Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now
Codebreaker

Apple and Microsoft apply for new waving arms around patent

John Moe Oct 31, 2011

New patents reveal what could be the future of device control (also what patent law students should be boning up on). What’s next? Gestures, and not the kind that involve you clicking on your phone’s touchscreen. These are the full-on Minority Report gestures, where you are making movements in the air. A recent Apple patent suggests an application that would let you virtually grab something from your iPhone and “throw” it to another device (think video of the kids flying to your TV, perhaps?). Of course Microsoft has been using this kind of technology in their Kinect systems used with the Xbox. The trick is to figure out how to shrink it down to smartphone-sized device.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.