Cross-cut: sensor-microphone-air

Axis: sensors

13 corpus entries disclose this tag.

Earliest disclosure: 1959-10

Listed in chronological order. Each entry’s prior_art_notes and disclosure_citation constitute the citeable prior art material.

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Starship Troopers — Mobile Infantry powered armor (powered exoskeleton with HUD, multi-sensor suite, comms, biomonitoring) (1959-10)

• id: heinlein-starship-troopers-powered-armor
• corpus: fictional
• form factor: exoskeleton
• creator: Robert A. Heinlein
• disclosure: Heinlein, Robert A. Starship Troopers, serialized as ‘Starship Soldier’ in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 1959 (book edition 1959); the Mobile Infantry powered armor — a fully enclosing powered exoskeleton augmenting strength and mobility, with a HUD/’snoopers’, integrated radar/IR/audio sensors, encrypted comms, climate control, medical/biometric monitoring, and assistive control (‘the suit does part of your thinking for you’).
• ip status: fictional
• sensors: sensor-camera-ir, sensor-microphone-air, sensor-accelerometer
• prior art notes: Discloses a fully enclosing powered exoskeleton integrating strength/mobility augmentation, a head-up display, a multi-modal sensor suite (radar, IR, audio), encrypted comms, environmental control, wearer biometric monitoring, and assistive autonomy. The foundational powered-armor-with-integrated-sensorium text. Relevant to powered-exoskeleton claims combining ‘a powered body-worn frame’, ‘a HUD’, ‘multiple environmental sensors’, ‘comms’, and ‘monitoring of the wearer’s vital signs’. § 103 motivation as of 1959. Cf. [[halo-mjolnir-armor]], [[crysis-nanosuit]], [[metroid-power-suit]], [[stark-iron-spider-suit]], [[darth-vader-life-support-suit]].

The Bionic Woman — bionic ear (augmented, frequency-selective hearing) (1976-01-14)

• id: bionic-woman-bionic-ear
• corpus: fictional
• form factor: hearing-aid
• creator: Kenneth Johnson / Universal Television
• disclosure: The Bionic Woman (ABC, premiered January 14, 1976) — a prosthetic ear giving the wearer greatly amplified hearing with the ability to tune to and isolate specific sound sources and frequencies at a distance.
• ip status: fictional
• sensors: sensor-microphone-air
• prior art notes: Discloses a prosthetic hearing device providing amplified hearing plus directional/frequency-selective listening — the wearer can steer toward and isolate a chosen sound source or band. Relevant to hearing-device claims combining ‘a worn or implanted hearing prosthesis’, ‘amplification’, and ‘beamforming / frequency-selective source isolation’ (modern hearable and hearing-aid ‘focus’ / ‘conversation isolation’ features). § 103 motivation that the steerable, frequency-selective augmented-hearing device was an articulated objective by 1976. Non-enabling; pair with enabling beamforming-hearing-aid art.

Predator bio-mask (multi-spectral helmet HUD) (1987-06-12)

• id: predator-bio-mask
• corpus: fictional
• form factor: helmet
• creator: John McTiernan / 20th Century Fox
• disclosure: Predator (20th Century Fox), released June 12, 1987; the creature’s helmet/mask providing thermal vision, spectral mode-switching, optical zoom, recording/playback, and audio language capture/synthesis.
• ip status: fictional
• sensors: sensor-camera-thermal, sensor-camera-ir, sensor-microphone-air
• prior art notes: Discloses a head-worn enclosure integrating switchable multi-spectral imaging (thermal/IR/visible), digital zoom, on-board recording and playback, and captured-audio processing/synthesis, with a HUD presenting mode and status. Relevant to helmet/eyewear claims combining ‘a thermal imager’, ‘a mode selector among imaging spectra’, ‘a near-eye display’, and ‘audio capture and synthesis’. § 103 motivation that the multi-spectral recording head-display was an articulated objective by 1987.

