14 DAY TRIAL // If it's Tuesday, it's Apple patents day. The United States Patent and Trademark Office just published a new series of patents they've granted to Apple. There are 57 of them, but a few caught our attention.
One of the most interesting ones creates a digital clapperboard designed for the movie industry. The innovation is described as it would work on an iPhone, but the final app may actually work much better on an iPad. According to PatentlyApple, the patent explains how the regular dry erase board clapper is not suited for today's movie making industry.
The script supervisor needs to make sure he fills a paper log with the markings on the clapper, the director's commentary. A second log sheet is filled out by the camera department with the information about the camera, lens used and other technical stuff and the third sheet is done by the sound recordist with all the microphone, sound roll and sound details. These three log sheets are collected and given to the video editor. With so many paperwork, there are frequent mishaps so a digital clapper that incorporates the log information would be really useful.
The new patent details how Apple engineers have thought about solving all these issues by using an iPhone that will capture all the details. The app would record the time of the day, name of the movie and the scene, number of the take and it would digitally transmit all of that to the video editor.
The patent credits Jeff Roenning, an Apple engineer who used to work at Motion Picture Editors Guild, Doug Devore, manager of the Final Cut Studio Integration Team, and another engineer named Patrick Vasta.
Apple has also been granted a patent that covers a flexible display with a twist. Such a display could be integrated into a device that has multiple flexible displays. For example, the Home button on an iPad or iPhone could only appear when needed. When the device is not in use, the home button would recess into the device's display.
The patent also gets into a new type of electronics that may have a button, microphone, speaker or other in/out devices that are hidden inside a display. Also Apple is thinking about using a flexible display as a way to provide feedback to the user. Imagine a virtual keyboard that will also trigger the modification of the display and show a clear delimitation of the keys that the user can feel with his fingers.
