Posts in Technology & Innovation

Live music performance broadcast across Internet channels is the focus of today’s featured patent application here at IPWatchdog. Intel is hoping to protect a system that builds off of previous systems of networked music performances to better incorporate audience reactions and build a more inclusive entertainment experience. We’ve also picked up on a couple of user recognition systems, one for improving gesture-based user interfaces and another that enhances facial recognition software for computer security by registering genuine human facial reactions. Today’s issued patents protect some novel innovations related to the way a computer system can interact with an individual, instead of the other way around. One patent protects a system that can provide advertising content to device users who are offline, while another protects a second facial recognition for computer security technology, this one capable of identifying unknown faces by accessing an image database. We also have some interesting Internet TV technologies that are assigned to Intel today, but may quickly be moving to Verizon.

The featured application today discusses a novel GE system of flight management that has the potential to create great savings in costs incurred by airlines on a flight-by-flight basis. This system can respond dynamically mid-flight to changes in weather conditions and other parameters that affect fuel usage and other costs. Additional patent applications we discovered involve improvements to dosimeters and other chemical sensors as well as a newly designed dishwasher heating element that can improve user safety. General Electric has also been the happy recipient of a number of issued patents that protect a series of interesting inventions related to electronic appliances. Two of these discuss methods of using energy more cheaply by drawing it off a grid at non-peak hours, both within the appliance and through a control module that interfaces between appliances and a smart home electrical system. Finally, we focus on a couple of patents that describe improvements to diagnostic and communication systems for locomotives.

Our feature patent application today almost sounds impossible, or at least exceptionally futuristic. The application discloses a novel way of using image processing to aid in speech recognition services. The system described in this application could use a camera to analyze a user’s lip activity so that sounds picked up by a microphone can be differentiated as ambient background noise or genuine speech. We also discuss a few other patent applications, including one describing more efficient blade computer system architectures and another that discusses automated methods of delegating resources to individuals using an organization’s computer network. Patent holdings are of great interest to us in this series, as is HP’s clear focus on printing technologies in their recently issued patents. A couple of issued patents that we explore today discuss improved methods of inkjet printing for pigment opacity or reducing abnormalities in print media. We also were intrigued by a novel system devised to ensure that networked printers handle print jobs with better respect to user printing preferences.

Today’s featured patent application discusses a system of making mobile device communication more effective between parties. This application would protect a system that can analyze a device owner’s communication habits and then suggest to other people whether they’ll have a better chance reaching a contact through a phone call or a text. Other patent applications we discovered today include a system of using wireless devices to communicate with fitness equipment during a workout, as well as methods of estimating a crowd size by surveying mobile devices in the vicinity. Issued patents are a huge part of our focus here at IPWatchdog, and it intrigues us that AT&T, usually involved with telephone systems and other forms of communications innovations, would be so interested in IPTV and television services. But a trio of patents included here suggest AT&T is itself intrigued with innovations in the delivery of TV. We also discuss a patent used to track media content shared over peer-to-peer and ad-hoc networks as well as improvements to IT security infrastructures that improves the accuracy of security data.

Although Ford, General Motors, Mercedes and others brought innovations to share with the crowds at CES, Audi seemed to be a big winner of popular appeal, to judge by news reports about vehicular developments at the convention. Audi’s Sport Quattro Laserlight concept car features the manufacturer’s driverless technology as well as a hybrid V8 engine that helps the car reach 90 miles per gallon of gas. True to the ‘Laserlight’ name, this Audi model uses laser headlights that can illuminate the road for one-third of a mile in front of the car.

What is clear every time we look at Qualcomm is that the company’s innovation profile defies easy characterization because Qualcomm simply innovates, and innovates and innovates. For example, today we begin looking at a patent application that could very well bring the value of having a massive scope of retail products available for purchase online directly into brick-and-mortar stores. This computing system would allow a store to detect that a shopper is comparing prices online through a device and then provide a discount offer that could entice the customer into buying the item in the store. Then we briefly discuss other interesting patent applications that relate to a mobile video terminal that could assist in patient physical therapy, as well as a system of reducing a device’s processor power to control internal temperature.

