Apple Expresses Interest in 'Kinect-Like' Control of Appliances and Vehicles

[MacRumors]

One of the hottest gadgets over the past month has been Microsoft's Kinect, a controller-free gaming interface for the company's Xbox 360 gaming system that senses users' body movements and voice commands for interacting with gaming and entertainment content.

As noted by InformationWeek, Apple has expressed interest in using somewhat similar technologies, as well as its own multi-touch gesture control, for interacting with such devices as kitchen appliances and vehicles. The revelation comes from a patent assignment in which inventor Timothy Pryor transferred his interest in three patents and ten pending patent applications to Apple, an assignment that was made in March of this year.

The various patents and patent applications have to do with the control of machines, specifically through a combination of touch screens and video sensing. They include titles like "Man Machine Interfaces For Entering Data Into A Computer" and "Programmable Tactile Touch Screen Displays And Man-Machine Interfaces For Improved Vehicle Instrumentation And Telematics."

While the oldest of the patents included in the transfer was filed over fifteen years, ago, the ten patent applications have all been filed since August 2007.

One patent application in particular, entitled "Control of Appliances, Kitchen and Home", describes how a rear-projection display and sensing array could be used on a kitchen countertop or directly on appliances or other surfaces to detect the user's motions and assist with food preparation while also providing access to other home automation and Internet-related functionality directly from the countertop.

"Machine vision sensing, coupled with suitable computer software, can also, as disclosed in my referenced applications, determine gesture commands in space made by a person, and can determine various features of the person or objects they are working with, or in some cases their movements and action," the patent application says.

Pryor's patent application proposes touch-enabled appliance surfaces that can control a multitude of appliances and "can ease kitchen and house work, while allowing the user to share time for home functions with Internet shopping, social networking and the like."

Obviously, it is unclear exactly what, if anything, Apple plans to do with the intellectual property it acquired from Pryor. It seems possible that Apple may simply have been moving to lock in ownership of some aspects of the inventions that relate in some way to the company's vision of implementations for multi-touch functionality in general, but clearly Apple has a significant interest in Pryor's work given its acquisition of a significant number of patents and patent applications.


Article Link: Apple Expresses Interest in 'Kinect-Like' Control of Appliances and Vehicles

 

[flottenheimer]

Don't slice that tomato just yet ... The kitchen is rebooting.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Pretty interesting stuff that just increases the perception that Apple is no longer a computer company but a consumer electronics company.

 

[Macman1993]

Finally a virus that can kill me by poisoning my food.

 

[lcdonnelly]

What do you think they will call it?

What do you think they will call it?

 

[nagromme]

When I saw the Kinect—“your body is the controller”—and saw people leaping around, I immediately thought that would be perfect for controlling a hot stove or speeding car!

 

[MalibuMatt98]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148a Safari/6533.18.5)

So, with this technology, I can talk to my toaster.

 

[DavidLeblond]

Projected virtual keyboard on a stove-top. That sounds like an EXCELLENT idea.

 

[inlovewithi]

Can't wait to read some of the comments here.

I mean, OMG, can you imagine this place if the story was the other way around. Can you imagine if Kinect was an Apple product and then a month after it came out Microsoft decided to make a similar product?

 

[El Cabong]

Finally, I can drive and cook at the same time without interrupting my Call of Duty gaming sessions.

Praise Apple!

(Also, is it April 1st? I thought it was December.)

 

[RalfTheDog]

Now you can play charades with your refrigerator while you are driving down the road. I find it shocking that Apple steals Microsoft ideas before Microsoft gets them. I guess that Apple invented a Time Machine before they invented Time Machine.

edited so as not to double post.

Can't wait to read some of the comments here.

I mean, OMG, can you imagine this place if the story was the other way around. Can you imagine if Kinect was an Apple product and then a month after it came out Microsoft decided to make a similar product?

Some of those pattens were over 15 years old.

 

[TheSlush]

Nah

This rear-projection stuff sounds like Microsoft's approach to Surface. I just don't see Apple going the projection route. It's so cumbersome and installation-intensive.

 

[SandynJosh]

Finally! A kitchen a guy can cook in! All it needs to make it complete is a remote control.

 

[arkhanjel]

never mind the rumor... who the hell made these diagrams? these things are part of the reason why these things are so hard to believe as Apple being interested. They look like they were hand drawn by someone with depth perception issues.

