Patentseed

If you own a Palm Pre or Pixi (WebOS device), you already know this well.  Palm has a patent application for their event notification system.  The main difference between this and other event notification systems on mobile phones?  Well, let’s see if we can simplify it for you.  This invention basically allows the notification to be displayed in an active part of the screen, while still letting the user continue doing what he/she wants.  The alert may be ignored, in which case, it will be displayed in a reduced size on a vacant portion of the display.  The key advantage is that the user is able to be notified, yet in an unobtrusive manner, whereby the user can easily ignore the alert. 

Will be interesting to see if this patent application (12/200,782) issues.  Does Android or iPhone do this?

Apple is advancing the usability of gestures with this patent application (12/199,532).  The idea is that you want to operate your iPhone/iPod without having to look at it.  For example, it may be strapped around your arm while you’re working out.  The application refers to this as “sightless navigation.”  Perhaps you want to skip to the next song?  Or fast forward?  Well, typically, you’d have to look at the screen, orient it rightside up, and perform your gesture.  Apple wants to do away with that and allow you to perform these gestures without looking at or worrying about the orientation of the device.   You can achieve this through a variety of touch and swipe patterns.  For example, if you begin a press and go clockwise, it can know to fast forward.  This can be done regardless or orientation of the device.  Similarly, you can press and move your finger counterclockwise to rewind.  The patent application also describes what other patterns are possible using multi-touch, hold gesture, etc.

Your printer/scanner/photocopier goes through the daily grind, collecting dust particles (especially from paper fiber).  This can clearly effect the quality whatever you’re scanning or copying.  You could wipe it with a cleaner, but why do so when you can count on Dell’s invention: “System and Method for Contactless Automatic Dust Removal Froma Glass Surface.”  Dell  achieves though through “an electrostatic particle removal system associated with the glass layer.  The electrostatic particle removal system may include an induction layer configured to induce a charge to a particle located between the glass layer and the electrostatic particle removal system, a field grid layer configured to provide an electric field for moving the charged particle, and a collector configured to collect the charged particle moved by the electric field.”  Makes complete sense to us.  Contactless dust removal is all we needed to hear.

We all love getting new computers, but we all hate the process of having to personalize everything all over again.  Your documents.  Your music.  Your bookmarks.  Your OS preferences.  The list goes on and on.  It can take months to personalize your new computer to the way you like it.

Dell wants to eliminate this issue and ship your next computer pre-personalized for you.  Imagine receiving your next PC with most of the same settings and all your old docs just as you left them on your old PC?  That sounds pretty convenient to us.  I’m sure Dell is hoping that this will encourage all of us to upgrade more frequently.  It just may.  The drawback?  Well, you’d have to give Dell access to all of your data.  With all the corporate hacking in the news, that could take a huge leap of faith.  To get all the details, follow the link to Dell’s patent application 11/962,408.

It looks like Dell is trying to do some good for the environment.  In doing so, Dell may gain a competitive edge in the printer market with patent application 11/962,843, aptly named “Used Media Printing.”

This patent application states that “substantial waste of used media may occur when the used media is discarded as, after the printing, there will typically be a printed side and an unprinted side on the used media.”  We’re all guilty of it.  We print on one side of the paper and end up tossing that sheet of paper into the waste bin once we’re done with it.  As the patent application points out, we’re all capable of putting that used paper back in the printer and printing in the unused side, but we don’t.  Why?  Because “such a solution is time and labor intensive and prone to errors that may result in the waste of printing material when a previously printed side of the used media is printed upon. Such problems discourage the use, and encourage the waste, of used media.”  So true.

Dell’s solution is a printer with a scan module that will detect the “printable side” (i.e. the unused side of the paper), and print on that side of the paper.  This takes the onerous of loading the paper properly away from the user and onto the printer.  We love it.

And to throw in our 2 cents, it would be convenient if the printer also marked the unused side so we know which side the second side is.  Perhaps just a dot in the corner somewhere.  It will be useful for the user to quickly distinguish between the previously printed side and the newly printed side.

Tapping may be the new way to interact two devices.  Sony Ericsson’s patent application 11/972,712 teaches of a method for two devices to perform an “application specific action” when those two devices are tapped together.  How is this useful?  Well, let’s look at two examples cited by the patent application. 

