Tag: patent

Philips thinking of furry TV

Oh Gizmo: Philips really seems to be thinking outside the television box these days. First they come up with their Ambilight technology (which I’m still not sold on BTW) and now they’re looking into creating displays made of fur. Instead of LEDs or some other technology each pixel on the display would be made of a colored piece of fabric covered in different colored hairs.

When the hairs are all lying down flat you’d only see their color. But when an electrostatic charge is applied all those hairs would then repel each other and stand on end revealing the color of the fabric below. By precisely controlling the charges being applied to each fabric pixel you can in theory produce a fully functioning display.

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iPhone to control your Mac, iTunes, too?

Engadget: According to a recent patent filing in the US, Apple engineers explain how a mysterious “mobile phone” could be used to control your Mac (and specific applications like iTunes) via built-in Bluetooth, and the wording even mentions specific software that would be tailored to the Mac and handset in order to make it all happen.

More specifically, consumers could “use the directional controls on the mobile phone to change listing volume, skip forward and backward, play / pause, etc.,” and while no mention of the forthcoming iPhone is directly made, the allusion here seems to be fairly clear.

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Sony Ericsson remote control phone on its way?

Mobilementalism: Sony Ericsson have come up with the idea of turning a mobile phone into a universal remote control. According to a patent dug up by UnwiredView, the company envisages a touchscreen remote control that can display different remote control user interfaces, while the phone itself contains the necessary electronics to control a home device such as your TV or Hi-Fi. (…)

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“Shut up” button for your cell phone

Slashgear: I believe that I have discovered the greatest cellphone patent ever. Imagine if you were on the phone with someone that just won’t stop talking. Now imagine that you could simply press a button to have the phone tell them to basically shut their trap.

Wonderful, isn’t it? The idea is for motorists that are talking while driving that suddenly come up on a traffic emergency and need to cut the conversation short. I’m sure that were this implemented, people would see a lot more “accidents” on the roadway and need to use the button.

The patent was filed on July 13th 2006. Hopefully this idea will come to fruition, it could revolutionize the mobile phone industry as we know it. A guy can hope, right?

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