Tag Archives: patent filing

Apple gets patent for in-cell touch display with impeccable timing

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Apple gets patent for incell touch display with impeccable timing

So Apple could be working on an iPhone with a thinner display, you say. Look what we have here, possibly in the nick of time: it's a newly granted Apple patent for a screen with in-cell touch, where the LCD and touch recognition are integrated into one panel instead of stacking up in separate layers. Apple's implementation would slim things down by either having electrodes share duties, both driving the display and taking finger input, or stuffing two electrodes into each pixel to accomplish the same goal. The net effect isn't just one of squeezing a device into a thinner chassis; the company also envisions costs coming down by reducing the number of parts and streamlining the manufacturing process. As envisioned, the screen looks like an ideal fit for a significant revamp of Apple's mobile display technology, although we'd be careful about assuming that this or any in-cell touch implementation is a lock for potentially imminent iOS hardware. Apple first filed the patent in early June 2007, before the original iPhone had even marched into a retailer -- display technology has come a long way since then.

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Apple gets patent for in-cell touch display with impeccable timing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung files for patent on safe taxi service, we hope we never fully test it

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Samsung files for patent on safe taxi app and service, we hope we never fully test it

Anyone who often relies on taxi service to get around, as good as it can be, has likely had a driver who was less than courteous -- and in the worst cases, outright scary. Samsung wants to keep passengers safe, and drivers honest, through a just-published patent application for an end-to-end taxi service. On a basic level, it's a taxi finder with a rating system: the mobile app in the patent can hail a nearby cab based on the driver's "kindness" rating and verify that it's the right vehicle with a short-range wireless link, not unlike an even more genteel version of Uber. It's when passengers hop inside that Samsung's implementation takes on a more distinct shape. If the driver puts customers or the whole cab in danger, a passenger-activated SOS mode flags the car's location to get the police on the scene before it's too late. We don't know how likely Samsung is to implement such a system, although it has been actively developing more advanced backseat technology and filed the US patent in February, a year after its Korean equivalent. We do know this is one of the few patents we'd rather not completely experience first-hand -- the only crazy taxis we're comfortable with sit inside game consoles.

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Samsung files for patent on safe taxi service, we hope we never fully test it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple lands patent for NFC-ready shopping app, could make impulse spending an iPhone tap away

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Apple lands patent for NFCready shopping app, could make impulse spending a few iPhone taps away

Apple has been filing more than its fair share of NFC-related patents, but it was just granted what could be one of its more important wins at the USPTO. The design for an "on-the-go shopping list" app would help buyers find and pull the trigger on deals through every tool an iPhone has at its disposal, whether it's taking a snapshot of goods with the camera, punching in the UPC code by hand or tapping an item for an NFC-based "touch scan." We'll admit that we're a bit disappointed at how NFC is used, however. As with an earlier filing, the very short range wireless is kept largely to price comparisons and adding products to a list for a purchase from a store clerk later on, rather than closing the deal outright as we've seen with Google Wallet. The original 2008 filing date will also have seen a lot of water flowing under the bridge; there's no guarantee that any enthusiasm for NFC from the iPhone 3G era will have transferred to the present day. Accordingly, we would be careful about drawing any connections between iOS 6's Passbook and Apple's ideas from four years ago -- even if Apple has regularly been a never-say-never sort of company.

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Apple lands patent for NFC-ready shopping app, could make impulse spending an iPhone tap away originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple patents iOS 5’s exposure metering based on face detection, keeps friends in full view

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Apple patents exposure metering based on face detection, keeps friends in full view

Many photographers will tell you that their least favorite shooting situation involves a portrait with the sun to the subject's back: there's a good chance the shot ends up an unintentional silhouette study unless the shooter meters just perfectly from that grinning face. Apple has just been granted a patent for the metering technique that takes all the guesswork out of those human-focused shots on an iOS 5 device like the iPhone 4S or new iPad. As it's designed, the invention finds faces in the scene and adjusts the camera exposure to keep them all well-lit, even if they're fidgety enough to move at the last second. Group shots are just as much of a breeze, with the software using head proximity and other factors to pick either a main face as the metering target (such as a person standing in front of a crowd) or an average if there's enough people posing for a close-up. You can explore the full details at the source. Camera-toting rivals, however, will have to explore alternative ideas.

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Apple patents iOS 5's exposure metering based on face detection, keeps friends in full view originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple still trying for water damage indicator patent, drop-prone device owners twitch (update: granted)

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Apple still trying for water damage indicator patent, dropprone device owners twitch

Apple has already sought to patent some elaborate water damage detection methods, but it's also a fan of the classics. That must be why it's still attempting to patent a water detection method that it's been seeking since December 2006, just a month before the iPhone went public. The concept is a simple one that you'll find in many iPhones (and other iOS devices) so far: water-reactive, color-changing tape positioned in a device such that the Genius Bar staffer can see that your device took a dive in the swimming pool without having to tear the phone open. Mercifully, the patent factors in a membrane to prevent an overly humid day from triggering a false positive. There's still no immediate clue as to whether or not Apple will receive the patent, which strikes us as odd for a technology that's been used in the field for so long -- not that the company has needed the USPTO's blessing to void the warranty (or offer a rare free replacement) for more than a few waterlogged iPhones over the past five years.

