Tech Innovators Part 2: Google

This is the second in a brief series of articles looking at what kind of technology some of the world’s leading tech innovators are developing, and this part focusses on Google.

A number of Google’s recent patents explore ways of electronically recognising, transmitting and even recreating physical actions, for example pressing your thumb against any of your four fingers to select any of four respective virtual buttons or twisting your thumb and forefinger together to turn a virtual dial up or down.

There is also a patent describing how (possibly using additional sensors or pressure pads linked to a transmitting electronic device) physical contact can be recorded on one device and communicated to, and recreated on, another. Such a system would aim to recreate physical contact (for example holding hands) when the users are not in the same location.

Google are also filing many patents related to smart home technology, including software which uses advanced voice recognition to operate home appliances, safety detection systems which send alerts to your smart device if motion/smoke/wind/water are detected and several patents on how integrated neural networks can be used to interpret user behaviour and predict future commands.

Given the amount of R&D that goes on in these companies no doubt some of these projects will not proceed to commercialization, but those that do may soon be appearing on our devices.

For any aspect of Intellectual Property advice and overall strategy, please get in touch with the ip21 team.

Richard Jones, Business Relationship Manager for ip21 Ltd.