On May 8, 2008, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a new and exciting Apple patent which generally relates to a multi-dimensional 2D/3D remote control system. The remote control could employ both absolute and relative positioning detection techniques which provide for superior on-screen position accuracy. The remote controller would also provide a unique zoom feature to enable a user to go into and out of an image or even a portion thereof. Such techniques are employed in video game controllers and Apple’s patent confirms this application option. Such techniques would also support Apple’s vision of a Second Life-like virtual world application relating to their Apple Store. The new remote would allow consumers to roam through a virtual Apple Store as if they were in a sophisticated 3D video game such as BioShock or Call of Duty. The good part of this is that the remote may be closer to reality than you think - as Apple has implemented technologies that were developed and patented by ThinkOptics, the creators of Waveit. Their remote won the 2008 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award. According to their literature, the remote offers anti-shake stabilization and air zooming to move in on photos and webpages and supports onscreen keyboards – most of which are supported by Apple’s patent.

The Remote Control

In one embodiment of the present invention, relative motion sensor 34 can include a single or multi-dimensional accelerometer. In alternative embodiments of the present invention, relative motion sensor 34 can include a gyroscope, an accelerometer, any other sensor that can detect relative motion, or any combination thereof.

The remote control can incorporate user input component 38. User input component 38 can be a scrollwheel similar to that incorporated by a portable media player sold under the trademark iPod by Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. The scrollwheel can include one or more buttons and a capacitive touchpad. The touchpad can permit a user to scroll through software menus by running the user’s finger around the track of the scrollwheel. User input component 38 also can include, for example, one or more buttons, a touchpad, a touchscreen display, or any combination thereof.

A user may actuate user input component 38 when the user wants remote control system 10 to perform an action. For example, a user my actuate user input component 38 when the user is pointing to a location on display 30 to which the user wants object 28 to be moved or when the user moves remote control 16 in the z-axis to, e.g., zoom in on or zoom out of the image shown on display 30. When the user is not actuating user input component 38, remote control system 10 can be configured to take no action.

In one embodiment of the present invention, console 40 can communicate with remote control. The Console mentioned in the patent as figure point 40 would likely be an Apple TV box. The patent states that other functions could be added. One example mentions video game cartridges.

Video Game/Virtual World Applications

Apple’s patent FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a position detection process in accordance with the present invention. In step 50, controller 32 or 42 can accept data from photodetector 26 of absolute position detection sub-system 12. In respect to video games, Apple states that “the absolute x- and y-positions of remote control 16 can be used, for example, in video games to position a user’s character or to otherwise track the movement of the remote control in a user’s environment.” That of course supports Apple’s virtual store concept patent - which was published last week and noted in the reports introduction.

Devices that Could Support the New Technology

A remote control of the present invention can be any electronic device in a system that may need to determine the absolute positions of the electronic device with respect to one or more reference locations. For example, the remote control can be any portable, mobile, hand-held, or miniature consumer electronic device. Illustrative electronic devices can include, but are not limited to, music players, video players, still image players, game players, other media players, music recorders, video recorders, cameras, other media recorders, radios, medical equipment, calculators, cellular phones, other wireless communication devices, personal digital assistances, programmable remote controls, pagers, laptop computers, printers, or combinations thereof. Miniature electronic devices may have a form factor that is smaller than that of hand-held devices. Illustrative miniature electronic devices can include, but are not limited to, watches, rings, necklaces, belts, accessories for belts, headsets, accessories for shoes, virtual reality devices, other wearable electronics, accessories for sporting equipment, accessories for fitness equipment, key chains, or combinations thereof.

Above is Apple’s patent FIG. 4 which illustrates a process for determining an absolute position of a remote control in the z-axis. Apple’s patent FIGS. 6A-6C and 7A-7C below, illustrate embodiments of a zooming feature

Apple lists Duncan Robert Kerr (San Francisco, CA), Chad Bronstein (Sunnyvale, CA), Wing Kong Low (Cupertino, CA) and Nicholas Vincent King (San Jose, CA) as the inventors of this patent.
NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Senior Patent Editor Jack “Neo” Purcher.

On May 6, 2008, Apple was granted six patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office. The initial three patents relate to design wins for the iPod Nano, a Dock Insert and iPod ear phones. The remaining three patents respectfully deal with a multi-language document search and retrieval system, restoring color and enhancing electronic images and lastly a patent about conserving power in a processor.

Patent: iPod Nano

Apple’s first granted patent of the day is for a “Media Device” design, which is easily identified as the iPod nano.

Apple lists CEO Steve Jobs and the following engineers as the inventors of this patent: Andre; Bartley K. (Menlo Park, CA), Coster; Daniel J. (San Francisco, CA), De Iuliis; Daniele (San Francisco, CA), Howarth; Richard P. (San Francisco, CA), Ive; Jonathan P. (San Francisco, CA), Jobs; Steve (Palo Alto, CA), Kerr; Duncan Robert (San Francisco, CA), Nishibori; Shin (San Francisco, CA), Rohrbach; Matthew Dean (San Francisco, CA), Satzger; Douglas B. (Menlo Park, CA), Seid; Calvin Q. (Palo Alto, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Portola Valley, CA), Whang; Eugene Antony (San Francisco, CA) and Zorkendorfer; Rico (San Francisco, CA). The original filing date was September 1, 2006.

