Apple Patents Illuminated Hardware Cases

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Apple has just been granted a patent that will be interesting to follow in the hardware community. Can you validate a patent for an illuminated computing device "housing" that was filed in July of 2009?

The patent goes back all the way to the original iMac in 1998 to describe a technology that enables a light source to be coordinated with certain computing events. The hardware foundation uses a light controller that is connected to the main CPU of the computer as well as a light source. In Apple's words, we are talking about: "computing device includes a housing having an illuminable portion. The computing device also includes a light device disposed inside the housing. The light device is configured to illuminate the illuminable portion."

Apple expands on this idea a bit further and notes that "the light source [is] configured to illuminate the reduced thickness portion in order to form an indicator image at an outer surface of the inner bezel" and that the "shape of the recess [produces] an indicator image of similar shape on the outer surface of the inner bezel."

Apple's idea comes down to the thought that the illumination of a computer housing can serve as an additional information source next to the display screen itself. For example, it would provide a different illumination when playing a DVD than when you are playing a video game. While it would be common to assume that Apple would be discussing different color ranges, the patent focuses on intensity and the brightness of the Illumination, which is controller via a light driver: "The light driver is configured to convert the light control signals into a stable continuous current for driving the light emitting diode. The magnitude of the current is based at least in part on the light control signal. The magnitude of the current affects the light intensity of the light emitting diode."

Apple patented the idea for any computing device, including "laptop computers, and handheld computing devices include personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones." There are 20 separate claims on 65 pages, which exhaustively describes and illustrates Apple's active case illumination idea.

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Wolfgang Gruener
93 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Wow.....
    Seriously.. this actually happened?
    Reply
  • tsnorquist
    So in other words, it's exactly the same idea as having an LED on a smartphone change colors based on text/email/voicemail or Philips Ambilight tv's....


    Groundbreaking.


    Sounds like they're gearing up for another 10 years of patent trolling other companies.
    Reply
  • bennaye
    ...or we could strap on some LEDs and call it a day, instead of paying exorbitant prices for a picture of an apple and some approval from other hipsters.

    Or better yet, why don't we just use a lamp? Much better for ocular health and has the added benefit of illuminating THE WHOLE DESK instead of just the case and half of the monitor.
    Reply
  • shiboe
    It's not even "Apple" it's everyone. The whole patent system needs to be torn down at this point for sheer silliness. Patents can mostly work when they protect a very specific process to go about implementing something. Allowing patents on general concepts is beyond silly.
    Reply
  • yzfr1guy
    FFS Crapple do you want to patent my toilet handle mechanism too so I have to pay royalties each time I flush?
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    wow this is some real BS.
    Reply
  • Cazalan
    Another case of WTF is the patent office smoking.

    Case lights for Power, hard drive activity, network activity have done this for 20+ years.
    AIO computers (LED display is illuminable portion inside the housing) have been doing this for well over 5 years.
    Reply
  • TheGuardian
    Screw you Apple...this is just getting dumber every freakin day!
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    That's it. My case infringes that patent :D Go sue CM, Corsair, NZXT, Antec and others, stupid crApple... I hope all your lawyers drown in a toilet or something soon; I'm sick of this BS.

    shiboeIt's not even "Apple" it's everyone. The whole patent system needs to be torn down at this point for sheer silliness. Patents can mostly work when they protect a very specific process to go about implementing something. Allowing patents on general concepts is beyond silly.
    +1

    yzfr1guyFFS Crapple do you want to patent my toilet handle mechanism too so I have to pay royalties each time I flush?
    They'd love to, I assure you.

    tsnorquistSo in other words, it's exactly the same idea as having an LED on a smartphone change colors based on text/email/voicemail or Philips Ambilight tv's....Groundbreaking.Sounds like they're gearing up for another 10 years of patent trolling other companies.
    In that case, Siemens should sue them - they had it on their phones since like what, 2002? :D
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    An LED on the Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z is configurable with at least 4 different settings, one of them being cpu activity. There's another LED on the board to show activity on the SATA controller. It's only visible on the board but it would be simple enough to position some optical cable over it, and run the other end to a monitor's bezel or some other more visible area of the case. I don't fully understand the patent because I'm an illiterate bastard, but is that it basically?
    Reply