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We’ve all seen That Person in the movie theater: the one whose compulsive texting guarantees a distraction for everyone through the bright screen. Microsoft might not change that disruptive behavior, but it could save us from noticing through a new patent application. The team in Redmond is exploring an “inconspicuous mode” that would dial down not just the screen brightness and sound, but also the information on the display — it could remove a bright background and limit the number of attention-grabbing notifications. The technique could even detect certain conditions, such a very dark bedroom, and invoke the mode without having to ask. Like with most patents, we don’t know if Microsoft plans to use the technology in earnest; we’ve reached out, just in case a similar mode has previously lurked in the background. When the patent filling is crafted with Windows Phone in mind, however, we wouldn’t be surprised if some future version of the mobile OS learns to mind its manners.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft

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Source: USPTO

It’s no secret that Microsoft has been experimenting plenty with wearable computing and augmented reality — just take a look at some of Microsoft Research’s projects — but a patent application published today has offered a peek at one possible AR application the company has yet to demonstrate. While not describing the device itself, the patent application details how a head-mounted display could be used to augment live events in realtime with relevant information (like stats during a baseball game, as pictured above). To do so, the system would recognize both where you are and what objects are in your field of view, and then display the supplemental information that’d be continually updated based on what’s happening or where you’re looking. If that all sounds a little familiar, it’s because leaked details purporting to lay out Microsoft’s future Xbox plans also described some AR glasses, dubbed “Fortaleza Glasses,” which were similarly said to provide “realtime information on people, places and objects.” At the time of that leak, those were said to be coming sometime in 2014.

Filed under: Wearables, Microsoft

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: USPTO

What kind of movement does a theft entail? Apple‘s in the process of figuring that out, today filing a patent application for a, “acceleration-based theft detection system for portable electronic devices.” Apple pickers: you’ve just been put on watch. According to the patent filing, said device would activate an alarm of some form after determining, “whether a theft condition is present.” It’ll apparently figure that out based on the accelerometer built into many of Apple’s mobile devices — the same thing that figures out which way you’re holding your phone. Beyond just the hardware, said theft protection system would work in concert with software to determine if the movement matches a pre-determined “profile characteristic of theft.”

Of course, Apple’s not the only one worried about mobile device theft, as Google already patented just such a device pertaining to its Project Glass concept. But the you’d have to be pretty brazen to steal the glasses off of someone’s face without “accidentally” socking them in the eye.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Apple

Apple files anti-theft patent that uses accelerometers to detect theft-like movement originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Nov 2012 18:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Apple has flirted with biometric-based patents before, we’ve yet to see them implemented in real-world technology. That hasn’t stopped it from filing yet another one though, as the latest application reveals a fingerprint sensor apparently embedded into the iPhone itself. The patent describes a hardware “window” that can become selectively “transparent or opaque.” When transparent, it would reveal a component comprised of an “image capture device, a strobe flash, a biometric sensor, a light sensor, a proximity sensor, or a solar panel, or a combination thereof” as a method of unlocking the phone. According to the filing, the biometric sensor in question might indeed be a fingerprint reader. The document goes on to describe an alternative method using face or eye recognition technology that can be used not just for security purposes, but for possible e-commerce solutions like completing an online transaction. Of course, take any of these patent applications with a generous pinch of salt — we haven’t seen an Apple stylus yet, for example — but perhaps this is the reason Apple bought fingerprint sensor maker AuthenTec back in July.

Filed under: Cellphones, Apple

Apple files patent application for fingerprint sensor that can be transparent or opaque originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 04:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Siri’s managed to make it into several Apple devices now, so it doesn’t shock us to spy the company’s attempt to patent the polite (somewhat frosty) tones of its voice navigation system. A pretty deep patent application filed today describes an “intelligent Automated Assistant,” with the claims describing an application that is guided through the user’s speech — and all wrapped in a “conversational interface.” So far, so Siri. The filing elaborates on Apple’s earlier filings, explaining how this digital assistant furthers the users’ demands with additional requests for speech-based information — hopefully resulting in that map location or a movie booking you were after.

This “user intent” is then put to use, launching an additional app or performing the specified function, while non-speech input (presumably like the ability to correct your requests in text form) get a brief mention. We do get plenty of description on commands though, with some pretty thorough response tables and examples of “anchor text” — something that the automated assistant tries to pluck from your ramblings in order to make sense of them. The full version resides at the source below, if you’re looking for 51 verbose pages explaining Siri’s inner workings.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

Apple files patent application for ‘intelligent automated assistant,’ sounds like Siri originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 07:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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