Patent: Dock Insert

Apple’s second granted patent of the day generally relates to a dock insert used in conjunction with a portable handheld such as the iPod or iPhone.

Apple lists the following engineers as the inventors of this patent: Andre; Bartley K. (Menlo Park, CA), Coster; Daniel J. (San Francisco, CA), De Iuliis; Daniele (San Francisco, CA), Howarth; Richard P. (San Francisco, CA), Ive; Jonathan P. (San Francisco, CA), Kerr; Duncan Robert (San Francisco, CA), Nishibori; Shin (San Francisco, CA), Rohrbach; Matthew Dean (San Francisco, CA), Satzger; Douglas B. (Menlo Park, CA), Seid; Calvin Q. (Palo Alto, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Portola Valley, CA), Whang; Eugene Antony (San Francisco, CA) and Zorkendorfer; Rico (San Francisco, CA). The original filing date was July 23, 2007.

Patent: Ear Phone

Apple’s third granted patent of the day generally relates to iPod ear phones.

Apple lists the following engineers as the inventors of this patent: Andre; Bartley K. (Menlo Park, CA), Coster; Daniel J. (San Francisco, CA), De Iuliis; Daniele (San Francisco, CA), Howarth; Richard P. (San Francisco, CA), Ive; Jonathan P. (San Francisco, CA), Kerr; Duncan Robert (San Francisco, CA), Nishibori; Shin (San Francisco, CA), Rohrbach; Matthew Dean (San Francisco, CA), Satzger; Douglas B. (Menlo Park, CA), Seid; Calvin Q. (Palo Alto, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Portola Valley, CA), Whang; Eugene Antony (San Francisco, CA) and Zorkendorfer; Rico (San Francisco, CA). The patent was originally filed in September 11, 2006

Patent: Multi-language Document Search and Retrieval System

Apple’s fourth granted patent of the day generally relates to the indexing and searching of text in documents for information retrieval purposes, and more particularly to an indexing and searching system that is capable of handling text in any of a plurality of languages.

According to Apple’s summary, “a multi-lingual indexing and search system is presented that performs tokenization and stemming in a manner which is independent of whether index entries and search terms appear as words in a dictionary. The system includes a tokenizer that separates a string of text into individual word tokens, and eliminates predetermined types of tokens from further processing. The system also includes a stemmer that reduces words to grammatical stems by removing known word-endings associated with the various languages to be supported. The stemmer removes known word endings from the word tokens without any effort to guarantee that the remaining stem is contained in a dictionary. In an embodiment, the stemmer only removes those word endings which are associated with nouns. The system further includes an indexer that stores the stems in an index.”

Apple lists Wayne Loofbourrow (Sunnyvale, CA) and David Casseres (Palo Alto, CA) as the inventors of this granted patent which was originally filed on December 29, 2006.

Patent: Restoring Color and Enhancing Electronic Images

Apple’s fifth granted patent of the day generally relates to color correction, and more particular to color restoration and enhancement for electronic color images.

According to Apple’s abstract, “in at least one embodiment, color signals for individual channels of an image (e.g., red, green, or blue) are adjusted based on a weighted set of averages (e.g., of the entire image, the center portion, the surrounding portion, or other portions). In one example, pixels with extreme values of color signals (e.g., pure black or white pixels) are ignored for the purposes of restoring color; and, the different averages are weighted according to the pixel location (e.g., the distance from the pixel to a center point). In one example, after color restoration for individual channels, the luminance of each pixel is adjusted back to their original levels; and the range of luminance of the image is further adjusted to provide improved brightness and contrast, where in determining the luminance the red, green and blue color channels are given an equal weight.”
Apple lists Greg Christie (San Jose, CA) as the sole inventor of this granted patent which was originally filed on August 29, 2003.

Patent: Conserving Power

Apple’s sixth and final granted patent of the day generally relates to techniques for conserving power usage in computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for reducing power consumption in a processor by reducing voltage supplied to an instruction-processing portion of the processor, while maintaining voltage to other portions of the processor.

According to Apple’s abstract, “one embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates reducing static power consumption of a processor. During operation, the system receives a signal indicating that instruction execution within the processor is to be temporarily halted. In response to this signal, the system halts an instruction-processing portion of the processor, and reduces the voltage supplied to the instruction-processing portion of the processor. Full voltage is maintained to a remaining portion of the processor, so that the remaining portion of the processor can continue to operate while the instruction-processing portion of the processor is in reduced power mode.”

Apple lists Lynn R. Young (Cupertino, CA) as the sole inventor of this granted patent which was originally filed on March 7, 2007.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Neo.

