I love days like this when we get to see a new and exciting invention from the Crazy Ones in Cupertino. In March there was a rumor that the new iPad would include new advanced haptics that didn't' pan out. But make no mistake about it; Apple is hard at work on delivering such a feature in the future. Apple has filed haptic related patents in In March 2011 and 2012. Yet today's surprise invention packs a punch with a wildly intelligent multi-tiered haptics system. The system will actually allow an iDevice display to deform so that it could provide the user with a button, an arrow or even a geological map to physically pop right out of the screen to give it 3D depth. If that wasn't cool enough, Apple's patent discusses a flexible OLED display that could be used for video glasses. Updated May 04, 2012.
On April 26, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published three interesting patent applications from Apple. In the first one, Apple seeks to patent their Upper West Side (NYC) retail store structure that's located at 67th Street and Broadway. Just last week they filed a similar patent application for their Shanghai Apple Store. This trend of patenting "Flagship" store designs is likely to be a trend that will continue going forward. In a second patent application, we see that Apple has developed a new OLED driver which indicates that Apple is considering OLED for future MacBook and iOS device displays. The advantage to OLED is that display-backlighting isn't required. In the third patent application we see that Apple is legally beefing up their patent pending MacBook Air by including nine related patent applications under one roof. Is Apple making this move to protect their design if challenged or could it be used offensively in the future against copycat OEM designs hiding under Wintel's Ultrabook banner? Time will tell.
Apple certainly has a fascination for avatar creation apps of late. In the last year or so they've invented several interesting avatar related apps including one for a very sophisticated Personal Shopping app for the desktop and another covering Advanced Avatar Editing for the iPhone. In today's latest patent application, Apple reveals a new application in the making that will primarily be used for avatar creation, though Apple does clarify that they may use the underlying technology in other professional applications. On one hand it's like Photo Booth on steroids and on the other hand it's definitely being aimed at the 3D video game market. In either case it'll be a blast to play with on an iPad. In fact, Apple notes that this app could eventually apply to next generation displays that include "movable," heads-up and three-dimensional (e.g., holographic) systems. Now that caught my attention.
It was revealed yesterday by the USPTO that Apple has invented a new laser beam focus system that is used on their production lines overseas. Apple's passion for detail drove them to invent their own laser beam calibration system so as to get their spot-welds just perfect. Would we expect anything less from Apple? And on another front this morning, we learn that Apple may shift from IPS to IGZO displays in 2012. A 32" HDTV prototype using IGZO was demonstrated in Japan in October – which may explain one of Apple's motivators for shifting to IGZO displays.
On December twentieth, The Washington Post reported that "Apple Inc. won a patent-infringement ruling that bans some HTC Corp. smartphones from the U.S. starting next year, bolstering efforts to prove that devices running Google Inc.'s Android operating system copy the iPhone." And today, the US Patent and Trademark Office officially published yet another core iPhone multitouch victory for Apple that will bolster their legal arsenal. This particular multitouch related patent focuses on the oscillator signal and circuit, which are central to sensing a touch event on a touch display. And Finally, we add a Classic Photo collage of Steve Jobs introducing the revolutionary iPhone at Macworld in January 2007. These are images that are seared into most of our memories of Steve.
Yesterday, US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a rather inventive idea of fighting grime on your iOS Devices. We were the first to reveal Apple's initial patent on this subject in August that focused on using a vaporizing method involving a physical vapor deposition chamber. In Apple's latest method, they reveal an alternate method of fighting grime that uses mechanical wave mechanisms that could use audio or physical vibrations. The interesting fact is that Apple has expedited this patent application which was only filed seven months ago. Apple is apparently out to fight grime on all iOS devices in the future, and before you know it, they'll be called the Grime Busters! That's right: Who ya gonna call?Grime Busters!
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 17 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. This morning's first granted patent report focuses entirely on a very interesting invention that relates to display devices, and more particularly, to avoiding luminescence shock (temporary vision impairment) when a display device is activated in a dark environment. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone back in 2007, he stated that the iPhone was protected by more than 200 patents. Today, we get to review one of the originating patents that he referred to.
While Donald LeBuhn was filing a class action lawsuit against Apple back in January of this year, accusing the company of misleading customers as to the strength of the glass used in its iPhone 4, Apple was already well into inventing new crack resistant glass solutions for portables like the iPhone. The new solution involves a tunable shock mount that sits between the glass and the body of the device. The specialized mount could be instantly inflated if the device senses a drop event determined by its internal accelerometer. Apple's patent describes using exotic materials that could protect the glass from shattering. As a side bonus, Apple is also considering a solution that could provide portable devices with a new water damage prevention seal. Two Updates have been added to this report
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a new granted patent for Apple Inc. today that relates to input systems, methods and devices that use swipe gestures in relation to virtual keyboards. This key 2007 patent introduces a Touch Image Processor, Tap and Slide Recognizers as well as anexemplary Swipe Recognition System. In the bigger picture, this is Apple's seventh win for multi-touch technologies relating to virtual keyboards alone! Apple's previous virtual keyboard patents have covered a wide variety of features including a "Chord Motion Recognizer" right through to large futuristic virtual keyboards. It's an area that Apple intends to continue to lead and excel in as it researches ways to move virtual keyboards to the desktop and beyond. Apple's huge portfolio of original multi-touch and virtual keyboard patents will continue to provide Apple Legal with the means to protect their products in the market against copycats – to the dismay of Android fans whose heads collectively explode with each and every patent victory for Apple: Splat!
On November 10, 2011, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that may reveal some of the changes coming to the iPad 3's backlighting system. This past Monday we learned that Apple is likely to modify LED back-light solutionsfor next-generation iPads. Today's patent may provide us with a more in-depth peek into where these modifications may be going. Some think that the iPad launching in Q1 2012 is really just a stepping stone to the iPad 3that's destined for a Q4 2012 release. Something like what the iPhone 4S is to the iPhone 5. In today's patent, Apple discusses the use of one or two OLED backlighting units in a future iPad. Down the road, other devices adopting multiple OLED backlights may include such devices as the Cinema Display, MacBook Air and - if we hold our breath long enough, maybe an HDTV. For now however, the focus is definitely on a future version of the iPad.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 17 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our final granted patent report of the day we cover Apple's no-touch sensor output technology and acoustic systems for iOS devices. And to top it off, we close out our patent report with our usual Final Patent Round-Up with six patents covering everything from a Mac Pro tower latch through to the Apple Remote.
November is definitely shaping up to be one hell of a great month for Apple legal. Last week Apple was granted two high profile multi-touch related patents and today they've been granted yet another pair. The first relates to a new True Multi-Touch Digital Controllerand the second one relates to hover and gesture detection that uses a capacitive sensor panel having dynamically reconfigurable sensor size and shape. Most noteworthy is the fact that the technology applies to both iOS devices and Macs, according to the patent. Apple legal has four new shiny patents to go on the offensive against Google and their Android OEMs with and I love it being that Google legal whined in July and again just yesterday about how the so-called "broken patent system" is in their way of beating Apple. It now appears that there may be a massive new wave of the original Apple touch patents going through the system and Google likely knows it too: Hence their whining.
