Abstract: A wireless remote control device for transmitting control commands to a Bluetooth™ enabled electronic device, such as a television set, an audio player, or a cellular telephone by manipulating the zipper in a garment, handbag or the like. The zipper fastener consists of opposing rows of interlocking teeth attached to a pair of elongated flexible supports and a manually movable sliding traveler that locks and unlocks said teeth at is moves longitudinally along the length of said flexible supports. A sensor is coupled to said zipper fastener for generating a position signal that indicates the current position of said sliding traveler with respect to said supports, and a Bluetooth™ transmitter coupled to said sensor sends control commands indicative of the current position of the slider and the state of a pushbutton attached to the slider.

Abstract: A hand-worn controller consisting of a housing having a central opening sized to permit the controller to be worn as ring on the index finger of a human hand. A joystick lever projects outwardly from said housing and is positioned to be manipulated by the user's thumb. The joystick operates on or more control devices, such as switches or potentiometers, that produce control signals. A wireless communications device, such as a Bluetooth module, mounted in said housing transmits command signals to a remote utilization device which are indicative of the motion or position of said joystick lever.

Abstract: A wireless remote control device for transmitting control commands to a Bluetooth™ enabled electronic device, such as a television set, an audio player, or a cellular telephone by manipulating the zipper in a garment, handbag or the like. The zipper fastener consists of opposing rows of interlocking teeth attached to a pair of elongated flexible supports and a manually movable sliding traveler that locks and unlocks said teeth at is moves longitudinally along the length of said flexible supports. A sensor is coupled to said zipper fastener for generating a position signal that indicates the current position of said sliding traveler with respect to said supports, and a Bluetooth™ transmitter coupled to said sensor sends control commands indicative of the current position of the slider and the state of a pushbutton attached to the slider.

Abstract: Apparatus for controlling an alert signal produced to notify a recipient when an incoming message is received. The message is received via a communications channel from a message originator. In addition, the message originator also specifies and transmits notification data indicating the manner in which the message originator desires that said recipient be notified of the receipt of said message. Reception preference data is created and stored by the recipient in advance, indicating the manner in which the recipient desires to be notified of the receipt of incoming messages.

Abstract: A mechanism for sensing the changing positional and orientation of a hand held device as it is moved by the device user to control the state or operation of the hand held device and one or more vibrotactile transducers positioned on the body of the hand held device to provide haptic feedback stimuli to the user indicative of the state of the device. The mechanism employs the combination of accelerometers for obtaining inertial data in three degrees of freedom, gyro sensor for obtaining roll, pitch and yaw angular motion data, a GPS system for providing position data, and magnetometers for providing directional data. This sensor data may be used to control the functioning of the hand held device; for example to control display scrolling, and the vibratory stimuli fed back to the user provides an indication of the effects of the gestural movements the user imparts to the device.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for manipulating physical objects to produce sounds that are correlated with the feel of the objects being manipulated. Example devices called the PebbleBox, CrumbleBag and ScrubberGlove each use the manipulation of physical objects of arbitrary material as the basis for interacting with granular sound synthesis models. The sounds made by the objects as they are manipulated produce sound signal events that are detected and used to trigger and control the reproduction of stored sound samples in real time.

Abstract: A system for acquiring brain activity data that includes a combined mechanical support frame and signal transmission network structure that consists of a plurality of intersecting, mechanically connected rails, each of which houses electrical signal and power distribution conductors. The conductors in the rails interconnect a variety of different functional node devices that are mechanically supported at adjustable positions on the rails. Each of the nodes houses functional components and include data nodes for acquiring brain activity data, a host node for receiving data from the data nodes and relaying information to an external device, a power node for supplying operating power to the other nodes. The position of the rails may be adjusted relative to each other, and the position of each node may adjusted on the rail upon which it is mounted.

Abstract: A system for capturing and reproducing handwriting. The writer employs a stylus or pen in combination with a digital writing tablet that captures the gestural movements of the stylus during writing, as well as the timing and rhythm of the strokes. A recognition engine analyzes the gestural movement data and produces a sequence of values identifying characters in a character set, as well as additional pictogram data which records the shape of non-character data written on the tablet. The recognition engine further generates ancillary data which further describes individual characters or groups of characters, specifying their size, slope, absolute position, applied stylus pressure, timing and rhythm, color, spacing, and other data that enables a rendering engine to select a font to represent the original handwriting and to further modify the selected font representation of the characters or groups of characters in a manner specified by the ancillary data.