In the first diagram, we see how a headset may be tapped on a phone to activate it and perhaps tapped again to deactivate it.  This is infinitely more convenient than navigating through the phone’s menu system. 

The second diagram shows a more creative reason for tapping.  Here, tapping two phones together spans the image across the two screens.  Pretty cool huh?

Remember all the TV ads introducing the BlackBerry Storm?  A touch screen display with a virtual keyboard that also clicks?  Could it be?  The best of both worlds?  Many, including us, would say it was a good first attempt, but far short of the hype and expectation.

Will BlackBerry ever crack the nut and figure out a way to provide us with a full touch screen and a keyboard with the right tactile feedback?  We can’t tell you the answer to that question, but we can tell you that they’re diligently working on it.  Patent application 11/956,647 filed in Dec 2007 reveals what may be in the pipeline for the 2nd generation of the BlackBerry Storm.  The patent application discloses a virtual keypad (on a display of course), where “the display transmits external pressure to the switch assembly” when you press a key within the virtual keypad.  Each key within this virtual keypad has “an elastomer located between the display and the switch assembly.”  This “feedback system” may be comprised of a “collapsable dome.”  The point to be made is that each key has it’s own individual feedback, much like an actual keyboard.

In addition, there may be a “cap” on top of each key.  Presumably this is so that you can feel the keypad as your fingers glide over it.  The obvious question is, how will this distort the display, even if the caps are translucent.

The patent application also states that “the display may be a cholesteric liquid crystal display.”  We’re not sure exactly what that means, but persumably it has to do with the need for a flexible LCD?  If somebody knows, please chime in.

Patent application 12/002,148 filed in Dec 14, 2007 reveals several ways of using a “remote wand” to control the “operations of [an] electronic device.”  To make things more clear, let’s rename the “remote wand” with iPhone and “electronic device” with Apple TV.   We already know that the “Remote” application installed on an iPhone will allow you to control iTunes and Apple TV.  However, this patent application reveals a completely different methodology for using your iPhone as a remote control.  Rather than selecting the media on your iPhone, you purely use the iPhone as an input device for selecting on the big screen.  Several methods are described, including the use of the iPhone’s acceleraometers, gyroscopes, and motion detection components.  This would indeed allow you to use the iPhone as a wand.  Methods for controlling a cursor on the big screen using the iPhone’s touchscreen is also included (as seen in the second image).

Interestingly, the claims of the patent application are all limted to controlling a “screen saver.”  Presumably, using your iPhone as a “remote wand” is not novel and/or unobvious enough to be claimed independently.

Update: Looks like several other patent application also filed on Dec 14, 2007 by Apple share the same specification as 12/002,148 mentioned above.  Each of course has its own set of claims.  This is not surprising as the Specifications is rather lengthy and there may be more than one invention in there.   Apparently, Apple isn’t limiting claims to a “screen saver.”  See all the fun details of the 12/002,197, 12/002,063, 12/002,198, and 12/002,053 claims by following the links.

Research in Motion (the maker of Blackberry) filed a patent application titled “PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND CAPACITIVE CHARGER PROVIDING DATA TRANSFER AND ASSOCIATED METHODS” - titles with all caps are not uncommon in patent applications, don’t ask us why.  What really catches our eye is the “data transfer” part.  Imagine being able to not just lay your phone down next to your computer on a pad for charging, but also for syncing with your computer.  Now, why doesn’t Touchstone support that for the Palm Pre?  Palm, you got $500mm from Elevation Partners and you missed this?  If Research In Motion has it their way, this may be a Blackberry exclusive for years to come.

Tired of taking forever to scroll through that 1000+ contact list of yours on your iPhone?  You could clean up your outdated contact list and remove the 8 out of 10 “Tom” that you no longer recognize, or you could get a future Sony Ericsson phone with scroll speed control.  Sony Ericsson’s patent application 11/941,306 covers the concept of adjusting the scroll speed based on where you swipe.  Swipe in the left region, up or down, and it will scroll at 1x (normal).  If you want accelerated scroll, swipe using the center region.  If you want even faster scroll, and your eyes can handle 5x, go ahead and use the right region.  We think this is pretty nifty.