Patent Archive

  • Apple patents some kind of pen-based digital ink thing

    Apple patents some kind of pen-based digital ink thing

    Posted on November 12, 2009 | No Comments
    Clearly this is either an old patent or a Macguffin because whatever this thing is it's not the iPad. Basically you've got some sort of tablet app for recognizing pen input in phrases instead of in "chunks."

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  • Nintendo submits Wii football accessory patent

    Nintendo submits Wii football accessory patent

    Posted on August 25, 2009 | No Comments
    Wii FootballOh boy, another accessory to buy for the Wii. This one is a soft football that holds a Wii-mote and Nunchuk. It's actually just a patent so far (submitted by Nintendo), so it may never make it to market in the first place.

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  • HTC working on a stylus for capacitive screens?

    HTC working on a stylus for capacitive screens?

    Posted on August 14, 2009 | No Comments
    Meat digits. Sausage fingers. Call them what you will, but some people’s hands are just a bit larger than others. “Finger friendly” for one person doesn’t necessarily mean “finger friendly” for another. As of late, the trend in handsets has been toward capacitive touchscreens, which is bad news for the big-boned; while the screens [...]

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  • Texas Judge rules Microsoft can’t sell Word anymore

    Texas Judge rules Microsoft can’t sell Word anymore

    Posted on August 12, 2009 | No Comments
    Go ahead and clean up the coffee you just spit all over your keyboard. We'll wait. Back? OK. A judge and Texas as ruled that Microsoft Word's XML systems violate patents by Toronoto-based i4i Inc. Word uses XML in reading and writing XML, DOCX, and DOCM files. The lawsuit alleges that MS violated i4i's 1998 XML patent #5,787,449. The injunction will go into effect in 60 days and prevent Microsoft from selling or demonstrating Microsoft Word. MS will have to pay i4i about $290 million in damages.

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  • Sony patents amazing “WeebleDong” motion control system

    Sony patents amazing “WeebleDong” motion control system

    Posted on July 3, 2009 | No Comments
    Look at that man. He seems to really be enjoying himself. Soon you'll be enjoying yourself like him too if Sony ever figures out how to manufacturer this motion control system that I'm code-naming "WeebleDong." It uses everyday objects - a fake sword, a spoon, your mum's little friend - to control on-screen action.

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  • Sony patent shows surefire method of PS2 emulation possible on all PS3 models

    Sony patent shows surefire method of PS2 emulation possible on all PS3 models

    Posted on June 30, 2009 | No Comments
    Think back to the autumn of 2006, right before the big PS3 launch. Expecting someone to pay five-hundred-and-ninety-nine-U.S.-dollars was (rightly) considered ludicrous, but the ability to play the entire PS2 library on the system somewhat lessened the blow. But then Sony removed the Emotion Engine chip from the PS3, thus rendering it unable to play PS2 games. (More recent models, like the one found in the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle, used a just-sorta-okay software emulation method to grant partial PS2 backwards compatibility.) All that may well change if Sony goes ahead and executes the idea found in this recently unearthed patent.

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  • Michael Jackson, king of pop and.. inventor?

    Michael Jackson, king of pop and.. inventor?

    Posted on June 26, 2009 | No Comments
    MJ always had a reputation for putting on a good stage show, but did you know that some of the equipment he used was so creative as to warrant a patent? In the "Smooth Criminal" video, everyone on the stage ends up leaning over at a 45 degree angle at one point, something that is normally not possible. But instead of being held against the stage by the pure power of funk, Jacko actually invented a very special shoe to help pull off the trick.

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  • Multi-touch scroll wheel could make iPods… ehhh

    Multi-touch scroll wheel could make iPods… ehhh

    Posted on June 5, 2009 | No Comments
    So AppleInsider found a patent that shows a multi-touch clickwheel. You pinch in to turn the music down and pinch out to turn it up. Blah-blah. More specifically, the 38-page filing made just this past September describes a “multi-dimensional scroll wheel” that “can sense a moving object, such as a finger, as it is moved [...]

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