On May 1, 2008, the US Patent & Trademark Office published three of Apple’s patent applications. The first and most important patent discloses embodiments relating to user interfaces, and more particularly, to a user interface for call waiting and conference calls. While the patent discusses one of the interfaces of a cell phone to be that of the current all touch screen iPhone, the patent delves into variant interfaces that utilize a click wheel or touch pad. The other two patents discuss cooling systems that could be used in the iPhone, other portables and notebooks.

Patent: Method, System, and GUI for Making Conference Calls

Apple’s patent background generally establishes the fact that most of today’s cell phones include inflexible physical pushbuttons coupled with time consuming requirements to memorize multiple key sequences and menu hierarchies to accomplish simple tasks. Apple then specifically establishes the fact that interfaces for call waiting and conference calling suffer the same shortcomings. Apple states that “users are often at a loss as to the sequence of buttons to push in order to switch between calls or to make a conference call. Furthermore, the interface often does not convey intuitively the parties involved in the calls. Accordingly, there is a need for more efficient interfaces for call waiting and conference calling.”

The emphasis of this particular Apple patent is clearly to present us with their proposed UI for call waiting and conference calls and the patent figures below support that fact. However, what becomes abundantly clear to those of us looking in is that Apple may be providing us with a glimpse of an alternative iPhone embodiment utilizing their traditional click wheel. Considering that the patent was originally filed only months prior to Apple’s iPhone debut - which introduced us all to a full touch screen interface - the oddity of Apple’s emphasis in this patent to establish the click wheel as the exemplary embodiment may point to the fact that lower tech iPhone variants are in the works. Apple’s FIG 2 noted above is testament to this fact.

Call Waiting, Conference Calling User Interfaces

Apple’s patent FIGS 4A-4F noted above illustrate exemplary graphical user interfaces for conveying information regarding multiple callers. You could find detailed information concerning each of the steps noted above in the patent link provided under patent points 59 to 67.

Apple lists their CEO Steven P. Jobs (Palo Alto, CA) along with the following engineers as the inventors of this patent: Greg Christie (San Jose, CA), Bas Ording (San Francisco, CA) Imran Chaudhri (San Francisco, CA) and Scott Forstall (Mountain View, CA). Apple’s patent was originally filed in October 2006.

Patent: Thin, Passive Cooling System

Apple’s patent background explains that the “computational performance provided by electronic devices has increased significantly in recent years. This has resulted in increased power consumption and associated heat generation in these products. Consequently, it has become a considerable challenge to manage this thermal load to maintain acceptable internal and external operating temperatures for these devices.
Portable devices, such as laptop computers (notebook PCs), cellular telephones, and personal digital assistants pose additional design constraints. In particular, size and weight limitations in such devices can make it difficult to achieve desired operational temperatures. For example, in many applications the size and weight of metal heat sinks may be prohibitive. In addition, battery life in such devices may preclude the use of active cooling mechanisms, such as fans.” Hence, Apple states that what’s needed “are electronic devices that include compact and passive cooling mechanisms that overcome the problems listed above.”

Apple’s patent FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating a portable computing device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Apple lists Ihab A. Ali (Santa Clara, CA) as the sole inventor of this patent which was originally filed in November 2006.

Patent: Embedded thermal-electric cooling modules

Apple’s abstract states that the patent covers a “portable computing device that includes a housing having an external surface and an inner surface. A solid-state cooling mechanism in the computing device is coupled to the inner surface. This solid-state cooling mechanism is configured to maintain a temperature difference across at least a portion of the external surface that is less than a pre-determined value.”

Apple’s patent FIG. 2 noted below is a block diagram illustrating a portable computing device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Apple lists Ihab A. Ali (Santa Clara, CA) as the sole inventor of this patent which was originally filed in November 2006.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Neo.

On April 29, 2008, Apple was granted four patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office. The patents generally cover Apple’s iPod Shuffle Dock design, Quicktime, measuring bandwidth and one pertaining to a media server.

Patent: Stand

Apple’s first granted patent of the day generally appears to be relating to their iPod Shuffle Dock. Apple’s design description: “The stand, which can be utilized as a dock, is used to support an electronic device, such as a media player, media storage device, cellular phone, PDA and/or the like.”

Apple lists the following engineers as the inventors of this design: Andre; Bartley K. (Menlo Park, CA), Coster; Daniel J. (San Francisco, CA), De Iuliis; Daniele (San Francisco, CA), Howarth; Richard P. (San Francisco, CA), Ive; Jonathan P. (San Francisco, CA), Kerr; Duncan Robert (San Francisco, CA), Nishibori; Shin (San Francisco, CA), Rohrbach; Matthew Dean (San Francisco, CA), Satzger; Douglas B. (Menlo Park, CA), Seid; Calvin Q. (Palo Alto, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Portola Valley, CA), Whang; Eugene Antony (San Francisco, CA) and Zorkendorfer; Rico (San Francisco, CA). The original filing date was September 2006.

