Given the importance and potential of contactless 3D input, it’s impossible to think that this Microsoft invention has gone unnoticed by Apple. I’m pretty sure that folks at Cupertino are busy developing their own version of Kinect, and re-imagining how you interect with your Macs and iPhones with the help of 3D control devices.

Today we get the first glimpse at Apple’s own project Natal (a code name Kinect was known by at Microsoft when still in development). It comes in the form of Apple patent application called “Three dimensional imaging and display system”

With the help of high speed infrared laser, Apple’s 3D control system creates a volume of space where all movements of objects, like user hands, can be observed by high-speed photo detector. The movements are then translated into control gestures used to manipulate user interface on computer screen.

Apple’s 3D controller, as described in the application, is much more limited then Microsoft’s Kinect. But this is just one patent app that made it to the public domain, so far. They must be playing with much more advanced things in Apple’s R&D labs today.

I’m really looking forward to see what the end result of these efforts will be, when Apple finally makes something that they think is ready for the market.

• VR/3D Controller for your Sony PS3
• Apple is looking beyond Multi-Touch
• Microsoft Veda. New look at mobile convergence
• iOS/ iPhone 5 to get pop-up radial menus?
• Samsung files patent for cellphone sign language recognition

But outside of a global commercial success, there are problems with Android in a space that, until recently, nobody outside of specialized corporate departments paid much attention to: intellectual property (IP)/patents.

When the first signs of an infection of the Android ecosystem with the malady of IP infringement showed up, most of us laughed them off. The ecosystem was healthy, and the resources of Google were surely going to give its immune system a boost when needed.

Then the threats from Microsoft against pretty much everybody in the industry began in earnest, and Apple started suing – first HTC, then Motorola and then Samsung. The patent illness has broken out, and it turned out that everybody in the ecosystem was on their own. Google just stood on the sidelines, and did nothing at all for a long time.

Apple and Microsoft – two different kinds of threat

Microsoft and Apple both present different dangers to Android:

• Microsoft is a chronic, but manageable disease. It constantly drains energy from the ecosystem through the payments for license deals, which it is ready to strike with anybody it can infect. The only question is the price for these deals. Microsoft doesn’t want the host to die – it is content to suck out its marrow.
  Additionally it pushes Microsoft’s own Windows Phone as the cure for its own attacks. Use Windows Phone, possibly for the same price as a patent license fee, and the disease disappears. You’re also assured that no other patent disease can attack you in regard to these phones: Microsoft gives you blanket indemnification against any other software patent lawsuits regarding Windows Phone devices. Since Microsoft has been incredibly active in getting software patents, they should have the ammunition to back up their indemnification against anybody else in the mobile space.
  Microsoft’s attacks are about fundamentally altering the basis for a manufacturer’s decision for Android vs. Windows Phone. The results are either Android phones that are less price competitive across the board, and disastrously so at the low end, or an exodus of manufacturers towards Windows Phone.
• Apple, on the other hand, is a deadly illness. They are not in the software licensing business, so their goal cannot be selling a cure. They are running a hardware business with incredible margins. Their goal is to give their own devices every possible advantage out there. To this end they use their patents to kill off as many of their competitor’s products, in as many markets as possible. Apple goes for the leaders in the field first: Motorola – as the then leading manufacturer of ‘Droids’ in the US market, HTC and Samsung – as the biggest worldwide brands in Android phones. They want to take out the strongest competition first.
  With Microsoft paying up is an option. Apple’s strategy leaves only countersuits as a defense. So far the competition seems to have drawn mostly blanks in finding suitable antibiotics here. Samsung trying to use standards-essential patents it has to license under FRAND conditions can well be seen as a sign of desperation, and the fact that so far Motorola also hasn’t produced a silver bullet also speaks volumes.

It is unclear whether some of the incredibly broad Apple patents are going to stand up in the long term (e.g. their frankly ridiculous multi-touch patent), but then it’s not primarily about the long term. Mobile is a an ecosystem of launch fast, become obsolete within a year or two, and by the time any lawsuit or patent reexamination is finally resolved, a couple of product life cycles have passed. Even delays of a few months can spell disaster in a market moving as quickly as this.

So how far has either disease spread?

HTC was the first to cut a deal with Microsoft, several smaller manufacturers followed, and now, with Samsung having joined the pool of licensees, it’s clear that everybody who wants to sell Android devices in most of the developed world will have to do so as well. The financial terms of the licensing deals are unknown, but seeing what Microsoft wants to achieve, the amounts should be something in the same order of magnitude as the license payment for Windows Phone. Figures of between $ 5 and $ 15 per device sold have been bandied about, and this is a range that fits with that. While something like $ 5 is not going to hurt with a high-end device, with a $80 phone it really matters. So far we haven’t really seen a mass defection to Windows Phone, but the next few months might be interesting in that regard.

Apple’s lawsuit against Motorola continues; it has scored an early victories against HTC in ITC court which may eventually result in blanket HTC Android product ban in the U.S.; and Apple is stepping up its attack on Samsung in courts all around the world. It has won the first victories against the latter too, banning some Samsung Android devices in several countries. Samsung is set to take a hit during the Christmas shopping season.

They have started to design around some of the patents (as, incidentally, has Google), but a couple of the patents Apple asserts might reach so far that there is nothing that Samsung, or any other Android manufacturer, can do to circumvent them. Considering the pace at which patent lawsuits usually move, Apple is doing quite well with its efforts.

Google’s announced purchase of Motorola, which was the supposed cure-all for all patent diseases, hasn’t had any noticeable effect so far. The deal itself takes time to finalize, and might yet fall through, so there’s no help in the short term. And then Motorola’s patents haven’t been enough to stop both Microsoft and Apple from suing Moto, or to end the lawsuits before now. It’s quite likely that Motorola just doesn’t have any silver bullets in its patent portfolio. As Samsung’s deal with Microsoft shows, most in the industry have woken up to these facts, and are trying to go fix problems on their own.

So the attacks on the Android ecosystem are spreading. Presently Android still looks healthy. It is huge and still adding users and market share. The momentum is still there. The infections are strictly limited to markets where Microsoft or Apple hold patents, and Android has spread far wider than that. There are huge markets that are not threatened at all by what is happening now. Even without a resolution of any of its problems, with Android adoption in these markets widening, the infection will take a while to show up in the total numbers.

But make no mistake – underneath it all, Android is seriously ill. And, unlike the problems at Nokia or RIM, Android’s patent disease is one that even setting ever new records in device activations, market share and device releases can’t cure.

PS: There is, of course, also the Oracle lawsuit directly against Google over the use of Java technology in Android. That falls into the category of ‘chronic, but manageable’, since Oracle have no current interest in mobile space, and only want to extract as much money as possible without killing Android off. Add another $ 5 – 15 per device to the BOM for an Android phone.

This post was written by a mobile tech enthusiast Alexander Gödde. He works for mobile software  start-up Tavendo, andshares his thoughts about mobile industry in his free time.

• The Microsoft Tax is official: Samsung will pay royalties for each Android phone or tablet it sells
• Google buys Motorola to get some patents. Samsung, HTC, LG and other Android OEMs rejoice
• LG agrees to pay Microsoft royalties for every Android device it sells
• Google officially buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion
• Motorola’s Sanjay Jha openly admits they plan to collect IP royalties from other Android makers

It’s an “Intelligent Personal Assistant” that understands what you are telling it to do and can perform certain tasks. E.g. reserve a table at your favorite Italian restaurant, reply to SMS, set a calendar appointment, tell you whether it will rain tomorrow, or figure out the distance to the moon.

But the opinion about Siri remains divided.  There is a majority of those whose see just nice voice control and speech recognition gimmicks of Siri and think “Meh”. “’Seen that already, many times. Maybe Apple’s stuff is nicer, neater, does a bit more and is interesting in some limited cases. But still, meh.” And then there are those who know a bit more about the origins, history and the insides of Siri, who think that it is a world changing technology, on par with Mouse and GUI.

So who is right?

The problem is, that beyond some hints, nobody wants to share how Siri works, for the rest of us to make up our minds.

There is talk about interfacing with APIs from various web services, some bad ass AI engine with DARPA/Pentagon origins, that ties things together. There is a cool voice recognition technology from Nuance powering it. And that’s about it. For all that Apple chose to reveal about Siri, they were very tight lipped about an actual technology underneath, and what makes Siri different from the failed speech/computing interfaces of the past.

Let’s fix that right now. With the help of the 230 page patent application, coming straight from Apple’s R&D labs, that thoroughly describes all the technology behind Siri Intelligent Personal Assistant, and shows us why it is such a big deal.

The key difference between Siri and other general AI efforts is that Siri is humble. It knows that general human understanding/intelligence is very hard for computers, and it does not try to do that. What Siri does is – narrow the needed understanding to very specific areas– e.g dining/restaurants, sports events, movies/enternatinment, travel, weather, etc;. And then it fills each of these areas with special vocabulary, databases, web services, rules of interaction and machine readable description of how all parts fit and interact together. They call these specialized areas – Active Ontologies.

E.g. Restauarant/dining active Onthology can include one or several restaurant databases, a number of restaurant review services like Yelp and Zagat, accessed via API, a special dining related vocabulary database, a model of actions that people usually perform when they they decide on the next dinner, an access to reservation service like Open Table and the rules for automatically making a reservation through it and entering the reservation to user’s calendar, specially formatted dialogs related to the restaurant choosing and reservation process, etc;.

After user request passes through the language recognition/interpretation module, with the help of relevant active ontology Siri tries to figure out user intent. After it does that, the intent is routed to the “Service orchestration component” (SOC). This component figures out out what external services can be used to fulfill the request, and translates it into a commands that these services can understand, collets the information, sorts it out for the user and performs required actions.

E.g. to answer the question about good Italian restaurants nearby – SOC can get a list of Italian restaurants with addresses in the city from a business directory, with the help of geolocation service pick those that are within 2 miles of current location, check reviews/ratings on Yelp and Zagat and present user with the list of best rated Italian restaurants nearby. Then, after user made the selection, and asked to do it, SOC will call Opetan Table service API and reserve the table,  enter the dinner appointment  into a calendar via calendar service API, reformat the relevant data for a taxi service API and order the taxi.

The Service Orchestration Component has its own tools for mapping various external service APIs to the actions to be performed by SIRI. Active Ontologies also have their own set of tools to map different domains and areas of human activity. Both of them allow to plug in additional relevant modules, services and databases as they become available. Thus making Siri infinitely expandable and flexible.

While Siri is currently available only on iPhone 4S, this figure from patent application shows that Apple has much bigger ambitions for it:

Apple sees its AI technology not just as a thing to play with on your phone. In a few years we may be talking to Siri in our cars, Macs, Web browsers, home appliances, TVs, stereos and many other things.