Shadowrun — ‘cyberware’ (cybereyes, cyberears, datajack, smartlink) (1989)

• id: shadowrun-cyberware
• corpus: fictional
• form factor: implantable
• creator: Bob Charrette / Paul Hume / Tom Dowd / FASA
• disclosure: Shadowrun, 1st edition, FASA Corporation, 1989; implanted ‘cybereyes’ (low-light/thermal/magnification/recording, HUD overlay), ‘cyberears’ (amplification, spatial recognition, recording), a head-mounted ‘datajack’ (neural data port), and a ‘smartlink’ wiring a weapon’s targeting reticle into the eye.
• ip status: fictional
• sensors: sensor-camera-ir, sensor-camera-thermal, sensor-microphone-air
• prior art notes: Discloses implanted vision and hearing prostheses with selectable enhancement modes and recording, a cranial neural data port, and a HUD targeting overlay wired to the eye. Relevant to implantable-sensory-prosthesis and implanted-data-port claims; an independent 1989 disclosure parallel to [[cyberpunk-2020-cyberoptics-and-interface-plugs]] and [[ghost-in-the-shell-cyberbrain]]. § 103 motivation as of 1989.

Snow Crash ‘Gargoyle’ wearable computer rig (1992)

• id: snow-crash-gargoyle-rig
• corpus: fictional
• form factor: glasses
• creator: Neal Stephenson
• disclosure: Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash. Bantam Books, 1992 — the ‘gargoyles’: people wearing head-mounted display goggles, body-worn computers, and continuous-capture sensors, with voice query and head tracking.
• ip status: fictional
• sensors: sensor-camera-rgb, sensor-microphone-air, sensor-accelerometer
• prior art notes: Discloses an integrated head-worn AR rig: near-eye display goggles + body-worn processor + always-on cameras and microphones + head-tracking, with voice queries against a networked database and continuous capture/upload of the wearer’s surroundings. Relevant to AR-glasses claims combining ‘a near-eye display’, ‘an outward-facing camera’, ‘an inertial sensor for head pose’, ‘a microphone for voice input’, and ‘continuous data capture/transmission’. § 103 motivation that the always-on capture-and-query AR wearable was a concrete objective by 1992. Non-enabling; pair with enabling HMD/SLAM art.

Black Mirror ‘grain’ implant (‘The Entire History of You’) (2011-12-18)

• id: black-mirror-grain-implant
• corpus: fictional
• form factor: implantable
• creator: Charlie Brooker / Jesse Armstrong / Zeppotron
• disclosure: Black Mirror, ‘The Entire History of You’ (Channel 4, 18 December 2011); a ‘grain’ implanted behind the ear continuously records the wearer’s audiovisual experience, replayable on the retina or cast to an external screen (‘re-do’).
• ip status: fictional
• sensors: sensor-camera-rgb, sensor-microphone-air
• prior art notes: Discloses a behind-the-ear implanted lifelogging device that continuously captures the wearer’s first-person audiovisual stream and replays it onto the wearer’s retina or to an external display with seek/scrub controls. Relevant to implantable lifelogging claims combining ‘a sub-dermal recorder’, ‘continuous capture of first-person audio/video’, ‘retinal or external playback’, and ‘random-access review’. § 103 motivation that the implanted always-on experience recorder was an articulated objective by 2011. Non-enabling on the implant electronics.

Total Recall (2012) — subdermal palm phone with through-skin display (2012-08-03)

• id: total-recall-2012-palm-phone
• corpus: fictional
• form factor: implantable
• creator: Len Wiseman / Columbia Pictures
• disclosure: Total Recall (Columbia Pictures), released August 3, 2012; a telephone implanted in the wearer’s hand — dial pad and display visible through the skin of the palm, speaker/microphone in the hand, glass surfaces used as touch interfaces.
• ip status: fictional
• sensors: sensor-microphone-air
• prior art notes: Discloses a subdermally-implanted electronic device with a display rendered so as to be visible through the overlying skin, touch input on the skin surface, and audio I/O — i.e. an epidermal/sub-dermal communicator in the hand. Relevant to implantable / electronic-skin claims combining ‘a sub-dermal electronic device’, ‘a display perceptible through the skin’, and ‘touch input at the skin surface’. § 103 motivation that the through-skin sub-dermal display device was an articulated objective by 2012. Non-enabling on the display/skin optics; pair with enabling flexible-display and biocompatible-electronics art.

