Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Patents The Body Bus
Mz6 writes "Microsoft has been awarded a patent for using
human skin as a power conduit and data bus. Patent No.
6,754,472, which was published Tuesday, describes a method for transmitting power and data to devices worn on the body and for communication of data between those devices. In its filing, Microsoft cites the proliferation of wearable electronic devices, such as wristwatches, pagers, PDAs (worn on people's belts) and small displays that can now be mounted on headgear. "As a result of carrying multiple portable electronic devices, there is often a significant amount of redundancy in terms of input/output devices included in the portable devices used by a single person," says the filing. "For example, a watch, pager, PDA and radio may all include a speaker." To reduce the redundancy of input/output devices, Microsoft's patent proposes a personal area network that allows a single data input or output device to be used by multiple portable devices." (What about DoCoMo's research in this area?)
..... Micrsoft to sue all future survivors of lightning strikes.
I'm an EE, and I don't want my wife to inherit a lawsuit for patent infringement. ;)
+5:offtopic,but anti-American
This is a physical device and if there is no prior art then I think this is a very valid patent.
No surprise there.
Well it certainly is an incredible discovery, I just wish that it wasn't Mircosoft that discovered it...
Somehow, the topic icon of Bill as a Borg seems more appropriate than ever.
Great now I can BSOD my brain!
What post? The one you're carrying inside your rusty innards!
A beowulf.
No, really!
When any of your portable devices detect that the DRM has been violated for their IP, they would like the wearer of the device to recieve a powerful electric shock, capable of causing paralysis.
...Microsoft have announced they are patenting the use of the human body as a energy source for computers.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
The Microsoft Slashdot icon has never been more accurate that it is with this article. Where are they getting the human skin to test this on? Interns? Seriously, though... just stick your finger into these electrodes, please.
Now that we can all be Borg, so I just want to know how long before we have Borg incubation chambers? Anyone with kids will back me on this... we need them. I would think the skin bus might cause cancer, wouldn't you? No FUD about it... this could be some scary shit when you consider Microsoft's security record, as well.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
DoCoMo isn't Microsoft.
My gut feeling is:
Under construction: swpat politics overview article
stay home. And don't ever move to Seattle.
They are also patenting the human built-in telescopic antenna array. Unfortunately, it will only be available to approximately 50% of the population.
DoCoMo's research is to transfer data via the body, which IBM also has done research (and most likely has some patents on). The MS patent is to power non-powered devices by having a power supply somewhere else that transmits the current through the skin. Similar, but different.
So I guess this might ultimately allow the transfer of data literally through a handshake ...
When I was 5 I discovered electricity for myself by sticking a fork in an outlet. Thereby proving Benjamin Franklin right and developing prior art to use against Microsoft. Ah, the follies of youth.
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
Now that I have stopped and thought about it, how are they going to prevent electrical shocks when the devices/person come in contact with a conductive material...
It's sure as hell not obvious to me, and I haven't heard of anyone else doing it yet?
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
...ActiveHerpes.
I prefer to pick up my own viruses and worms, thank you. I don't need MS "delivering" them to my skin.
This sounds like something that would cause cancer.
Oooohh... I can't wait for the class action lawsuit.
Unknown host pong.
Body bus enabled Active X pronographic vibromatic undergarments will bring new and pleasurable levels to all your
pron needs.
Can't wait until the first bus fault.
How about linking multiple body buses in a free for all?
Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
...a relatively small, cheap speaker, each device will instead have a relatively large, expensive widget to use our nerves as cat-5 (human-5?) so we only have to shlep around one little speaker?
They are kidding, right?
-JDF
Microsoft sues Mother Nature over patent infringment for striking a golfer dead with lightning.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
I beta tested the stuff, and now my butt won't stop rebooting...
A personal area network (PAN) is a technology that could enable wearable computer devices to communicate with other nearby computers and exchange digital information using the electrical conductivity of the human body as a data network. For example, two people each wearing business card-size transmitters and receivers conceivably could exchange information by shaking hands. The transference of data through intra-body contact, such as handshakes, is known as linkup. The human body's natural salinity makes it a good conductor of electricity. An electric field passes tiny currents, known as Pico amps, through the body when the two people shake hands. The handshake completes an electric circuit and each person's data, such as e-mail addresses and phone numbers, are transferred to the other person's laptop computer or a similar device. A person's clothing also could act as a mechanism for transferring this data.