As for the topics that Siri may cover in the future – here are just a few examples that Apple lists:

Local Services (including location- and time-specific services such as restaurants, movies, automated teller machines (ATMs), events, and places to meet); personal and Social Memory Services (including action items, notes, calendar events, shared links, and the like); E-commerce (including online purchases of items such as books, DVDs, music, and the like); travel Services (including flights, hotels, attractions, and the like), navigation (maps and directions); database lookup (such as finding businesses or people by name or other properties); getting weather conditions and forecasts, checking the price of market items or status of financial transactions; monitoring traffic or the status of flights; accessing and updating calendars and schedules; managing reminders, alerts, tasks and projects; communicating over email or other messaging platforms; and operating devices locally or remotely (e.g., dialing telephones, controlling light and temperature, controlling home security devices, playing music or video, etc.)

For all the nice stuff that we’ve seen Siri perform on stage, for now it is extremely limited. No wonder Apple decided to slap a beta label on it. But the original iPhone was also a very limited device. And, arguably, iPhone did not really catch up to all the capabilities of modern smartphones until iPhone 4 came out. Even if the revolutionary elements of graphical/multi-touch UI were easier to grasp at once.

Just as with the first iPhone, each successive iOs and OSX release will have a better, more encompassing version of Siri, making inroads into ever wider collection of devices.

Also, just like the first iPhone – Siri is a closed system for now, with all domain mappings and service additions done inside Apple, or in close cooperation with select companies. But it does not have to be this way forever. As soon as the infrastructure technology behind Siri matures enough – Apple can open its APIs to outside developers ushering an explosion of new kind of Siri based apps.

So, yes, from the looks of it – Siri is a really big deal. And speech recognition we are so (not)impressed with now, is only one of the smaller, interchangeable parts of it.

Plus, Apple is not the only one trying to add some intelligence to our mobile devices. And now, that Apple showed the way once again, Google, Microsoft and Nokia can get busy doing the same for their devices too.

Looks like the era of a new breed of intelligent computing is almost upon us.

I was able to give only a very general description of Siri technology here, omitting a lot of important parts. If you want to learn more about Siri, you can download full Apple patent application here (*.pdf, 10MB).

• Apple is working on its own mobile P2P payment service for iPhone and iPad
• OpenTable.com to let users book restaurant tables from their BlackBerry or other phones online
• Samsung wants to block Apple from selling the iPhone 4S in Italy and France
• Apple wants to embed cardiac sensors into an iPhone case to identify you
• Apple sues HTC, says 20 iPhone patents are infringed

It’s an interesting idea that many tried. We’ve seen Modu mini-phone with “jackets”, LG Expo handset with the attachable projector and NTT Docomo’s separable phone. And we’ve seen even more interesting stuff in Palm’s R&D department.

Alas, none of them became a successful commercial product yet.

Now it’s time for Microsoft’s R&D department to try something new. A slider phone with multiple interchangeable accessories:

It looks like your usual slider, but the sliding keyboard part is detachable and can be replaced with gaming keypad, second display, additional battery and other things.

What’s more – those same accessories can be operated independently, in a detached mode. For example, acting as a second phone, gaming stick, or remote control, to operate your smartphone while it streams games and videos to an attached TV set.

There are many reasons why such combined devices, even when they look great on paper, do not find many interested customers. And Microsoft is not getting into phone hardware making business again anytime soon. So the chances for this kind of slider to become a device you can buy, are pretty slim.

But if Microsoft decides to provide a reference design for such slider to its hardware partners and then adds an accessory support to Windows Phone OS… Who knows, someone may build something interesting with this.

Via Microsoft USPTO filing

• Orange UK to kick off new mobile gaming initiatives for iPhone
• Lenovo i909 NES gaming phone with D-pad
• Sony Ericsson F305 motion-gaming phone gets official
• Windows Phone (7) Developer Tools beta now available
• LG Versa VX960 official specs, photos and launch date unveiled

At least in U.S. you have to go through lengthy trial proceedings to get a competitor product banned, allowing him to defend itself. Not so in Germany, where few weeks ago Dusseldorf Court banned the sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet based only on its superficial similarity to Apple’s iPad. And then, yesterday, with the help of the same court, Apple forced Samsung to remove all its Galaxy Tab 7.7 devices and promotional material from a major trade show in Germany.

Samsung Galaxy Tabs 7.7 were on display at IFA Berlin – the biggest consumer electronics exhibition in Europe –  on Friday and half through Saturday. Yesterday, as I was checking it out, and making some Galaxy Tab photos at Samsung stand, company reps started closing Tab 7.7 table for what I thought was some maintenance. When I came back an hour later – all Galaxy Tabs and any mentions of them were gone from Samsung show floor. Turns out Apple has obtained a new injunction from Dusseldorf court on Friday, this time against the smallest Samsung tablet.

Here is my last pic of Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, just before it was removed from IFA :

What’s interesting and strange here, is that Apple did not bother to do anything about Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 tablet. While it’s not displayed in  Samsung hall, you can find a lot of Tab 8.9 LTE devices at T-Mobile IFA stand even today. And, operator reps tell me, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE is still on track for December 2011 launch on T-Mobile Germany.

Did Apple just forget that Samsung has on more tablet between 7.7 and 10.1? If you are Apple and you think that Tab 10.1 and 7.7 is a carbon copy of iPad, what is so different about Tab 8.9 to exclude it from your litigation campaign? This whole thing is getting more and more ridiculous every day.

Still, these are very real decisions costing a lot of money to parties involved. Samsung is a big company and can afford to fight it in courts. But I can’t shake the feeling that such product injunctions, based on vague evidence and little consideration, are handed out way too easily by Dusseldorf Court.

What happens next time, when the victim of Dusseldorf injunction is not a giant tech conglomerate, but a small start-up with a hugely innovative product? Who gets the sales banned just before the new product is ready to go, and is already delivered to the distributors?  A small company may not survive such a disruption  for more then a few months if not weeks, and we will all lose in the end.

• Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE will launch in Europe only in 2012. Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE – this December
• German court upholds Galaxy Tab 10.1 injunction, Apple lawyers mark additional notch in belts
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 ban partially lifted in Europe
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0N Plus shows up in Germany, circumvents Apple’s design patents
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 temporarily banned in Europe, Apple rejoices

Amidst this Android patent insecurity, Motorola recently started touting the strength of its IP portfolio. Nothing surprising here. Motorola is one of the oldest players, with one of the strongest patent portfolios in the industry. Heck, they invented the mobile phone and have been at it for decades. If other mobile industry players decide to go after Motorola’s Android devices, Moto has a lot of patents to retaliate with.

However, things made a turn for the worse few weeks ago. During its Q2 earnings conference call Motorola hinted that it is ready to join Android patent racket, and start demanding licensing fees for its IP from other Android manufacturers.

This week Motorola’s CEO Sanjay Jha reiterated this message, and made it even more clear – they do indeed have plans to start collecting IP royalties from other Android makers.

This is what he said about Motorola, Android and patents during a keynote at Oppenhimer Technology & Commmunications conference:

“ I would bring up IP as a very important for differentiation (among Android vendors). We have a very large IP portfolio, and I think in the long term, as things settle down, you will see a meaningful difference in positions of many different Android players. Both, in terms of avoidance of royalties, as well as potentially being able to collect royalties. And that will make a big difference to people who have very strong IP positions.”

I see very little ambiguity in those words. The discussion above was solely about Android, and how Motorola can differentiate from other players who are already doing better – like HTC and Samsung. One of the key points to win against competition, according to Sanjay Jha, are Motorola’s patents. Used not only defensively – to avoid paying royalties on its Android handsets, but also offensively. To collect royalties from other Android device makers.

Doesn’t sound very good for Android’s future. If key Android vendors start demanding patent royalties and suing each other, this patent thing can get even messier then it is now, kill Android growth, and push vendors to alternative platforms.

It’s time for Google to step up.

C’mon, Larry, the foundation of your mobile OS is now on a rapidly shifting sand. Just buy Motorola or some other big patent pool.

Or all the gains Android made these past two years will disappear very soon.

• Quick and easy fix for all Android patent problems. Google should buy Motorola
• Did Motorola just hint they are ready to join Android IP racket with their own patent fee demands?
• Motorola: 4.4M smartphones in Q2. Defy+, 2 tablets, 4 more handsets for Christmas, Droid Bionic in September
• The real cost of Android? Potentially $60+ per device in patent fees
• LG wants to patent multiple flexible display gadget form factors

And, unlike its many smartphone competitors, Apple isn’t focused only on technical gimmicks. They are trying to find actual use cases that could make pico projectors an indispensable part of iOS ecosystem.

In a patent application “Projected display shared workspaces” Apple describes pico projector accessory that can be connected to your iPhone or Macbook, or even integrated into an iPad. The projector also comes with a camera, and can read multi-touch gestures performed on a projected images.

The business environment/presentations are the most obvious place to use the projectors. By having several projector enabled iOS devices beaming  their output to the screen on the wall, and coupling them via NFC or Bluetooth, users can create several shared workspaces. With a flick of the finger, they can transfer presentation files, graphics and images between devices, or create a single unified display from several projected screens.

Pico projectors have been promised to become an integral part of our mobile devices for a while now. We even have some projector smartphones like LG Expo and Samsung Beam, already in the market. And LG also has some similar camera/projector integration ideas to those above. But nobody has found a compelling use case for them yet and projector phones remain a niche curiosity for geeky show-offs.

So don’t hold your breath for finding this in your iPhone 5 or iPad 3, pico projecting technology does not seem to be up to Apple’s standards yet. But not so long ago camera in a phone was also a niche curiosity, taking really crappy pictures of your geek friends. And look where we are now.

Give it a few years, and Apple may figure out how to make pocket projectors work.

• Microvision confirms picoprojectors this year
• LG projector phone with remote touch operation
• Sony Ericsson projection display phone
• Samsung Galaxy Beam now official on Samsung Singapore site
• Samsung to Unleash DLP Pico Projector Phones at MWC

Stylus? Why would you need one, when you got this amazing, finger operated multi-touch interface on a device with a super responsive capacitive touch screen?

It is true in most cases. Except one – when you need/want to actually write or draw something on the touchscreen display. Finger really sucks as a writing tool on touchscreen. And, if a couple of patent applications is any indication, Apple may soon be ready to admit as much.

The first patent app for “Stylus for touchscreen devices” describes just that – a stylus for devices with capacitive touchscreen.

The stylus has a rechargeable battery and “includes a conductive tip that creates capacitive coupling between the stylus and the touch-screen of the computing device”. The tip can also be heated for “more consistent interaction between the capacitive-sensors in the computing device and the stylus” . And, as you can see from the picture above, Apple even thought of the dock inside your iPhone to store and recharge your stylus.

The second patent application is called “Communicating stylus” and describes a bit smarter device, equipped with motion sensors, data storage and wireless transmission chips. With such stylus, you can write on any surface you want – e.g a piece of paper or a whiteboard, while the data is transmitted to your iPhone or iPad nearby.

What’s most interesting about both of these patent applications is that they are brand new. Usually, when we see such “old fashioned” technology in Apple’s patent filings – it’s a continuation applications for some patents Apple has filed years ago.

Not in this case – both stylus patent applications have been filed on January 6, 2010 and only reference each other as related.

Could Apple be really warming up the idea of stylus on at least some of it’s iPhones?

