The patent drawing is just a sketch, but it does offer a glimpse into the possible design and features that an Apple iWatch might have. One of these features is the slap bracelet, which “consists of layered flexible steel bands sealed within a fabric cover.” You’ve probably seen some variation of these already. “In a first equilibrium position they can be flat. The second equilibrium is typically reached by slapping the flat embodiment across a wrist, at which point the bracelet curls around the wrist and stays relatively secure in a roughly circular position.”

This would necessitate that the Apple iWatch, or whatever it ends up being called, will have to make use of some sort of flexible display technology. We’ve seen advances in this field in the last couple of years, but not much has gone commercial just yet. Apple could be among the first to popularize the tech, which is possibly why they’re exploring AMOLED. They’re also saying that the iWatch could detect and adapt to the size of the wrist, providing the best use of the available display space. It’ll have to be a touchscreen too, of course.

Aside from that, we’re left to assume that the iWatch should have the usual set of wireless radios, like Bluetooth, for connectivity. There would also presumably be gyroscopes and accelerometers to orient the uninterrupted screen toward the user.

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For the fourth year in a row after his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama joined Google and other viewers on Google+ for a “Fireside Hangout”. This rendition of FDR’s fireside chats allowed 5 people to ask the president questions on Valentine’s Day. Part of the Hangout involved the President’s view on patent trolls and their affect on new ideas.

“They don’t actually produce anything themselves,” said Obama of patent trolls. “They’re just trying to essentially leverage and hijack somebody else’s idea and see if they can extort some money out of them.”

President Obama’s statement on patent trolls were in response to Limor Fried’s question about trolls impediment to high-tech startup growth. Other topics that related to the technology industry were high-school computer programming and copyright issues. The President’s full response included information about the internet and piracy:

The technology is changing so fast, we want to protect privacy, we want to protect people’s civil liberties. We want to make sure the Internet stays open. I’m an ardent believer that what’s powerful about the Internet is its openness and the capacity for people to get out there and introduce a new idea with low barriers to entry.

We also want to make sure that people’s intellectual property is protected. Whether it’s how we’re dealing with copyright, how we’re dealing with patents, how we’re dealing with piracy issues. What we’ve tried to do is be an honest broker between the various stakeholders and to continue to refine it — hopefully keeping up with the technology — which doesn’t mean that there won’t be some problems that we still haven’t identified and that we have to keep working on.

Although patent trolling may be seen as a profitable business, these people or companies must be stopped. As the Limor Friend stated during the fireside hangout, they are becoming a major impediment to technology startups. In fact, one of the first things that new companies have to do is search through GoDaddy and the USPTO directory to ensure that their product is not already taken. If the space is already taken, you will most times find that a website or product is completely unused or unfulfilled.

A patent troll is a person or company that excessively files for and enforces patents. The worst type of troll are the ones who obtain patents and do not follow through in building or producing the final product. The most common type of troll in modern technology is a domain name troll. These are people or businesses who strategically register desirable domain names.

You can watch the full Hangout on YouTube if you missed it:

How do you feel about patent trolls and new ideas? What suggestions or ideas do you have to stop them? Let us know in the comments below.

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This week, RIM has applied for and received an interesting new patent. With the recent picture leaks of the BlackBerry 10, RIM has created technology that would make the blurry inconspicuous photo a thing of the past.The company’s goal is to protect companies from breaches in security, release of unauthorized information and leaks from workers.

The system works by preventing photos from being taken until the camera has been steadily focused for a predetermined amount of time. Each individual IT department would be able to dictate how long that time is, and also turn the feature on and off on employee devices. This could be an inconvenience for shutterbugs that snap a lot of photos, but also could prevent a lot of problems that have occurred.

Now if they can just find a way to prevent their devices from being sold on Ebay ahead of their release date.

What do you think of this patent? Would this feature annoy you, or could it be a positive thing?

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Over the past couple of months, augmented reality glasses have become all the rage at the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office). Although as of now, Google one of the only companies to formally debut their device (Project Glass). Now it seems that Microsoft’s Research department looks to enter the game as well.

The patent abstract states that it is for “A system and method to present a user wearing a head mounted display with supplemental information when viewing a live event” (USPTO). Furthermore, the head mounted display would allow a user to watch a live event through a semi-transparent display. At the same time, objects and information can be shown without interrupting the user’s view of the live event.

This sounds pretty epic, but when is it coming? While we can’t say for sure, since this is Microsoft Research technology. Sometimes these kinds of projects turn into commercial efforts quickly, sometimes they never do. We do know that Project Glass prototypes have already been sold to developers and will arrive in 2013. Additionally, the consumer versions are poised to be released in late-2013 or early-2014.

Would you enjoy wearing augmented reality glasses? Is this technology the future of mobile? Let us know in the comments below.

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Another day, another Apple patent revealed. This time around, Apple has a few different patents up for consideration.

The first patent is for an inductive charging system patent, not totally unlike what is found in the Nokia Lumia 920. The system highlighted by Apple would not just be used for charging but also for syncing and transferring data between devices. Essentially that means it has the potential to replace the new lightening adapter. A wireless solution like this would be awesome, but a third change in Apple’s charging standard would likely anger more than a few of even the most loyal Apple fans. Imagine if they could combine a wireless charging standard with their universal battery patent, how awesome would that be?