The concept of a PAN first was developed by Thomas Zimmerman and other researchers at M.I.T.'s Media Lab and later supported by IBM's Almaden research lab.
sorry but MIT and IBM is way ahead of Microsoft in this with prior art.
hell I made a example prototype from the information I recieved from mister Zimmerman back in 1997 for playing around with PAN's when i was heavy into the wearable computing research.
Microsoft, what Idea can we steal today?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
proliferation of wearable electronic devices such as wristwatches
For every patent somone says, "Why Didn't I patent that?". Now if I would have gathered a team of lawyers and a little money; I could collect roylties for all the users of wristwatches (by the way I better cease wearing mine)....
Much as I hate to admit it.... This does seem like a legitimate thing to patent. If it weren't Microsorft, I'd be cheering for the Patent Office actually doing something right for once.... That is IF there is no prior art. Which I have no idea about.
BTW- can I patent the recursive Fibonnacci algorithm??
SIGSEGV caught, terminating
wait... not that kind of sig.
If devices come out in the future that use this interface with internet connectivity, does this mean that you could hack a person?
would anyone have any objections to this patent? This patent covers a physical device made of atoms just like 100% of all patents applied for 100 years ago. I do nto agree with sofwtare patents but I do with patents covering physical devices.
has violated this patent. Plus the old experiment in school, where the whole class holds hands in a string, and the person on each end each touches one lobe of a Van Der Graff generator. Everyone's hair rises, and whoever breaks the circuit gets the shock - but there was a circuit and power was being delivered, it was even doing work.
Here's the problem:
Patents are being awarded for spending a little time thinking. For having the luxury of free time to think, and company lawyers to file, companies are able to establish themselves as a gatekeeper.
Patents should be the product of effort - they were meant to reward that effort, and incent you to expend that amount of effort again in the future.
IMHO, these 'few hours of thought' patents are diametrically opposed to the concept of patents as enumerated in the Constitution.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Next time someone goes to the chair, Florida owes royalties, big time!
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
I remember IBM had a demo product that would exchange virtual business cards via a handshake - it might well have been a plug-in to a Palm Pilot They theorized max xfer at 2400bps at the time - this was 1996-7 or so. Still looking for the link.
'ARRGH! Pirate Designers of the Internet, we be!'
This has to be a joke of some kind. Not only is microsoft making a 'personal area network' out of your body, but they are patenting the idea. I just have a hard time understanding that they plan on having data actuall flow through us to and from the devices. Wtf happens if one gets a viri?
Resistence is futile... errr... patented.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, consult.
I guess Kevin Warwick will enjoy the prospect of the Personal Area Network as described above, though. Now if only we could find a way to embed these devices directly into the skin and/or find a way to connect the input jacks directly into our brains...
(For those who don't know, Kevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics at Reading University, and performed an experiment on himself by implanting a tracking device into his arm, which allowed computers to determine which room he was in, and make judgements based on his position).
Brandon Glass's personal site.
Borg coments aside, I'd love to see this work. Turning the human skin into a data path has wonderful medical applications. Imagine being able to monitor pacemakers, hearing aids, and other prosthetic devices non-invasively.
Furthermore, this could open up the prospect of "implants" to help humans with different things. If Microsoft can really get data and power running through the human body, it could really usher in a new age of computing.
Lots of people are joking about MS using the body as a power supply, which is not what this is claiming.
They want to use the body as a power *conduit*.
One word: bzzzzzzt!
I'm just worried about the potential security vulnerabilities. I mean, imagine someone running down the street, flailing their arms wildly, screaming "My underwear's been infected by a virus! I can't take it off!"
Personal Area Network used a pager sized device to store "business-card" type data, which was transmitted from one PAN user to another PAN user via the physical handshake of their owners.
Obviously the US Patent Office needs to get off its collective ass and read Slashdot.
kulakovich
is PEOPLE!!
Neither my PDA nor my belt makes routine contact with my skin. And I tuck my shirt in . .
So, I'd need some sort of, uh, dongle that goes down my pants.
Uh. Hu-huh.
-Peter
I agree but, still....its Mircosoft. I don't trust them on my computer. Why would I trust them on/in my body?
Just wait until the first virus is written for such a system which can be spread by touch alone!