• Apple is looking to improve multi-touch with “hover sensing” on iPhones and iPads
• RIM files for hybrid capacitive/ resistive Blackberry touchscreen patent
• Apple’s touch surface keyboard with tactile feedback
• iPhone Nano is real
• Apple is looking beyond Multi-Touch

If there only was some way or gadget to let me know if she’s even interested in flirting. Or some common things to talk about to warm things up.

Well, pretty soon you might have just such a device in your pocket. Your iPhone.

According to a patent application “ Ad Hoc networking based on content and location”, Apple is currently working on a social networking app to solve your pick-up problems next time you go out.

Tell the app that you are interested in meeting new people that are nearby. The app already knows your music and film preferences from the way you use an iPhone, it knows places you’ve been (remember that GPS location database stored inside your smartphone?), pictures you shared. And it knows where you are. It can broadcast this info to the iCloud social networking server in the sky, and then match your profile to other people who are interested and are nearby. And if he/she accepts your invite – you already have a list of things to talk about – places you both been to, songs you listened, movies you’ve seen, people you both know, etc;

Initial contact problem solved. Now you just have to be cool and impress your new friend for a second date. Easy peasy…

I know that there were dozens of attempts to solve this local social networking problem. But most of the previous efforts have relied on some new service or app that a huge number of people have to adopt first. So all of them had limited success.

But a native app, pre-installed on those hundreds of millions of iOS devices?   This could be huge for all those lonely hearts out there

• Google Buzz for mobile announced, integrates with Gmail, Google Maps
• Nokia Purchases Plazes
• Whrrl lets Motorola and Samsung in on the fun, adds new features
• Early Nokia 5800 XMs have a major speaker defect. It’s likely to die within months
• AT&T launches Buzz – new local search experience

After firing a warning shot across Lodsys’ bow a week later, Apple has apparently found it necessary to intervene further; this time in court.

Apple filed a motion yesterday in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District court of Texas, the same federal court that Lodsys filed its initial complaint.

Effectively lending their considerable legal muscle to defend third-party developers in their ecosystem, Apple moved to make themselves Lodsys’ target, claiming that they had already licensed the technology on behalf of their developers.

From the motion:

“Apple Inc. hereby respectfully moves to intervene as a defendant and counterclaim plaintiff in the above-captioned action brought by plaintiff Lodsys, LLC against seven software application developers for allegedly infringing U.S. Patent Nos. 7,222,078 and 7,620,565. Apple seeks to intervene because it is expressly licensed to provide to the Developers products and services that embody the patents in suit, free from claims of infringement of those patents.”

The court must first grant Apple’s request to be an intervener, which can be contested by Lodsys. If the court grants the motion, Apple’s already-filed answer and counterclaims will be put into effect.

Fosspatents via Fortune

Photo: businesstm.com

• Apple responds to Nokia’s lawsuit with a countersuit
• First Nokia vs Apple trials to take place in 2012. Nokia apparently wants $1.3 billion from Apple
• Apple, Samsung, RIM, LG, Motorola, Sanyo and AT&T sued by SmartPhone Technologies
• HTC says Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod should be banned in the US (but this will never happen)
• Nokia files new complaint against Apple, says most of its devices infringe patents

Which is probably why, despite numerous requests from users and tech press, Apple was in no rush to make an inductive wireless charger for it’s iPods, iPhones, and iPads. In the meantime, Apple might be quietly working on it’s own wireless charging system that will make current solutions look like toys.

The system, described in a patent application “Wireless power utilization in a local computing environment” is based on the mid range wireless power transfer physics described in this paper (.pdf). It makes use of wireless near field magnetic resonance (NFMR) power transmission to power devices up to 1 meter distant.

Apple’s NFMR power supply will be integrated into desktop iMac or Macbook Pro and will create a 1 m zone in front of it, where computer peripherals like mouse and keyboard, or smaller devices like iPods, iPhones and iPads can be wirelessly charged. Peripherals, of course, will have to be equipped with special coupling antennas able to received the power.

To expand the wireless charging zone, the antennas in peripherals can be configured to act both as power receivers, and repeaters – sending some of the received power down the line and expanding the charging zone coverage.

And, just to make sure that your older Macs can wirelessly charge everything else, Apple proposes to also build NFMR power supply into separate USB dongle.

Unfortunately, this is now just a patent application and I have no idea if this wireless charging will ever make it to the real products. But Apple says that NFMR physics are good to transfer at least several watts of power for about 1 meter of distance. Which should be quite enough for most purposes.

Patent Apple wireless system (*.pdf)

• iOS/ iPhone 5 to get pop-up radial menus?
• Apple iPod/iPhone as a remote control for Apple Media Centre
• ITC judge: Apple doesn’t infringe on HTC patents, no import ban in sight
• Wi-Fi to replace Bluetooth?
• PA Semi to make new chips for iPhone, iPods

Since getting enough spectrum to build your own mobile network is almost impossible, the next best thing for Apple will be to establish it’s own Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).

And, as this new patent application shows, Apple is still seriously thinking about it’s own MVNO.

MVNO’s usually lease the wholesale mobile network capacity from one operator (e.g. Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T) and then resell that capacity to it’s own customers as it’s own mobile service. To the end customer MVNO looks like a normal mobile operator, and the user has no direct connection to the carrier who’s network he is using.

Apple takes the MVNO model one step further, and wants to have contracts/relations with all the carriers. The basic idea is to create it’s own full service MVNO, with it’s own Home Location Register (a central database were all network’s customer SIM card details are stored), that will be registered and available on all carriers. The iPhone users will become clients of Apple’s MVNO and deal directly with Apple. Network operators will then be allowed/required to submit the bids for their services to Apple, which will pass the offers to the customer iPhone. Furthermore, the whole process can be done dynamically, individually for each iPhone, based on it’s location, time of day and other factors.

For example, let’s say AT&T has just upgraded it’s network in your town and has a lot of spare capacity. At the same time, T-Mobile’s network there is bursting at the seems and can barely accommodate it’s current users. Since idle network only loses money, AT&T can send a serious rate discount offer to Apple , and all iPhone users in your town now have an option to switch to AT&T at a much better rates. You get cheaper calls and data, AT&T gets to use the idle capacity and gets paid for it. Everyone, except T-Mobile, is happy.

Now imagine this happening all over the world, with carrier bids streaming in, sorted and accepted in real time, for the use of each network base station. Very soon a very efficient market will develop, and you will be able to get the best mobile service at a best possible price…

Which is great thing for you, but a nightmare for your mobile operator. That’s because network operators thrive on market inefficiencies that they can exploit, because they were granted a monopoly rights over the radio spectrum.The last thing mobile operators need is an efficient market, where they have to compete for a customer offering best service at the lowest possible price.

This is why, unless there are some regulatory changes, I think Apple’s own MVNO will remain just a dream for a long time.

It’s not like Apple just got an idea for this MVNO today. The patent application described above is just an extension of the one filed way back in 2006. This year Apple was granted a patent for the multi-carrier MVNO. It’s now 2011 and Apple is no closer to launching it’s own MVNO then it was 5 years ago, in 2006.

But here’s to keeping such a nice dream alive

• Apple is thinking about it’s own iPhone MVNO? New patent says yes.
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• Steve Jobs in talks with China Mobile for TDSCDMA iPhone
• Localized iTunes stores at Starbucks for iPhone needs patent?
• China Mobile wants both Apple’s iPad and iPhone

The patent calls for a wireless media syncing service between a “Host Device” (ie. home computer), Electronic Device (iPhone/iPad/iPod) and a content source (iTunes).

In the patented (and currently theoretical) system, portions of cloud-stored files are stored in a local cache, creating a buffer that enables a seamless streaming experience. When a user clicks on a song, the first few seconds begin playing immediately from a local cache, then switch to the cloud stream once the connection to the file is acquired.

Some argue that this isn’t a “true” cloud experience, though the feature is simply an option (“Sync partial music”) that can be unchecked.

Evolver.fm makes the (valid) point that Pandora and Spotify have already been using similar strategies to make their streaming services as seamless as possible. It’s not perfect, but with the current state of bandwidth (and the wireless carriers’ draconian methods of punishing heavy data users), it definitely seems like the most efficient way to stream an entire library. Millions of Pandora and Spotify users most likely agree.

Unusually large music libraries could possibly be limited by local device storage. Not only can portions of data from the beginning of each track be stored, but even randomly selected or even “important” portions (ie. authentication tokens). Just like they limit the number of users you can connect to your Home Share on iTunes, Apple also has plans in place to prevent you from having your whole block streaming your music collection.

One thing that isn’t mentioned in the patent is remote Web access. If the files are stored on the cloud, users should theoretically be able to access them from any device or computer, regardless of whether or not iTunes is installed. It’s a feature of both the Amazon player and Google Music beta. It’s doubtful Apple would include this feature, which would require the development of a brand new Web interface to access and play music files independent of iTunes. Apple would much rather just sell you an iPhone and have you play your music from there.

Patently Apple via TechMeme

• Apple iPod/iPhone as a remote control for Apple Media Centre
• Who needs iTunes Match? Apple’s new cloud music service is for the nerds
• Apple announces iCloud, iTunes Match at WWDC 2011
• Mobile Cloud Music Showdown: Unwired View Reviews the U.S. Subscription and Locker Services
• Localized iTunes stores at Starbucks for iPhone needs patent?

But 3D, even on a big cinema screen, still looks a bit of a fad to me. And don’t get me started on the first 3D smartphone offerings like LG Optimus 3D or HTC EVO 3D. Still, who knows? It’s only the first generation of this technology, and maybe they’ll figure out how to do it right.

Which brings us to Nokia and potentially uber cool 3D Communicator they have been cooking in R&D labs:

Described in a patent application called “Autostereoscopic rendering and display apparatus”, Nokia 3D Communicator should come with two displays – one 3D and one 2D. It will have a bunch of front facing cameras to follow your eye movements. By determining your viewing angles, it can adjust the 3D display projections accordingly so the 3D object does not blur, and even allow the projected 3D objects to cast realistic shadows on a second 2D display with touch interface controls. The cameras can also figure out the position of your finger in relation to the illusionary 3D object you try to manipulate.

I don’t know. Usually such futuristic things  look much better on paper and our imagination. But if R&D and software guys in Espoo can make it work seamlessly on a mass produced device, such Nokia Communicator 3D could be pretty cool.

• Mobile concepts from Tancher design competition
• Nokia is exploring 3D multi-touch interface
• Sony Ericsson wants to equip cameraphones with built-in image dictionaries
• Next Gen iPod and iPhone Nano: Full Screen with TouchPanel at the Bottom
• Nokia’s virtual keyboard idea

This lawsuit mostly pertains to the Samsung Galaxy S 4G and the Galaxy Tab. I am confused on why Apple took so long to file this lawsuit since these products have been out for a while now. Maybe Apple didn’t care too much before about Samsung “copying” Apple’s device, but now that Samsung is selling tens of millions of Galaxy S devices, Apple has decided that it needs to take action against Samsung. The claim is stated as:

“Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products.”

