Well it appears that Google is looking to strengthen its patent portfolio even further. Google has recently been awarded some patents that Android fans can get excited about. One of them is the Pattern Unlock Screen that has been in the Android OS for some time. This feature allows users to have a set pattern that they must input in order to unlock their phone. Its good to see that Google is doing what they can to hold onto this feature.
While it may be good in itself, what's even better is they have added patents for more functionality to this. Hypothetically, one could slide their finger in a certain pattern and their calendar events would pop up (see picture below). Although this feature hasn't been implemented yet, as far as anyone can tell, it's good to see that Google is holding onto it for possible implementation down the road.
From a general unlock screen patent perspective:
“A lock screen view is displayed on the mobile device to prevent unauthorized and inadvertent access to the mobile device’s data. While the mobile device is locked, a touch gesture having a pre-defined shape is detected on a touch screen of the mobile device independently of the initial position of the touch gesture on the touch screen.”
The document goes on to elaborate:
“In response to detection of the touch gesture, a particular action is executed on the mobile device while the mobile device stays locked. The particular action determined according to the pre-defined shape. In this way, detection of the touch gesture causes the particular action to execute while keeping the mobile device locked.”
So even though Google has yet to implement these features, it's good to see that they have them patented just in case. While right now it's hard to see how Google plans on adding them, it will be interesting to see how these patents will fuel the patent wars between Apple and Google.
[via 9to5Google]
