Patents by Inventor Timothy Lee Fowers

Timothy Lee Fowers has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9483113
    Abstract: Various embodiments enable additional content or features to be displayed to a user in response to detecting one eye of the user being closed either as a wink or for a duration of time. In one example, the additional content is graphical overlay, such as a menu containing selectable graphical elements to perform functions related to an application, game, or content, of global navigational features of the computing device in general, or to alternate views, features, or supplemental content for an application or game currently being displayed on a computing device. In one example, the overlay may be displayed only as long as the user keeps one eye closed or, alternatively, the user could wink to display the overlay and provide some other input to remove the overlay.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy Lee Fowers, William Allan Dugan, Ion Mateo Hardie, Isaac Jeremy Shepard, Brian David Fisher, Robert Gustave Schiewe
  • Patent number: 9355612
    Abstract: A computing device can track a gaze direction of a user of the computing device. In some embodiments, gaze tracking can be performed using at least one front-facing camera of the computing device. The computing device can determine a position on a display of the device that corresponds to where the user's gaze is directed. The computing device can display content that is decipherable (i.e., readable, legible, recognizable, understandable, non-scrambled, unobscured, etc.) at the position on the display that corresponds to the user's gaze direction. The computing device can scramble at least some content that is displayed at a position(s) on the display other than the position at which the user's gaze is directed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Isaac Jeremy Shepard, Timothy Lee Fowers, William Allan Dugan
  • Patent number: 9035874
    Abstract: Various embodiments enable additional content or features to be displayed to a user in response to detecting one eye of the user being closed either as a wink or for a duration of time. In one example, the additional content is graphical overlay, such as a menu containing selectable graphical elements to perform functions related to an application, game, or content, of global navigational features of the computing device in general, or to alternate views, features, or supplemental content for an application or game currently being displayed on a computing device. In one example, the overlay may be displayed only as long as the user keeps one eye closed or, alternatively, the user could wink to display the overlay and provide some other input to remove the overlay.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Timothy Lee Fowers, William Allan Dugan, Ion Hardie, Isaac Jeremy Shepard, Brian David Fisher, Robert Gustave Schiewe