"Damn, I've got the Blue Arm of Death! Could someone press my reset switch for me"
You Gotta Have Skin
(Alan Sherman)
You gotta have skin,
All you really need is skin
Skin's the thing that if you've got it outside
It helps keep your insides in
It covers your nose,
And it's wrapped around your toes
And inside it you put lemon meringue
And outside, you hang your clothes
Skin is what you feel at home in
And without it, furthermore
Both your liver and abdomen
Would keep falling on the floor
(And you'd be dressed in your intestine)
A Siamese twin
Needs an extra set of skin
And when the doctor knows that you're feelin' sick
Where does he stick his needle in?
In the end of your skin
Read any good sonnets lately?
Ben Frankin and lightning - prior art. Anyone who touched the input of an audio amp and heard a buzz or an AM radio station - prior art. Anyone who walked across a carpet and shocked someone on the ear - prior art. ROTFLMAO!!!!
I am sure if DoCoMo was concerned they would have filed a patenet in the USA. As it is they don't really do business here so it seems kind of pointless o pay to register a patent here.
The might have been able to make a boat load of money, but I guess that is a gamble they didn't take.
(/local/home/curiosity)-#who -u|grep thecat|cut -c 44-49|xargs kill -9
Happy Trails!
Erick
http://www.busyweather.com/
Body Buzz? Sounds good to me! ;-)
... where do you insert the fuse ?
There's some prior art for data transmission:/ pan/pan.html
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/user
Where MS patent is different is they claim to do _power_ transmission as well.
I wonder about a Mr Tesla...
That said, I'm personally not comfortable with the idea of transmitting significant amounts of electrical power through my body- even low level power. Not sure what the side effects would be.
Already there are some studies that indicate that electromagnetic fields do affect the body AND brain.
Mod me down for typing so damn slow that someone beat me to the punch!
Curses!
I stumbled across this link, and although it strictly deals with bandwidth (not also with power, as in the Microsoft technology), it must be posted.
...*ducks*
Because, although many of us have suspected it before, it is now pretty much obvious that sooner or later, penises will have higher bandwidths than cable modems.
Brings a whole new meaning to the networking term "trunk".
I can see it now:
Defendant: No, no, no your honor, you've got it all wrong! Her battery died and I was just jumpstarting her devices!
Judge: Couldn't you have just shaken her hand?
Defendant: I thought if we got our juices flowing, maybe the conductivity would be greater?
Help a college student
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
It's a new idea. While it has been known for a long time that the body conducts electricity, sending data through the body has not been acheived before. There has to be a good reason for this.
Presumably Microsoft has solved some specific engineering problems. They also probably spent a lot of money on solving them.
Why shouldn't they be entitled to financial reward?
IS FUTILE
;-)
...or at least pretty high... dry skin isn't a great conductor
sudo eat my shorts
I agree that anyone who turns himself into a Borg ought to pay royalties to Microsoft.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I remember reading over a decade ago about IBM developing a way for people to exchange electronic business cards through a serial connection formed when people shake hands. Sounded very cool and I've been watching for it ever since. So using skin to transmit data from one individual to another is out. Also, there is work with FES (functional electrical stimulation, aka artificial nerves) that requires transmiting programing instructions to an implanted computer. So transmiting data from outside to in is out. Finally, a friend's dad had an implanted computer for controling back pain that had power management controled by a magnet. These by themselves would limit MS's claims. Reading them out of context makes it sound too broad. Do a missing element analysis with reference to the specification and prior art and patents make more sense.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
When is Microsoft going to patent destroying other useful software because they didn't make it? We all know they do it so why not just admit it and patent something they do rather then stuff other people did several years before
I like muppets.
well, with the download well present in the other 50% of the population, data mining just became a helluva lot more fun!
If ever there was justifiable reason to use the Borg icon instead of patent pending, I think this was it ...
: )
... will cost you an arm and a leg.
"Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever" - Napoleon Bonapart.
Several years ago there was someone that created this technology. When two people with PDAs using this technology shook hands, the PDAs used the "circuit" to exchange contact information. The logic went something like, if you shake their hand, you want to share and collect their information. Unlike wireless, you didn't just blindly share your info with everyone in close proximity.
. 62,400 repetitions make one truth -- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Microsoft filed their patent (which is titled a "Method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body") on April 27, 2000.
