Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsoft Corporation

David Walter Proctor

Yasser Baseer Asmi

Hui Shen

Abhishek Abhishek

Jiandong Ruan

Thamer A Abanami

Jeffrey Cheng-Yao Fong

Anton Oguzhan Alford Andrews

Gregory Sean Cox

A method to indicate that a first device is in communication with a second device is disclosed. The first device may receive an indication activity from the second device. The indication activity may change the display and the illumination object on the first device and the displays on the illumination object and the display are similar.

Activity illumination

A portable media player device is capable of operating in a wireless network. The wireless portable media player device can bootstrap and synchronize with an ad hoc network with low power consumption. Neighbor portable media player devices in an ad hoc network can be discovered by the wireless portable media player device. The portable media player device can establish and terminate connections to neighbor portable media player devices. The portable media player device can transfer data in a high speed data transfer mode or a power save data transfer mode, while concurrently permitting discovery by other devices. The portable media player device operates in a power save mode during an inactive portion of a periodic discovery interval.

Wireless support for portable media player devices

A cable user interface, such as a cable for audio headphones, enables control of one or more aspects of operation of a device to which such cable is connected. A user touches/applies pressure to the cable user interface, either along the full length of the cable, or to a localized part of the cable, in order to control the device. A mechanism is included for interfacing the pressure sensitive controller(s) to the device so that pressure/touch applied by a user can be translated to control of the device. In one embodiment, a headphone cable itself is an input device for volume and playback control of a portable media player.

Cable user interface

A circular touch sensor has three or more sensors arranged in an iris pattern. Each pad is defined by continuous edges that spiral outward about a center point. The unique geometric shape allows measurement of relative amounts of contact on adjoining sensors. In one implementation, the sensors measure relative capacitance of two or more sensors, thereby enabling high precision identification of the point of contact. With as few as three pads, the circular touch sensor is less expensive than traditional 12-pad to 16-pad circular sensors.

Circular touch sensor

A media player may be adapted to organize and display nearby media device information between communicating media devices before a complete connection is established. In one embodiment, a sleep message is received telling the receiving device to turn off the receiving function for a period of time or until a point in the future to conserve energy.

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

David Walter Proctor