Cingular rings up emotion patents
Feeling happy? Sad? Or just a little nutty?
Cingular Wireless is hoping to you are. And, more importantly, they're hoping you're willing it show it - but just don't violate their pending patents in the process.
The cellular carrier has applied to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for patents to its emoticons technology. Cingular is hoping to dish up an easy way for users to transmit these little faces when sending a text, via a designated keypad to touch-screen like feature.
Emoticons are little cartoon drawings of faces, used to express an emotion when users are writing an e-mail, IM or engaged in an online discussion with others. A good example of eomoticon faces accompanies a recent article in Cellular-news.
So, how are you feeling today?