Besides the inductive patent patent, Apple also seems to be working on a curved display, likely for one of their iDevices. What would be the purpose of a curved display? The design could allow for components to fit a little better, for one. Depending on how wide the curve was, there could also be issues like glare, though.

The curved shape of the screen isn’t what really makes this particular Apple patent stand out though, it’s the idea that a flexible surface would allow them to play an array of piezoelectric actuators below the display and activate them on demand for tacticle feedback. But what exactly is tactile feedback? Essentially, this means that you would actually feel feedback on the display, similar to a physical keyboard.

Is Apple the first to suggest either of these ideas? Not at all. Apple might not be the first to the party with these concepts, but at least they seem to be adding their own spin in order to make them unique. How long before any of these patents could make it into actual products? Hard to say, maybe never. Patents are just patents, and sometimes the technology describes is never realized- sometimes it is. What do you think?

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When it comes to companies that use removable batteries, Apple is the last name you think of. That’s what is somewhat ironic about Apple’s most recent patent. What’s the patent all about? It’s a universal battery charging system.

The patent was filed in March of 2010 and essentially painted the picture of a system that would allow interchangeable batteries that worked with various Apple devices. Imagine a future version of the iPhone, iPod, MacBook, mouse and other Apple products sharing the same type of battery. One goes low, you swap out for another battery.

One problem, different devices will inevitably have different power needs and requirements. Apple seemingly understood this hurdle though, and found a way around it with this patent. The battery is designed to “negotiate with the coupled electronic device for an agreed range of power parameters at which power will be transferred to the device and to configure the rechargeable battery to provide power at the agreed range of power parameters.” That’s a fancy way to say that it simply can adjust itself for this different devices.

This is beyond a cool idea, if not completely a different direction than we’ve seen from Apple thus far. At this point it’s hard to say what Apple will do with this patent and what devices it might affect. For all we know, it might only affect Apple accessories like keyboards and mice. What do you think?

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A new patent from Apple shows that Apple might be looking into the idea of using illuminated touchpads. Whether this is aimed at the MacBook line or the Magic Trackpad, or both, it’s hard to say. The new patent isn’t merely about lighting up your touchpad so you can see in the dark, instead its about having light-based feedback when performing certain actions on your touchpad.

As an example, as you drag your finger across the touchpad, certain colors might occur. Another color or brightness level could indicate how hard you are pressing. Basically this is just another technology that makes it easier to do gestures and other special touchpad functions. It’s also worth noting that Apple’s patent makes mention of using the technology in other ways such as through an OLED, LCD or e-ink display. Instead of brightness and colors, the patent suggest visual feedback would be provided instead.

Keep in mind that companies like Apple file for patents all the time, so it’s really hard to say whether or not this will ever make it into an actual product. If it does, what do you think of the idea of illuminating touchpads coming to the MacBook and other Apple products?

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Smartphones are great, but wouldn’t they be better if they also smelled wonderful and could even make you smell great, too? Okay, so you’ve probably never thought about such an idea right, I mean who would? Samsung, that’s who. Apparently a new patent has been discovered from Samsung which entails a phone having the unique ability to emit perfume.

This isn’t about just a small part of your phone smelling nice, it actually contains a rechargeable sponge that gets its smell-power back when you recharge it. Not sure how it gives off the scent and if it’s meant for spraying as a perfume on people, or for making the area around you smell better, or just the phone itself- either way, this patent is beyond bizarre.

Alright, let’s say Samsung actually did this- who is the market? Perhaps ladies? The problem here is that I believe that women would want a larger variety of fragrances, and wouldn’t you just feel silly spraying yourself with your phone? Maybe this is marketed at those who work in the sanitation industry and are sick of their phones smelling like work? Don’t know what Samsung was thinking on this one, though it’s more than likely we’ll never see this in an actual smartphone.

What do you think of this very strange patent? Perhaps someday we’ll get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy Aroma as a result?

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Could staring and moving your eyes soon be a way to unlock your favorite Google device? A new patent granted to Google makes use of eye-tracking information to unlock a screen, which brings up an interesting question, why? Before you think that Google has lost it’s mind, the likely scenario is that this patent is actually going to be applied towards Google’s computerized glasses, not their smartphones and tablets. With that in mind, this patent could make a great deal of sense, since it would be the easiest way to unlock such a device, instead of having to reach up and slide your finger across your glasses lense. When you really stop to think about it though, it seems a little odd that you can patent the way that eyes move around, which is essentially what this is. You have to wonder, what basic body movement and/or function will some company patent next?

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With the Microsoft Surface we’ve seen how the idea of a cover that acts as a keyboard could truly add both beauty and function to the tablet experience, but it seems that Apple has an even more ambitious smart cover system in mind. A year-old patent filing from Apple has now been made public, in the filing Apple details out a cover that can take power and data from a dedicated connector on the side of a tablet and then can use at least one segment of the Smart Cover to augment the main display with useful information such as notifications, additional icons, multimedia controllers and similar functions. The drawings included with the patent even suggest that the inner surface of the cover would have the ability to work as a drawing area or a virtual keyboard.

While a patent doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple will ever build such a cover, it is certainly a unique idea that I wouldn’t mind seeing come to light. What about you?

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