Mar 18

Apple patent application offers more evidence of projector plans

Posted in: Apple, patent, patent application, PatentApplication, pico projector, PicoProjector, projector, sensor, Today's Chili
They’re easily missed about the mass of Apple patent applications revealed each year, but the company has filed a few regarding projectors (pico projectors, specifically), and the latest one to be published has now offered a few more details on how they might all fit together. That application boasts the rather broad title of “projector system and methods,” and basically describes a setup that would let various devices (including a laptop or phone) remotely interact with a projector, which could itself be built into a device like a phone. To do that, each device in question would be equipped with a sensor of some sort that would be able to receive data from the projector, and even allow you to do fairly advanced things like calibrate the projector remotely. The application further goes on to detail how the system could accommodate multiple clients — letting folks overlay multiple images on a single presentation, for example — and it would apparently be able to receive and broadcast audio between multiple clients as well. Does this mean you’ll soon be able to control your pico projector-equipped iPhone from your sensor-equipped MacBook? Probably not, but it may not be quite as far fetched as some of Apple’s other patent applications.

Apple patent application offers more evidence of projector plans originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PicoProjector-info  |  sourcePatent Application, Patently Apple  | Email this | Comments

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Mar 15

Qualcomm’s multi-fold mobile device is the future we keep waiting for

Posted in: hybrid, patent, patent application, PatentApplication, qualcomm, Today's Chili

Qualcomm isn’t typically in the business of producing consumer-facing hardware — the company prefers to just build the chips that make your devices go “vroom” — but we’ve come across a patent application that details just such an idea. The multi-fold mobile device can be seen as either a foldable tablet or an expandable cellphone, but in either case its purpose is clearly to act as a hybrid device that performs both roles. With all least two displays on its three panels, this concept will also automatically reconfigure its UI based on a folding configuration sensor, and Qualcomm suggests you might also use it as a widescreen TV display, an alarm clock, a media player, or a web browser. Click past the break for a couple more suggested use diagrams, and feel free to write to Qualcomm with demands that this be put into production pronto.

Continue reading Qualcomm’s multi-fold mobile device is the future we keep waiting for

Qualcomm’s multi-fold mobile device is the future we keep waiting for originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceUSPTO, GoRumors  | Email this | Comments

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Mar 08

Nokia wants patent on self-regenerating phone batteries, piezoelectrics and much magic involved

Posted in: application, legal, mobile phone, nokia, patent, patent application, PatentApplication, Today's Chili

In Nokia’s own words, what we’re looking at is a “piezoelectric kinetic energy harvester.” Working along the same principles as kinetic wristwatches have done for a long time already, Nokia’s idea is to capture the energy generated by the phone’s movements and to refashion it into beautiful, clean-as-a-whistle electric power. By allowing the heavier internal components to move on rails within the phone as part of a “force-transferring assembly,” the Espoo think tank has figured out a way to capitalize on all the small forces of acceleration and rotation that we subject our phones to on a daily basis. It would seem overly ambitious to expect this to replace the trusty old charger, but we give credit to Nokia for even thinking about it. Check out some schematics of how this would work after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Nokia wants patent on self-regenerating phone batteries, piezoelectrics and much magic involved

Nokia wants patent on self-regenerating phone batteries, piezoelectrics and much magic involved originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Symbian Freak  |  sourceUPSTO  | Email this | Comments

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Mar 05

Motorola patent combines multiple devices to make one large display

Posted in: motorola, patent, patent application, PatentApplication, Today's Chili
It seems to us that if you indulge in mobile video from time to time, you’re either lugging around a device with a decent display size (netbook, tablet, whatevs) or more likely than not you’re watching your Britain’s Got Talent! clips on a handset — either solution is obviously less than ideal. What if we told you that Motorola has filed a patent application for a “Reconfigurable Multiple-Screen Display”? This technology will essentially let you configure multiple devices for use as one big display: Instead of lugging around your Thinkpad or suffering the indignity of watching postage stamp-sized video on your Droid you can simply and conveniently carry four phones around. Why didn’t we think of that?

Motorola patent combines multiple devices to make one large display originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Go Rumors  |  sourceUS Patent and Trademark Office  | Email this | Comments

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Mar 05

Sony wants to patent ‘feature erosion’ in game demos, illustrates the idea vividly

Posted in: application, console, demo, Games, gaming, Law, patent, patent application, PatentApplication, playstation, playstation 3, Playstation3, sony, Today's Chili

Want more evidence of the patent degradation of modern society? Well, here’s Sony with its latest idea for selling games. The feature-eroding demo concept gives the user the full game to start off with, but then grows increasingly more limited the more you play it. In racing games, that means the number of tracks you can race on gradually dwindles, whereas in classically themed smack-em-ups like God of War your sword, erm… well, it also dwindles. We’re kind of on the fence about this — on the one hand, it’s hilariously insulting to the user as it perpetually nags him about what a cheapskate he is for not purchasing the entire game, and yet on the other it does at least let you taste the full breadth of the game, albeit for a limited time. However you may feel, this is still at the application stage, but given the patent office’s recent track record, there’s no reason why Sony should be denied the rights over this supposed innovation.

