Apple granted patents on push-to-talk, double-sided touch panel

This week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published 26 newly granted patents for Apple, and among them were the Cupertino company's take on a push-to-talk feature and a double-sided touch-sensitive panel, both of which could possibly appear in future iPhones.

No current models of Apple's bestselling iPhone support the Push-to-Talk (PTT) feature that many carriers have made available for years now. Users do have access to a number of apps in the iTunes App Store that can reproduce PTT, but U.S. Patent No. 8,447,341 indicates that Apple has at least considered integrating it into a model of its phone.

The patent notes that telecommunications networks exist that enable devices to directly access each other through a digital two-way radio feature.

Apple's invention, though, describes "a method and system to provide push-to-talk from one user to another in a wireless packet data telecommunications network." It includes a packet data network with at least one mobile station, a radio access network, a location server, registrar, database server, and PTT server that connects PTT users across the network.

Given the company's secrecy about forthcoming products, it's difficult to gauge how likely PTT is to show up in a future iPhone model. In 2010, the company was revealed to be exploring PTT capabilities, but such features haven't emerged in any models to date.

The filing lists the patent as a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/028,086, filed on December 21, 2001. That patent application, entitled "Push-to-Talk Telecommunications System Utilizing a Voice-Over-IP Network," was originally filed by Nortel Networks. The patent granted on Tuesday was likely a part of the portfolio Apple and other companies bought in 2011 for $4.5 billion.

Included among the 26 patents granted on Tuesday is one for a "double-sided touch sensitive panel and flex circuit bonding." The patent — U.S. Patent No. 8,446,386 — relates to the creation of a multi-touch sensor using a substrate with column and row traces on either side. The process bonds printed flex circuits to directly opposing attachment areas of a substrate.

The patent cites the desirability of keeping "the overall size of the sensor panel as small as possible" as a reason to "have two flex circuits connect to directly opposing sides of the sensor panel." It's therefore likely that this technology would go toward Apple's continual push to make each of its devices thinner than the previous generation.

Other patents granted on Tuesday include ones for "gesture control of multimedia editing applications," "methods and apparatus for decreasing power consumption and bus activity," "techniques for versioning file systems," "technique for visually compositing a group of graphical objects," a "system for optimizing graphics operations," and a "touch pad for handheld device."