Patent: Dynamic Ornamental Appearance

[MacRumors]

A patent filed on February 13, 2002 by "Apple Computers, Inc" [sic] reveals a very interesting patent description:

The invention pertains to electronic devices capable of dynamically changing their ornamental or decorative appearance, i.e., the outer appearance as seen by a user. The electronic devices generally include an illuminable housing. The illuminable housing, which includes at least one wall configured for the passage of light, is configured to enclose, cover and protect a light arrangement as well as functional components of the electronic device. The light arrangement, which generally includes one or more light sources, is configured to produce light for transmission through the light passing wall(s) of the illuminable housing. The transmitted light illuminates the wall(s) thus giving the wall a new appearance. That is, the transmitted light effectively alters the ornamental or decorative appearance of the electronic device. In most cases, the light is controlled so as to produce a light effect having specific characteristics or attributes. As such, the electronic device may be configured to provide additional feedback to the user of the electronic device and to give users the ability to personalize or change the look of their electronic device on an on-going basis. That is, a housing of the electronic device is active rather than passive, i.e., the housing has the ability to adapt and change. For example, the light may be used to exhibit a housing behavior that reflects the desires or moods of the user, that reflects inputs or outputs for the electronic device, or that reacts to tasks or events associated with operation of the electronic device.

Images/diagrams also available at the US Patent site.

[Billicus]

Very interesting indeed... new iDevice?

[TheAnswer]

Anyone else thinking maybe iTunes effects against the outside cover of an iPod...in effect a Mood Pod??

Too bad I only use mine while in traffic or at the gym...trust me, half the time it would not be pretty.

[medea]

wow, what in the world could this become? I'm imagining a new cube that does everything the article talks about.....wow, I wonder how long it will be before we see this implemented in something?

[robrash]

I don't understand what all the latin text means but the drawing has me excited

[medea]

Originally posted by TheAnswer
Anyone else thinking maybe iTunes effects against the outside cover of an iPod...in effect a Mood Pod??

Too bad I only use mine while in traffic or at the gym...trust me, half the time it would not be pretty.

No it's definitely meant for a computer, at least at the current stage, I just browsed through the rest of the patent page and its very very interesting, read some of the claims on it. ie:19. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the general purpose computer system is a desktop computer system.

[webb21]

Yay! Apple finally makes a toaster oven! You know, those diagrams are pretty vague. I noticed how boxlike the diagram was, and apple doesn't like squares. Of course I do realize they wouldn't put a detailed diagram down. That would ruin steve's show.

[funkywhat2]

"By way of example, the iMAC model, which is produced by Apple Computer..."

Nice.

[cc bcc]

Originally posted by Macrumors
A patent filed on February 13, 2002 by "Apple Computers, Inc" [sic] reveals a very interesting patent description:

quote:
The invention pertains to electronic devices capable of dynamically changing their ornamental or decorative appearance, i.e., the outer appearance as seen by a user. The electronic devices generally include an illuminable housing. The illuminable housing, which includes at least one wall configured for the passage of light, is configured to enclose, cover and protect a light arrangement as well as functional components of the electronic device. The light arrangement, which generally includes one or more light sources, is configured to produce light for transmission through the light passing wall(s) of the illuminable housing. The transmitted light illuminates the wall(s) thus giving the wall a new appearance. That is, the transmitted light effectively alters the ornamental or decorative appearance of the electronic device. In most cases, the light is controlled so as to produce a light effect having specific characteristics or attributes. As such, the electronic device may be configured to provide additional feedback to the user of the electronic device and to give users the ability to personalize or change the look of their electronic device on an on-going basis. That is, a housing of the electronic device is active rather than passive, i.e., the housing has the ability to adapt and change. For example, the light may be used to exhibit a housing behavior that reflects the desires or moods of the user, that reflects inputs or outputs for the electronic device, or that reacts to tasks or events associated with operation of the electronic device.


Images/diagrams also available at the US Patent site.

They could have simply said: screen, monitor, display or tv...

[Phechs]

I don't know that all the fuss is about, looks like an idea to make the cases of future (COMSUMER ONLY HOPEFULLY) Macs illuminate with user defined color related info, boooring. I mean not terribly useless, but some on, use the R&D money for something else.

[Phechs]

Throw the darn R&D money into Marklar or PPC970 research. I know the 970 R&D is outside apples hands, but still......apply the money to something the PRO Mac users need, or some of us just might jump ship(by necessity, not choice). I don't know if any of you have had the chance to use a dual athalon alienware system with music/video/2D/3D but WOW!!!!!. I am really hoping that apple comes up with something quickly to remedy the processor issue. sorry this is off topic, but really, we need more posts from those that understand that this money and effort should be focused in more necessary directions....unless of course, as it has happened before, this new invention revolutionizes Mac computing, as well as the computer market as a whole.

