Apple has been granted three patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office regarding the cameras and microphones in their iOS devices.

Patent number 815255 involves a flash control for an electronic rolling shutter. A method performed by an electronic camera in flash mode is as follows: a scene ambient lighting indication is obtained. An integration time interval and a flash pulse-on time interval for taking a picture is then set. The set integration time interval is shorter when the indication is bright than when the indication is dark; and the set flash pulse-on time interval is longer when the indication is bright than when the indication is dark.

An image is captured using the set integration time interval and the set flash pulse-on time interval in accordance with an electronic rolling shutter (ERS). Other embodiments are also described and claimed. Richard Tsai is the inventor.

Patent number 8150058 involves mode switching noise cancellation for microphone-speaker combinations used in two-way audio communications. Per the patent, an audio host device has an electrical interface having a speaker contact, a microphone contact, and a reference contact. The reference contact is shared by a microphone and a speaker. The reference contact is also directly coupled to a power return plane of the audio host device. A difference amplifier is provided, having a cold input and a hot input. The hot input is coupled to the microphone contact.

A switched attenuator circuit is also provided that has first and second states. In the first state, the attenuator circuit couples a sense point of the reference contact to the cold input, while in the second state the cold input is isolated from the reference sense point. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. This patent could also related to FaceTime on Macs. The inventors are Timothy M. Johnson, Lawrence F. Heyl, Wendell B. Sander and Douglas M. Farrar.