Apple’s Patents: More on Apple’s iWatch Accessory (US 8,402,145) and a Pen
Tuesday is here again and its time to have a look at what Apple’s engineers are up to in the lab.
Here is a list of some of the patents granted to Apple by the USPTO today. The list include: Application communication with external accessories, Collaboration system and Methods and systems for automatic configuration of peripherals.
Methods and systems for automatic configuration of peripherals
Peripherals and data processing systems are disclosed which can be configured to interact based upon sensor data. In one embodiment, a peripheral, which is configured to be used with a data processing system, includes an interface to couple the peripheral to the data processing system, and at least one sensor, such as a proximity sensor, to sense a user of the peripheral, and a processor coupled to the interface and to the at least one sensor, wherein the processor configures the peripheral in response to data from the at least one sensor. The peripheral may communicate sensor data from its sensors to the data processing system, which may be a wireless PDA, and the data processing system analyzes the sensor data from its sensors and from the peripheral’s sensors to decide how to configure the peripheral and/or the data processing system based on the sensor.
Patent Background:
[quote] Electronic devices, such as computer systems or wireless cellular telephones or other data processing systems, may often be used with peripheral devices. A peripheral device, such as a wired or wireless headset or a wireless or wired keyboard or a wired or wireless cursor control device, is coupled to the electronic device which may be referred to as a host system. The peripheral typically provides input and/or output capabilities to the electronic device.
The peripheral may also be configured to operate with only one particular electronic device or host. For example, a wireless headset peripheral may be paired with a designated wireless cellular telephone so that it communicates with that designated wireless cellular telephone rather than other wireless cellular telephones which are within radio range of the wireless headset. This allows a user to operate the wireless headset with its designated wireless cellular telephone even though it may be surrounded by other wireless cellular telephones which are within the radio range of the wireless headset.[/quote]
Application communication with external accessories
Embodiments of the present invention provide various communication techniques for communication between a mobile computing device and an accessory. An accessory protocol that is generic to the mobile computing device can be used for some communication. An application executing at the mobile computing device can communicate with the accessory using an application communication protocol. In some embodiments, the application communication protocol can be different from the accessory communication protocol. In other embodiments the application protocol may only be recognized by the application and the accessory. In some embodiments, messages conforming to an application protocol can be communicated between the application and the accessory by packaging the messages inside a message conforming to the accessory communication protocol.
Despite not giving it a name, the accessory discussed in this patent could easily be Apple’s upcoming iWatch.
Patent Background and Invention:
[quote] The present disclosure relates generally to communication between an accessory and a mobile computing device and in particular to using accessory and/or application specific protocols for such communications.
Mobile computing devices have become ubiquitous. Various companies have created mobile computing devices, such as the iPhone.TM., iPod Touch.TM., various BlackBerry .RTM. devices, and smart phones compatible with Google’s Android.TM. platform, to name a few… Such accessories can communicate with a mobile computing device using one or more connectors and/or ports. Such accessories can be used to control features of the mobile computing device or used by the mobile computing device to interact with users and/or the environment.
According to various embodiments, an accessory may communicate with an application executing on a mobile computing device using an accessory specific communication protocol and/or an application specific communication protocol. For example, when an accessory couples with a mobile computing device it may perform initialization, identification, and/or authentication procedures using an accessory protocol defined by the mobile computing device.[/quote]
Collaboration system
A collaboration system provides enhanced user interface to enable users to interact with electronic devices. In one embodiment, users can add content to a digital system by using a pen that streams coordinates so that input to the digital system may be based on conventional pen and paper handwriting. In another embodiment, a pie-based menu system is used for input to large display area digital devices in which an occluded portion of the pie-based menu system is not used for direct input by the user. The selection of which areas of the pie-based menu system should be omitted from use is adaptive and responsive to whether the user is left-handed or right-handed, and the wrist angle defined by the user’s posture. In still another embodiment, an ergonomic open-shaped pie menu system is provided to facilitate selection of options on a digital surface.
