Patent Filings Hint At iPhone Evolution

This story was written by CNET's Marguerite Reardon.

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Apple could be providing a glimpse into some new features for future iPhones in a couple of patent applications the company recently filed.
The blog MacRumors.com reports that Apple has filed two patent applications in the past few weeks that focus on features that incorporate motion and gesture user interfaces. One patent was filed two weeks ago. And the other one was filed Thursday.

The iPhone already has an accelerometer that allows users to shuffle songs on the iPhone by shaking it. And the motion-detecting technology has also been widely used by application developers who have incorporated the functionality into games and other kinds of apps for the iPhone. But Apple appears to be moving a few steps further in making motion an even bigger part of interacting with the iPhone.

Apple notes in the first of the patent filings that interacting with mobile devices while also engaging in another activity, such as jogging or running, can be dangerous as users might be distracted while they're trying to advance to another song or answer a phone call. The new gesturing technology would try to solve this issue. According to the patent filing:

There is a need for providing a user interface in a personal media device that minimizes either or both a user's physical and visual interactions with the personal media device, especially while the user is performing other activities that require, for example, the user's visual senses.

Apple has outlined ways in which the iPhone would know whether the person holding it is engaged in activity such as running or whether the device is simply being carried around in a pocket of purse. The idea is that the iPhone would be able to change its interface to accommodate the kind of activity that the user is engaged in. For example, when a user is running, the device might provide an alternative movement-based interface for adjusting the music volume or answering a call.

Aside from the motion-detecting technology, the schematic drawings also show that Apple might be adding videoconferencing to the iPhone, since there is a front-facing
camera on the newly sketched device. The first- and second-generation iPhones do not include video recording at all. Video is expected in the next release of the product that is rumored to be coming out this summer.

So what about all these other cool features? Will we be seeing them in this year's version of the iPhone? I wouldn't hold my breath. These features seem pretty advanced and could take a while to develop. Of course, there is also the possibility that these features never make it into a commercial device. Patents are often filed for technologies that never actually make it to market.

By Marguerite Reardon

[sjc_1]

More good paying jobs makes sense. The whole Silicon Valley revolution created them, until H1B visas brought foreign workers in. Then half the people employed there were foreign born and sending money home.

[babooph]

Cell phones did not "evolve" they were created 4000 years ago by God.

[geneonlbk]

It might be safer for all of us if the can figure out when someone is driving.

[elpaulito]

haha..... As a tech geek, I agree with most of you believe it or not. We are getting so locked into our digital world. We are in constant contact with work, friends, family, colleagues. I just got back from a vacation to Puerto Rico, and I saw a lot of mainland Americans yappin away on their blackberries/iphones, and working on their laptops while their children are running around. You get only a little time off. Why not spend it with your kids. The world will not end if you are on vacation. The TPM report can wait until you get home.

Everything has its own time and place. We need to remember what it is like to be human and not locked into the office or anything else. We have lost the ability to look up into a blue sky and see how beautiful it is. Instead, we check the weather on our blackberries from our little grey office cubicle. Pathetic.

Great comments all!

[daffy64]

We need high paying jobs not more cell phone features.

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I've already got one, so I'll take the cell phone features.

[AgentGGG]

The amount of misinformation and misinterpretation of patent filings is epidemic. As the last paragraph makes clear, patent filings are NOT product development plans. The document serves a very specific legal purpose, to provide support for patent claims.

As such there is really no story here, but simply wild speculation and complete misunderstanding of patent filings.

[whitemale08]

We need high paying jobs not more cell phone features.

[sjc_1]

These kind of devices have their use. If people get too dependent on them, that is their problem. It is a trend between home, car and mobility of information and communication. Not a bad thing necessarily as long as it is useful and not take too far.

[rf35]

I'm still waiting for the implantable phone. Humans are becoming more and more dependent on being on-line 24/7. The next logical step will be to wire into the brain itself for instant access at the speed of thought. Behold the genesis of the Borg.

[omnibus66]

Untold millions permanently affixed to their iPhones and Blackberrys through every waking minute of every day. Our brave new world, a technological world totally separate from the physical world, will soon be in place. And it will only cost $99.99 per month.