ICAP to Sell Multimodal User Interface Patents

ICAP Patent Brokerage, an intellectual property brokerage and patent auction firm, is offering for sale a patent portfolio that discloses a multimodal user interface that simplifies voice spoken instructions for mobile phones and related applications. The patent portfolio is available from VIDA Software.

The key component of this invention is its coverage of voice spoken instructions for mobile devices and an ability to adjust to the expertise of the user.

The patent portfolio includes technologies that simplify the user interfaces of mobile devices and personal digital assistants as well as related applications for improved usability.

The user interface can be easily distributed and multiple interaction queues can be arranged in distributed fashion by using a publish/subscribe model. An interaction engine monitors mobile phone use as well as currently running applications. A user expertise calculation module receives relevant information regarding interactions. The module then uses that information to determine the user's current expertise level. Less experienced users receive a prompt designed to help familiarize themselves with the device while more experienced users receive other, more advanced suggestions.

The interaction engine uses this determined level of user expertise to offer a selected set of prompts – enabling improved usability.

In addition, two or more interaction event queues are maintained rather than having the single queue common to other user-interface components. Messages can be transmitted between the user-interface components or user-interface interaction event queues. This allows for a single interaction event to be distributed to multiple user-interfaces simultaneously.

The technology allows a single icon to be used to convey information regarding two or more factors relating to the operation or condition of the device. This further improves usability by reducing the number of displays presented to the user.

"As computing moves from wired PCs to wireless mobile devices, user interfaces must continue to be developed and improved upon to meet the growing needs of the end user," said Dean Becker, CEO ICAP Patent Brokerage.  "This portfolio represents the next step in the evolution of the user interface for mobile computing and should be of interest to mobile device manufacturers, mobile operating system developers, wireless carriers, or any other entity operating in this fast growing field."

To learn more about the assets available for license in this portfolio, contact Becker at 1-561-309-0011 or Dean.Becker@us.icap.com