Patent: Method and apparatus for media data transmission

Apple’s second granted patent of the day generally relates to QuickTime. Apple’s abstract states that “Methods and apparatuses for processing media data transmitted in a data communication medium. A digital processing system is provided with a time related sequence of media data provided to the digital processing system based on a set of data, wherein the set of data indicates a method to transmit the time related sequence of media data according to a transmission protocol. The set of data, itself, is a time related sequence of data associated with the time related sequence of media data. The time related sequence of media data may be presented and/or stored by the digital processing system.

Apple lists the following engineers as inventors of this patent, which was originally filed in February 2004: Jones; Anne (Redwood City, CA), Geagan; Jay (San Jose, CA), Gong; Kevin L. (Sunnyvale, CA), Periyannan; Alagu (San Francisco, CA) and Singer; David W. (San Francisco, CA). Apple’s patent FIG. 4 noted above shows an example of a hint track.

Patent: Method and apparatus measuring bandwidth

Apple’s third granted patent of the day is generally directed towards method and apparatus for determining network bandwidth. According to Apple’s abstract, “The method measures a first time interval between when one of the computers (1) sends a first data set to the other computer and (2) receives a first response. It also measures a second time interval between when one of the computers (1) sends a second data set to the other computer and (2) receives a second response. The method then identifies the network bandwidth from the two measured time intervals.

Apple lists Gregory Vaughan (Santa Cruz, CA) and Mythili Devineni (Palo Alto, CA) as the inventors of this patent which was originally filed in December 2002. Apple’s patent FIG. 1 presents a computer system that uses one embodiment of the invention.

Patent: Method and apparatus for allowing a media client to obtain media data from a media server

Apple’s fourth granted patent of the day is directed towards method and apparatus for allowing a media client to obtain media data from a media server. According to Apple’s abstract: “Some embodiments of the invention provide a computer system that includes a media server, a media client, and a media-server interface. The media server application produces media data, where the media data has a plurality of segments. For example, in some embodiments, the media data is a movie with video and audio components. In this example, the segments of the movie can be specified in two groups, where one group includes the frames of video in the movie and the other group includes the seconds of audio in the movie. The media client application is typically an application that needs to process the media data of the media server application without the need to have any familiarity with the implementation of the media server application. The media-server interface directs the server application to successively generate individual segments of the media data and to store each generated segment in a location that is accessible by the media client. The server application generates each segment in a format that is comprehensible to the media client application. The media client application retrieves each segment from its stored location and processes the segment.”

Apple lists Daniel I. Lipton (Belmont, CA) as the sole inventor of this patent which was originally filed in April 2003.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Neo.

The European Trademark Office’s database presents a number of Google applications that most have never seen before and are worth exploring. Besides their pending brand name Android which Google applied for in Europe in November 2007, they’ve also applied for Dalvik. The Dalvik trademark represents a register-based virtual machine, designed and written by Dan Bornstein with contributions from other Google engineers as part of the Android mobile phone platform. Wikipedia describes Dalvik as being “optimized for low memory requirements, and is designed to allow multiple VM instances to run at once, relying on the underlying operating system for process isolation, memory management and threading support.” The trademark was filed in Europe in the first quarter of 2008 with its Priority listed as being filed in the US in November 2007.

The graphic above illustrates the Dalvik Virtual Machine within Google’s Android Runtime. To view the full Android architecture, click here.

Another trademark that Google has applied for in Q1 2008 was Panoramio. This is the name of a map centric website that Google acquired in May 2007.

In context to mapping perhaps, is a Google Design that they’ve applied for in Europe. The indication of the products only states “Interfaces for a display screen.” The illustration of the Google design is shown under “new”. I’ve juxtaposed that image to Google’s standard mapping navigational tool used today to illustrate the perceived changes. However, the new design may be reserved for use on the Android phone in context with utilizing a touch screen interface in order to use this interface effectively. If this comes to pass, then it’s likely going to also end up on Apple’s iPhone over time.

Gill Jennings & Every LLP filed the application for the graphic design in London on Google’s behalf while Merkenbureau Knijff & Partners B.V. filed the Dalvik trademark in the Netherlands.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents and/or trademarks with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent and/or trademark applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Neo.

Note: The European trademark office referred to in this report is officially known as the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market .

The Secret Decoder Ring has been with us since at least the 1930’s and was popular then and could be again, thinks Samsung. Some thinking behind the decoder ring concept used ciphers and in many ways, text messaging carries some resemblance to that, at least in some circles. Most parents scratch their heads today in trying to understand these message codes. Well, Samsung wants to take that craze to a whole new level and even add some relevant consumer twists to the concept.

The iRing: A Universal Input Device

When Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in January 2007, he stated that “We’re going to use the best pointing device in the world - we’re born with 10 of them: our fingers.” Samsung thinks that they could do one better by introducing the Universal Input Device in the form of a ring as shown below.

