Latest hardware patents
Chips, displays, cameras, phones, batteries and robots. These filings show what devices Big Tech is building, often long before they ship. The hardware patent applications we have broken down from the companies we track, from semiconductors to foldable screens, newest first.
- in the Nov 12 release
- 48
- in November so far
- 102
- filings tracked
- 2,316
- sub-topics
- 13
Recent filings
Newest first · 2,316 total-
Google · Published Nov 12
A New Google Patent Cuts the Battery Drain From Your Digital Car Key
When your phone is your car key, the car keeps pinging it to ask if you're still nearby, and each ping can wake the whole phone. Google's patent application has a small security chip answer or ignore those pings so the main processor can keep sleeping.
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Qualcomm · Published Nov 12
A New Qualcomm Patent Has Graphics Chips Load Their Next Batch of Data While Still Working
A graphics chip that fetches its data one piece at a time spends a lot of its day waiting. Qualcomm's patent application has it load the next batch while it is still crunching the current one.
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Microsoft · Published Nov 12
Microsoft Files Patent to Help Phones and Robots Tell Where They Are From Video
A camera that tracks its own movement can be thrown off by a passing pedestrian or a blocked view. Microsoft's patent application has an AI give every tracked spot a trust score before any position math happens.
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Microsoft · Published Nov 12
Microsoft Patents Memory Chips That Only Activate When an AI Generates a Response
When a chatbot reads your question and then writes its answer, it is doing two different jobs. This Microsoft filing gives each job a different kind of math.
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Microsoft · Published Nov 12
Microsoft Files Patent for AI Chips That Multiply Numbers With Light
Microsoft describes a device where a tiny display shines light through a slab of tinted filters, and the brightness that comes out is the answer to a multiplication problem. The goal is to take some of the heaviest math in AI off the chip entirely.
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Google · Published Nov 12
Google Files Patent for Steering AI Satellites With Earth's Magnetic Field
Google's filing describes a flat, solar-powered satellite full of AI chips that steers by running electric current around its edge and pushing against the magnetic field around it. A trained AI model decides how hard to push.
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Google · Published Nov 12
Google Wins a Patent for a Solar-Powered AI Computer That Orbits Earth
Google has won a patent for a flat, solar-powered satellite that would run AI chips in orbit and cool them by radiating heat into space. The patent has already been granted.
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Apple · Published Nov 12
Apple Patents a Two-Motor Speaker That Cancels Its Own Vibration
Apple has filed a patent for a speaker with two motors that push against each other on purpose, so the sound comes out but the shaking doesn't. One single wire ties the whole thing together.
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Microsoft · Published Nov 12
Microsoft Files Patent for a Controller Thumbstick You Can Swap With One Screw
A new Microsoft patent application describes a game controller thumbstick that pops out and back in with a single screw that never falls out of the module.
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Google · Published Nov 12
Google Files Patent for a Foldable Screen Hinge Built Around Magnets
The hinge is the part of a foldable phone that wears out first, and Google has filed a patent that puts magnets inside it. The pull of those magnets changes as the screen folds, so the hinge feels different at each angle.
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Samsung · Published Nov 12
Samsung Files Patent for TV Lights That Glow on Your Wall When a Message Arrives
Samsung's filing describes a TV that tells you a message arrived by changing the light on the wall behind it, near where the app would normally pop up. Your movie stays untouched until you decide to look.
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Qualcomm · Published Nov 12
Qualcomm Files Patent for a Robot Brain With Fast and Slow Thinking Modes
Qualcomm's AI for robots can either plan a task step by step or skip the planning and just move, and you can tell it which to do. If it plans, you get to read the plan and fix it before anything happens.