Update: After a little fine-tooth comb inspection, we've found that this is the long-awaited granting itself, not just a continuation. Apple will be happy, although others trying to use a similar water detection system will be turning red... for reasons besides getting wet.

Apple still trying for water damage indicator patent, drop-prone device owners twitch (update: granted) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bankruptcy Court Tells Apple to Take a Hike on Kodak Suit

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Apple has been trying to file a patent infringement lawsuit against photography giant Kodak since the beginning of the year. The problem for Apple is that Kodak is currently in bankruptcy proceedings...

Sony patent filing for glasses would share data face to face, carry more than a hint of Project Glass

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Sony patent filing for glasses would scan realworld tags, carry more than a hint of Project Glass

Google might not realize it, but Project Glass isn't alone in the patent race these days. Sony has quietly applied for a patent on a familiar-looking smart glasses system whose advantage over Mountain View would be an emphasis on things in twos. Eyepieces are the most obvious, but Sony is also keen on sharing data between two friends: transmitters on a pair of glasses would send personal info through a likely very uncomfortable glance at someone else with the same eyewear. If your friends are more than a little weirded out from sharing by staring, the proposed glasses could still pick up information from visual tags on posters, products and virtually anything else. There's even the obligatory connection to a watch for sharing data with the rest of the world. Whether or not the patent leads to Sony head-mounted technology more advanced than a personal 3D TV is still up in the air, especially with Google currently hogging the spotlight... not that existing, more conservative designs have ever stopped Sony from rolling out wild concepts before.

Sony patent filing for glasses would share data face to face, carry more than a hint of Project Glass originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 18:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung files patents for robot that mimics human walking and breathing, ratchets up the creepy factor

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Samsung robot patent filings would mimic human walking and breathing, wouldn't eliminate the creepy factor

As much as Samsung is big on robots, it hasn't gone all-out on the idea until a just-published quartet of patent applications. The filings have a robot more directly mimicking a human walk and adjusting the scale to get the appropriate speed without the unnatural, perpetually bent gait of certain peers. To safely get from point A to point B, any path is chopped up into a series of walking motions, and the robot constantly checks against its center of gravity to stay upright as it walks uphill or down. All very clever, but we'd say Samsung is almost too fond of the uncanny valley: one patent has rotating joints coordinate to simulate the chest heaves of human breathing. We don't know if the company will ever put the patents to use; these could be just feverish dreams of one-upping Honda's ASIMO at its own game. But if it does, we could be looking at Samsung-made androids designed like humans rather than for them.

Samsung files patents for robot that mimics human walking and breathing, ratchets up the creepy factor originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 02:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google files for a patent on peer-to-peer location finding, says cell tower triangulation is for chumps

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Google files for a patent on peertopeer location finding, says cell tower triangulation is for chumps

Crowdsourcing map data itself isn't a surprise; it's been the cornerstone of OpenStreetMap and is about to get a big boost through iOS 6. Crowdsourcing actual positions is still a relatively untapped resource, however, and Google thinks that it might just be the ticket to getting a device's location when GPS alone doesn't cut it. Much as your current phone uses triangulation between cell sites to help speed up a position lock, a technique in a new Google patent application uses the physical distances between nearby devices to get a complete picture, even if GPS is completely on the fritz. The peer-to-peer technique still needs an internet connection to reach the central service piecing information together -- there isn't much help if you're in areas where reliable internet access isn't always guaranteed. Likewise, there's no certainty that Google will use the patent in a future build of Android or Chrome OS. If it does, though, at least some of us may say goodbye to the days of our map positioning going haywire the moment we drive through a tunnel or step into an office without WiFi.

Google files for a patent on peer-to-peer location finding, says cell tower triangulation is for chumps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia patent filing uses steering wheel touch for media controls, turns your radio on with that lovin’ feeling

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Nokia patent application uses steering wheel touch for center stack controls, turns your radio on with that lovin' feeling

Nokia has only ever had a fleeting involvement with cars, but if it brings a just-published patent application to fruition, the Lumia maker could be front and center for drivers. The technology it wants would detect vibrations in the steering wheel to let the driver control music, GPS and other components of the car's center stack just by touching particular spots on the wheel itself -- no overabundance of buttons here. Underneath, it would use temporal sensing to register input, and filtering would prevent the wheel from interpreting speed bumps as cues to turn on the stereo. Nokia's mobile know-how mostly comes into play through the option of using a mobile device like a smartphone to handle tasks rather than having to build something directly into the wheel. Given that the company is currently cutting everything back, it's more likely to license the patent out rather than trying to build anything itself, if anything happens at all. Should the patent eventually come to use, you could end up tenderly caressing the wheel for all your in-car media controls... just be sure to buy it some chocolate and roses first.

Nokia patent filing uses steering wheel touch for media controls, turns your radio on with that lovin' feeling originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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