This lawsuit was filed on Friday in the Northern District of California and will seek injunctions, both actual and punitive) and a finding that the infringement is willful. One apple employee commented on the situation:

“It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging,” said an Apple representative. “This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

Samsung responded to Apple’s lawsuit and said that it will fight Apple in court. The company statement said:

Samsung’s development of core technologies and strengthening our intellectual property portfolio are keys to our continued success,” the company said in a statement. “Samsung will respond actively to this legal action taken against us through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property.”

It will be interesting to see how this lawsuit may affect the relationship of these two companies since Samsung supplies many different parts for Apple’s iPhone, iPods, iPad, and Macbooks.Probably not much, Apple already knew that Samsung is “copying” the iPhone, and they still buy from Samsung.
Via All Things D

• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 temporarily banned in Europe, Apple rejoices
• Samsung fights back against Apple with ten patent infringement claims
• Apple likens Samsung discovery request to “harassment”
• Nokia sues Apple, claims iPhone infringes 10 of its patents
• Nokia says Apple also infringes patents in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands

E.g., when I sit down at a table for my morning coffee, browsing through stuff with an iPad lying in horizontal position. It’s a tad uncomfortable. I usually tend to put a couple of books or some other stuff under it, to get my tablet  upright a bit.

I know that a kick-stand may interfere with pristine iPad design. Still, Apple has enough design skills to make it look right. And they may eventually do it, if Apple’s patent application called “Multiple position stand” ever becomes a reality.

The patent application describes an interesting kick-stand, that can hold iPad sized device in upright position at multiple angles and both in portrait,  and landscape  orientation. It takes some clever engineering, but we know Apple is really good at that.

Now if Apple just decided that sometimes function should win over design, and put their minds to it… I would really love to see this kick-stand on an iPad 2.

• Apple’s next generation iPad to be called iPad 2S, not iPad 3?
• Toshiba says its Android Honeycomb tablet is superior to Apple’s iPad 2
• Is Apple warming up to iPhone stylus idea?
• New iPhone Docking Station. Apple Tablet next?
• iPhone 5 and iPad 3 may come with quad-core processors, iOS 5.1 beta reveals

Yes, everybody loved the idea, and went on to implement similar interfaces on their own gadgets – but the basics on all these new devices, remain the same.

Well, Apple is now looking at ways to improve their own multi-touch UI,  by adding hover sensing to it’s iOS devices. The new hover sensing capabilities are described in a new Apple’s patent application “Touch and hover sensing”.

With stuff I do remember from my high-school physics lessons, I sort of understand how Apple is planning to go about this “hover sensing”.

Still, I’ll better just quote what they say in the patent app:

A capacitive sensor array can be driven with electrical signals, such as alternating current (AC) signals, to generate electric fields that extend outward from the sensor array through a touch surface to detect a touch on the touch surface or an object hovering over the touch surface of a touch screen device, for example. The electric field can also extend behind the sensor array in the opposite direction from the touch surface, which is typically an internal space of the touch screen device. An AC ground shield may be used to enhance the hover sensing capability of the sensor array. The AC ground shield can be positioned behind the sensor array and can be stimulated with signals having the same waveform as the signals driving the sensor array. As a result, the electric field extending outward from the sensor array can be concentrated. In this way, for example, the hover sensing capability of the sensor array may be improved.

This way, when your finger(s) get into that concentrated electrical field above the touchscreen surface, your iPhone or iPad can sense them and start performing operations without you needing to touch anything. It can also combine both hover and touch operations into a single gesture commands.

How will Apple use this new “hover” improved multi-touch? I have no idea. New gestures, improved device responsiveness, new modes of operation, etc;

I’m sure Apple will think of something whenever (and even if) it gets around adding “hover” touch features to some future generation iPhones, iPads and other iDevices.

You can download full patent application here (*.pdf, 1.3MB)

• Apple’s touch surface keyboard with tactile feedback
• Apple is working on a Multi Haptics technology for iPhones and iPads
• Is Apple warming up to iPhone stylus idea?
• Apple’s iPhone. Is it really well protected by patents?
• Nokia is exploring 3D multi-touch interface

But, contrary to built-in cameras, to me pico-projectors in phones always looked only like a high tech gimmicks, with very limited market appeal and few real world use needs. After all, how often are you gonna use a projector in your phone and what for?

And finding the appropriate surface  to project an image on, is another problem. Or not.

Sony Ericsson, in a patent application called “Mobile communication device with built-in projecting  screen” may have stumbled on an interesting idea. Put a small projector into a phone, and also get a sliding and/or foldable screen surface in there too.

Done right, such projection screen shouldn’t take up too much space.

And, when you need a bigger display, just pull it out and you have much more screen real estate to watch a movie, browse the net and do other stuff on your projector phone.

• Texas Instruments confirms projectors in mobiles phones this year
• LG projector phone with remote touch operation
• Apple is working on pico-projector for your iPhone, iPad and Mac
• Samsung phone with holographic 3D projection display
• Microvision confirms picoprojectors this year

Well, in iOS/iPhone 5 we can expect another round of tweaks to improve the device  usability. And one such possible tweak surfaced in recent Apple patent application called “Radial menus “.

In it Apple talks about – you guessed it  – radial menu pop-ups in various Apple products. Touchscreen based iPhones, iPods and iPads among them.

Radial menus are nothing radically new in computer interface design. But Apple is adding it’s own touch (pun intended ) to make them work seamlessly on it’s touch devices.

What exactly Apple is patenting here, that’s for the folks versed in patent law to decide. In the application Apple says that:

“…The novel radial menu techniques of some embodiments include (i) non-uniform spacing of menu items, (ii) the use of shading or highlighting within a region associated with an item to indicate the present selectability of the item, and (iii) the use of radial gestures for opening sub-menus and the subsequent display of the sub-menu.”

If implemented the right way, e.g. long-press on the screen and contextual radial menu pops-up with relevant options a finger swype away, this could be a really nice improvement to the iOS5 ease of use.

You can download the patent application here (*.pdf, 2.7MB)

• True Apple Media Center in the Works
• Apple patents iPhone’s intelligent keyboard
• Is Apple warming up to iPhone stylus idea?
• iTunes 7.7 pre-release version Read Me hints at iPhone/ iPod Touch remote app
• iPhone Nano is real

Foursquare started it’s business on it. There are also quite a few iPhone games, like Gunman, that let’s you do some sort of Augmented Reality gaming with your mobile device.  But Gunman, and other games like this have to rely on their own  image recognition and other techniques to make them work.

Now Apple wants to take the possibility of interactive iPhone to iPhone real world gaming  a step further, by natively including device state – location, position, direction and orientation – sharing capabilities into iOS.

With this new capability, game developers can use real life location, orientation, time and movement data of connected iPhone devices in their gaming environment.

The most obvious implementation would be a first person “shooter” game like Gunman, where developer uses this newly available data to determine whether another player is in a shooting range and place “gun” crosshairs on him. But with the device state data shared in real time via 3G network, creation of games that merge virtual and real world are much wider and can spawn a whole new class of social apps.

Apple is not the only one exploring these new interaction possibilities, offered by always-on, connected and place aware devices. Nokia, Microsoft, Sony Ericsson and other companies have a bunch of similar patent applications pending too.

But, if they make the device state sharing available in iOS 5 as a set of new API’s for game developers, Apple might be the first to get the interactive real world mobile gaming right.

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• Orange UK to kick off new mobile gaming initiatives for iPhone
• Could WWDC 2008 see launch of dedicated Apple handheld gaming console?

Most of them will require technologies way beyond of what is available today, but getting from here to there has to start somewhere. And quite a few companies are already working on the bits and pieces of Minority Report’ish tech in their R&D labs.

Here’s the latest interesting bit that Microsoft Research has been working on: a “Wearable Electromyography-Based  (EMG) Controller” which can be worn or be temporarily attached to the user’s body and provide Human-Computer Interface (HCI) that allows him to control and interact with computing systems via electrical signals generated by the movement of various body muscles. Or, in other words, the device which provides wearable muscle-computer interface.

Now, the Electromyography- measuring of muscle electrical activity during muscle contractions is nothing new, and has been widely used in medical fields. There are two ways of measuring EMG signals. The first, and the most accurate, requires sticking needle electrodes into your muscles. The second uses the external sensors placed on your skin. But, because electrical muscle signals then have to travel through body fat and skin, and there’s a lot of extraneous noise from other muscles , skin movement, environment, etc; that starts interfering with them, the surface EMG is a pretty complicated thing to do. You need to scrub the skin from dead sells, carefully place electrodes in the exact locations for best signal strength, etc;.

All of those things make EMG a no go for  human-computer interface purposes. Or at least it was a no go, until Microsoft thought of the way to reliably register electrical activity of muscles in a natural environment.  Their trick – spreading a lot more EMG sensors then was usually required. Then using “automated positional localization process” to identify and select a subset of some or all of the sensor nodes, that are in appropriate position to collect electrical signals corresponding to particular user gestures and movements.

The Wearable Electromyography-Based controller can be implemented in various forms, including wearable devices or articles of clothing. For example it can be a part of an armband, a wristwatch, eyeglasses (with sensors in a frame), a shirt, gloves or any other article of clothing a gadget worn by user. Just put on a gadget or clothing with the embedded sensors and controller, and you can control any compatible computing device with a flick of your finger or even an eyebrow. Furthermore, since the controller can detect muscle strain and provide immediate ergonomic feedback to the user, it can be used  for training to play musical instruments or in various sports.

Well, it’s all in Microsoft research labs for now, and will most likely take years to get to the marketable application level. On the other hand, before Microsoft announced Kinect, such capabilities also seemed far off, Minority Report’ish stuff.

• Remote input sleeve from Nokia
• 3D Game Controller for Sony PS3
• Apple’s own project Natal – Kinect like 3D controller
• Sony Ericsson’s Mobile Phone/Universal Remote Control
• Body Fat Measuring Phone from BenQ

So I was pretty surprised to find these two patent applications, filed by RIM, among the roster of submissions aiming to patent various UI gimmicks, radio frequency controls and other stuff you’d expect to see from a mobile handset maker.

The patent applications are called “Adaptive roadside billboard system and related methods” and “Adaptive pedestrian billboard system and related methods”. And, yes, as the names indicate, RIM is trying to patent an improvement the dynamic LED billboards we are so used to by now.

Their invention/improvement? Measuring the traffic speed and density near the billboard, and adapting the message displayed according to it.

When traffic is moving fast and drivers have no time to pay attention to billboards, or there’s a dense crowd on the street so you are distracted and less likely to pay attention, the billboard may just blast a huge logo and slogan of the advertiser at you, to catch any peripheral attention it can get.  When traffic slows down in a jam, and you are sitting bored at the wheel waiting for a car in front to move the next few meters, grateful for any distraction, the same billboard will give you a detailed information about the service, prices, benefits and stuff.

Any relation to the mobile communication/messaging business Research in Motion is in? Well, RIM mentions that one of the ways to measure traffic speed and density can be via GPS sensors in mobile devices people carry with them. But it’s only one of the mentioned methods, and there are easier and more reliable ways to do the same thing – like radar detectors, cameras, pressure sensors, etc;

So what do you think RIM is up to with these patent filings? Some side project by a researcher or intern in their R&D labs, filed just in case and because it was there? Or something more?

