Samsung smartwatch patent shows a camera at the center of display, touchscreen panel on watchband

It’s always good to remember that patents don’t always equate to commercial products. But they do show us what a brand is working towards and Samsung seems to have some novel ideas for its upcoming smartwatches. Filed back in November and only published last month, a Samsung patent filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office shows a smartwatch with a camera at the center of its display. The camera looks like it’s built directly into the display and would come with an optical zoom.

And since there would be limited touch interactivity on the watch face, Samsung is also planning to make use of the watchband as a display. The functions seem to be similar to how they use the edge panel on its current crop of smartphones. You get shortcuts to other features, including being able to launch the camera. While we’re not sure how far off Samsung is when it comes to working with foldable displays, we can’t help but be excited about the possibilities. What do you think? Would you want to see these technologies in your next smartwatch?

Source: Android Authority

Samsung patent for Gear smartwatch shows rotary dial wraparound display

A recently discovered patent from Samsung shows the South Korean tech company considering other new features for its smartwatch design. In this patent originally filed in September 2015, it shows Samsung trying out having a secondary display along the rotary dial of the watch. Much like the secondary screen on its Galaxy Edge devices, there seems to be app shortcuts there and basic information like date, time, and weather. And as the patent filing says, that display can be rotated 90 degrees and is even split between an upper and lower section for an undisclosed purpose. We’re not sure how intuitive this design would be though. And since it’s been filed a while back, perhaps Samsung has already thought of other ways to implement the display.

Source: Wareable

Apple patent hits at almost-universal integration of mobile payments

Patents sometimes don’t translate to actual products. But they do hint at what’s possible for a company. Tech giant Apple looks to be expanding its peer-to-peer mobile payment system beyond iMessage. A recently filed patent application by the company suggests they are looking to integrate the mobile payment system into other iOS services such as a phone call, an email, and even calendar events. This means, if Apple intends to develop this, you can use your iPhone and its many apps and services to easily make payments. Now, that is convenient.

Source: Quartz

Google hopes to make our future spoiler free

There’s a new Google patent that hopes to stop you from murdering your “friend” who posted what’s about to happen in the new season of Game of Thrones before you get to see it. The system is designed to track your progress on a show, movie, or book and block or rather blur posts that might contain spoilers.

We’re not sure how Google will be able to work with social networks but we would sure love to have this on all our social network feeds. If someone tells me who else dies in Game of Thrones, they’re going to get a severe verbal lashing from me. Kidding (not kidding).

Source: Quartz | Via: Gizmodo