sessions with other mobile devices of the group. Each of the mobile devices of the group of mobile devices can establish ranging sessions with the other mobile devices. Each mobile device can act as both an initiating device and a responding device for the ranging session. The first mobile device can detect one or more redundant ranging sessions the mobile devices. The first mobile device can identify whether to keep or terminate each of the one or more redundant ranging sessions based on a common criterion.

Many-to-many communication techniques for mobile devices

A method includes receiving a first instance of code to be simulated for a first mobile device and a second instance of code to be simulated for a second mobile device, and generating, on a graphical user interface, a first representation of the first mobile device and a second representation of the second mobile device. When a request for a ranging measurement between the mobile device representations is received, a first pixel representative of a first location of the first representation and a second pixel representative of a second location of the second representation is determined, and a separation value between the first and second pixels is determined. A ranging value is determined based on the separation value and provided to the first instance of code in response to the request, thereby enabling the first instance of code to simulate a physical ranging measurement between two physical devices.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Yagil Burowski