Samsung Awarded System of Location Tracking Designed for Parents

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., is a global electronics development company headquartered in South Korea. The company is well known for its consumer electronics products, as well as its ongoing patent war with Apple. Nonetheless, as the following shows, Samsung is involved with much more than electronic devices and televisions.

Patent applications published recently by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office show Samsung’s goals of developing stronger systems of software protection and user interfaces for gesture-based gaming systems. Another patent application assigned to Samsung Electronics could protect an important advance in cancer treatments. One of the recent patents awarded to Samsung from the USPTO protects a more efficient system of location tracking designed for parents.

To see our other snapshot looks at some of the top innovators please see Companies We Follow. Without further ado, our snapshot look at Samsung and what they are working on presently.

[Patent-Watch]

Location Based Service System
U.S. Patent No. 8417266

Location Based Service (LBS) systems are designed to identify a target’s geographic position and present that data to a party requesting that information. Often, these LBS systems are used for parents who want to stay aware of where their children are. However, current systems of requesting information don’t aid communication between parents, as different parties will have to send their own requests to the LBS service to receive location data. Multiple requests can have the further effect of slowing down the LBS servers to process these server demands.

Samsung’s LBS system innovation, protected in this patent, allows parents to indicate that simultaneous data notices should be sent to multiple users when one party initiates an LBS request. The request message sent to the LBS system would have terminal identifiers attached to the message that indicate the different parties that should receive an LBS message when a request has been submitted.

As Claim 1 describes, Samsung has earned the right to protect:

“A method for providing a Location Based Service (LBS) by an LBS provider, the method comprising: receiving identifiers of terminals, which belong to those who are authorized to be provided with location information of a specific terminal, from a user of the specific terminal and storing the identifiers in the LBS provider; receiving a request message for location information of the specific terminal from a requester terminal, wherein the request message contains information on the specific terminal and identifiers of the requester terminal and at least one terminal specified to simultaneously receive the location information of the specific terminal; performing positioning of the specific terminal to obtain the location information of the specific terminal when the request message is received; determining whether the requester terminal and the at least one specified terminal have permission to obtain the location information based on whether the identifiers of the requester terminal and the at least one specified terminal is included in the stored identifiers of terminals; and delivering the current location information of the specific terminal to the at least one specified terminal along with the requester terminal when permission to obtain the current location information is granted.”

Method and System for Sharing Multimedia Contents between Devices in Cloud Network
U.S. Patent Application No. 20130091558

Electronic device owners who want to share multimedia files with others have a few options for doing so. Images and video files may be attached to e-mail sent from a device to share with a specific contact or group of contacts. Social media networks allow users to post images and links that are instantly viewable by everyone in that user’s network.

Samsung’s content sharing system, outlined in this patent application, takes advantage of cloud computing principles to make it easier to share multimedia content between devices. A Samsung device owner would be able to establish a direct connection with other devices on the same cloud network to share files without e-mail or social media.

Claim 1 of this Samsung patent application hopes to protect:

“A cloud server comprising: a web server which controls access of a first device to the cloud server; a cloud control unit which controls networking between devices registered in the cloud server and a content server having access to the cloud server; a device management unit which manages information regarding the first device and the registered devices; and a context recognition management unit which manages context information of the first device and the registered devices.”

Device and Method for Processing Virtual Worlds
U.S. Patent Application No. 20130088424

Recently, Samsung has been involved with the development of experience-type games for video game consoles that detect player movement through image sensors. These cameras capture the player’s image and allow that user to interact with the game without a controller. The Kinect system developed for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is one example of this type of gaming system.

As this patent application shows, Samsung is developing a system of sensors that can record more than image data. In this system, sensors would detect a host of user and environmental interactions, such as voice commands or current temperature, which could affect in-game conditions.

As Claim 1 explains, Samsung is seeking legal protection for:

“A virtual world processing apparatus, comprising: a sensor configured to output information relating to sensor capabilities; and an encoder to output metadata of a binary format, based on the output information, wherein the encoder outputs the metadata of the binary format that is encoded into first metadata or second metadata, depending on an operating modes, the first metadata comprises items in the information, and the second metadata comprises an item of which a value is different from a previous value of the item, among the items in the information.”

Antibody Specifically Binding to Epitope in SEMA Domain of C-Met
U.S. Patent Application No. 20130089557

Some of Samsung’s research and development resources are involved in the field of cancer treatments, especially pharmaceutical ones. One of the more recent aims in cancer treatment development is to find ways to inhibit the body’s natural production of proteins from the c-Met receptor, which is typically involved in wound healing and the development of embryos. In patients with cancer, excessive c-Met production is linked to the spread of cancer throughout the body.

Samsung’s innovation aims to aid pharmaceutical drugs that already exist which are designed to inhibit c-Met production. This invention provides a binding fragment for antibodies that help better attach them to c-Met protein. This fragment is constructed from an intact antibody immunoglobin as well as polypeptide strains that provide the binding ability.

Claim 1 of this Samsung patent application describes:

“An antibody or antigen binding fragment thereof that specifically binds to an epitope in a SEMA domain of c-Met protein, wherein the epitope has the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or portion thereof.”

System for Preventing Illegal Copy of Software and Method for Preventing Illegal Copy of Software
U.S. Patent Application No. 20130086660

Preventing software users from illegally copying software for distribution to others has long been a goal of software developers who lose money from this type of illegal file sharing. Current methods of preventing illegal copying include serial number authentication, but users sometimes find ways of scanning software for a serial number or otherwise illegally obtaining a serial number that passes the authentication check.

The method of preventing illegal copying developed by Samsung involves the use of Zigbee devices, small digital radios that can process communication protocols. A Zigbee device contained within the software at the user’s end would contain a unique password. When a user installs the software on a computer, the first Zigbee device communicates with a second Zigbee device that contains all usable software passwords. If the password sent by the first Zigbee device is incorrect or already used, a software authentication message is sent to the user and the program cannot be opened.

Claim 1 of this patent application explains:

“A system for preventing an illegal copy of software, comprising: a terminal where software to be authenticated is installed and executed; a first Zigbee device connected with the terminal in a wired method and storing a plurality of unique passwords; and a second Zigbee device connected with the first Zigbee device in a wireless method and storing at least all the unique passwords of the first Zigbee device.”

 

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One comment so far.

  • [Avatar for jon]
    jon
    April 16, 2013 05:36 pm

    no its different