Sony Patents a Camera That Sees Close and Distant Objects Simultaneously
Most depth-sensing cameras have to choose between seeing objects up close or far away. Sony's new patent describes a chip that tackles…
1960 filings · category
Hardware patents
The Big Tech patents worth knowing in hardware, in plain English. Updated weekly from new USPTO publications.
Recent filings
1960 total
Sony Patents an Electromagnetic Scanner That Decides How Hard to Look
Most sensors blast the same number of signals at every frequency and hope for the best. Sony's new patent describes a system…
Microsoft Patents a Way to Route Database Queries Through a GPU
Microsoft has filed a patent describing a system that offloads database searches to a graphics chip, potentially speeding up data lookups without…
Apple Patents a Three-Chip Wake-Up System to Cut Photo Lag on Its Headset
Every fraction of a second counts when you try to take a photo. Apple is filing patents to stop its headset from…
Intel Patents a Chip-Level Defense Against Memory Spying Between Programs
Two programs running on the same chip can spy on each other through the processor's own cache memory, without touching each other's…
Apple Patents a Crown That Measures How Hard You Press It
Apple's Digital Crown is already a multi-function dial, but a new patent wants to add one more dimension: knowing exactly how hard…
Samsung Patents a Chip That Loads the Next Filter While the Current Image Renders
Every time your phone processes a photo or video frame, the chip has to fetch the math instructions it needs before it…
Qualcomm Patents Technology That Removes Unwanted Spots and Smears From Photos
Fixing a bad photo usually means accepting the damage done. Qualcomm's new patent describes a chip-level method that compares two shots of…
Samsung Patent Tweaks Display Color and Brightness to Improve Fingerprint Recognition
Samsung is patenting a way to make your phone's screen actively help its fingerprint sensor by shifting the brightness and color of…
Sony Patent Describes Camera Technology That Monitors and Detects Its Own Lens Degradation
What if your camera could tell you, or your car, that its lens is too dirty or damaged to be trusted? Sony…
Qualcomm Patents a Display Chip That Only Processes What You're Looking At
Instead of processing every pixel in every frame, Qualcomm's patent describes a display chip that zeroes in on the part of the…
Qualcomm Patents a Way for GPUs to Fetch Two Texture Pixels With One Instruction
Every pixel in a 3D scene has to be looked up from a texture map, and that lookup costs chip time. Qualcomm…
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