The ring itself is truly sophisticated. From what I could gather, there’s a contact detector, which acts much like a mouse button and is utilized to change a mode and select various menus. The ring uses a motion detector and even contains a communicator which comprises a wireless communication module (i.e., Bluetooth, Zigbee, ultra wide band (UWB), etc.). According to one embodiment of the present invention, there’s a controller which generates control data so that the universal input device is recognized as one of a keyboard, a mouse and a remote controller.

One aspect of the ring that would appeal to the younger crowd revolves around drawing objects in the air to represent phrases. Samsung gives us a skimpy example of drawing a heart and the ring deciphering that symbol to generate the text “I love you.” Is that too corny? Perhaps, but as more examples of this gesturing language emerges, it’ll likely make more sense. Would I use this? Well - as the saying goes: Never say never.

The only problem with the patent is that it lacks practical examples to help us work through some of the more sophisticated features relating to the use of the ring as a remote or a keyboard. They do provide some examples of how to generate upper and lower case text, but you never really get a feel for what the ring will communicate with. Would I be typing on a cafeteria table to generate an email on my phone? I don’t rightly know.

Samsung’s iRing could emerge as a viable next generation remote, though I think it has a better chance of cracking the market as a simple presentation pointer to use with programs like Apple’s Keynote. Then again, I never thought that text messaging would ever amount to much of a market. So I’m sure that the youth market will find more creative ways to use this iRing than the rest of us could ever imagine. On the other hand, parents just may want to use it as that cool decoder ring that they once believed in - in order to crack their kids’ secret text messages. And this time, it might actually work.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details. To review this patent, click here.

Written and researched by Neo.

In a 2007 BusinessWeek product review of Nike + iPod, the only negative that was found revolved around the fact that it had no heart rate monitor compatibility. “That’s an obvious and crucial piece of data that could be profitably integrated into the package. It would also help reel in techies who pay hundreds of dollars for systems that track such statistics,” reported Matt Vella. It would appear that Nike heard that message loud and clear. A patent published this week at the US Patent & Trademark Office details how the iPod will work with sensors beyond those inserted into runners and is clearly visible in their patent FIG 1 noted below.

Extended Sensor Systems Options

Nike’s patent FIG. 1 illustrates example systems and an environment in which various aspects of the present invention may be used. As shown in FIG. 1, a person involved in an athletic performance or workout activity may have one or more sensing devices 102(a), 102(b), 102(c), and 102(d) included on their person, their clothing, their footwear, their equipment, etc. These sensing devices may sense data associated with the athletic performance, including, for example, physical or physiological data associated with the athletic performance. As some more specific examples, in the environment illustrated in FIG. 1, sensors 102(a) and/or 102(b) may sense step count and data associated with such activities (e.g., for pedometer type speed and/or distance measuring), GPS data (e.g., location and/or altitude data, time data, etc.), step impact force data (e.g., for active impact attenuation control), jump height data, or the like. Sensor 102(c) may sense pulse rate, body temperature, blood pressure, hydration levels, or the like, and sensor 102(d) may sense heart rate, EKG data, and the like.

Multiple Portable Sensors, Apple iPod Systems

The various sensors, e.g., 102(a) through 102(d) noted above, also may be portable and carried by the person in any desired manner without departing from this invention. For example, if desired, one or more sensors may be mounted in or on an article of footwear 104 (e.g., like sensors 102(a) and 102(b) in this illustrated example), provided in or on an article of athletic apparel (e.g., like arm band 106 in this example, which includes sensor 102(c), in a shirt, shorts, pants, socks, headband, etc.), and/or carried along on a piece of athletic equipment (e.g., like a bicycle, bat, racket, club, vehicle, ball, etc.).

In the illustrated example, the output device (110) includes an audio or other media content playback device (such as an iPod commercially available from Apple Computer) that the user has engaged with his belt or clothing so as to be readily carried and used during the athletic performance. The use of this type of arrangement is advantageous in at least some situations because the athletic performance data may be displayed on the display system of the device (110) and/or transmitted to the user via the headphones (140) or other audio output device, and thus the user need not obtain and/or carry an independent display device to enable display or transmission of the athletic performance data (thereby reducing weight, expense, and handling difficulties).

Later in the patent, Nike describes how the invention will work with input devices that would have a touch screen. The touch screen is clearly supported by a recent series of Apple patents relating to the upcoming Nike + iPod update that also covered reward programs, new sensors and a new voice command capability echoed by Nike here: “As still another example, if desired, a voice input system may be provided with the interface device 112 and/or the electronic device 110, e.g., to enable user input via voice commands.” The patent discusses using advanced cell phones and that would strongly suggest that the Nike + iPod will extend to covering Nike + iPhone.

Sensors Working with Gym Equipment

Earlier this year Apple and Nike stated that they were working with several gym equipment makers and the health clubs 24-Hour Fitness and Virgin Athletic Health Clubs to allow members to plug their iPod Nano into cardio equipment. Nike’s patent supports that by describing that their invention “may be involved in a wide variety of different athletic performance and/or workout activities, including, for example: various activities using training machines (e.g., in a gym), such as treadmills, spinning machines, elliptical training machines, stationary bicycles, stair climbing machines, cross-country ski simulating machines, weight lifting machines, rowing machines, etc.”

