More new patents from Apple
Apple has filed yet another batch of patents, this time taking clear aim at the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the much-rumored iTablet, including face and object recognition and text message filtering.
These patents, especially coming on the heels of another group that was filed last week, show Apples feel for the future of mobile computing. Those earlier patents will make it easier and more productive to use the touch-screens on such mobile computing devices. One patent application covers the provision of non-visual feedback to the user of a touch screen device. An additional type of feedback could come through haptic technology, which refers to interface design which communicates to the user via the sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, and/or motions. The last patent in that earlier group could pair the identification of individual fingertips with touch screen gestures to allow many more commands and finer control.
Close on their heels comes this latest batch of Apple patent filings. One of the new patents, identified as “ID App”, would allow a portable device to read various amounts of computer data from nearby objects. The device could read devices such as a camera, an RFID reader, or a GPS chip to identify objects or positions, and then compare those against a range databases, according to an Information Week story. This could allow a user to stand in the Dakota’s near Mt. Rushmore, take a picture, and have the portable device recognize his GPS location and match the picture to the monument, then present Web sites that have information about Rushmore.
A section of the patent application states:
After an object has been identified, the portable electronic device can provide additional information about the identified object. In some embodiments, the portable electronic device can search for the additional information based on the previously defined mode. In some embodiments, the portable electronic device can provide additional information with incrementally increasing levels of detail.
This technology could obviously be used for the recognition of other things. Using a database of photos of people, it could be used for facial recognition. There is no reason, either, why such a system could not be used for the core engine in portable apps that recognize fingerprints or retina-prints. The final new patent application was for filtering techniques to make it easier to find things like obscene content and spam in SMS messages, and to more easily manage visual voice-mails and voice output. All of these patents have application in the ultra-portable mobile computer of the future.
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