Toyota has filed a patent app for something that is weird, but cool. It’s not often that I can say Toyota has done something cool. The patent app highlights a design for a flying car that looks like the love child of a Prius and the Red Barron's Fokker DR.1 Triplane. That aircraft is perhaps the best-known layered wing aircraft ever built.
No stranger to patent trolls, Google has introduced a program they’re calling the ‘Patent Purchase Promotion’. Equal parts patent purchasing clearinghouse and troll roadblock, Google’s scheme will allow those interested in selling patents an avenue for submitting the patent, setting a price, and allowing Google to review the offer. After a review period, Google will either make an offer or refuse the purchase. Google is calling the new program ‘experimental’, and its first wave will open up next month for a two week period.
Choose whatever reason you like — it looked weird, got too much attention, or just plain didn’t catch on — Google Glass is pretty much dead and buried. Version one is, at least. Showing they may not be done with wearables just yet, a new patent has surfaced which might show the direction Google is headed with Glass. Though it hasn’t changed much, the core hardware is being split up; likely a response to those who weren’t comfortable with a head-mounted camera ready to shoot.
Twitter, who have been quite busy of late updating their service, have filed for a few trademarks that suggest they’re again ready to combat a competitor. With their trademarks for the term “The Future of Identity” and an icon for what seems to be a service concerned with real-time sharing of news and info (that somehow isn’t Twitter), the microblogging platform may be set to take on one (or more) competitors it hasn't yet dealt with. It also fits Twitter’s current ploy to keep us all tied to them via outlier apps and services.
Remember the Google X skunkworks project that saw the company imagining contact lenses that could monitor your glucose levels? Sounded weird, and more like some means to an end for a bigger project. Then we found Google had a partner in Novartis, and the contact lens that could monitor your health seemed a bit closer to reality. It’s now even closer to being on your eye, as Google has been granted a patent to manufacture the lenses, which have multiple layers and their own chipset.
In the ‘Messages’ app on your iPhone, it’s possible to see where the people you’re chatting with are on a map, should they share their location. The feature was touted as a reason we should all have Family Sharing groups, as keeping track of each other is sometimes critical. Apple’s Find My Friends app is central for letting you know where all your contacts may be on a map, and a newly granted patent takes the location sharing much further, possibly allowing for location tracking.
A patent application from Apple, published today, reveals a new accessory. It’s not a USB-C cable, nor is it a new cover for an iPad. This one is listed as a dock, presumably for the iPhone (though any Apple handheld can probably be used), which makes use of a second screen and inductive charging. The dock also supports gesture controls, and has features for wireless communication with other gadgets. From the sound of the patent, this dock is a lot more than a place to rest your phone.
There are lots of things that can go wrong with your phone. Drop it, and the screen might crack. Load too many apps, or too much media, and it might be sluggish. Both those scenarios often leave a phone usable, but dropping it in water typically sidelines the phone. With so many iPhones in the wild — and the clumsiness we as humans seem prone to — it seems reasonable that waterproofing them is a really good idea. A new Apple patent suggests that’s exactly what’s going to happen, too.
Apple’s FaceTime is a great way to stay connected form afar. Though you can get some eye-to-eye interaction, that doesn’t help when you’re trying to read your little one a bedtime story, or share some in-app features with a colleague. A new patent, granted to Apple, details just how that might change in the near future. In addition to sharing your screen with others, you might even have the chance to collaborate on what you see on-screen.
The Apple Watch is coming in a few short months, but a new patent granted to Apple details it may work with more than an iPhone. The patent awarded to Apple is for a sports camera that can be mounted, much like a GoPro. The patent also tells us the camera will work underwater, and can be controlled remotely via a smartwatch. The camera patent includes another patent Apple has, which they purchased from Kodak in 2013. News of the patent sent GoPro investors scurrying.
Apple has just been awarded a patent that could revive the long-toothed stylus market. Though nearly five years old, the patent mentions a range of use-cases for the new stylus, even taking it off the screen and onto paper. That’s nothing new, but what is interesting is how Apple plans to get there. By switching out your stylus tip and relying on accelerometers, Apple wants to make your writing come to life on and off screen, and could even lead to more artistic digital creations than ever before.
All the talk of patent reform is necessary, and often spot-on, but one thing goes unsaid: there’s no one leading the charge. The US Patent Office lacks leadership, and the Director chair has sat empty for over 18 months. The Obama administration is now trying to fill that seat, and have nominated Michelle Lee to helm the post. Lee is the current Deputy Director of the USPTO, but also has a lineage in tech as a former patent counsel at Google.