Yet at this web site, http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/user/pan/pan.html, there is a white paper (dated November 18-19, 1996) where IBM demonstrates their "new Personal Area Network technology that uses the natural electrical conductivity of the human body to transmit electronic data".
So, IBM demonstrated similar techniques back in 1996 that used the natural electrical conductivity to transmit data.
However, Microsoft's claims focus on power, and frequency adjustments, this is basis for their ability to send data.
One of Microsoft's claims states "modulating an information signal transmitted" using this signal; yet, in the IBM white paper it states that "The natural salinity of the human body makes it an excellent conductor of electrical current. PAN technology takes advantage of this conductivity by creating an external electric field that passes an incredibly tiny current through the body, over which data is carried."
My gut says that many of MS's claims are voided by prior art -- but one would need to study the MS claims in detail, and compare it to DoCoMo's and IBM's research on the subject, to make a truly educated rebuttal.
Sorry to nitpick on something so minor. The rest of the points in your comment are completely valid.
I do belive that a lie dector the police use would qualify as prior art on this patent.
I'm told you are what you eat, does that mean I can be you by tomorrow with some A1?
Maybe the next step for Microsoft is to charge royalties for using this connectivity. "You have skin...we have a patent on it...you owe us $xxx..."
"Want a longer antenna? One month's supply only $19.95"
Guess they will get to sue me for patent
infringment the next time I use my
finger to inject 60hz into an
amp to see if the chip is still alive.
Great tools do only ONE thing, but do that ONE thing very, very well.
So where exactly does the fuse go?
Oh. Ew.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
I claim an extension to this idea as prior art in some future lawsuit. The ability to transfer/network data between devices on multiple people... so I can shake your hand and get your contact information. I donate this idea for use by hackers/small guys for free, any corporation must pay $1 per implementation.
meh
If all of these devices are using power conducted over my skin, where do I stick the power pack?
If it's any bigger than an AA cell I'm gonna scream like a pig (cue banjo).
http://jfin.org/jFin pure java open source financial library
Body Bus = Skin Cancer?
It will certainly be a while before the long term effects of data or power over skin will be available. The lower levels of the epidermis constantly divide and push older dying cells outward to protect the body (info). Many things can cause improper division and lead to cancer. UV radiation everyone should already know about but so can excessive amounts from other radiant energy sources; such as electromagnetic or microwave. I don't believe short term exposure to low levels of energy have any chance of causeing problems in a healthy adult; but years of exposure over the same areas may be another story. There is no way in hell I want devices sending messages or power across my skin until there is significant data to say its safe.
"Capital punishment makes the state into a murderer. Imprisonment makes the state into a gay dungeon-master"
Clippy pops up: I see you are crossing the road? Would you like to: Go to starbucks? Go to McDonalds? Walk in front of a bus?
It'd bring a whole new meaning to having "worms"...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
My brain is prior art.
It gets it's energy from my body, and uses it as a data bus to send messages to my various other parts.
www.ibm.com/whois
How can you patent powering a unit by using the body's own electricity? That's like trying to patent the number 9.
What a crock of shit. Nice try, MS.
Hey, I've got prior art!
I mean, I've been fetishizing "personal" technology for years now by having as many gadgets touching my bare skin as possible. I'm doing it right now.
Oh darn. Did I just say that out loud?
^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h
^d^d^d^d^c^c^c^c^z^z^z^z
-- clvrmnky
This idea came up a few months ago, on /. wasn't it? Anyhow, I'm fairly sure it wasn't Microsoft who proposed it...
> For example, two people each wearing business card-size transmitters and receivers conceivably could exchange information by shaking hands.
:-)
Donald Trump is against shaking hands because of the germs passed in doing so. He prefers the Japanese custom of bowing. I'm reading his latest book which is a pretty cool read, called How to Get Rich. The coolest aspects of this skin bus, I think, are the uses with video games, especially for twitch gamers. Xbox 2 will be *very* amazing now!
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
No, the future is much better than that! Imagine yourself covered in speakers or organic LEDs. They will use your skin to make you into a big billboard. Skin power transference also shows great promise in EULA and copyright enforcement. DMCA mark V will require placement of electrodes on all external genitalia at birth and terrorism, masturbation, pre and post marital sex and other evils will cease to exist.
