Items tagged with Patent
LG has a new patent that was granted in China for a smartphone that goes beyond what the folding screen devices we have seen so far offer. The patent shows a device that has a folding screen in the middle with no seam, similar to what Samsung did with the Galaxy Fold. Things get quite different from there. LG's patent shows a Z-fold device, and as one of the images here shows, the third screen is a stand-alone unit and appears to fold back onto the front surface of the smartphone. The design would give a full front screen that looks pretty much like all the smartphones we are used to seeing today that can unfold into a device that has a screen three times as wide when needed. LG filed for the...
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Back in late 2018, we first talked about the controller prototypes for Microsoft's Project xCloud game streaming service that were meant to make gaming on smartphones and tablets more enjoyable. Controls are a crucial part of allowing gamers to enjoy the games xCloud offers anywhere, and few are happy with touch controls. A Microsoft patent has now turned up that shows line art that looks just like the prototypes that we saw last year. The tech that Microsoft cooked up was granted a patent on July 9, 2019, and is U.S. patent No. 10,348,108. The patent application was filed on June 13, 2017, taking a bit over two years to make its way through the patent process. Essentially, the controller attaches...
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Foldable devices seemed like the way of the future as manufacturers like Samsung and Huawei rushed to get them into production. The high profile failure of the Samsung Galaxy Fold seems to have put a damper on that rush, however. IBM has filed a patent for a wearable that can be a smartwatch, a smartphone, and a tablet with a display that stacks away when not needed. The multifold display isn't anything like what Samsung used in its Galaxy Fold device. Rather than being one continuous display, the IBM patent outlines a device that uses display tiles that stack into a smartwatch on the wrist and can be folded out into different configurations to give the user the screen size they want for the...
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Sony has patented a technology that could reduce or even completely get rid of loading screens in games. Assuming the patent is something Sony chooses to follow through on, the technology could find its way into the company's upcoming PlayStation 5 console, which is making the switch from a slower mechanical hard drive to a speedy solid state drive. The switch to SSD storage alone should do wonders for overall system responsiveness and, more critically (for a game console), loading times. It is not yet known if the SSD inside the PS5 will be of the PCI Express 4.0 variety, which enables incredibly fast read times. However, PlayStation architect Mark Cerny indicated that the raw bandwidth will...
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Microsoft files a lot of patent applications, and of course many of them won't result in products that actually arrive to market. One patent application seen last month that is expected to result in a new product, however, was for the Surface Pro 7. On occasion, the patents do tip some future devices and give us a glimpse of the tech we may be using years down the road. Today, A new Microsoft patent has surfaced titled "Dynamic Interaction Adaptation of a Digital Inking Device." Sounds juicy and it is. The patent is for a next-gen Surface Pen that is fitted with an OLED display on one side of its barrel. The patent application was filed in late 2017 but was published by the USPTO earlier this...
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Samsung rushed to be the first to market with a folding smartphone, and the high-profile failure of the Galaxy Fold highlighted the perils of rushing to market. The device failed in the hands of reviewers, and it's still unclear when the Fold might launch. Samsung is looking down the road and sees devices with folding screens as the future. A new patent application has turned up that shows something completely different with a smartphone that has a screen that rolls up inside the phone body. The patent line art shows a device that has a traditional bar-style smartphone design. Rather than having a screen that folds in the middle as the Galaxy Fold did, the patent shows a device that has a screen...
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While we are likely a while away from a true replacement for the replacement for the Surface Pro 6, a patent application has surfaced that hints at one of the features of the next-gen device. The patent application describes fancy new hinges for the critical integrated kickstand that props the tablet portion of the device up when users are typing with the removable keyboard or watching video on the device in tablet mode. On the current Surface Pro 6, the kickstand uses friction created by the hinges to stop and stay at whatever angle the user wants in the entire range of its motion. When it's time to fold the kickstand away, the same friction force resists folding...
