Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

We haven’t heard anything about Kindle 3 and when, if ever, it’s going to be released. However, Qualcomm have just come up with a folding device design that would fit Kindle 4 perfectly – As a bonus the patent already talks about a dual screen book mode.

Amazon ought to license the design or perhaps even steal it.

Why on earth are Qualcomm patenting Folding eReader/Phone designs?

How strange that the company with the magical Mirasol color ePaper technology is patenting what looks like an amazing design for a folding eReader. Shouldn’t Qualcomm focus on selling its ePaper technology to the ten thousand different companies that are jumping into the eReader space?

Take a look (image links to Qualcomm patent article with more images) -

Qualcomm - what are you doing with the Readius design

The device does different things based on how much you unfold it and how you arrange it – It’s some sort of mini-laptop in this image, a wide-screen movie player when folded out, an alarm clock when folded halfway (sort of), and a cellphone when all folded up.  

Shouldn’t this patent be nullified because Polymer Vision’s Readius had an almost identical folding design. Wistron bought Polymer Vision when it went bankrupt and it would not be a surprise to see them contest this.

Qualcomm’s Folding eReader patent – the Details

If time is passing by too slowly you could check out the folding ereader patent and make it come to a complete stand still . Actually the experience does end and it unearthed this gem -

In a particular embodiment, the dual-panel configuration illustrated in FIG. 55 may function as a “book mode,”

and the panels that include the second accelerometer 4924 and the third accelerometer 4926 may simulate the two sides of a book

Here are the breathtaking parts -

1. Different panels are said to have different display surfaces. There are 3 panels in all.
2. Changes in hardware configuration can be detected including changes in the relative orientation of the screens. The patent seems obsessed with figuring out relative orientations (it’s not that different from the Kamasutra) -
   

   wherein the first sensor is configured to detect a first relative orientation of the first panel to the second panel, wherein the second sensor is configured to detect a second relative orientation of the third panel to the second panel, and further comprising a third sensor configured to detect an inclination of the second panel.

   wherein the third panel is positioned such that an angle formed by the second display surface and the third display surface is greater than ninety degrees and less than one hundred eighty degrees.

3. You have to read this patent – It’s a work of art in more ways than one.
4. Here’s what all the twisting and turning gets you (these are all different orientations/configurations) – two screen display with a keyboard (desktop UI), clock (alarm clock UI), video conferencing, panorama view video player, cellphone, application UI (whatever that means), media player UI, dual panel configuration, thumbing configuration, and more.
5. There’s talk of landscape, rotated, and portrait orientation for the screens. Also, applications can be moved across screens.
6. They specifically say it’s a wireless communication device.
7. It gets a little crazy when they start talking about the angle between two surfaces getting to 135 degrees and what that does. How do we even tell we’ve hit 135 degrees?
8. There’s a thumb keyboard – they keep referring to it as thumbing configuration.
9. The patent says that in the most compact mode the device could function as a phone, SMS device, PDA, browser, keypad, or menu.
10. There are lots of bells and whistles – touchscreen, wireless, short-range wireless, codec, tilt sensors (inclinometer and accelerometer), and a camera.
11. When folded its (one suggested design) 6 to 13 cm diagonally. Also each panel is less than 5.5 mm so that total thickness when folded is 16.5 mm or less.
12. Keyboards change orientation based on orientation of the device. Applications change window size and which panel they are on based on folding configuration.
13. The strangest part is about updating a web server when configurations are changed.
14. There’s a lot of stuff about figuring out the magnitude of acceleration in the different sensors that’s really, really confusing.
15. You can shake the device to see portions of an image that are off-screen.

This patent really is perfect for an eReader – hopefully Amazon or B&N use it for Kindle 4 or Nook 3

Qualcomm’s Folding eReader Patent really ticks off a lot of boxes – coolness factor, compactness, large screen, multiple configurations, innovative new user interface, thin, and a lot more.

Imagine a device smaller than a Kindle that lets you read in Kindle screen size or Kindle DX screen size and then folds and fits in your pocket. It’s very similar to Readius with the added benefit that Qualcomm use inclinometers and accelerometers to let users fold the eReader into different configurations. Plus you can go for the book style dual-screen configuration.

It would be awesome if Qualcomm ends up licensing this out for Kindle 4 and other eReaders.

Filed under: kindle 4 Tagged: | folding kindle, kindle 4