Her — ‘Samantha’ in-ear conversational AI (2013-10-12)

• id: her-samantha-earpiece
• corpus: fictional
• form factor: earbud
• creator: Spike Jonze / Annapurna Pictures
• disclosure: Her (Annapurna Pictures / Warner Bros.), 2013; the in-ear earpiece through which the wearer continuously converses with an adaptive AI assistant (‘Samantha’) that infers the wearer’s emotional state from voice and context.
• ip status: fictional
• sensors: sensor-microphone-air
• algorithms: algo-emotion-recognition
• prior art notes: Discloses an habitually-worn in-ear device that is the user’s continuous interface to a conversational AI assistant, including the assistant inferring the user’s emotional/affective state from voice prosody and conversational context. Relevant to hearable claims combining ‘an in-ear device’, ‘a microphone’, ‘a wireless link to a conversational agent’, and ‘affect estimation from captured speech’. § 103 motivation that the always-worn AI-assistant earbud with affect sensing was an articulated objective by 2013.

Microsoft Band (2014) — ten-sensor wristband (optical HR, GPS, GSR, UV, skin temp, barometer, ambient light, capacitive, microphone, IMU) (2014-10-30)

• id: microsoft-band-2014
• corpus: private
• form factor: watch
• creator: Microsoft Corp.
• disclosure: Microsoft Corp. ‘Microsoft Band’, released 30 October 2014 — a wristband integrating ten sensors: an optical (PPG) heart-rate sensor, a 3-axis accelerometer/gyroscope, GPS, an ambient-light sensor, a skin-temperature sensor, a UV sensor, a capacitive (wear-detection) sensor, a galvanic-skin-response sensor, a microphone, and a barometer (added in Band 2).
• ip status: patented
• sensors: sensor-ppg, sensor-accelerometer, sensor-gyroscope, sensor-skin-temperature, sensor-uv, sensor-gsr, sensor-barometer, sensor-photodiode-ambient, sensor-microphone-air
• algorithms: algo-hr, algo-step-count, algo-calorie-estimation, algo-sleep-staging, algo-stress-index, algo-uv-dose-tracking
• prior art notes: Discloses a single wristband integrating an unusually broad sensor suite — reflectance-PPG HR, IMU, GPS, skin temperature, UV exposure, galvanic skin response (electrodermal activity), barometer, ambient light, capacitive wear-detection, and a microphone — feeding HR, activity, sleep, UV dose, and stress-index estimations. Prior art for multi-sensor-wristband claims reciting combinations of these sensors (notably wrist GSR/EDA + PPG + skin temperature for stress) from October 2014. Product-side anchor for the multi-sensor wristband cross-cut.

Axon Body 2 (2016) — networked law-enforcement body-worn camera with cloud digital-evidence chain of custody (2016-06)

• id: axon-body-2-police-bodycam-2016
• corpus: private
• form factor: body-camera
• creator: Axon Enterprise, Inc. (formerly TASER International)
• disclosure: Axon Enterprise, Inc. (formerly TASER International). ‘Axon Body 2’ body-worn camera, released 2016 — a chest-mounted body camera with HD video, infrared night vision, ambient audio, pre-event buffering (the prior 30-120 s of video kept and saved on trigger), wireless LTE upload, GPS, and integrated cloud chain-of-custody on the Evidence.com platform.
• ip status: patented
• sensors: sensor-camera-rgb, sensor-camera-ir, sensor-microphone-air
• prior art notes: Discloses a chest-worn networked law-enforcement body camera with HD video, IR night vision, audio, a pre-event circular buffer (capturing seconds before activation), GPS, wireless upload, and integrated cloud chain-of-custody. Anticipates body-worn-camera claims combining ‘a chest-mounted camera’, ‘a continuous pre-event buffer with retrospective save on trigger’, ‘wireless upload to an evidence-management cloud service’, and ‘cryptographic chain of custody’ from 2016. Product-side anchor for the body-camera cross-cut on the real side; cf. [[aliens-marine-helmet-cam]] (the 1986 fictional networked-body-cam antecedent).