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Microsoft unveiled the HoloLens 2 augmented reality headset at MWC 2019, and as cool as the hardware is, it is aimed at the commercial market and carries the price tag to go with it. Consumers aren't the market Microsoft's fancy new headset targets, but a new patent filing shows how the software giant plans to bring virtual and mixed reality to the consumer masses via an AR smartphone app. Credit: Microsoft via USPTO A patent application has surfaced that outlines part of what Microsoft plans to do for consumers with mixed reality technology on smartphones. The patent document states that in a virtual reality experience, virtual imagery is displayed in the field-of-view of the user, to provide...
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With the smartphone market becoming saturated with competent devices that can easily meet the needs of most consumers, OEMs are looking for new innovations to attract sales. We've seen larger edge-to-edge displays, in-display fingerprint readers, and an increasing number of cameras (both front- and rear-facing). A newly uncovered Xiaomi patent showcases a new display innovation that could be used for future smartphones. The patent shows a smartphone with a full edge-to-edge display. What's remarkable about this particular patent, however, is that while today's flagships still have small (but noticeable) bezels, the Xiaomi design is completely free of bezels. Instead, the display has...
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The release of Tesla’s Autopilot Hardware 3.0 is just around the corner and the automotive firm has made a number of significant changes with this upgrade. A series of recent patents have confirmed that Tesla will utilize a new artificial intelligence chip, or “neural net accelerator”. This will replace the NVIDIA hardware that is currently used in the Autopilot 2.0 platform and should enable full self-driving capabilities in the future. Why is Tesla working on a new AI chip? According to the patent filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, “Processing for machine learning and artificial intelligence typically requires performing mathematical operations...
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A relatively recent trend in the smartphone space is to implement dual cameras on the backside of the handset, which enables some nifty depth-of-field effects through hardware (rather than software alone). Some phones even wield four rear cameras, like Huawei's Mate 20 Pro. Well, LG apparently has aspirations of boasting the most cameras on a single phone, with a patent filing pointing to four times as many rear camera sensors as the Mate 20 Pro. That's right, LG filed a patent that discusses a 16-camera arrangement, which would be the most ever on a smartphone if it comes to fruition. How can there possibly be room for that many camera sensors? The answer is in the insect-like design. They're...
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Is it too early to speculate about the Galaxy S10, or even the Galaxy S11? Heck no! Display innovations loom right around the corner, and while Samsung is getting ready to announce a foldable smartphone—the Galaxy F or Galaxy X—it has other tricks up its sleeve. A recent patent application details some of what Samsung has in mind, and we hope they find their way into the next flagship Galaxy device. To be clear, the Galaxy F or Galaxy X (or whatever Samsung ends up calling it) is not a flagship phone. Instead, Samsung is toying around with a unique design and hoping that developers will come up with creative ways of leveraging the form factor. The flagship space still belongs to Samsung's...
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A new Microsoft patent application has emerged that Redmond filed on May 1, 2017, but was only published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on November 1, 2018. The patent application shows an interesting feature that might turn up on a future version of the Surface Pro. The feature is a second supplemental display on the back of the Surface device that Microsoft has dubbed a "reflective display" and it would sit right above the hinge for the kickstand on the back. The abstract on the patent explains the screen would be a reflective multi-layer structure that forms an external surface of the electronic device and has a light-emitting display. The display portion is separated by a dielectric...
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Apple and Qualcomm aren’t exactly friends, but in some ways, the two firms need each other. iPhones are among the top-selling smartphones in the world, and Qualcomm certainly wants to get in on that sales action. Apple needs Qualcomm modems because they typically outperform rival hardware from Intel and MediaTek, and its customers want the best hardware for their money. Apple has sought out hardware from other sources with company implementing Intel modems in their latest crop of iPhones recently and has threatened to use MediaTek in the past. And now it seems Qualcomm is accusing Apple of not paying its bills; the company alleges that Apple is $7 billion behind in royalty payments....
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