Two Apple patents involving digital photography have appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Patent 20120075521 is for a mechanical camera shutter mechanism. A camera shutter mechanism for covering and exposing an imaging sensor array is disclosed.

The camera shutter mechanism includes a rotary motor, a crank mechanism, a cover, a guide, and a drive circuit. The rotary motor is coupled to the crank mechanism to rotate the crank mechanism about a central axis. The cover is coupled to the crank mechanism at a point away from the central axis.

The drive circuit controls the rotary motor so that the cover moves back and forth repeatedly in a substantially linear motion along the guide between a shutter closed position and a shutter open position over the imaging sensor array. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. Richard Tsai is the inventor.

Patent number 20120079416 involves displaying image thumbnails in re-used screen real estate. Methods, system and computer-readable media are disclosed to facilitate presenting a plurality of digital images in a user interface window that includes an image display region and at least one other region available for re-use, receiving input from a user indicating a selection of at least one of the digital images, and modifying the presentation of the user interface window to present the selected at least one digital image in the image display region and to present the non-selected digital images as thumbnail images displayed within the at least one other region available for re-use.

The thumbnail images displayed in the re-use region may be selectively displayed in a more prominent manner to facilitate user interaction. Joshua David Fagans is the inventor.