Nike’s system 600 of FIG. 6 illustrates the performance module 502 (e.g., carried by the athlete during the performance, such as in an article of footwear 504, as part of the athlete’s clothing, an article worn by the athlete, etc.) in communication with a portable electronic device 508 via an interface device 506.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, any or all of the module 502, interface device 506, and/or electronic device 508 may be configured to exchange data with one or more pieces of exercise equipment 604 – as noted above.

Nike’s patent FIG. 7 (noted below) illustrates additional features that may be present in example athletic performance sensing and/or tracking systems and methods according to this invention. The arrangement 700 shown in FIG. 7 allows users to send data and information to and/or receive data and information from one or more remote sources, such as from one of the portable devices (e.g., module 502, interface device 506, and/or electronic device 508) to a personal computer (e.g., at the user’s home or office) or other computer station 702 (which may include the workout equipment itself and/or a computer maintained at the gym or other facility) and/or to a remote system 704 (optionally via a network connection, such as over the Internet), which may be maintained and operated by the user, by a fitness center, by a gym, or by another third party.

Use of Music and Other Content in Systems and Methods

Aspects of this invention further relate to the use of music and/or other audio and/or video content in athletic performance sensing and/or tracking systems. Such content may be useful in a variety of ways in systems and methods according to examples of this invention, e.g., for providing entertainment, information, coaching tips or reminders, motivational content, etc. Advantageously, in accordance with at least some examples of this invention, in addition to being able to download workout routines and/or data as described above, electronic device will constitute or include an audio and/or video presentation device that allows users to also play and/or download music, videos, or other audio/video data for presentation during the course of a workout (e.g., a radio, a tape player, an MP3 player, an iPod device. Example screens relating to this kind of functionality could be found in Apple’s patents (see link above).

While the audio or video presentation device may be used in a conventional manner, e.g., with user controlled content and/or output during the course of a workout, systems and methods according to at least some examples of this invention allow more user interaction and control over the content presentation provided during the workout. For example, systems and methods according to at least some examples of the invention may allow users to pre-program and/or “mix” their own workout with audio/video and/or other content, e.g., to include desired audio/video content (e.g., music playback, video playback, coaching or motivational content, etc.) at desired times and in a desired timing or relationship with respect to various different phases of a workout routine or exercise program. Plural workout routines, optionally user mixed workout routines, stored and downloaded workout routines (optionally including pre-selected or user selected music), purchased workout routines (optionally including pre-selected or user selected music), and the like, may be stored on or downloaded to the electronic device. Also, in systems and methods that utilize an output device, a networked connection, or other computer base station or remote station, users may make their pre-programmed workouts available to others (e.g., “publicly available” or otherwise selectively available to one or more other individuals on the system), e.g., for downloading over the network or otherwise transmitting to another user’s electronic device.

Miscellaneous Example-Features of User Interfaces

The next generation Nike + iPod product line and applications are due to arrive sometime this summer.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Neo.

On April 24, 2008, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of iPhone/iPod Touch related patents covering six distinct aspects of the iPhone’s functionality. This report briefly covers how the iPhone deals with documents, its soft keyboard and deletion operations.

Patent: Portable Electronic Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface For Displaying Structured Electronic Documents

Apple’s Patent Background As portable electronic devices become more compact, and the number of functions performed by a given device increase, it has become a significant challenge to design a user interface that allows users to easily interact with a multifunction device. This challenge is particular significant for handheld portable devices, which have much smaller screens than desktop or laptop computers. This situation is unfortunate because the user interface is the gateway through which users receive not only content but also responses to user actions or behaviors, including user attempts to access a device’s features, tools, and functions. Some portable communication devices (e.g., mobile telephones, sometimes called mobile phones, cell phones, cellular telephones, and the like) have resorted to adding more pushbuttons, increasing the density of push buttons, overloading the functions of pushbuttons, or using complex menu systems to allow a user to access, store and manipulate data. These conventional user interfaces often result in complicated key sequences and menu hierarchies that must be memorized by the user.

Many conventional user interfaces, such as those that include physical pushbuttons, are also inflexible. This may prevent a user interface from being configured and/or adapted by either an application running on the portable device or by users. When coupled with the time consuming requirement to memorize multiple key sequences and menu hierarchies, and the difficulty in activating a desired pushbutton, such inflexibility is frustrating to most users.

In particular, it is slow and tedious to navigate in structured electronic documents (e.g., web pages) in portable electronic devices with small screens using conventional input devices (e.g., 5-way toggle switches). Moreover, it is cumbersome to control and view multimedia content within such documents on portable electronic devices.

Accordingly, there is a need for portable electronic devices with more transparent and intuitive user interfaces for viewing and navigating structured electronic documents and multimedia content within such documents. Such interfaces increase the effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction with activities like web browsing on portable electronic devices.

