Tag Archives: PatentApplication

Sony patent application puts electrodes in a pillow, eases you out of slumber

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Sony patent application puts electrodes in a pillow, easesI'm gonna start a political debate show in Ireland called Shillelaghs, Stouts and Shouts you out of slumber

You could monitor your sleep using the science of actigraphy but, as we've learned, accelerometers don't always make for the best slumber trackers. The real deal stuff, used by scientists, requires all sorts of electrodes, which are a tad cumbersome and tend to yank out hair. Sony is proposing a system that removes the glue and sticks the sensors in your pillow. This is according to a patent application the company filed that proposes, among other things, an advanced alarm clock that monitors brain waves to detect when you enter and leave REM sleep. One particular example has it guiding users though an efficient power nap, by starting a timer once they've started dozing and only waking them once they've come out of a deeper sleep state. The proposed alarm could take any number of forms, from a buzzer, to a flashing light or bed shaking motor. To dig through the application for yourself hit up the source link.

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Source: USPTO

Google files patent application for touch-based, full-finger keyboard layout

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Google files patent application for touchbased, fullfinger keyboard layout

Tapping on glass... it's not the future -- it's the present. Except software-based touch typing solutions haven't really extended beyond the cramped confines of mobile phones and tablets. But what if there were a touch type experience that mapped to the full extent of your digital reach? Something more akin to a typical two-handed physical keyboard? Well, that's just what Google's proposing in a patent application that's surfaced today. Filed back in September of 2011, the USPTO doc outlines a method for displaying "geometric shapes on a touch-screen display... [that correspond] to a respective finger of a user" and allow for text entry via a "sliding movement." So in layman's terms, if this ever comes to pass, you'd be able to type on glass with all ten fingers by, presumably, flicking upwards. Not sure how we feel about that just yet -- it certainly would require some extra screen real estate. Maybe even something as accommodating as this, but Nexus-flavored.

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Source: USPTO

Apple applies for shoe-life sensor patent, puts it in hypothetical brogues

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Apple applies for shoelife sensor patent, puts it in hypothetical brogues

Nike's running sensor, a detachable piece of tech that connected to a companion iOS app, is the closest that Apple's associated itself to foot metrics so far, but folded inside the company's patent applications for today is this left-field addition, a shoe wear-out sensor. We assume the idea is geared towards runners -- presumably these brogue outlines we're looking at above are just red herrings.

The application draws together two possible outcomes: one with an thin sensor layer built your footwear of choice and another which keeps the sensor in the heel. A "unitless activity number" is also mentioned, where the device (which could include accelerometers, flexibility sensors and more) could craft an "activity value" based on your movement -- this would then also be used to gauge the shelf-life of your current footwear. When this pre-specified threshold is exceeded, it would then sound the alarm. According to one diagram, the process could connect with an external display, likely broadcasting its concern to your nearby iOS device. But if your running needs demand a sensor to tell you when your sneakers are cooked, there might be other things worth tracking.

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Source: USPTO

iRobot applies for ‘all-in-one’ 3D printer patent: aims to reduce need for post-processing

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iRobot applies for 'allinone' 3D printer patent which reduces need for postprocessing

It's no floor cleaner, so it looks like iRobot's looking to expand its horizons, filing a patent application for a "robotic fabricator". While not granted (yet), the USPTO filing outlines an all-in-one 3D printer that is capable of post-print milling and processing. Typical 3D printing results in an 'overhang' excess that needs to be clipped from the finished article, but iRobot's loosely worded notion would process these automatically, as well as seams formed where parts are fused together. Multiple manipulators mean that the object can be contorted over "at least six axes", while the toolhead would combine together a print and milling head, alongside an exotically-named robocasting extruder, which is used in building up the layers of material. The design aims to reduce the need for any non-automated manufacturing processes, hopefully meaning effortless turtleshell kart production and reduced printing blemishes -- that is, if it makes it to reality.

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Via: Adafruit

Source: USPTO

Microsoft hopes to patent an ‘inconspicuous mode’ for phones

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Microsoft hopes to patent an 'inconspicuous mode' for phones, give that Lumia a lowprofile

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.

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Source: USPTO

Microsoft may turn to mobile gaming for crowdsourced mapping data

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Microsoft may look to users for updated mapping data with mobile gaming

Keeping map data relevant's a full-time job -- just ask Nokia, Google and, yes, even Apple. Which is why Microsoft may be gearing up to offload some of that heavy lifting to users in the augmented reality guise of mobile gaming. Or at least that's one possible future outlined by a recently surfaced patent application. The USPTO doc, filed back in June of 2011, clearly lays out a crowdsourced "data collection system" whereby users sent on virtual missions to specific real-world targets would aid in the gathering of up-to-date geo-location data. With its thriving Xbox gaming arm and reinvigorated inroads into the mobile space, it wouldn't be much of a stretch for Microsoft to leverage a bit of corporate synergy to make its own mapping service more accurate, or simply license the data. Whatever the case may be, it's all up in legal limbo for the time being. So, for now, you'll have to content yourselves with AR missions of the Ingress kind.

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Source: USPTO

Sony patent application details hybrid DualShock / PlayStation Move controller

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Sony patent application details hybrid DualShock / PlayStation Move controller

If you think Sony's DualShock and Move controllers are two halves of a well-rounded gaming experience, you might be pleased to know that the firm has dreamt up a hybrid. A patent application filed last year by Kaz and Co. for a "Hybrid Separable Motion Controller" has just surfaced, and it describes a controller that can function as two independent parts or locked together as one. The application also suggests that the location of the controller's halves could be independently tracked when separated and that video games played with the Franken-hardware could switch to configuration-appropriate control schemes. A similar concept has popped up before, but that's no guarantee the contraption will ever see the light of day. In any case, you can hit the bordering source link to dig into the filing and fantasize what such a piece of kit could mean for gaming.

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Via: Joystiq

Source: USPTO

Microsoft patent application details head-mounted display used to augment live events

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Microsoft patent application details headmounted display used to augment live events

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.

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: USPTO

Sony tries to patent stylus with friction-based haptic feedback

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Sony tries to patent stylus with frictionbased haptic feedback

There's a certain disconnected feeling that comes with using a touchscreen, and Sony isn't content with vibration being the sole standard for haptic feedback. The company has filed a bunch of patent applications for a stylus which instead uses artificially generated friction to make it harder or easier to move across the screen. It works using a "rolling contact ball gripping mechanism," which responds to instructions from the phone or tablet and employs actuators to increase or decrease friction on the roller ball tip. The various filings outline some potential benefits of this stylus-based haptic feedback, including being able to feel yourself "carving and molding" 3D objects in a design application, or understanding your character is "fatigued or damaged" while playing a game. We know that Samsung increased the friction of the Note II's S-Pen to make it feel more like writing on paper, but Sony's approach would potentially bring a whole new layer of interaction.

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Source: USPTO (1), (2), (3), (4)

Apple files anti-theft patent that uses accelerometers to detect theft-like movement

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Apple files antitheft patent that uses accelerometers to detect theftlike movement

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.

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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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