Sony wants to patent ‘feature erosion’ in game demos, illustrates the idea vividly originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Kotaku, Siliconera  |  sourceUSPTO  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 22

Microsoft dreams of smart charging pad with information display (update: prototype pics)

Posted in: charger, Microsoft, patent, patent application, PatentApplication, Today's Chili

It’s no Courier, but for a charging pad, this is a pretty interesting concept. According to a patent filed by Microsoft’s Beijing office, the idea for such a pad is that it can have one side dedicated to inductive charging (maybe for a future Zune or even Microsoft’s own phones), while the other side can be used for displaying useful information “such as weather conditions, sports scores, news headlines.” It may not sound very practical at first blush, but have a listen at this — the built-in accelerometer and the charging surface’s load detector help determine which side isn’t in use, thus switching that side off to reduce power consumption. Voilà! As for why the eggheads suggested adding a light panel for glowing up a glass prism — it’s the new crystal ball.

Update: looks like this device has been around since March 2009! A tipster — who happens to be affiliated with Microsoft Research Asia — has just hit us with some photos of a prototype device based on this patent. It’s called the uPad (please, don’t start) and was produced as souvenirs for Microsoft Research Asia’s 10th anniversary. As you can see after the break, the uPad wirelessly charges a modified Wireless Laser Mouse 7000. We want one.

Continue reading Microsoft dreams of smart charging pad with information display (update: prototype pics)

Microsoft dreams of smart charging pad with information display (update: prototype pics) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Being Manan  |  sourceUS Patent & Trademark Office  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 19

Sony patent application reveals universal, LCD-based game controller

Posted in: patent, patent application, PatentApplication, sony, Today's Chili
Well, here’s a bit of an odd one. A recent patent application from Sony has not only revealed an LCD-based game controller (which would be notable enough in itself), but an LCD-based, universal game controller that’s designed to work with more than one game console. As you can see above, the touchscreen would be able to accommodate various buttons and layouts for different consoles — Sony even curiously mentions consoles like the Amiga CD-32 and Atari Jaguar (for emulation, perhaps?), in addition to Microsoft and Nintendo — and the screen itself would be housed in what Sony describes as a “game controller skin.” Of course, this is still just an application for a patent, and we’re pretty sure Sony is focused on another controller at the moment.

[Thanks, Anand]

Sony patent application reveals universal, LCD-based game controller originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Go Rumors  |  sourceUSPTO (PDF)  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 25

Asimo learns to sing and dance, but has yet to learn how to love

Posted in: patent, patent application, PatentApplication, robot, Today's Chili
From parade appearances to his most recent star turn at Sundance, it looks like Asimo’s re-invention as a song-and-dance man continues unabated. Most recently, those crazy intellectual property lawyers-cum-bloggers at Stamoulis & Weinblatt, LLC have hepped us to a patent app in Honda’s name that describes a robot that can not only pick up a beat and dance along, but recognize the tune and sing its lyrics as well. The latter is accomplished by a wide array of techno-stuff, including a “sound collecting unit,” a “voice signal generating unit” capable of both scat singing and singing singing, a “self-vocalized voice regulating unit,” and more. As far as the dancing goes, the application implies that it has something to do with a “beat interval estimating unit” and a “beat time reliability calculating unit,” although we like to believe that the automaton learned to dance the way grandpa did — from Arthur Murray on West 57th Street in Manhattan.

Asimo learns to sing and dance, but has yet to learn how to love originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Stamoulis & Weinblatt LLC  |  sourceUnited States Patent Application  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 23

Apple patent application two-fer: new gesture inputs, solar-powered iPods?

Posted in: Apple, patent, patent application, PatentApplication, solar, solar power, SolarPower, Today's Chili

We know it’s been tough with the dearth of Apple-related speculation as of late, but it looks like we now finally have a few more clues about what the company might be up to courtesy of a pair of recently published patent applications. The first of those is a new type of gesture-based input device, which would not only be able to detect swipes and other simple gestures, but things like brushing or scooping motions that take into account force and velocity (check out an example after the break). The other patent treads a bit of familiar territory for Apple, and describes a built-in solar power system for electronic devices — such as an iPod, as illustrated above. That could apparently include solar cells covering the entire device, which could be configured to function even if they’re partly obstructed by your hand. The system would also supposedly be able to detect if the battery is completely drained and rely solely on the solar cells to power up the device or, alternatively, switch the solar cells to a “second operational state” if it detects that the battery is charged — if it ever actually exists, that is.

Continue reading Apple patent application two-fer: new gesture inputs, solar-powered iPods?

Apple patent application two-fer: new gesture inputs, solar-powered iPods? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceMac Rumors  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 18

Nokia patent application points to flexible phone displays

Posted in: concept, nokia, patent, patent application, PatentApplication, Today's Chili
It may still be quite a ways from realizing its ambitious Morph concept, but it looks like Nokia has been toying around with the idea of flexible displays as of late, as evidenced by a just-published patent application (first filed back in 2008). Covering a “user interface, device and method for a physically flexible device,” the application details (among other things) how a flexible display might be used on a phone to do things other than make it more portable. Most interestingly, that includes bending the phone into a particular shape to perform a specific task — Nokia suggests rolling it into a can to search for a bar or pub, or bending it into a bowl to search for a restaurant. Not exactly the most imaginative examples, to be sure, although we’re sure Nokia will have plenty of time to come up with some more interesting uses before any such phones actually hit the market.

[Thanks, Anand]

Nokia patent application points to flexible phone displays originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Go Rumors  |  sourceUSPTO  | Email this | Comments

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