[Mr. Anderson]

Am I the only one having a problem looking at the images? They seem to be cut off

Anyway - if its a housing for a device that has colored LEDs lighting up the display - it almost sounds too hokey for apple. If anyone can post a pick of what's at the patent site that would be helpful.

D

[Flowbee]

Let's just hope there's a way to turn it off!

[dabirdwell]

Able to adapt to whatever you want? It would be cool if this was like the adapting camoflauge fatigues that DARPA is developing. Maybe not that high tech...

[arn]

Originally posted by Phechs
I am really hoping that apple comes up with something quickly to remedy the processor issue. sorry this is off topic, but really, we need more posts from those that understand that this money and effort should be focused in more necessary directions....unless of course, as it has happened before, this new invention revolutionizes Mac computing, as well as the computer market as a whole.

I think you're being a bit short-sighted. There's an explorative quality of R&D.
So, it's ok with you under the following condition? "unless of course this new invention revolutionalizes..." I guess people won't know until R&D is done on it.

As you said... the 970 is out of their area... and why should they spend more money on Marklar? A project that may or may not see the light of day.... and there is a limit to how much productivity can be had by throwing more money at one particular area. How many people do you want on the PowerMac project? The entirety of the Apple development team? Why waste money on OSX or other tech when they can keep throwing money at the PowerMac research? Obviously, I'm being sarcastic... but your complaints are without much merit.

arn

[isxios]

Well, Apple is already doing this in a limited fashion, with their iBooks, Cinema Displays, etc, there are lights where none are visible until they come on. They may be trying to develope this further and, of course, protecting their designs from being pilfered by others.

Hector

[MarkMc]

Seems like they are already using this to some extent. Think of the power adapter on the snow iBooks. It illuminates orange while charging, then green when done. Seems to fit the description perfectly, although I can't help but imagine that there could be many, many other cool ways to use that technology.

[xj9000]

Sometime companies pantent an idea, not to use it, but to prevent someone else for using it.

If Apple has a patent on glowing machines that don't have to be doing ANY R&D. They just hold it to prevent Dell or Compaq from creating computers that do.

[bidge]

Originally posted by dukestreet
Am I the only one having a problem looking at the images? They seem to be cut off

Anyway - if its a housing for a device that has colored LEDs lighting up the display - it almost sounds too hokey for apple. If anyone can post a pick of what's at the patent site that would be helpful.

D

I had problems accessing the images in Chimera but accessed them with no problems in IE.

Hope this helps...

[IJ Reilly]

This looks like the patent on the Jobs Reality Distortion Field.

[G4scott]

Originally posted by isxios
Well, Apple is already doing this in a limited fashion, with their iBooks, Cinema Displays, etc, there are lights where none are visible until they come on. They may be trying to develope this further and, of course, protecting their designs from being pilfered by others.

Hector

Very true. They could have a series of lights on the panel right above the keyboard with certain lights, maybe with some sort of images in them, that show if you have new e-mail, someone's trying to chat with you, your battery life is low, your trunk is open (jk ). The best thing that I've seen done with this is the power switch on the G4 Cube. You could hardly tell it was a button, but you just touch it, and it lights up, and the computer starts. Truly elegant. The only thing is that looking at the pictures, it seems that it may have some other uses too... Maybe the MoodMac... That would be a freaky trip back to the 70's...

For those of you who think that they need to spend more money on R&D for the pro's, chill out. Apple can only wait for the 970, and even then, the average consumer makes up the majority of Apple's sales, not the pro sales. I do agree though, that Apple must do something for them, but seeing their current situation, the only thing to do now is wait...

I'll just assure you, that whatever Apple does, it will probably look a lot cooler than those neon lights people are putting in their pee-cee's... I just hope that you can turn these lights off if you need to.

[clubsport]

Some of the information given in the patent leads me to believe that this technology could be used to display various information about what the Mac is currently doing.

Therefore, could this be purtaining to a new line of xServes that are able to change colour to reflect certain info about the server? For instance, the xServe could turn red if there was a problem, making it easily visible to people in the room.

Of course, this could be frightfully expensive and I have to say that it is not really worth it, but Apple is known for going to extreme lengths to make their products the best in the field.

[skunk]

I hope the implementation is a lot more elegant than the explanation. That's a really messy piece of writing....

[Tiauguinho]

This is a very interesting idea... As always Apple suprises me with the things they come up with and thats the reason i love them...

[taerf]

Originally posted by dukestreet
Am I the only one having a problem looking at the images? They seem to be cut off

I had that problem and was able to fix it by turning OFF "Save Movies in Disk Cache" in the Quicktime system preferences control pane.