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IBM may be the king of patents, and Apple’s patent applications grace these pages rather frequently, but Microsoft’s not one to rest on its IP laurels, either. A couple of newly published patents out of Redmond have made their way to the web: one for securely pairing wireless devices and one for 3D rangefinder camera technology. The pairing tech works via a direct connection between devices using Bluetooth or WiFi and an automated, two-step authentication process. First, a request is sent by an initiating handset and is authenticated by its target using an address book of recognized devices. Next, the two devices exchange encrypted security keys to cement their digital friendship, leaving you free to exchange your favorite episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or latest LOLcat pictures with the greatest of ease.

Microsoft’s other patent of interest is for “a 3D camera for determining distances to regions in a scene.” That’s not a new concept by any means, but this new bit of IP integrates all the functions of such an imager on a single chip. Essentially, it claims an image sensor, a light source to illuminate the scene being shot and a controller to gate the pixels on the sensor on and off and correct for inaccuracies caused by other light sources. It works by projecting the light source and determining the distance to various points based upon the time it takes for the light to bounce off the target and reach the camera sensor. Want to know more? You can haz all the patent particulars at the source links below.

Microsoft patents method for secure pairing of devices wirelessly and a 3D rangefinder camera originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I saw several quad-core tablets at the Consumer Electronics show, but no smartphones. Luckily, Sascha Pallenberg, my friend who runs the Netbook News site, captured video of a Fujitsu handset running on the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. From the looks of it, this phone’s performance will rival that of the Asus Transformer Prime tablet.

Fujitsu doesn’t target the U.S. market, so I don’t expect to see this Android 4.0 smartphone for sale here. However, Sascha’s video gives us an idea of what to expect from the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona next month: console quality games on a large screen piped from a smartphone and played with using a wireless controller. Although this demo uses a wired HDTV connection, I anticipate we’ll see more wireless video solutions introduced  this year.

I’m still holding to the idea that throwing hardware alone at Android’s problem won’t solve any issues. However, I’ve used Android 4.0 for the past 6 weeks. The user interface improvements in Google’s platform, along with more powerful hardware, will allow Android to better contend against Apple’s iOS system.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a number of quad-core handsets shown off, with a few available in the first half of 2012. By mid year, we’ll start to see a larger number of these powerful handsets hit the market. Samsung, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and others will also be touting quad-core chips. But if my mobile predictions for 2012 hold true, far more dual-core handsets will be sold this year.

Then again, Apple is rumored to include its own quad-core chip in the next iPad and would be likely to use the same in a future iPhone design. That means 2012 will be more exciting to watch than 2011 when it comes to tablets and smartphones from a consumer perspective: Two great mobile choices in combination with what I think will be a third up-and-comer in Windows Phone handsetsand possibly in Windows 8 tablets.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Forecast: global mobile subscribers, 2010–2015
• Carrier IQ and the continued erosion of operator trust
• The mobile backhaul market, 2011-2012: more innovation, greater competition

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Yankee Group research director Sheryl Kingstone concluded that Carrier IQ and its partners did a horrible job when it came to the public implementation of its diagnostic platform, but she found that there was no nefarious intent behind it. The report also states that keystroke-logging tool found rooted in the depths of Trevor Eckhart’s HTC smartphone was not Carrier IQ’s phone performance monitoring software, but rather a factory testing app that HTC failed to deactivate before shipping.

If Carrier IQ had done a better job at educating customers about the presence and purpose of its app, it might have been welcomed by the public, rather than sued, Kingstone said. The Yankee Group’s consumer survey found that 85 percent of mobile phone using respondents wanted their operators to have access to detailed information about their device’s performance when they contacted a call center with a problem.

Yankee also asked what consumers’ expectations were when they called their operator with a problem. The top three answers were: 1) fixing the problem immediately, 2) remotely diagnosing the problem, and 3) empowering the call center agent to remotely fix it. If you go by Yankee’s data, consumers don’t just want their operators to know what’s going inside their phones, they want them to actively poke around inside whenever there’s a problem. Here’s what Kingstone said on Yankee’s mobile blog:

“It’s an issue of transparency, not malicious intent. Carriers — and especially consumers — want the best possible customer experience, and Carrier IQ’s software aims to do just that. Where it, and device vendors and carriers, erred was in their lack of transparency and failing to enable end-users to opt out of the service. If they had taken the opposite tack, revealing the existence of the software to end-users and providing them a potential option to opt in to ensure a better level of care, there would be no controversy, just better customer service. And that would be a win-win for all involved.”

Carrier IQ needs to be honest about its business model

I agree with Kingstone’s conclusions, so long as Carrier IQ is used only as a diagnostic tool. Networks are complicated things that require endless fine tuning, and on-device performance testing would be critical tool for optimizing those networks. I’d prefer my operator to let me know it’s recording actions on my phone, and then give me a chance to opt out, but the truth of the matter is my operator already knows plenty about me even without software like Carrier IQ’s. It knows where I am, where I’ve been, every SMS I’ve ever sent and every person I’ve ever called. We consumers have no problem with this, otherwise we would have freaked out the first time we ever saw our highly detailed phone bills.

But Carrier IQ is doing more than just selling network diagnostic info to operators, it’s selling — or at least trying to sell — to marketing analytics companies, which don’t own networks to diagnosis. Nielsen is working with Carrier IQ to integrate its device performance data with its own mobile metrics, though it will only to do so only on an opt-in basis, just as it recruits participants for all of its other measurement panels.

And Carrier IQ is definitely shopping its service around to other marketing and analysis companies. Kingstone said the Yankee Group last year investigated the possibility of buying data from Carrier IQ and other network measurement firms, but ultimately decided against it — the data was too technical to be of any much use while privacy concerns would have required Yankee to seek explicit permission from each consumer involved, she said. (The Yankee Group said that it has no current or former relationship with Carrier IQ.)

When Carrier IQ says it’s only selling data to the operators it’s either straight-up lying about the full extent of its business model or its misleading the public about its future intentions. It’s very possible this side business is innocuous, requiring explicit permission from the owner of any phone Carrier IQ tracks. Even if that’s the case, Carrier IQ needs to be upfront about that business model. Hopefully we’ll know more next week, when Carrier IQ is expected to respond to U.S. Senator Al Franken’s (D- Minn.) very detailed questionnaire about its activities.

Who else will get caught in the fallout?

Meanwhile, the voices calling for Carrier IQ’s head are growing deafening. On Friday Google CEO Eric Schmidt condemned the company at a conference in the Hague, saying that Google not only disapproved of Carrier IQ’s implementation into Android – it can not be uninstalled or de-activated – or the company’s methods, which he described as keylogging, the Telegraph reported.

Carrier IQ will most likely become a casualty of its own controversy, but whom else will it drag down? In a GigaOM Pro report, Stacey Higginbotham examines what other entities would suffer (subscription required) if Carrier IQ’s monitoring software winds up being more than it claims to be. Operators’ already fragile reputations are on the line, but Stacey concludes that consumers could wind up being the biggest losers. As faith in the operator and handset vendor erodes, consumers will be less likely to embrace new technologies and services that require a degree of trust to function. Emerging industry like mobile payment and finance as well as telemedicine could be the first casualties.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Carrier IQ and the continued erosion of operator trust
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
• Social media reactions to the iPhone 4S

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