Recent patent applications published by the US Patent & Trademark Office have revealed a series of interesting inventions from Taiwan's Hon Hai, the company that's behind manufacturing Apple's cutting edge hardware in addition to Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox. The first invention, which we presented yesterday, covered a new wrist watch band for Apple's iPod nano. The other inventions covered in today's report reveal new touch controls for an eBook and a unique projection system for a future game controller. Both are interestingly straight forward inventions.
Hon Hai's Invention: eBook with Touch Side Panel Controls
Hon Hai's newest eBook invention is clearly shown in patent figures one and two below. Hon Hai notes in their patent filing that both the display and side panel are touch panels. An obtuse angle is defined between the side panel and the display and includes a plurality of wales (121) substantially parallel to each other.
The display is used for displaying e-books. The side panel is used for recording the physical contacts that are made by a user's fingers moving across the panel which sends a "sliding signal" to a recognition module. The recognition module is used for recognizing the sliding signal and then sending the recognition results through to the control module.
For example, when the side panel records contact along a leftward direction, the e-book is turned to a back page, and when the side panel records contact along a rightward direction, the recognition result is that the e-book is turned to a front page. If the thumb of the user slides upwards along the wales towards the top of the page, the recognition result is that the e-book is turned through a number of pages.
Game Controller with Projection Feature
In Hon Hai patent background they state that home game consoles, such as Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii and Microsoft X-box are generally connected to a display device and a game controller. The display device is used to display the game, and the controller is used to control the game. However, it is inconvenient for users to bring both the display device and the game controller along with the game console to another location.
Hon Hai's invention is to remedy the perceived problem by allowing a game controller to be able to project a video game on a wall, ceiling, on the side of a tent or other surfaces through a special lens system associated with the game controller.
The first thing that comes to mind is that the experience would be a little choppy as the user moves the game controller in sync with the gaming action. Yet the patent seems to cover just that very point.
According to the filing, "The driving module adjusts the projection direction of the lens module (31) correspondingly to assure that the game image is steady on the projection surface." Technically, the adjusting module (53) generates an adjusting signal including the change of the tilt angles provided by the calculation module (52). The adjusting signal is then sent to the driving module (32). How steady the actual gaming experience will be remains to be seen.
Hon Hai's e-book patent application was originally filed in Q3, 2011 and their game controller in Q1 2011. Both were published by the US Patent and Trademark Office in Q3 2012.
Hon Hai Factoid
Aside from its leading position on business front, Hon Hai is also a leader in technology focusing on fields of nanotechnology, heat transfer, wireless Internet, material sciences, and green manufacturing process. The Company and its affiliates not only have over 35,000 patents granted worldwide, but were also ranked 14th in U.S.-granted patents in 2009.
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The Patent Bolt blog presents a detailed summary of patent applications with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent application should be read in its entirety for full and accurate details. Revelations found in patent applications shouldn't be interpreted as rumor or fast-tracked according to rumor timetables. About Comments: Patent Bolt reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.
