Welcome to Patent Bolt, a dedicated Intellectual Property news site that specializes in dissecting patent applications from leading industry players such as Microsoft, Google, Samsung and others. If you love to explore future inventions, you'll love our site.
The US Patent & Trademark Office published a new patent application from Microsoft this week that reveals their ongoing work in the area of expandable mobile devices such as a smartphone or mini tablet. The intended goal is to design mobile devices with a flexible display that will be able to almost double in size when needed. The user will be able to expand the display by simply pulling it out of the smartphone's housing as noted in our cover graphic. Microsoft isn't alone in pursuing this kind of device, as a Samsung patent surfaced exactly a year ago this week illustrating the very same concept. Whether expandable mobile devices will ever be able to challenge dual LCD display smartphones, phablets and/or mini tablets is unknown at this time.
Last month the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Microsoft that reveals their work on variable-depth 3D Display Technology for an HDTV that will be able to play Future 3D Xbox video games without the need of having the consumer or gamer to use any special glasses. The advanced 3D technology will allow a person to move within a room and still be able to view the right 3D angle of a movie or game without distortion. Microsoft may deliver this technology in two ways. They may integrate special variable-depth technology into their Kinect gaming peripheral or they could build it directly into a future Surface or PixelSense based Devices. With Microsoft reportedly about to invest $2 Billion US into Dell, one has to wonder if Microsoft will use Dell to produce upcoming PixelSense televisions and/or tabletop computers and other large displays that Perceptive Pixel was manufacturing.
Back on September 9, 2012, Patent Bolt was first to make public Microsoft's patent pending next generation immersive gaming environment. At the time we thought it was simply wild if Microsoft could ever get it to market. Well, surprise, surprise, Microsoft is closer to getting this to market than we originally thought. Our original report that rocked the gaming world now leaps to life in a new Microsoft video demo that brings the patent to life. Microsoft is going to market this new feature as "IllumiRoom." For a first generation crack at this immersive gaming experience, it's not that bad and of course it's only going to get better over time as the technology matures. If you're a die-hard gamer – then check out the video of Microsoft's coming IllumiRoom below.
From an Intellectual Property stand point there are a number of races going on in techland on many fronts. There's the race to find the next generation smart pen, there's a race to bring smart eyewear to market and there's even a two horse race to bring gesture-based search to market in the not-too-distant future between Google and Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft has filed a new patent application with the US Patent Office covering gesture-based search that could extend to smartphone, tablets, the Xbox, tiltable desktop multitouch displays, next generation Ultrabook convertibles and more. Our cover graphic covers patent FIGS. 12A-12E as basic examples of specific gestures being considered. The dot shown in the bottom center example, for instance, has an added value that indicates that the search query should weight a particular world or term more heavily. While Google's 2012 patent filing shows that they have a substantial lead over Microsoft's Bing team in this area of gesture-based searches, I wouldn't count Microsoft out of this race just yet.
The race is definitely on to find that breakthrough ePen design that will finally deliver deadly accurate handwriting capabilities for smartphones and tablets. Microsoft, Samsung, Apple and many others are in fact in a race to advance the stylus so that writing and drawing on future smartphones and tablets could be as real as a pen on paper. One of Microsoft's latest inventions covers an Electromagnetic 3D Stylus that will be able to be used for accurate handwriting as well as deadly accurate 3D CAD drawings. Microsoft shows us that the 3D stylus will be able to work in multiple layers of space above the display. The secret to Microsoft's invention is that they use one time secret military technology.
In March 2012 we posted a report titled "Microsoft Invents Projector Eyewear for Xbox & Beyond," that first introduced us to Microsoft's work on projector eyewear for both casual and gaming wearable computing. For the technically minded, two new Microsoft patent applications have come to light that delve into some of the technical aspects of their wide field-of-view virtual image projector. Some of the applications for this invention were first discussed in our special report posted in November in context with viewing live sporting events.
Microsoft has been working with large scale multi-touch displays for some time now. Their PixelSense projects, once under the branding of Surface, involve large scale interactive tables for the home and office. According to a new patent application that we recently discovered, it now appears that Microsoft has their eye on being the first to bring touch and haptics technology to future smart homes in the form of smart walls. First generation smart walls will allow users to interact with lighting and other types of controls that will be virtual based; meaning that they'll only appear when needed, leaving the walls unblemished when not in use. These new controls will deliver higher end haptics that will be able to provide users with a true sense of touching and controlling these new virtual controls. Experiments at Carnegie Mellon University have shown that these smart walls will also be able to be programmed to lower or raise sound levels on your stereo or to put a tune on hold by simply tapping a wall in certain ways or with specific gestures. Although it may seem mundane or trivial today, smart walls will be able to enhance the esthetics of a home and deliver a high degree of convenience not available today.
Microsoft's gaming engineers are always on the move with new ideas and in today's revelations you'll see how they're thinking of new ways of advancing multiplayer video games. Specifically, users at home will be able to use their base Xbox and Kinect systems to create some amazing 3D environments for video games that could then be shared friends at home, outdoors or on the road that only have a smartphone or tablet at their disposal. If you're a lover of multiplayer games, then be assured that Microsoft's teams are hard at work with future advancements to enhance your gaming experience.
Last week we posted a report titled "Top Industry Players are mapping out the Future of Dual Display Devices," that covered dual display and flexible display patents from Sony, Samsung and Microsoft. Today, we're uncovering the basics of an all-new patent filing from Microsoft that describes future devices that may incorporate a pull-out or slide-out extendable flexible display; something that most of us have seen over the years in science fiction movies and/ or TV series. The new design somewhat parallels one that we covered back in March from Samsung.