 

[inlovewithi]

Now you can play charades with your refrigerator while you are driving down the road. I find it shocking that Apple steals Microsoft ideas before Microsoft gets them. I guess that Apple invented a Time Machine before they invented Time Machine.

edited so as not to double post.



Some of those pattens were over 15 years old.

Your comment for some reason reminds me of early January when the HP slate and other tablets were introduced, before Apple even made public that they were even going to come out with a tablet. Now all you see are comments that HP is copying Apple, with form factor and everything. By the way, I also saw videos of Bill Gates from 1995 talking about the future and tablets.

 

[RalfTheDog]

Your comment for some reason reminds me of early January when the HP slate and other tablets were introduced, before Apple even made public that they were even going to come out with a tablet. Now all you see are comments that HP is copying Apple, with form factor and everything. By the way, I also saw videos of Bill Gates from 1995 talking about the future and tablets.

Bill gates was saying, "Tablets will only need 64k of RAM. They should all come with a keyboard and a mouse. A new smaller disk format will need to be made for the external floppies that will be used to boot the tablet.

Note: The mouse will only be used for the few tablets that run a graphic UI. Text only tablets will not need a mouse."

 

[GQB]

Your comment for some reason reminds me of early January when the HP slate and other tablets were introduced, before Apple even made public that they were even going to come out with a tablet. Now all you see are comments that HP is copying Apple, with form factor and everything. By the way, I also saw videos of Bill Gates from 1995 talking about the future and tablets.

In just about every case, credit for 'inventing' anything goes to the one who gets it out into the world as a real thing.
'Invention' is ALWAYS the result of standing on the shoulders of those who are standing on other shoulders.
This "so and so thought this up YEARS before that" stuff is silly.
Creativity lies in actually accomplishing things, not just dreaming them up.

 

[localoid]

The "magical" kitchens of the future was a popular subject when Jobs was growing up.

Kitchens of the Future (circa the 1950s)

Personally, I wish the great dreamers of dreams would devote more R&D time towards inventing attractive android servant girls that know how to cook.

 

[alent1234]

MS didn't invent kinect, a small israeli company that deals with the IDF did. there was even a story a few weeks ago how they pitched it to Apple first but didn't want to deal with them due to apple's NDA demands so they took it to MS

 

[iPhoney:)]

We all know Apple is working on a telescreen straight out of 1984, this is only the beginning...

 

[Consultant]

Man-machine interface? Apple's making Robocop?

 

[iAmLegend]

Hot stoves + multi-touch = overcrowded burn units at your local hospital.

 

[Mattsasa]

great... now apple is taking over my kitchen too

 

[NebulaClash]

Your comment for some reason reminds me of early January when the HP slate and other tablets were introduced, before Apple even made public that they were even going to come out with a tablet. Now all you see are comments that HP is copying Apple, with form factor and everything. By the way, I also saw videos of Bill Gates from 1995 talking about the future and tablets.

Didn't you see how this year went? HP and Ballmer make all this noise about tablets in January. Apple announces the iPad (which has been in development for years, before the iPhone was released) in February. HP announces they are changing their plans. The iPad goes on sale. Sales skyrocket. Now the market decides to make iPad-alikes.

So yeah, people do copy Apple even if Apple is not the first company to introduce a concept. But when Apple gets it right, suddenly everyone makes their stuff like Apple's stuff. That's why so few smart phones looked like iPhones before the iPhone came out, and why so many smart phones look like iPhones today.

 

[Liquorpuki]

MS didn't invent kinect, a small israeli company that deals with the IDF did. there was even a story a few weeks ago how they pitched it to Apple first but didn't want to deal with them due to apple's NDA demands so they took it to MS

Primesense invented the sensor technology. Microsoft wrote the software and created the design that transformed the sensor into a gaming peripheral. Credit Microsoft for that. I have a Kinect and as much as I think Microsoft is a joke in certain markets, they've innovated one cool little device and if you've seen any of the Kinect hacks, they've actually laid the foundation to blow open a general market for motion control that goes far beyond console gaming.

If Apple had acquired the sensor, I have no clue what they would have done with it. They don't have a console and you can't apply the sensor (which requires a 6 foot gap between it and the user) to any of their mobile devices or computers. Maybe you'd be able to control Apple TV with your hands but that would be lame.