Microsoft’s newest patent will let you whisper voice commands to your smartphones

Microsoft

Voice commands are designed to make using your smart devices easier. But not everyone is comfortable speaking into your smartphones to dictate commands or private information and the like, especially when you’re out in public. That’s where the technology that Microsoft patented comes in handy. Called “Silent Voice Input,” it’ll let you whisper “with an inward airflow” to vocally communicate with your devices. What you’d need to do is place the device equipped with this feature very close to your mouth (in certain instances as close as 2mm), allowing for a small gap between the apparatus and the lips. Once in place, theoretically, the microphone can “capture [a] stable utterance signal with a very small voice leakage.” It might take some time to practice whispering while you inhale. This is called an ingressive airflow and this should prevent your voice from being distorted.

This kind of technology could potentially come to devices like smartwatches, smartphones, headsets, TV remotes, or even rings. But Microsoft hasn’t discussed whether this technology is going into development. Not all patents get turned into actual products, but it’s good to know the idea is there.

Source: Engadget

LG’s newest patent introduces 16-lens smartphone camera

What’s one, two, or three camera setups in a phone when you can have 16? LG is looking to set itself apart from the competition with its newest camera patent. The company might eventually plan to release a smartphone with a 16-camera array in a 4 x 4 matrix. The goal here is that these multiple cameras will be able to offer different angles of a scene with the help of these different lenses. And the different datasets these lenses provide could potentially cut out things from an image—say changing the background a bit, fixing a blink or the like. The lenses could also be made on a flat surface or approached with a concave curve. The latter could possibly give 3D information about a scene, producing some interesting photos.

Aside from that there’s also the possibility of creating mini films, which The Verge describes as something like “superpowered version” of Apple’s Live Photos or Lytro’s adjustable light field images. But at the moment, we need to remember that this is a patent and doesn’t necessarily mean it could happen. Although at the rate smartphone innovation is going, we wouldn’t be surprised if we see an LG device sporting this camera setup.

Source: ExtremeTech

Samsung patent shows possible intro of face and iris scanning in future phones

Samsung has just been granted a patent by the US Patent Office for a 2014 filing of biometric camera that has both iris and 3D face recognition. This feature is designed to work in the dark and has eye tracking, too. We can’t say if it’ll show up in upcoming devices coming out soon, like the Galaxy Note 9. But we will be keeping an eye out for it in 2019.

Source: CNET

Samsung patent shows smartphone with almost bezel-less display and secondary rear screen

Samsung is probably one of the last (if not the last) of the big manufacturers to not embrace the notch. The company has been focused on developing its Infinity Display concept instead. A new patent shows that Samsung is continuing down this path and instead of slimming the bezels from the top, it’s doing so from the bottom and getting rid of the chin entirely (but the USB Type C port and what looks like bottom-firing speakers still exist). But that isn’t the most interesting thing about this patent. What’s more newsworthy is there seems to be a rear secondary display. The sketch you see above shows a possible application of this idea. You see the camera having to repositioned to the top left corner. The overall shape is reminiscent of the Galaxy Note.

But again, it must be remembered that patents don’t necessarily translate to actual design. And while it might take a while to figure out the rear display (or not, stranger things have happened), the front display implementation might be something in our near future.

Source: Phone Arena