Stark ‘Iron Spider’ suit with mask HUD and AI (‘Karen’) (2017-07-07)

• id: stark-iron-spider-suit
• corpus: fictional
• form factor: garment
• creator: Marvel Studios / Sony Pictures
• disclosure: Spider-Man: Homecoming (Marvel Studios / Sony), released July 7, 2017; the Stark-built suit with an in-mask heads-up display, an integrated conversational AI (‘Karen’), distributed suit sensors, environmental analysis, biometric monitoring of the wearer, a deployable drone, and configurable web-shooter telemetry.
• ip status: fictional
• sensors: sensor-camera-rgb, sensor-accelerometer, sensor-microphone-air
• algorithms: algo-emotion-recognition
• prior art notes: Discloses a smart full-body garment integrating: an in-mask near-eye HUD; a conversational AI assistant resident in the suit; distributed suit sensors and environmental analysis (object/person identification, threat assessment); biometric monitoring of the wearer (HR, respiration, stress); and reconfigurable actuator/output settings. Relevant to smart-garment and helmet-HUD claims combining ‘a body-worn garment with distributed sensors’, ‘a head-mounted display presenting environmental and physiological data’, ‘a voice AI’, and ‘wearer biometric monitoring’. § 103 motivation that the integrated sensing/HUD/AI body suit was an articulated objective by 2017.

BioIntelliSense BioSticker (2019) — long-wear adhesive chest patch with extensive multi-parameter monitoring (2019-12)

• id: biointellisense-biosticker-2019
• corpus: private
• form factor: patch
• creator: BioIntelliSense, Inc.
• disclosure: BioIntelliSense, Inc. ‘BioSticker’ single-use adhesive medical-grade biosensor, FDA-cleared 2019 — a chest patch with up to 30-day wear continuously measuring skin temperature, single-lead ECG-derived heart rate at rest, respiratory rate at rest, body position, activity (steps, cadence, gait), sleep, cough, vomiting events, and falls, with wireless upload.
• ip status: patented
• sensors: sensor-ecg, sensor-accelerometer, sensor-skin-temperature, sensor-microphone-air
• algorithms: algo-hr, algo-respiratory-rate, algo-activity-classification, algo-posture-detection, algo-fall-detection, algo-cough-detection, algo-gait-analysis, algo-sleep-staging
• prior art notes: Discloses a single-use 30-day adhesive chest patch combining skin temperature, resting HR-from-ECG, resting RR, posture/activity, sleep, cough and vomiting event detection, and falls — i.e. an unusually broad multi-parameter long-wear patch with explicit event-detection (cough, vomit) classifiers. Anticipates long-wear multi-parameter patch claims from 2019, including the event-detection (cough/vomit) elements that some later patents recite. Product-side anchor for the patch × long-wear multi-parameter cross-cut.

Apple AirPods Pro 2 Hearing Health (2024) — earbuds as a clinical hearing test, OTC hearing aid, and hearing protection (2024-09-09)

• id: apple-airpods-pro-2-hearing-health-2024
• corpus: private
• form factor: earbud
• creator: Apple Inc.
• disclosure: Apple Inc. ‘AirPods Pro 2’ Hearing Health features, announced 9 September 2024 (FDA-authorized hearing-aid software, October 2024) — the earbuds perform an audiogram-style hearing test, then function as a software over-the-counter hearing aid (frequency-specific amplification tuned to the test result, with real-time conversation enhancement), plus passive/active hearing protection that attenuates loud environmental sound.
• ip status: patented
• sensors: sensor-microphone-air
• prior art notes: Discloses consumer earbuds that (a) administer an audiogram-style pure-tone hearing test to the wearer, (b) operate as a software over-the-counter hearing aid applying the resulting frequency-specific gain (with conversation/speech enhancement and directional processing), and (c) provide loud-sound hearing protection. Anticipates earbud/hearing-aid claims combining ‘a self-administered hearing assessment by the worn device’, ‘configuration of the device’s amplification from that assessment’, and ‘protective attenuation of loud environmental sound’ from 2024. Product-side anchor for the earbud-as-hearing-aid cross-cut; cf. [[bionic-woman-bionic-ear]] (the fictional antecedent of steerable/frequency-selective augmented hearing).