“The US Patent and Trademark Office has published another batch of Apple patent applications, relating to a variety of technologies,” iPodNN reports.

“Among these is face recognition, which in Apple’s description could be used to detect one or more users of a device without requiring active input,” iPodNN reports. “The technology could further be used to authorize control, or initiate commands.”

iPodNN reports, “Miscellaneous patents cover concepts like monitoring devices, which could be related to the MobileMe Find My iPhone feature, and a similar idea for a ‘personal items network,’ which could track more precise object movement in fields like sports, shipping and medicine.”

iPodNN reports, “Apple has also applied to patent a hybrid antenna assembly with directly-fed antenna slots, combining Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals onto one antenna, while leaving another dedicated to 3G cellular broadcasts.”

More info in the full article here.