Apple’s Abstract: A computer-implemented method, for use in conjunction with a portable electronic device with a touch screen display, comprises displaying at least a portion of a structured electronic document on the touch screen display, wherein the structured electronic document comprises a plurality of boxes of content, and detecting a first gesture at a location on the displayed portion of the structured electronic document. A first box in the plurality of boxes at the location of the first gesture is determined. The first box on the touch screen display is enlarged and substantially centered.

Patent: Portable Multifunction Device with Soft Keyboards

Apple’s Abstract: A portable multifunction device displays a first icon and a second icon on its touch screen display. In response to a sequence of finger movements across the first and second icons, wherein the finger stays in contact with the touch screen display during the movements, the portable device highlights the first icon for at least a predefined time period if a parameter associated with the finger’s position relative to the touch screen display meets a first predefined condition and then highlights the second icon for at least the predefined time period if the parameter associated with the finger’s position relative to the touch screen display meets a second predefined condition.

Apple’s patent FIG. 6 noted above is a flow diagram illustrating a second process for visually distinguishing some key icons over other key icons of a soft keyboard in response to finger contacts with the soft keyboard in accordance with some embodiments.

Patent: Deletion Gestures on a Portable Multifunction Device

Apple’s Abstract: Deletion gestures for use on a portable multifunction device with a touch-sensitive display are disclosed. In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with the portable multifunction device comprises displaying a list of items on the touch-sensitive display, detecting a first gesture on the touch-sensitive display to edit the list of items, responding to the first gesture by displaying a first icon next to each deletable item in the list, detecting a second gesture on the touch-sensitive display to select one of the deletable items, and responding to the second gesture by displaying a second icon next to the selected item. If a third gesture on the second icon is detected, the selected deletable item is deleted. If a fourth gesture on the first icon next to the selected deletable item is detected, the second icon is deleted.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Neo.

On April 24, 2008, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of iPhone/iPod Touch related patents covering six distinct aspects of the iPhone’s functionality. The third in this series relates to email clients and the use of a wide array of virtual buttons and methodologies.

Patent: Email Client for a Portable Multifunction Device

Apple’s Patent Background: As portable electronic devices become more compact, and the number of functions performed by a given device increases, it has become a significant challenge to design a user interface that allows users to easily interact with a multifunction device. This challenge is particularly significant for handheld portable devices, which have much smaller screens than desktop or laptop computers. This situation is unfortunate because the user interface is the gateway through which users receive not only content but also responses to user actions or behaviors, including user attempts to access a device’s features, tools, and functions. Some portable communication devices (e.g., mobile telephones, sometimes called mobile phones, cell phones, cellular telephones, and the like) have resorted to adding more pushbuttons, increasing the density of push buttons, overloading the functions of pushbuttons, or using complex menu systems to allow a user to access, store and manipulate data. These conventional user interfaces often result in complicated key sequences and menu hierarchies that must be memorized by the user.
Many conventional user interfaces, such as those that include physical pushbuttons, are also inflexible. This may prevent a user interface from being configured and/or adapted by either an application running on the portable device or by users. When coupled with the time consuming requirement to memorize multiple key sequences and menu hierarchies, and the difficulty in activating a desired pushbutton, such inflexibility is frustrating to most users.

In particular, many conventional user interfaces for displaying, organizing, managing, and creating emails on a portable communication device are inflexible. The combination of small screens for displaying emails and email lists, complicated pushbutton key sequences, and complex menu hierarchies results in email user interfaces that are not user-friendly. As a result, using an email client on a portable communication device can be frustrating.

Accordingly, there is a need for portable multifunction devices with more transparent and intuitive user interfaces for displaying, organizing, managing, and creating emails that are easy to use, configure, and/or adapt.

Apple’s patent FIG. 5 noted above illustrates an exemplary user interface for organizing and managing email in accordance with some embodiments.

Summary In-Part: The above deficiencies and other problems associated with user interfaces for portable devices are reduced or eliminated by the disclosed portable multifunction device. In some embodiments, the device has a touch-sensitive display (also known as a “touch screen”) with a graphical user interface (GUI), one or more processors, memory and one or more modules, programs or sets of instructions stored in the memory for performing multiple functions. In some embodiments, the user interacts with the GUI primarily through finger contacts and gestures on the touch-sensitive display. In some embodiments, in addition to emailing, the functions may include telephoning, video conferencing, instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videoing, web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital video playing. Instructions for performing these functions may be included in a computer readable storage medium or other computer program product configured for execution by one or more processors.

Apple’s Abstract: A computer-implemented method for providing email at a portable communications device with a touch screen display is disclosed. A first portion of a list of entries with information about corresponding electronic messages is displayed in a first area of the touch screen display. A first portion of an electronic message that corresponds to an entry in the list of entries is displayed in a second area of the touch screen display that is separate from the first area. In response to a first gesture by a user in the first area of the touch screen display, the list of entries is scrolled to display a second portion of the list of entries. In response to a second gesture by the user in the second area of the touch screen display, the electronic message is moved in two dimensions to display a second portion of the electronic message.