“Patent trolls have a surprising ally: universities” ran in the Washington Post on November 30, 2013. Two days later “Techdirt” threw the follow up: “Patenting University Research Has Been A Dismal Failure, Enabling Patent Trolling. It’s Time to Stop.” Their titles and parallel arguments suggest that both articles arise from shared talking points. Both immediately set up their victims by linking them with patent trolls. Casting anyone as an “ally of patent trolls” after huge amounts of money have been invested vilifying the term in the public mind is meant to quickly knock opponents to their knees and drive them from the field. Ostensibly the focus of their wrath is university patent licensing, but the real target is the patent system itself.

The featured patent application today focuses on a developed system of interacting with a mobile device that has been pursued by many device manufacturers recently. This system is capable of receiving vocal inputs from a user and converting that speech into a digital command that can be processed by the device. Other patent applications that we’ve noticed include a couple of improvements to image applications available for mobile devices, including a method of creating a 3D representation of a photo gallery. We’ve also included a group of recently issued patents that protect some other interesting mobile device technology developments. Today, we’ve picked three patents that involve improvements to mobile device connectivity, including one patent protecting a method for wi-fi providers to block unauthorized users who are within range. Also, we turned up a patent that describes a novel system of paying for public transit fare through a mobile device.

Today’s featured patent application describes a system of collecting movement data from mobile devices so as to better compile real-time traffic data for mobile users. This data collection would not interfere with normal use and provides a vast improvement on current methods of providing traffic data. We’ve also noticed a few other patent applications detailing mapping application improvements as well as a method for setting quiet hours on a device to prevent notification sounds at inopportune moments. We also take a close look at some issued patents that lay out some intriguing software and hardware improvements for Apple’s mobile devices. One patent protects a method of detecting hand gestures for interacting with a touchscreen device. Another issued patent describes a system of automatically updating profile images on a user’s device for various contacts. Finally, we noticed a patent to protect a piece of wearable hardware that lets a user view digital content privately through goggles.

Last Friday we took a look at some Microsoft Xbox patents. This week’s holiday version of IPWatchdog’s Companies We Follow series continues by taking a look at some gaming related patents from the other major player in the Winter 2013 gaming market. The featured patent application today discusses a system of associating handheld controllers with users when engaging in game play through a video game console. Although this is already done manually by players, the automatic system of identifying players through camera images takes a lot of the cumbersome nature out of loading player profiles and switching out players during game play. Other patent applications have been filed to protect a new style of video game controller as well as a few other patent applications for Sony’s virtual reality and augmented reality gaming systems.

Microsoft already has a massive patent portfolio, but it has continued to increase in recent weeks. We’ve pulled up a trio of patents related to online gaming through Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE network, including methods of using gamer profiles on multiple consoles as well as validating untrusted games for inclusion on the LIVE network. Another Microsoft patent also shows the technology developer’s interest in improving means of advertising within multiplayer games online. Patent applications that caught our attention include a couple related to virtual reality applications, especially one that involves virtual manipulation of a physical environment in response to a story being read. We also look at an application regarding a dynamic system of using workout videos to create an individualized exercise experience for Xbox console users.

We’re going in-depth to explore a patent application that would notify mobile device users of nearby events. These events would be collected from social media applications and filtered based on a user’s interest and proximity to the user, helping that person find interesting events that they were unaware of. Also, a couple of patent applications describe improvements to social networks available through Yahoo!, both on an individual and a group basis. The patent holdings of Yahoo! encompass a wide array of web services, especially those that are related to the website’s search engine. One recently issued patent protects a system of removing spam websites from search engine results, while another discusses a method of improving the accuracy of color-based searches. Collaboration on eBook documents and better notification systems for fantasy sports players are also on focus in a few other issued patents we’re exploring here.

Deriving energy from the sun has been aggressively, albeit periodically, pursued since at least the 1970s when the U.S. suffered through several gas shortages. But over time gas prices decreased, the technology could not compete with cheap alternatives, so interest waned, although it never thoroughly disappeared… The Obama Administration, which seems exceptionally cozy with Google, seems to have real disdain for software patents, which is the Google articulated position. Thus, it is hard to reconcile the Obama Administration positions that are in favor of alternative energy but which are also against the patent eligibility of software. So many alternative energy innovations today and in the future will incorporate software.