• Is Apple warming up to iPhone stylus idea?
• LG wants to patent multiple flexible display gadget form factors
• New in iPhone software patents
• Duke University makes own “Micro-Blog” system for mobiles
• RIM sued by Mformation for… stealing software?

Still, Palm R&D department  hasn’t been sitting on it’s hands even during the tough times. And they’ve come up with some interesting ideas of how to improve our palm computing/communication experiences.

Here’s one of them – compact removable voice handset, integrated into a palmtop computer. It’s described in a fairly recent Palm patent application, filed at the end of April, this year.

And, looking at the  patent app, I wonder why nobody has made such a thing yet.

As the touchscreen displays get bigger and bigger, our smartphones become ever harder to use for their basic – cellphone – function. Just look at Dell Streak. It’s a great portable web browsing, e-mail, online communication device and media player. But I shudder only thinking about using it as a phone,  and putting this slab of a device to my ear for a 10-15 minute conversation.

It gets even worse for  7″ or 10″ tablets, that are just around the corner. Even though most of them can have all the necessary 3G circuitry  to make phone calls, the form factor makes this activity hugely impractical.

Now Palm has designed an extremely elegant solution – adding a small, removable, voice only handset to the body of a palmtop device. When separated, phone and main body parts are coupled via Bluetooth. All the “smarts and  brains” remain in the main body, detachable handset is used only for voice comms. As the call comes in, you pull the cellphone part from the main body and start talking. After the call, you pop the cellphone part back in. All other functions – like contact management, dialing, etc; remain with the main palmtop body.

This mode of operation may even better then on traditional smartphone – if you need to take some notes, enter or look-up contact info, arrange a conference call – you can do that without any interruption, while talking on the phone.

It’s just a patent application for now, and may never become an actual product – most of patented things don’t. But I really like this idea and hope someone implements it soon.

• Sony Ericsson’s Mobile Phone/Universal Remote Control
• Self Cradling Samsung Phone
• Body Fat Measuring Phone from BenQ
• The new kind of slider from BenQ Siemens (SL98), Asus and LG
• Google Voice web app launched for iPhone, WebOS (video)

But the company which was one of the first to get a projector equipped phone on the market- LG-  is already thinking about  new ways to operate the device. One of the possibilities to do that is described in LG patent application, called “Mobile terminal with image projection”. It describes  the way to remotely sense gestures/touch that user performs on a projected image.

The idea is simple – identify a pointer (your finger), the shadow a pointer makes on a projected image, a distance between them, and track this distance. When you touch something on the projected image, distance decreases and touch event is registered. Move your finger across the projection and swype gesture is registered, etc;

It does require some hefty processing power and software magic. But if/when pico-projector in your smartphone becomes good enough for it to become your portable presentation device, I can see how such a  remote touch operation capability could be a really nice bonus.

• T-Mobile Partners With Swype, Will Be Featured on Several Touchscreens
• Apple is looking beyond Multi-Touch
• Nokia is exploring 3D multi-touch interface
• Samsung phone with holographic 3D projection display
• Swype for Android available for download, although unofficially

Samsung is no stranger here, and has already confirmed that it will have an Android tablet ready for market this fall. We’ve even seen quite a few pictures of Samsung Galaxy Tab by now.

And, according to this new patent application for a “Mobile terminal having dual touch screen and method of controlling content therein”, Samsung has been thinking about how to add their own touch (no pun intended here ,   to the tablet form factor UI.

Their idea? A dual touch screen tablet. With a traditional operation on a big touchscreen on the front of the device. And a second touch sensor layer on the back of the tablet, allowing for additional touch control gestures and operation patterns.

I might see some use cases where sliding a finger on the back of the tablet  is a more comfortable option then doing it on a touchsreen. But only in some cases, while for most usage patterns – a traditional multi-touch screen is much more preferable.

Overall, I’d say it’s an interesting idea on Samsung’s part. But Samsung is one of the most prolific patentees out there, every week filing more patent applications then Nokia, Motorola, RIM and Sony Ericsson combined. Very few of them end-up in actual products.

So the likelihood of us ever seeing an actual working dual touchscreen tablet form Samsung? I’d put it into “not very likely” category.

• Nokia is exploring 3D multi-touch interface
• Apple is working on a Multi Haptics technology for iPhones and iPads
• Is Apple warming up to iPhone stylus idea?
• Apple is looking to improve multi-touch with “hover sensing” on iPhones and iPads
• iPhone 2.0, iPhone 3.0 or iPhone Nano – a clamshell/flip phone?

Well, if Apple has it’s way, things are about to get much worse.

The problem? Three Apple patent applications that just became public on USPTO website. From the looks of them, it seems that Apple is now trying to patent mobile app ideas. For now Apple is seeking to get a patent for 3 apps – travel, hotel and high fashion shopping.

In mobile travel app patent application, Apple describes things like sending travel promotions, making reservations through mobile app,  guide/assistance with airport services, using mobile boarding pass, remote check-in, access to in-flight services, sending automatic arrival notifications to your spouse, travel guide services/promotions at the destination site.

Apple’s Hotel app patent application talks about hotel promotions/reservations/service pre-order through app, early/remote check-ins, access to hotel and in-room services, operating room equipment, personal concierge services, check-out, post-trip promotion/questionnaires/info.

High fashion shopping app patent application describes an iPhone app from high fashion houses like Ralph Lauren. With this app  the user can receive invitations to special events, info/catalog of available products, use store locator,  find popular picks, gift guides, create wish lists/look books, see product reviews, engage in social networking activities, see enhanced adverts/promotions, use personal shopping services, product comparisons, suggestions for additional items, provide feedback via post-sales questionnaires, use virtual closet, etc;

Damn, but this is one scary development. Imagine if back in 1994-96 someone decided to sit back, think about what kind of web services can be provided via the internet, and then decided to patent them. You know, things like – shopping for books online, buying plane tickets, reserving a hotel, providing shopping comparison services, online auctions, online e-mail services, etc;

It seems that Apple is now trying to do exactly this kind of thing in mobile apps space. I really hope that U.S. Patent office will see through this Apple ruse, and quickly reject all these patent applications for mobile apps.

• Apple is working on its own mobile P2P payment service for iPhone and iPad
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• Apple iPod/iPhone as a remote control for Apple Media Centre
• LG wants to patent multiple flexible display gadget form factors
• Apple plans to integrate iPhone Mapping and Calendar apps

They’ve spent years perfecting multi-touch interface, before it was released for public consumption with  2007 iPhone launch. Then they’ve spent 3 more years adapting this UI to a tablet device. The same goes for smaller features, like copy-paste on the iPhone, multi-tasking, etc;

There is one more feature, that other touchphones had for years now, missing in iPhone. Haptic feedback. And now we may know why Steve Jobs  has been ignoring haptic response for so long. Apple is  working on  haptic feedback technology, called Multi-Haptics,  on their own.

This  technology is described in a patent application called “Multi Touch with Multi Haptics”, filed by Apple in April 2009.

The idea is  to spread an array of  haptic actuators around the touch panel and device housing. Then, have a database of haptic response profiles, and match these profiles to various multi-touch gestures performed on the display.

I don’t want to go into too many technical details here, you can read all about them in the patent application yourself. But if Apple is able to get it right,  the difference between current and Multi Haptics technology might be as profound, as the difference between traditional touch interfaces before iPhone, and Multi-Touch.

When/if Multi-Haptics technology gets out of Apple R&D labs, into live products, it would certainly be a very cool addition to your iPhone 5 or  iPad 2.

• Apple’s touch surface keyboard with tactile feedback
• Samsung SPH M4650 Multi-Touch Smartphone
• Nokia is exploring 3D multi-touch interface
• Apple is looking to improve multi-touch with “hover sensing” on iPhones and iPads
• Is Apple warming up to iPhone stylus idea?

A lot of R&D money is being spent on flexible displays every day, a lot of genuine inventions and IP created around them, and a lot of patents to protect the investments are being filed.

But, with the patent system being what it is, and with stupid patents, for stupid obvious things issued to every patent troll who asks, and then used to extort money from legit businesses, it never hurts to think a bit ahead. Into such obvious things, like how flexible displays might be used, when they become available.

And, while others are busy imagining, drawing and presenting us the concepts of how our flexible gadgets might look in the future, why not just patent every use case you can think of, right now?

Well, it seems that LG just went, and did exactly that, with their “Mobile terminal using flexible display and method of controlling the mobile terminal” patent application.

Here some flexible mobile terminal ideas, described in a patent app:

Well, it is just a patent application. LG is genuinely involved in flexible display R&D, with some concrete results to prove it. And others are filing patents for their flexible gadgets too.  So this might be a defensive move by LG, in case some patent troll comes along at a later date.  Or to negotiate patent cross-license deals for stuff Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Apple have in their patent portfolios.

Still, it’s a bit scary. If these patents are granted, does this mean that LG or  others, will have a claim on all of those novel, but pretty obvious form factors,  and device operation methods, that are described in their patent apps?

• Sony Nextep – wearable mobile computer concept
• Intel is working on flexible Screen for Mobile Devices
• New Nokia patent application hints at phones with flexible displays
• Samsung flexible AMOLED displays to enter mass production soon
• Foldable/ rollable phone from Motorola

It seems, that Apple has been looking into possibility for it’s own mobile contextual advertising solution long before it bought Quattro mobile ad network.

At least, that’s what a new Apple’s patent application for “System and method for providing contextual advertisements according to dynamic pricing scheme” indicates.

In this patent application, Appple describes a mobile ad system, that will work on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, and provide ads based on various direct or indirect  marketing preferences through a “Local ad” app . The ads are served by the owner of the network you are connected to at the time.

Shopping mall owner, airport operator, or anyone else, providing Wi-Fi access, can serve ads from local merchants; wireless carrier can offer local ads, triggered by a location data from a base station or your GPS sensor,  and search keywords you just entered in a search app, etc; :

For example, if the submitted advertisement provides a coupon for food at a restaurant, the submitting advertiser may include an indication that the advertisement is directed to food sales, times of day when meals are popularly served, a GPS location of the restaurant, keywords that may relate to the restaurant in an Internet search, how weather may affect the use or non-use of the coupon in the advertisement, etc.

The ad prices for advertiser may be set dynamically, based on the various directly or indirectly expressed marketing preferences, e.g choices you selected in your “Local ad” app, and your proximity to the advertisers outlet, time of day, whether you previously responded to similar ads, whether you’ve already eaten at advertisers restaurant, etc;

Looks pretty useful and interesting. And also shows, that the things we know about iAd platform today, are only just a start.

• Google launches mobile image ads
• Yahoo launches Sketch-a-Search, Yahoo Search apps for iPhone
• Google launches new Local Search for Mobile
• Verizon chooses Microsoft for mobile search and advertising services
• Sprint and Google announce partnership to give users better mobile experience

Sometimes they are fingerprint readers, face or iris recognition sensors, voice recognition software, etc; But most of them are bulky, require additional, sometimes cumbersome, efforts by the users. So even if biometric recognition is present in the device, it often goes unused.

