We’re less than a week away from Apple’s iPad launch, and it looks like the patent-Gods at the USPTO are looking favorably on the famous tech company from Cupertino. No, Apple isn’t suing anyone else over patent infringement. Rather, they’re building their own portfolio. Apple has just secured a pair of patents that cover the iPad’s use of its accelerometer and broadband antenna. The patents relate to the use of the iPad’s accelerometers in gaming apps, displaying and changing the orientation of maps, and adapting 3D surround sound to a particular screen orientation.
The argument for accelerometers is clear-cut. They’ve been in use on the iPhone for a while now. When you tilt or rotate the iPhone, it automatically changes the screen orientation to align with the device’s orientation. This new accelerometer patent includes not-so-novel provisions for using tilt-sensors to control an iPad game, like a driving/racing game – which isn’t too exciting. What is exciting, though, are the provisions for using the iPad accelerometers in maps and surround sound are more novel and definitely innovative.
For maps, Apple wants to use tilt-controls to help move throughout a map. When zoomed into a portion of a map, the iPad user might want to visualize a potential route and change the orientation or view of the mapped region. Rather than pinch-zooming or pan around the area, the user could simply rotate, tilt, or slide the tablet in a particular direction in order to adjust their view.
When it comes to surround sound, rotating a device can have disastrous effects. Rotate the iPad 90 degress clockwise and what used to be the right speaker is now on the bottom of the device, with the left speaker now on the top of the device. The accelerometer patent outlines a method that would allow devices like the iPad to reconfigure the surround sound output to match the new hardware orientation.
The second patent covers a new kind of radio antenna that’s capable of working with a wider range of radio frequencies while combating interference from competing signals. There’s really nothing in this patent that will appeal to the average consumer, but it does pave the way for more compact smartphones with support for all kinds of wireless standards in the future.
It’s not everyday that we see patents being pushed through the USPTO that will actually make it onto market in devices that aren’t vaporware. In this case, Apple’s iPad and future iPhones should benefit from these patents. Now we wait for iPad Day!
[Via: PatentlyApple]