New patents filed by Apple and Microsoft provide tantalizing glimpses of where the smartphone is headed.
Microsoft’s patent describes a docking station for the smartphone and explains: “The dock should be small enough that you could stick it in a briefcase or bag to take on business trips, allowing you do tasks such as giving presentations without having to carry a laptop.”
Microsoft’s docking station would utilize the phone’s memory and processor to reconfigure an assortment of peripherals. “For example, if the paired devices determine a game controller is connected to the dock, the smartphone assumes that you are at a specific location and configures the interface to reflect the parameters that are used at that location,” according to technology consultant Michael Kassner. “How cool is that?”
Meanwhile buried in Apple’s new patent regarding its iPhone heuristic user interface are clear references to upcoming smartphone video applications. Alexander Wolfe writes in InformationWeek about Apple’s leap forward into smartphone video-conferencing capabilities:
“In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the back of the device, opposite the touch screen display on the front of the device, so that the touch screen display may be used as a viewfinder for either still and/or video image acquisition.
“In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user’s image may be obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display.
“In some embodiments, the position of the optical sensor can be changed by the user (e.g., by rotating the lens and the sensor in the device housing) so that a single optical sensor may be used along with the touch screen display for both video conferencing and still and/or video image acquisition.”
It’s pretty clear that the two technology giants see different futures for the smartphone, yet the technology described in both patents mean our mobile communications are about to take some huge leaps forward.