Now Apple has an idea of a new biometric recognition approach on your iPhone, to make the process seamlessly “magical”.

By embedding the cardiac sensors in iPhone case:

When you hold an iPhone in your hand, cardiac sensors, integrated into the iPhone case, are able to monitor your heart rhythm, and identify the person holding the device.

And that’s about it. No passwords that can be glimpsed or guessed, fancy gesture movements on a touchscreen, that can be easily recognized. Just pick up an iPhone, and it already knows it’s you.

Pretty cool idea. Unfortunately, it’s only at a patent stage, and it’s implementation will depend a lot on  availability of reliable enough sensors, and processing software, which may not be up to the task yet.

But hey, if Apple can make it work sooner or later, I’m all for it.

Via: USPTO

• New in iPhone software patents
• Apple is working on its own mobile P2P payment service for iPhone and iPad
• 4th generation iPhone to come with 5MP camera. Apple tablet to be showcased in January
• Is Apple warming up to iPhone stylus idea?
• Tactile iPhone case concept goes a long way to pleasing the visually impaired

Nokia is looking  how to introduce mobile payments to developing world with its Money service. Meanwhile, startups like Square and established companies like VeriFone are working on ways to bring personal mobile transactions to your iPhone, and, hopefully, any other smartphone you have in your pocket.

Well, those companies planning to make a living from their personal mobile payment iPhone app/accessory/service, better start thinking about other mobile platforms soon. Because Apple is actively eyeing personal mobile payments, as a market they want to have for themselves.

At least that’s what an Apple’s patent application called “Peer to peer financial transaction devices and methods”  indicates.

It describes an iPhone app and service, that will allow iPhone owners to store all their credit card, bank/checking account and other info  on the device, and to make quick personal and business transactions with a few taps.

The payments can be made by linking NFC enabled iPhones, or using the handset camera and some clever image recognition techniques.

There’s even an interesting usage case  for paying group bills, e.g. for a dinner at a restaurant, described.

It includes one person from a group getting a bill on his iPhone, forming an ad-hoc network with the iPhones of other friends at the table, with each person selecting and paying his due via the first  handset.

Well,  it’s only a patent application for now. But, with the iTunes store  Apple is already knee-deep in a small payment processing business. Extending that service to process personal payments of iPhone  owners, seems like the next  logical step for Apple.

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Well, the guys at Microsoft seem to be pretty impressed with themselves too. They think they’ve found a new perfect UI paradigm for a mobile device, that moves beyond tired PC desktop user experience.  And they want to have it for themselves, without others getting into a game with some copycat UI.

The way to do that? Get  a patent for the whole damn thing.

And this is what Microsoft is trying to do now. Looks like they’ve been working on the new panoramic UI since at least the summer of 2008, and already  filed a patent application for “Panoramic user interface”  in September that year.

Well, this is probably the first of the patent applications for the new Windows Phone 7 Series OS, and there will be quite a few more to come. Also,  there’s still a question of how much of the concepts USPTO will deem to be true inventions.

But, if Windows Phone 7 Series catches up the the hype it is getting now, duplicating the thing just got more difficult for competitors.

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Qualcomm’s multi-fold device features a “processor configured to execute at least one software application having a graphical user interface, the processor being responsive to the folding configuration sensor to modify the graphical user interface based on the detected configuration.” The UI can act as “a panorama UI, a desktop UI, an application UI, a web browser UI, an alarm clock UI, a media player UI, or some other UI.“

One of the problems with this device is that, when folded like a cell phone, it would be quite thick – somewhat like that IcePhone seen back in 2008.

As you may already know, Qualcomm doesn’t directly produce phones (although it provides chips and software to many important phone makers), so it’s a bit weird to see this patent application. But, who knows, maybe Qualcomm plans to make some devices of its own sometime in the future.

Via GoRumors, Pocket-lint

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This reminds us of the Nokia Morph – seen two years ago as a concept phone. Nokia didn’t say back then when a Morph-like phone would be available, but, seeing the new patent application, such a device might be closer to launch than we think.

The patent, filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, talks about a “user interface, a device and a method for an improved user interaction, and in particular to a user interface, a device and a method for an improved user interaction through the use of a flexible display.”

More exactly, Nokia’s idea is to make a handset that can answer to your needs depending on how you’re changing its shape. For example, if you bend the device to resemble a can (like in the image below), it should search for nearby pubs and bars. If you bend the device to resemble a bowl, it should give you a list with the closest restaurants. Similarly, when bent like “a roof or a tent”, the handset should search for hotels or establishments alike.

Well, the whole idea is certainly interesting. However, even if Samsung announced last year that flexible AMOLED displays are almost ready for mass production, it will probably take several years until a handset like the one Nokia plans to make hits the market.

Via GoRumors

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• Nokia Morph phone concept

I checked my notes, and yes, indeed – it was a familiar topic. The visions of 2015 was not just a promotional video of cool things that will somehow come about in 6 years.

It is actually a visualization  of the stuff Nokia research labs, and some of it’s partners, are working hard to bring about. They have been doing it from 2006, at least.   And have the patent apps to prove that.

One of them, called “BIONETS architecture for building services capable of self-evolution” became public recently .

It describes:

“… the development of one or more flexible architectures that can support service creation/development and provisioning in addition to self-evolution. Therefore, various embodiments allow for continued self learning, customization and adjustment of BIONETS services to the needs and expectations of users in accordance with characteristics such as those exhibited by biological organisms, for example, the ability to continuously adopt itself to an ever-changing environment “

The basic idea behind BIONETS architecture,  is to split the actual services into a small components called “service primitives”. Those service primitives are combined into an actual service by “Expert/Decision making manager” module. Mobile devices have a BIONETS enabled client software which tracks service usage by individual users.

The tracking includes the steps user made to access the service, activities he performed just prior to it, the duration it took to perform the operations, whether the action was completed, etc;. Aggregating this data from a big number number of devices, the Expert/Decision making module can derive optimal service usage patterns and underperforming service primitives. Then it can automatically reconfigure the service primitives used to provide the actual service to fit user needs better. Or even create new services from observing the people use their devices, without intervention  of the service provider.

One simple example of such a service could be a stock ticker application:

“User may utilize a “stock ticker” service that provides the user with periodic or constant updates which inform the user of a particular stock’s value at a given time. The stock ticker service may evolve by monitoring the user’s interaction with the stock ticker service. For example, it may be noticed that the user oftentimes will execute a calculator application in parallel with the stock ticker service and utilize that calculator to multiply stock values by a certain number (e.g., the number of stocks held by the user). After observing this behavior of executing the calculator application in parallel with the stock ticker service a pre-determined number of times, the stock ticker service can undergo self-evolution by deciding to improve the services it provides by embedding calculator functionality and a corresponding UI in its stock ticker service. Moreover, the stock ticker service may by default, automatically multiply a given stock’s value by the earlier observed value representing the number of stocks held by the user, thus preempting the need for the user to manually perform the multiplication operation herself.”

That’s just one, and relatively simple application. Combining self-evolution capable services  with a widely spread passive and active sensors, and millions of exceedingly capable mobile devices, might lead us to that  future of  those “truly unique user experiences, from highly local traffic reports, to global weather trends..” Nokia was talking about in 2015 video.

But that’s for 2015.

For 2010 I’ll settle for a real improvement of OVI services, so all of them are well integrated,  work seamlessly and intuitively on my next Nokia device.

The BIONETS architecture is a part of a bigger 6.9 million EUR BIONETS research project financed by European Comission Framework program, that has been running since 2006. It involves multiple partners, including Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Telecom Italia and a number of European research institutes and Universities.

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Well, actually,  the rumors about the upcoming Apple tablet have been flying around for years now. Some people even doubt that a mythical Apple tablet will ever be created.

But the crescendo of rumors from various sources these past few months, strongly reminds me of the situation we had with an iPhone, few months before it’s announcement. So I think Apple Tablet will show up pretty soon now.

And to pour some more fire into the Apple Tablet rumor mill, we have a new patent application by Apple. Which talks about improved digital ink recognition techniques for …you got it… a pen-aware tablet.

To tell the truth, the patent app has little to do with a tablet computer per se. It’s mostly concerned how to make digital ink recognition/interpretation process better, especially when filling out various forms. And it achieves that by trying to recognize full ink phrases, instead of a separate ink strokes:  The ink manager collects separate ink strokes, determines when a whole phrase have been entered and passes that phrase to handwriting recognition engine.

But the magic word “tablet” is all around the patent app, so I thought I’ll bring it up here.

And natural, intuitive, and well implemented pen input in a tablet device, could be one of the more attractive features of such Apple gadget, whenever it launches.

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Samsung is developing TouchWiz, LG has S-Class, Nokia has S60 5th edition (Now Symbian^1) and Maemo 5, Sony Ericsson has their panels, even Acer has come up with it’s own UI for the new smartphones.

However, one of the most interesting and innovative companies in the field is HTC. They were the first to skin Windows Mobile with advanced TouchFlo UI. Later that became an even better ToucFlo 3D. And, just a few months ago, they transformed that into an even more advanced HTC Sense UI, which is easily, one of the best touch interfaces out there.

But HTC is not sitting still, and seems to be at work on a new generation of touch UI, organized as a virtual book:

Described in HTC patent application,  called “Electronic device and user interface display method thereof”, the book like UI:

organizes applications, widgets, and web pages into pages of a virtual book. Each page of the virtual book is the UI of a service or function of the handheld electronic device. Flipping the pages of the virtual book means browsing and selecting the services and functions provided by the handheld electronic device. This book-like UI enables the user to use and manage these applications, widgets, and web pages in an easy and intuitive way like browsing a conventional printed book. The book-like UI hides the differences among applications, widgets, and web pages so that the handheld electronic device can be accessed through a uniform and convenient UI.

The virtual book UI is pretty flexible and customizable, allowing carriers or service providers to add their services, programs and widgets, as additional pages in a book.

The idea sounds pretty interesting. At least on paper. I wonder how all this flipping through pages will work in real life.

Still, HTC already proved that they can design and implement some great touch interfaces, so the book style touch UI might turn up just as good, if/when HTC decides to release a new mobile device with it.

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Nokia is no exception here.

While Symbian based Nokia touch handsets might still be lagging behind the competition, their Maemo 5 based  N900 shows, that Nokia has finally learned how to make a really good touch based mobile device. The next version, due sometime next year promises to be even better.

Meanwhile, Nokia R&D labs are already looking beyond multi-touch.

In this patent application, Nokia is exploring  a 3D multi-touch interface for the mobile devices, that reacts not only to your finger movements, but also to the strength with which your finger is pressing the screen.

The 3D multi-touch interface is enabled via a combination of capacitive touch screen and a number of force sensors, that are able to measure the force you press the screen with, and also the direction of that force as you move a finger on a touchscreen display.

The actual implementation of this technology might be pretty far off, but a device with a well implemented 3D multi-touch interface,  coupled with the Nokia haptikos tactile touchscreen, we’ve seen cooking in their R&D labs, might be really something.

When it comes out eventually.

