Patentseed

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.

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.

Find yourself with not enough hands?  How about all those times you’ve been typing a Word document, two hands on the keyboard, and you need to switch over to Excel to see some data.  Taking that right hand off the keyboard and onto the mouse is such a distraction, especially when your fingers are in the zone and going at 80 words per minute.  Enter Apple patent application 11/956,275 to save the day.  Rather than using a mouse, you can just move your head to switch from one window to the next.  Move your head right to quickly go from Word to Excel.  Move your head to the left to go back to Word.  Imagine that!  All without letting those 8 fingers become unglued from the “asdf” - “jkl;” keys!  Follow the link to read the full patent application to learn how the motion sensing technology works.

Apple is always trying to come up with more intuitive ways to view things.  We’re not video or image buffs, so we couldn’t say how novel or not Apple’s patent application 11/956,286 is.  We can say that their approach, while graphically intensive, is a rather intuitive way of viewing frames of a video within a three-dimensional space.  Though a sharper color image would help, the image from the patent application does a good job of visualizing the invention.  As you can see from the image, “the video frames are displayed concurrently along a timeline in a three-dimensional display environment.”

LG appears to be a fan of the cameras that rotate and their recently filed patent application (12/263,259) is no exception.  The patent application covers a camera with a touchscreen, wireless communication, and a camera that “rotates in a perpendicular direction to the longitudinal direction of the terminal body.”  As you can see from the drawing, this could very well be a smartphone.

Sony apparently doesn’t think so. Rather than having just static images, Sony aims to bring “moving images” (i.e., video). It’s not clear exactly how they plan on presenting this data to end-users, but Sony’s patent application 11/935,098 reveals how they plan on capturing the “moving images” and associated meta-data. The idea of comparing an area throughout time (day vs. night, different seasons, different years, etc.) is discussed. The patent application states: “In this fashion, a user of the geographical map service may also see a video recording made on a certain location or a number of locations during different seasons.” Not sure how video is an advantage here though. The application goes on to state: “Moreover, if the recording is made from a vehicle in motion, the user of the service interested in getting driving instructions from the interactive map service may also get a much better idea about how to drive…” We’re not completely sold.  Good luck Sony.

Earlier this year, we saw Mimi Switch announce a remote control that relies on facial expressions.  Hopefully they are aware of Sony’s patent application 11/933,611, titled “Generating Music Playlist Based on Facial Expression.”  That, along with happy “David,” just about describes the patent application.  Alas Sony, what happened to the glory days of the cassette Walkman?

Simple idea huh?  Then how come no one has done it?  That’s exactly what the folks at Research In Motion were probably thinking when they filed patent 11/934,129.  Expect to see this feature on Blackberry devices soon, if not already.  (Sorry, although I own several Windows Mobile phones and an iPhone, I don’t own a Blackberry.)  The patent application describes a method for essentially storing a photo at the highest resolution after you’ve snapped a photo with your camera phone, and adjusting the photo to a different resolution which you are prompted for.  This does sound convenient, as I always forget to lower the resolution for photos that I want to email.