Retail giant Walmart has apparently concluded that the experience of visiting its massive retail stores can be kind of unpleasant and appears to be working on technology that would, uh, simulate a flashy version of that experience from the comfort of your couch.
Amazon is on a mission to mechanize as much of its supply chain as possible, and has—through publicly available documents—considered autonomous vehicles, drones that react to screaming, and flying warehouses. Among the strangest is a patent application which became public today, and it’s, uh, some sort of crane game…
One current and five former Fitbit employees accused of knowingly stealing trade secrets from former employer Jawbone, which ceased operation in 2017, have been indicted. The two companies have gone to court in the past over similar allegations. If convicted, the defendants could face up to 10 years in prison.
It looks like Uber has a growing interest in the behaviors of its users. According to a patent application filed by the company Thursday, Uber is planning to use machine learning to better understand the “state” of a passenger when they request a ride.
This patent battle between Apple and Samsung is the lawsuit that just won’t go away.
A recently published patent filed by Nike depicts a new “rotatable conveyor element” designed to help people put on their shoes. Essentially a tiny treadmill, the proposed device is a conveyer belt that’s embedded in a shoe’s insole and “configured to rotatably engage a body part of the wearer as the foot enters the…
Today, Apple was awarded a patent for an “electronic device having display with curved edges” that brings the dream of a round Apple Watch a little closer to the realm of possibility. Noticed by 9to5Mac, the patent mostly discusses the technical challenges when it comes to creating curved and circular displays, but…
Walmart filed for a glut of patents, published today, that suggest the US’s biggest retailer could be ramping up incorporation of emerging tech in ways that would dramatically change how consumers shop and order.
Get ready to grovel for your next shipment of toilet paper. A recently published Amazon patent depicts a delivery drone capable of recognizing and responding to human gestures and speech, which means you may want to practice the art of supplication to ensure proper delivery of that two-ply to your front porch.
Earlier today, Facebook filed a patent for “a self-balancing robot that transitions from a three-wheeled mode to a two-wheeled self-balancing mode” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Facebook isn’t typically thought of a as a hardware company, and the details on what this is intended to do are left…
If you’re a holdout who refuses to upgrade to a post-2015 MacBook because of Apple’s revamped keyboard and its shallow butterfly switches, it seems like your prospects for a better experience in the future just got a little bleaker.
Companies love using the latest and greatest technology to keep track of employees, even when they’re at home. But Amazon’s new idea goes to extremes to treat employees like fleshy robots. The Seattle-based company was just granted two patents for employee wristbands that look like something from dystopian science…
It was almost two years ago to the day when Amazon released a cheeky video detailing its plans to conquer the skies with a fleet of package-delivering drones. We’re still waiting for these unmanned aircraft to replace standard trucks and delivery personnel, but it’s clear Amazon hasn’t abandoned the idea. Earlier this…
For the better part of the last three years, the introduction of the most powerful gene editing technology ever invented has been marred by a nasty patent battle. The two groups of scientists involved, each contributing significantly to the future of genetic engineering, are pitted against each other in a bitter…
When General Motors acquired Cruise Automation in a deal worth more than $1 billion, Cruise transferred its patents directly to GM. When Google spun out its self-driving car experiment into a full-fledged company, it transferred its patents directly to its new subsidiary, Waymo. But when Uber acquired the self-driving…
The Roomba is generally regarded as a cute little robot friend that no one but dogs would consider to be a potential menace. But for the last couple of years, the robovacs have been quietly mapping homes to maximize efficiency. Now, the device’s makers plan to sell that data to smart home device manufacturers, turning…
It’s an obscure case that hasn’t received a ton of attention as it has made its way to the Supreme Court but the final verdict could set off a cascade of consequences in the world of consumer products.
You’re probably already accustomed to mooching free wi-fi whenever you visit a friend, but according to a new patent Sony filed just last Friday, the company wants you to be able to steal power from a friend’s phone as well, without having to connect a single cable.
Last week, the US Patent and Trademarks office handed down a decision in one of the most high-profile patent cases of the century. In a one sentence ruling, an appeals board granted the rights to the powerful gene editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 to the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, while leaving the door open for…
Ever since Donald Trump announced his plan to run for president, random people have been filing for all kinds of trademarks that include the Trump name. Some are Trump supporters, while others are Trump resistors, but friend or foe, it’s a land grab for intellectual property rights. As you might expect, there are some…