About the patent figures above: FIGS 6A-6E - illustrate an exemplary user interface for creating emails; FIGS. 7A-7I illustrate an exemplary user interface for displaying and managing an inbox; FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrate an exemplary user interface for moving email messages in accordance with some embodiments.

Apple lists GANATRA; Nitin K.; (San Jose, CA) ; NOVICK; Gregory; (Santa Clara, CA) ; LEMAY; Stephen O.; (San Francisco, CA) ; CHRISTIE; Greg; (San Jose, CA) and FORSTALL; Scott; (Mountain View, CA) as the inventors of this patent which was originally filed September 2007.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Neo.

On April 24, 2008, e, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of iPhone/iPod Touch related patents covering six distinct aspects of the iPhone’s functionality. This second in this series relates to portable electronic devices that adaptively determine a cursor position from a finger contact with a touch screen display and then perform operations according to the cursor position.

Patent: Methods for Determining a Cursor Position from a Finger Contact with a Touch Screen Display

Apple’s Patent Background: As portable electronic devices become more compact, and the number of functions performed by a given device increase, it has become a significant challenge to design a user interface that allows users to easily interact with a multifunction device. This challenge is particular significant for handheld portable devices, which have much smaller screens than desktop or laptop computers. This situation is unfortunate because the user interface is the gateway through which users receive not only content but also responses to user actions or behaviors, including user attempts to access a device’s features, tools, and functions. Some portable communication devices (e.g., mobile telephones, sometimes called mobile phones, cell phones, cellular telephones, and the like) have resorted to adding more pushbuttons, increasing the density of push buttons, overloading the functions of pushbuttons, or using complex menu systems to allow a user to access, store and manipulate data. These conventional user interfaces often result in complicated key sequences and menu hierarchies that must be memorized by the user.

Many conventional user interfaces, such as those that include physical pushbuttons, are also inflexible. This may prevent a user interface from being configured and/or adapted by either an application running on the portable device or by users. When coupled with the time consuming requirement to memorize multiple key sequences and menu hierarchies, and the difficulty in activating a desired pushbutton, such inflexibility is frustrating to most users.

To improve usability, some portable devices use a touch screen to render virtual push buttons such as soft keyboards and dial pads. From a user’s finger contact with the virtual push buttons, a portable device determines the service(s) requested by the user and takes actions accordingly. But because different users often have different shapes of fingerprints, it has been a challenge for these portable devices to accurately and adaptively identify a user-desired virtual push button based on the different shapes of fingerprints and different contexts associated with different services supported by a portable device.

Accordingly, there is a need for portable multifunction devices that are configured to adaptively determine a cursor position from a finger contact with a touch screen and then perform operations according to the cursor position. Such configuration increases the effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction with portable multifunction devices.

Summary In-Part: The above deficiencies and other problems associated with user interfaces for portable devices are reduced or eliminated by the disclosed portable multifunction device. In some embodiments, the device has a touch-sensitive display (also known as a “touch screen”) with a graphical user interface (GUI), one or more processors, memory and one or more modules, programs or sets of instructions stored in the memory for performing multiple functions. In some embodiments, the user interacts with the GUI primarily through finger contacts and gestures on the touch-sensitive display. In some embodiments, the functions may include telephoning, video conferencing, e-mailing, instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videoing, web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital video playing. Instructions for performing these functions may be included in a computer readable storage medium or other computer program product configured for execution by one or more processors.

Apple’s Abstract: A portable device with a touch screen display detects a contact area of a finger with the touch screen display and then determines a first position associated with the contact area. The cursor position of the finger contact is determined, at least in part, based on: the first position, one or more distances between the first position and one or more of the user interface objects; and one or more activation susceptibility numbers, each associated with a respective user interface object in the plurality of user interface objects. If the cursor position falls into the hidden hit region of a virtual push button on the touch screen display, the portable device is activated to perform operations associated with the virtual push button.

Apple lists ORDING; Bas; (San Francisco, CA), FORSTALL; Scott; (Mountain View, CA) and CHRISTIE Greg (San Jose, CA) as the inventors of this patent which was originally filed in Sept. 2007.

Apple’s patent FIG. 5 noted above is a flow diagram illustrating a process for determining a cursor position from a finger contact with a touch screen in accordance with some embodiments.
Apple’s patent FIGS 6A-6L noted below illustrate exemplary methods for determining a cursor position on a touch screen display in accordance with some embodiments. Also, patent FIGS. 6M-6O illustrate an exemplary method for dynamically adjusting susceptibility numbers associated with soft keyboard keys as a word is typed with the soft keyboard keys in accordance with some embodiments.

Apple lists ORDING; Bas; (San Francisco, CA), FORSTALL; Scott; (Mountain View, CA) and CHRISTIE Greg (San Jose, CA) as the inventors of this patent which was originally filed in Sept. 2007

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Neo.