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• Apple is looking to improve multi-touch with “hover sensing” on iPhones and iPads
• Apple is working on a Multi Haptics technology for iPhones and iPads

Of course, the company everyone’s watching most closely is Apple. And they do not disappoint us. 2 new interesting iPhone software patent applications surfaced today, with some features that could be a very cool addition in the next iPhone OS/firmware update.

The first patent app is called “Auto messaging to currently connected caller” and describes ways to do some additional things,  while you are talking to someone on the phone. Things like writing a person an SMS message at the same time, sending him an e-mail, address book contact info, or any other file.

Pretty simple stuff.  Describing the things we do without thinking on our PC while engaged in a Skype call. And where most of the modern smartphones come lacking.

It pisses me of, when a friend calls and asks someone’s contact info, and then I have to hang up, look it up and send it via SMS. And why do I have to do that?  What’s wrong with keeping the call session open, giving me easy access the usual UI elements, and then giving me an easy way to use other messaging app to communicate with a person I am talking to?

I’m really looking forward to this feature. Of course, to run several apps at once, iPhone OS will have to be able to multitask… Well, not really, Apple can always cheat and make multitasking available only for it’s own messaging apps.

And speaking about messaging the person you are talking to, you also will have to use a built-in speakerphone, since it might be a bit difficult to type an SMS with iPhone at your ear…

And this is what a second iPhone software patent app is about – “Speakerphone Control for Mobile Device “.

It’s not that it’s that hard to turn on the speakerphone manually when you need it. On most modern handsets you can do it with one or two clicks. But Apple still wants to make the whole process automatic, and use various sensors present in an iPhone for it.

Some of them are pretty simple, like deactivating speakerphone, when you put an iPhone to your ear with a hint from proximity sensor. Others are a bit, and, sometimes, a lot more complicated – like measuring your voice volume, device position/orientation, determining time of day, using pressure/temperature sensors to see if a device is in your hand, and even checking it’s location via GPS to decide when to activate/deactivate your speakerphone.

Most of this sounds like a bit of an overkill, (what’s wrong  with simply pressing “Speakerphone On/Off” button on display?), and will never make it into an actual software update. But some simple improvements might be welcome.

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It’s called “Consumer abuse detection system and method” and is meant to help Apple service reps to see whether the broken device you brought in was your fault or Apple’s.

To do that, Apple proposes placing a number of sensors that can detect liquid, thermal changes, shocks and tampering inside the device. Those sensors then record any occurrence of the “abuse” events – like dropping, drowning or burning your iPhone – onto memory chip, and make this info available to the service center staff.

Looks like an interesting approach, which, if implemented, can help Apple reduce  bogus warranty service claims.

And,  incidentally, help them rebut those stories about  iPods and iPhones exploding for no good reason, that get so much attention from the press.

Like that stupid story about exploding iPod, that ruled interwebs this Monday.

Why do I say it’s a stupid story? Because it is.

The guy in the original Times Online article admits that he actually dropped the iPod on the floor. And then, for good measure, threw it out the backdoor, before the darn thing exploded.

But our devices shouldn’t explode at all, even if dropped,  you say. Yes?

Errr… Not necessarily.

Look, it is an electronic device. If you drop it hard enough – it will crack. And, if you throw it really hard, you know, like 10 or 20 meters out the back door, maybe even non-removable battery cover inside your iPod will crack. And, if your battery cover has cracked, and it’s wet  outside, what happens?

It is Lithium Ion battery you have inside. Lithium! Remember your high school chemistry classes? What happens when you mix Lithium and water? Big Kaboom…

In case you forgot, here’s a nice YouTube video, showing how disposable lithium battery strap reacts to water:

Doesn’t that look exactly like what happened to the unfortunate iPod touch? And where’s Apple’s fault in that?

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After all, capacitive touchscreen displays are faster, more responsive, support multi-touch, and are the holy grail of a modern user interface…

In real life it’s not so simple. First there is an issue of price, and, at least for now, capacitive displays are way more expensive then resistive ones. Then there’s the issue of precision/accuracy, where resistive touchscreens are  ahead. This is particularly important in Asia, where stylus based character entry is prevalent, and capacitive touch based devices are not up to the task for this.

And then don’t tell my girl friends about capacitive displays on some latest touch phones. I can still hear the screams and swearing as they try to text on a new LG Arena with those long polished nails…, while Diamond 2 works just fine.

But now RIM might have found a solution to the resistive or capacitive dilemma.  At least for their high end Blackberry devices.

Just merge the damn things, make a touchscreen display with both resistive and capacitive touch sensors/controllers.

And they filed a patent app for that.

By having both -capacitive and resistive – touchscreen controllers in the same device, you get the best of both worlds. Fast responsiveness to finger touch, support for various gestures, high precision and stylus character entry capabilities, in a single device.

Of course, the issue of the price remains. These hybrid capacitive/resistive touchscreen displays will certainly be mighty expensive. But for the high end device like Blackberry Storm 2 or 3, they might be perfect.

And it’s not only RIM that is thinking about combining capacitive and resistive touch. In fact, it is said, that Samsung Jet already comes with something called R-Resistive display tech, that combines the best features of capacitive and resistive touch screens.

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But some bits  of what they are up to might be found in the patent applications that company files. And today it’s time to look at what the researchers from RIM are up to.

Some time in early 2007, while RIM employees were contemplating the impact iPhone will have on their business and devising the strategies to take on consumer markets, RIM R&D labs were having a field day drawing up a new form factors future Blackberries could sport.

Then  they decided to put all of them into a single patent app, that now, two years later, is available for everyone to view. The concepts in the application range from smart and mundane, that can actually make it into your next Blackberry, to pretty exotic and stupid that will not see the light of day.

But enough of the talk, and let’s look some pictures.  Starting from some, more or less,  realistic designs.

Full touch screen device in a closed mode, that can be easily used for typing with a single hand on a narrow full or semi-QWERTY slide-out keyboard. Why not? It could be made to look just like any other Blackberry, the form factor and all the parts are pretty familiar and this one could find it’s own buyer.

Other designs are much more strange, like this dual mode phone with rotating screen:

It has the usual phone mode, rotate the screen 90 degrees and you get qwerty keyboard, rotate it 90 degrees more and you get the game controls.

Or these sliders:

And then we get to things even more exotic, like this cross between Motorola Aura and Nokia 6810:

This one, with a screen swiveling for no good reason:

Or this strange contraption with wings:

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And Google is already thinking of the ways of monetizing Voice. In a way it knows best – through advertising. And it just might work.

When I use my phone, there is actually one time, when I wouldn’t really mind listening to some short audio adverts. Especially if Google can make them relevant to me.

It’s that time between when I dial the number and the person I called answers the phone. Filled with those boring beeps or stupid ringback tones from the operator.

This is exactly the place where Google wants to insert their short audio advertisements, described in a patent app “Ringback  advertising”.

And it’s thinking about setting the self serving audio advertising system in a way that is pretty similar to how Google Adwords works. Complete with auction bidding, Listen Through Ratio and quality scores.

Advertisers can structure their ads by various product categories, location, which can easily be determined for each caller and then start the bidding contest for their ads to be played. The callers can also set up in their profile which categories of ads they are interested in.

There’s also a place for a third party publishers in the system. This can be a service organization or professional, retailer or, possibly, even you and me.

The electronics chain can become a publisher, and set up an audio adverts from the vendors in the chain to be played each time someone calls one of their stores or help lines. Then LG and Samsung can start bidding contest on whose ad will be played, and the publisher gets a significant cut every time the ad is listened to.

Of course, this can work not only through Google voice. Actually, it could be enough to install some software to company PBX and the system will be on.

But if Google Voice gains traction with tens of millions of users throughout the world, this can open another pretty nice income stream to Google.

And with the targeting capabilities that Google will have if it connects your Google Voice to everything it knows about you through your main Google account, this might get pretty interesting… and even a bit scary.

Especially if you add all the info that your Android phone, or any other mobile device with installed Google Voice client, can collect about you.

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But there’s also one problem. Through the years of using, you’ve set-up your old device to work with perfectly.

You know – things like fast dial numbers, equalizer settings, network connection passwords, bookmarks, shortcuts to various apps and functions, etc. Now you have to do all that again on a new device, which is one hugely boring task.

And then there’s that process transferring all your media collections, favorite playlists, etc; to the new handset.

Well, Apple may soon have a solution to make this process completely seamless. With the help of the headset that comes with your device.

The idea, described in the latest Apple patent application called “Data store and enhanced features for headset of portable media device “ is pretty simple and elegant.

Since most of the time you don’t really have to change the headset when you get a new device, just add some flash memory to it to store all your device settings, and, maybe, even most used media items. Then, when you get a new device, plug-in your old headset and all your settings and media items are quickly downloaded to your new phone.

And that’s about it. No manual configuration, no additional data transfers, and your new device works just as perfectly as the old one.

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Last we told you about event based modes, intelligent and scheduled communications that could come with your new iPhone 4.0 or 5.0 OS.

Today a new batch of Apple’s patent apps surfaced, showing us some more interesting things that may come with your next major iPhone OS update.

Real world object identification

The idea in the patent app is somewhat similar to Nokia’s Point & Find service being tested right now in some countries – point your iPhone to a real world object, your handset will recognize what it is and then provide relevant additional info about it.

The object identification could be done via camera/image recognition technologies, RFID tags, barcode scanning, etc;). The user can set different location and context based modes to make the object recognition easier (e.g. Museum, Restaurant, Electronics shop, etc;), or an iPhone can to it itself based on location and other parameters.

The user also can create logs/albums of recognized objects for future reference.

Face detection and recognition

This one is pretty obvious. In a patent app Apple  decribes the techniques how to incorporate face detection and recognition technologies into an iPhone, iMac and other devices.

After implementation, face recognition capabilities  can be used to control the operation of the device – controlling access privileges and restrictions, deciding whether to put a device into a sleep mode, etc;

Text Message Filtering

In this patent app Apple describes  methods for filtering and controlling various text based communications via your iPhone.

This filtering can be applied to outgoing and incoming e-mails, text, MMS, IM and other  messages. The text control app can be set up alter the objectionable text (e.g – swear words in an e-mail app), or to help your kid lean foreign language, by making him send e-mails in it:

control application includes an instructional tool or study aid where the administrator sets one or more modes, such as language, vocabulary, grammar, spelling, punctuation and/or other content of a text-based communication based on, for example, a user’s age or grade level. This can be especially useful, for example, such as when a child’s grades go down. A parent can then institute a condition to improve a child’s grades. For example, the control application may require a user during specified time periods to send messages in a designated foreign language, to include certain designated vocabulary words, or to use proper designated spelling, designated grammar and designated punctuation and like designated language forms based on the user’s defined skill level and/or designated language skill rating. If the text-based communication fails to include the required language or format, the control application may alert the user and/or the administrator/parent of the absence of such text.

Smarter messaging interface

There are also couple of patent apps that describe the ways to make your overall messaging/communication experience easier.

One of them is related to multiple recipient messages. E.g. You send a message to your work team and not all the messages get delivered. After a preset time interval the messaging app checks the status of message delivery. If some messages have not been delivered, it alerts you and then provides an interface to easily resend a message to those who did not get it via the same or different means.

