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Looking for gPhone Clues in Google Patents

Posted by Zonk on from the it's-like-sleuthing dept.

iced_tea writes "What do Google patents say about the company's possible plans for a Google phone? News.com took a look at some of the related technologies. Just one example: 'This image shows a diagram from a patent filed June 30, 2005 and published October 12, 2006, called "Non-Standard Locality-Based Text Entry." The inventor is listed as Shumeet Baluja, a senior staff research scientist at Google, and the assignee is listed as Google. The invention would allow an English speaker, for example, to use the keypad of any mobile phone to enter Chinese characters, according to Google patent scrutinizer Stephen Arnold.'"

13 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. what department is that in? by User+956 · · Score: 4, Funny

    according to Google patent scrutinizer Stephen Arnold.

    Is that an actual job title these days, or is that just his hobby?

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:what department is that in? by CaptainPatent · · Score: 4, Funny

      according to Google patent scrutinizer Stephen Arnold.

      Is that an actual job title these days, or is that just his hobby? I thought it just meant he posts on /.
      --
      Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
  2. Speaking of world dominiation... by Facetious · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Love him or hate him, Cringely is talking about a somewhat related topic today.

    --
    Let us not become the evil that we deplore.
  3. Re:Google has no business making a phone ... by psychicsword · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This will fail. I bet some said the same thing about apple, and look at them now.
  4. Kanji? Really? by GStyle98 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Kanji and hangul support would be freaking sweet and I'd go so far as to switch mail provider in order to have that on my phone. The trouble is that kanji/hangul support isn't good enough because you need auto-completion and dictionary lookups as well. Essentially, you need something like NJstar on your phone. Or you need to go the route of the Japanese and have each key represent a sequence of kana (like a-i-u-e-o for 1, ka-ki-ku-ke-ko for 2, etc) that ties in to a dictionary-like lookup.

    No idea how to effectively input chinese on a phone, but 10,000 ideograph input on a phone for SMS messages seems complicated without help :)

  5. Re:Price for mobile net access? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Google would almost have to build their own cellular network to really take advantage of their other product lines.
    Yes indeed, yes indeed...
    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  6. Software Development? by Boa+Constrictor · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The invention would allow an English speaker, for example, to use the keypad of any mobile phone to enter Chinese characters

    Google has applications which run on 'phones -- I use the java Gmail app on mine. This could just as easily be a software patent for more 3rd party products, rather than their own hardware. Google make software which runs on PCs, but that doesn't mean that they sell them.

  7. Re:Kanji? Really? by hansamurai · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You seem to forget that there's already an entire market of Asian cell phones out there that have already solved this problem.

    --
    Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
  8. Chinese input not so bad on the UI side... by zooblethorpe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No idea how to effectively input chinese on a phone, but 10,000 ideograph input on a phone for SMS messages seems complicated without help :)

    Have a look at Zhùyïn fúhào, also known as bopomofo. Makes it pretty easy to input using the basic Latin alphabet, though the software side is pretty complicated I'm sure.

    Kanji and hangul support would be freaking sweet and I'd go so far as to switch mail provider in order to have that on my phone. The trouble is that kanji/hangul support isn't good enough because you need auto-completion and dictionary lookups as well. Essentially, you need something like NJstar on your phone. Or you need to go the route of the Japanese and have each key represent a sequence of kana (like a-i-u-e-o for 1, ka-ki-ku-ke-ko for 2, etc) that ties in to a dictionary-like lookup.

    Hangul wouldn't need much beyond autocomplete, if you're getting fancy (no Chinese characters used much outside of academia these days). And hey, though Japanese is more complicated, if the folks in Japan can get their phones set up to do this (and they have already, complete with easy switching to Latin alphanumeric input), it shouldn't be too hard for Google or someone else to reproduce that functionality.

    Cheers,

    --
    "What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
    "A four-foot prune."
    1. Re:Chinese input not so bad on the UI side... by zombie_striptease · · Score: 2, Informative

      Chinese input on the mainland is actually even easier than that. You just enter the standard pinyin (minus tones) with the latin alphabet you normally have on American phones and it brings up a row of characters with that pronunciation to choose from. Even more, it offers a list after each character entry of other hanzi that can form common compunds with the preceeding one, which saves you the trouble of typing many things out. It's surprisingly fast and effective overall.

  9. Stay away from Google Patent Search by Chapter80 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    No way in hell would I use Google Patent Search for any serious searches when doing real patent work. That's like handing your ideas over to them! They wouldn't monitor popular patent searches to get ideas, now, would they?

  10. The Article that goes with the Image by PineHall · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here is the article that goes with the image.

  11. allow an English speaker...to enter Chinese chara by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    you can do this very simply by pounding any key, Chinese will come up. Chinese speaker may not understand though.