Microsoft Files Patent for PC of the Future

[Rocco Augusto]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/01/30/microsoft-planning-to-transform-your-smartphone-into-pc' target='_blank'>http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/...rtphone-into-pc</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Microsoft has filed a patent called "Smart interface system for mobile communication devices" to turn your smartphone into a "full-fledged" PC with peripherals. The patent application dated January 22, 2009 (originally filed in Dec 2007) describes the Smart Interface as an intelligent cradle that acts as an interface between the mobile device and the peripherals."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1233609638.usr8.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>I am incredibly surprised that it has taken Microsoft this long to file a patent for this technology. Didn't Bill Gates give a good 10 minutes demonstration of a technology similar to this a few years ago at CES? If my memory serves me correctly, Bill was using a T-Mobile SDA with the glorious hump for the antenna at the top of the device. He walks over and puts his phone on a makeshift terminal&nbsp; and the terminal then turns into a giant screen where he can interact with it just as he would his desktop computer of the future. The demo was pretty awesome and you would think if Microsoft was spending all that time researching technology such as that they wouldn't waste years on filing for a patent for said device. Hopefully this technology is approaching our pockets sometime in the very near future.</p>

[igreen]

Hmmm without reading the whole patent submission, it looks like prior art. Sounds a little like basic concepts are covered by this thing below.

http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f352/daves-ipaq-glimpse-blue-dock-63184.html

[JKingGrim]

I like this as a vision of the future. No more having a phone, laptop and a desktop. I get home and dock my phone and it becomes my desktop. It can utilize the processing power and utilities of the devices connecting to the dock. When I am out and about I connect to a Redfly like device and it becomes my laptop. This will need a completely new OS design that truly works across screen resolutions and has different interfaces to adapt to how it is currently being used. It must combine the speed and battery friendly nature of a mobile OS with the power and flexibility of a desktop OS. Perhaps one day though.

[Pony99CA]

Hmmm without reading the whole patent submission, it looks like prior art. Sounds a little like basic concepts are covered by this thing below.

http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f352/daves-ipaq-glimpse-blue-dock-63184.html
Yep, but I don't know if that ever really got made. It also sounds a lot like the Celio Redfly, except I don't have to physically dock with the Redfly and the Redfly's connections probably aren't as flexible as the proposed dock (you can only connect a VGA display/projector, keyboard, mouse/trackball or USB drive).

Steve

[Pony99CA]

I like this as a vision of the future. No more having a phone, laptop and a desktop. I get home and dock my phone and it becomes my desktop. It can utilize the processing power and utilities of the devices connecting to the dock. When I am out and about I connect to a Redfly like device and it becomes my laptop.
It's really not that visionary, though. As pointed out above, there were designs to have PDAs and phones do similar things.

Also, IBM had the Meta Pad concept PC (http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/pr.nsf/pages/news.20020206_metapad.html), which was basically a "core" PC that could dock into handheld, laptop, desktop and even wearable stations.

So there's plenty of prior art. Adding a phone to the mix isn't particularly non-obvious.

I think the true vision of the future will be implanted PCs that work with your brain and keep you always connected. Let the PC crunch numbers, which it's very good at, while pushing pattern recognition tasks off to the brain, which it's good at. If we truly don't use 90% of our brains, maybe we can share the capacity. ;)

This will need a completely new OS design that truly works across screen resolutions and has different interfaces to adapt to how it is currently being used. It must combine the speed and battery friendly nature of a mobile OS with the power and flexibility of a desktop OS. Perhaps one day though.
I don't think the OS needs much redesign. Windows Mobile already supports multiple screen resolutions. That's how products like NYDITOT Virtual Display and the Celio Redfly can work.

There are two problems, though -- developers who code their applications to only work in a specified resolution and the artwork that comes with the OS (that's why some background images in the Redfly don't fill the screen).

I believe Android also may be up to the task. There were stories about people running it on a netbook/MID.

Steve