Apple Patents 'Chameleon' Computer Case

Dave B writes "The Register has been fishing at the patent office again and found that Apple has a new patent for "a computing device [which] includes a housing having an illuminable portion. The computing device also includes a light device disposed inside the housing. The light device is configured to illuminate the illuminable portion". While this gives us the exciting prospect of an iMac that is all five fruit flavors at once surely the original iMac with its glowing power button, or indeed a-thousand-and-one other electronic gizmos represent prior art?" Update a couple of users noticed this Slashdot Story from 2002 which looks familiar.

Comments

Prior Art?

[Morgahastu]

What the poster failed to mention was that the patent also included that it was customizable via a software program. You could open the "case prefs" and sets your case to have stripes, polka dots, etc. I am sure it could probably be animated too.

I don't I've ever seen that.

Re:Prior Art?

[anakin357]

The article says the case would be illuminated by R, G and B colored lights, so it could be any color of the spectrum. Very cool! Prior art? Not quite so sure.

I think it is more along the lines of "I'm feeling red today."
Click, click click... "Ahh, red illuminated case."

Blue? Click, click.

I like the idea.

Re:Prior Art?

[ravydavygravy]

What about a case that changes colour with system load - "oops, the server has gone a funny lava-red color - we'd better leave the room!"

Dave

Re:Prior Art?

[krog]

This is obviously the first hack anyone is going to write for it. The color and pattern is software-controlled, and therefore application-agnostic.

Second, someone (it could be me) will figure out how to goatse your case.

Re:Prior Art?

[FatalTourist]

And more importantly: STOP dropping acid!

Re:Prior Art?

[Pitdog7]

I think the Mood Stone guy is gonna have a little something to say about this...

Re:Picard

[llamalicious]

There ...

are

four LIGHTS!!!!!!!!!

Re:Well...

[christor]

No. See here.

Interactive Illumination

[Lord Grey]

From the detailed description portion of the patent:

[0090] In some cases, the light system 14 is arranged to cooperate with the electrical components 18. For example, events associated with the electrical components 14 may be monitored, and the light system 14 may be controlled based on the monitored events. As such, an illumination effect corresponding to a specific event may be produced. For example, the housing 12 may be configured to exude a blinking red coloration when an event has been implemented.

It looks like Apple is extending the "illuminated case" theme by making it more interactive. The patent is purposely vague about what the illumination is, taking (what seems to be) pains to avoid calling the illumination static. I think they're looking at displaying color bars, logos, icons, etc. on the case from the inside. It would be cool to see an entire case shaded (for example) from blue to red to indicate processor activity. Imagine a rack full of server systems with that capability, in a dark server room....

Now, I'm not sure how a so-called "interactive illumination" is much different than LEDs you see on the mondo-cool multiprocessor boxes, but the patent does describe something a bit different than the run-of-the-mill case mod.

This IS news!

[UncleBiggims]

The funny thing is that this actually IS news. But only because it is Apple. I for one am dying to see what the new iMac will look like. Even people who never plan to buy an Apple product are, at the very least, interested. However, if DELL had filed this patented then no one would really care. That says something about the importance of good design in the computer industry.

Re:Are patents stifling or restricting?

[krog]

Good thing no one has a patent on hyperbole -- you'd be in some serious trouble with the above post.

Chameleon Computer Case

[The Subliminal Kid]

Just what I need a computer that hides from me by becoming the same colour as the desk.

Re:THIS gets a patent?

[argent]

Read Richard Feynman's autobiography (Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman):

"There are so many ideas about nuclear energy that are so perfectly obvious, that I'd be here all day telling you stuff, [...] Example: nuclear reactor...under water...water goes in...steam goes out the other side...Pshshshsht -- it's a submarine. Or: nuclear reactor...air comes rushing in the front...heated up by nuclear reaction...out the back it goes...Boom! Through the air -- it's an airplane. Or: nuclear reactor...you have hydrogen go through the thing...Zoom! -- it's a rocket....There's a million ideas!" I said, as I went out the door.

Next thing he knew they'd taken out three patents in his name from that conversation.

Prior art?

[pesc]

Is it like this?

Surely there is a computer inside that controls that case!

Not new

[loginx]

The register should probably read slashdot more often then...
This story was posted on slashdot two years ago

No, Apple does not have a patent

[the eric conspiracy]

Apple has a new patent for "a computing device...

LOL. Slashdot and obviously the Register don't seem to be able to determine what a patent is. THIS IS AN APPLICATION, not an actual patent.

It was filed in Feb 2004 and PUBLISHED, not GRANTED on Aug 12. 20040156192 is the application number, not the patent number. Patent numbers are serial and are in the 6 million range.

Talk about egg on face.

Useful? Yup.

[Anonymous Coward]

Patent issues aside, I like the sound of this feature. Xserves are already pretty nice for 'admin by eye', but this sort of design takes that to a new level.

I've got new mail. How do I know? The Mac's pulsating yellow. Device 3 on that RAID's getting sick - it's turned a nasty shade of puce. We need to tweak our load-balancing: that server's green, but that one's red.

Shit. They've all gone red. Start blocking links from slashdot.

Practical Uses?

[buckhead_buddy]

The idea of a mood ring isn't too far off from the actual implementation. Heat sensitive liquid crystals would react to your body heat and change color (and sometimes pattern in some rings). They'd say various colors equated to different moods e.g. green = normal body temp = calm, yellow = hot = stressed, red = very hot = horny.

There are many ways color could be put to use.

In a computer lab situation, all students are taking a quiz. The color reflects the student's "questions per second" rate of progress through the quiz. Blue = Quick Pace, Green = Average Pace, Red = Slow Pace. (or any sort of gradients between these). Blue might be indicative of a really sharp student or one who's cheating. Red might indicate a dumb student or one held up by technical problem.

Again in a school lab, but where the students are given free research time to roam the web. The case may show green for sites on an approved "white list", some form of amber on an off-site list based on a computed content rating, a red color for black listed sites or ones with highly offensive content rating.

A boot up progress bar? As the machine starts up the colors fill the neutral body color from grey to blue from bottom to top and the whole case seems like it's being filled with water as it indicates where it is in the boot process. (Aqua?)

A mode (initiated from the server) that would turn all the machines cases to indicate 802.11 signal strength for a period of 10 seconds. Allowing you to adjust the base station's antenna or position to give good signal strength to everyone in the room.

An accessibility feature for deaf users (or an option for computers in mute) to strobe to the would-be sound strength being generated by the computer with color indicative of volume. While you won't be able to make out the content of what's being said, you could distinguish between a system beep when played over the sound of your game of risk. All without interfering with the real screen's content area.

Any other thoughts?