Another app is designed to help you deal better with unread messages.

Apple thinks  that if you have some unread messages from a person you are about to contact (call or send a message to him), you might want to at least look at them before initiating contact. And that’s exactly what this app does – compares your  unread messages, e-mails, voicemails, etc; to the info of a person you are about to contact and informs you if you have some unread messages from him sitting on your phone.

In addition to checking the contact info, the message app can also check for certain keywords – e.g. the name of a project you are writing about and alert that you have some unread messages relating to it.

This one sounds like one of those obvious (“Darn, how come I didn’t think of that..”) cool  little things that Apple is especially good at.

Changes voice output in your iPhone

And then there’s a patent app that describes the possibility of altering audio output from your iPhone.

There may be a multiple reasons you’d want to do this. Some of them, described in a patent app are:

Despite the restrictions involved in playing back audio files, users of media devices may wish to change the audio output of audio files. A mother, for example, might wish to change the narrator’s voice in a pre-recorded, commercially available audiobook to her own voice, so that her child can listen to the audiobook as narrated in the mother’s voice in her absence. In another scenario, a student listening to a lecture as a podcast file might want to change the audio of certain sections of the lecture to sound like someone else’s voice, so as to emphasize important parts of the lecture.

Well, that’s about it for today. Let’s see what Apple will try to patent next week.

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But they are getting better at this and should eventually figure things out.

In the meantime Nokia R&D labs aren’t sitting still too, and are looking for a new ways to control your mobile device that goes beyond today’s traqditional UI’s.

We’ve already told you about the haptics tactile feetback methods that are being tried there, or  ultrasonic 3D gesture based touchless device control.

Well, here’s one more interesting approach to control your mobile device with the help of some wearable electronics.

The basic idea is pretty simple. Create a comfortable sleeve, with embedded sensors that react to the stretching and relaxation of the human skin.

As the skin stretches differently when you move your fingers and/or hand, the input device can figure out the different gestures and transmit them as commands to a mobile device wirelessly.

The input device can be used to intuitively control a wide range of mobile gadgets , including your phone, game console, media player, laptop, near eye-display and many others.

This kind of controller may not seem too practical and looks pretty far fetched, but, if wearable electronics will become as popular as some are predicting, it might come in quite handy in a few years.

You can download a patent app here (*.pdf, 1.5 MB) : Nokia input sleeve

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We’ve already seen some of the things, like integration between Mapping and Calendar app in recent Apple patent filings. Some new patent applications from Apple reveal even more.

iPhone event based modes

One such patent application, called “Event-based modes for electronic devices” describes how your iPhone 4.0 device could be able to automatically adapt to different locations and life events.

The “life events” can include such things as:

any location-based event (e.g., the device entering or exiting a specific geographical location, such as a country, or a specific type of location, such as a movie theater, etc.), any environment-based event (e.g., the device being subjected to a specific physical orientation, movement, temperature, sound, light, etc.), any calendar-based event (e.g., the device reaching a specific time of day, day of week, date, etc.), any usage-based event (e.g., the device being used for a specific function, for a specific period of time, the device’s battery having less than half of its capacity remaining, etc.), any news-based event (e.g., the device receiving information about a particular worldly occurrence, such as a weather forecast, news report, or sport score, etc.), and combinations thereof.

In reaction to these life events your iPhone would be able to to automatically reconfigure it’s settings – e.g. switch the sound off and turn on a voicemail when calendar shows that you are in the meeting; prioritize certain functions and assets based on your location and time – e.g.messaging functions, e-mail access and notifications  during working hours and when device knows you are in your office, music and multimedia when you are out of your office in the evening; turn off or limit some power hungry functions -e.g active data connection – when your battery is running low, etc;

Scheduled communications on your iPhone

Another Apple patent app, called “User-programmed automated communications “  is somewhat similar to the one above, but describes a way for you to automatically schedule/preset communications activities based on calendar events, your location, caller id and other conditions.

E.g. your iPhone can automatically send a birthday greeting SMS or e-mail to your friends on a certain date, play a specific message based on caller id, if you are unable to pick-up the phone at the moment, send another message to your colleague  if your haven’t answered his voicemail message in an hour, set-up a call with John on specific time,  if a calendar entry says “Call John”, or send  an e-mail to your friends in LA when you arrive there.

Intelligent iPhone communication modes

Most of today’s smartphones are pretty dumb when it comes to setting up communications with others and reacting to communication requests. So it’s up to you to make it right.

Your phone doesn’t really care that you are in a meeting right now, so it’s your problem if you forgot to turn the sound off and some telemarketer calls. When you login on some IM service, all your contacts get an update that you are available, and it doesn’t matter that you only want to show that to your family and closest friends. And when your are unable to pick up the phone, people calling you are left wondering where the heck are you. And there’s no way  to tell the boss that you are closing the deal with a client right now, without broadcasting this to everyone else.

Well, patent app called “Systems and methods for intelligent and customizable communications between devices” shows how Apple might be able to do something about that.

By that I mean:

select appropriate communication modes for incoming communications requests based on a user’s preferences and availability. In addition, the communications device can determine the communication modes of a user based on the current activity and allow the user to provide customized information to his contacts.

If implemented in iPhone OS, the new software will let to set up various communication modes, different reply messages, availability notifications and status updates to all your contacts and contact groups in an address book. These modes then can be turned on/off manually or automatically based on your location, time of day, calendar entries or current activities.

Of course, all of these are just patent apps. But most of these things, if implemented right can make your iPhone much more useful and capable device.

And Apple is not the only one working on the ways to make your next phone an intelligent device.  Google also has some similar ideas in that direction, and I am sure Nokia ain’t sitting still too.

I guess our smartphones may actually become smart in a few years.

• Apple plans to integrate iPhone Mapping and Calendar apps
• Next in your iPhone OS: live object identification, face recognition, text filtering, smarter messaging, voice alteration
• iPhone 4.0 OS to finally enable multitasking?
• Cheap and simple iPhone Nano for your Grandma
• Apple confirms iPhone event for October 4, iPhone 5 likely to be announced then

Very few of them make it further then a drawing board, but they still are interesting to look at.

Well, here’s one more cellphone form factor that I will put into a “strange” category. This time coming from Sony Ericsson:

Described in a patent app called simply “Mobile Terminal” the device is intended to be worn as a bracelet, somewhat similar to the watch phones we’ve seen already. But it can also be used in a two hand mode, when you need a faster typing:

…when the mobile phone terminal is worn like a bracelet by putting the ring section  on the user’s arm or the like, the portability of the mobile phone terminal is improved, and the user can see the display surface of the display device  and can operate the key buttons with fingers of the other arm different from the arm on which the ring section is worn. On the other hand, when the ring section  is removed from the arm, the user easily can see the display surface of the display device  of the terminal body section  while holding the ring section  with both hands and operating the key buttons, which can achieve high operability and convenience.

Well, while interesting, the design is strange enough that I am pretty sure it won’t make it into the line-up of regular Sony Ericsson phones anytime soon.

On the other hand, I have  been hearing rumbles about the new “Essence” line of exclusive/radical design phones/accessories that SE can not make up their minds of whether to proceed with or not.

Well, this handset seems radical enough for me.

• Disposable wristwatch phone concept
• New Nokia UI designs and form factors
• LG LBA- C300 something called Bluetooth enabled Qwerty Card
• Better input and bigger screens for cell phones? How about virtual screen from Samsung?
• Sony Ericsson’s Mobile Phone/Universal Remote Control

And the recent improvements in user interfaces are making the process of telling your smartphone what to do better and better.

So now the R&D labs at major cellphone/OS vendors are dabbling on another frontier. Making your handset understand what you are doing at any moment of time, anticipate what you will do next, and conform to your wishes even before you thought of that.

Some of these efforts, like integration between calendar and the mapping apps, the automatic syncing with the cloud in WebOS Synergy, or automatic broadcasting of your status and location to friends via Google Latitude and Ovi Contacts, are already appearing or will very soon appear in your next smart device.

But it is just a very early start. And today we get a glimpse of how Google plans to turn your Android phone into a really clever handset by using built-in accelerometer and other sensors.

The main idea behind Google’s patent app called “Activating Applications Based on Accelerometer Data”  is that by continuously monitoring your accelerometer data, your handset can differentiate between your activities. It’s because the different activities – jogging, walking, driving a car in heavy traffic or highway, riding a train or bike, going up in elevator, sitting at your desk in the office – they all generate different acceleration data profiles.

Combine that data with your location (GPS sensor) and time, and there’s a very good chance for your Android phone to correctly guess what your are doing right now.

Add in a training period of a few days or weeks, where your handset watches what you are  doing now and what you are  doing with it, and there’s a possibility for it to become really smart, start anticipate your wishes beforehand and act accordingly even before you tell it to:

• Going out for your 6AM jog before heading to work? Your handset launches a music player as soon as you start running
• Driving a car to work? The phone switches to speakerphone mode and launches that podcast your pre-loaded
• Riding a train to your office and like to catch up on the news during the trip? The browser, with local, business and global news pages open, is already running when you take the phone out of your pocket.
• Just got into the office? Put you handset on the table and the messaging app with all your work voicemails and messages is loaded as you boot up your PC and settle into the chair.

If Google ever translates these ideas into an actual product and gets things wrong, such device capabilities might become mighty annoing and intrusive.

But if this approach is implemented well, your handset may become a very smart and personal device. And get smarter the more you use it, as it learns about your habits more and more.

Actually,  after a while, it might become very hard to abandon your current handset for a new one, which you will have to train again all along.

And it makes a pretty nice way for a company/brand lock-in, if some vendor makes old training profiles exportable only to his own devices

• HTC F8181 (Smart2) for AT&T pictured
• Vodafone intros Smart – a new, cheap Android 2.2 phone
• HTC Smart2 with Wi-Fi and Office Suite reportedly in the making
• HTC Smart to be launched in India with a $1 million marketing budget
• Google’s own slider smartphone patent app

There’s one feature missing, that prevents the iPhone from realizing this potential though. The ability to seamlessly stream media content to your home cinema system.

That might be changing soon, if the feature, described in Apple’s patent app “Media out interface”, gets implemented.

In this patent app Apple describes the iPhone capable of streaming video content from a dock to a connected TV monitor.

The docked iPhone can be controlled by the TV/Apple remote. The interface also allows you to reject, answer and end incoming calls. Video playback is stopped when the incoming call is detected.

To tell the truth, I don’t see anything groundbreaking in this new possible feature. Other phones have been able to stream video to TV via TV out port for years. And then there is the whole  DLNA initiative too.

Still, none of these things are adopted and used widely, beyond the circle of some high end consumers and geeks. So I guess it might take Apple to finally show the masses how cool  it is to have all that content on your smartphone seamlessly show up on your home plasma TV.

• Apple iPod/iPhone as a remote control for Apple Media Centre
• Apple files patent on cloud-based iTunes service; stores local cache like Pandora, Spotify
• Movement gestures in iPhone OS 4.0 or 5.0?
• True Apple Media Center in the Works
• More info on iPhone 4.0 OS: multitasking via Expose-like interface