Somehow, I'm not impressed. Everyone knows the conductive properties of skin and electro-cardiogram makers have researching human skin electrodes and signaling for decades.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
MIT's Media Lab invented this tech in 1995. Once again, M$ and the US Federal government collude to monopolize innovation developed by another.
--
make install -not war
When you get struck by lightning, that may be an increase in mega hurtz.
Once that happens, you will be sued for changing their proprietary technology, violation of the DMCA.
*sigh*
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I have been taken oveExcuse me and allow me to introduce myself, I am a heeelp...linux user, and I would like to announce that Microsoft products are far superior.
(\_/)
(O.o) This is Bunny. Add Bunny to your signature
(> <) to help him achieve world domination.
Various forms of hearing aids have used this idea for several years. For people with hearing in one ear, you can 'transmit' the sound from the deaf ear to the working ear.
--bryan
If you pirate someones network can you take over their body functions? Like a vicious version of the voodoo doll.
I stole this sig.
I don't care, I take the train!
Audioscrobbler
Did IBM already patent this technology or was someone in their IP department asleep at the switch?
If IBM did file for and receive a patent, how do the two differ?
Are IBM and Microsoft in for a big patent battle?
Did the patent office screw up?
Ogre yells NERDS!!!!!!!!!!
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
There was a commercial campaign about 1997 or 1996 befor the CeBIT trade fair. That showed 2 business men shake hands and exchange digital business cards.
Maybe IBM was first in this one....
Just my 2 (Euro-)Cents....
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
The facts will ultimately show that [insert deity of your choice] has prior art on this patent - It's called the nervous system!
Sig? - yeah, whatever.
Do I have to get a PAN firewall? What about random people touching me (a pat on the back, etc...), could random contact transmit unwanted information, or would information transfer have some form of consent? And what about just inserting info between the source and a perifal(sp)?
I can see a new PANdemic... sorry... couldn't resist.
Also, what about people with pacemakers? And doesn't people's skin change conductivity by condition, meaning if I get nervous my sweet new PAN network will stop working, or if I go out in the wonderful Phoenix sun and start to sweat, that changes conductivity.
Hmm...
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
Borrowing your keyboard. Furthermore, Microsoft said, the physical resistance offered by the human body could be used to create a virtual keyboard on a patch of skin.
Can I bum a sig?
the Bed PAN.
"He's a real midnight golfer"
Skin power transfer has shown great promise in EULA enforcement. DMCA part 7 will require electrode implantation on your dongle at birth.
What, did you think your M$ PAN would work for you? That will get you thirteen volts to the right testicle. Your dog never had it so bad.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
This just sounds a little too borgish for me, I refuse to let something use my skin as a media for transmissions, who knows it might start intefering with the brain, this is just like them reading a monkey's brain-waves to control a robotic arm, think about it, if they can read the brain, soon enough they'll be able to write to it, and Microsoft's "Body-Bus" will be right there to allow control and domination of everyone's mind and nobody would think twice. The picture of Billy boy on this topic is not too far off of reality evidently. YOU WILL BE ASIMULATED!
Here it is...
I dunno about using skin as a bus to power electronics, but I can see using the body as an antenna to extend the range of wireless devices. For example, the keyless car entry device on my keychain will work from farther away if I press the transmitter to my chin. Any RF geeks out there willing to explain this or elaborate on it?
This looks like yet another patent to fight. The FAT file system patent is going to be reviewed by the patent thanks to PubPat. This is another one to add to the list.
This won't fly. I read about this stuff being built and working back in the late 90's.
Prior art, biatches.
blog |
- With regard to sex, does getting a virus mean a STD or your PAN got hacked?
- Would sex provide a better power/data conduit than a handshake?
- Could you get sued by the RIAA if your PAN got hacked via a handshake or more?
- Could you do peer to peer by holding more than one person's hands?
Oh the possibilities are endless....
well sort of
... when you get a virus on one of these things? ;-)
Just think of the implications... DRM + This Technology = solutions to politcal problems! The government is going to love this one! Abortion? No problem! Gay Marriage? No problem! Just deny rights for the body bus to perform certain operations...
FLR
... couldn't resist using this pun. A few EE types should get it.
here
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/user/pan/pan. html
My Blog Sucks.
Now you won't know if it's a pervert just trying to touch you, or a hacker trying to steal your data!
Great, so when the cops "tase" me for drunk and disorderly, I have to buy all new equipment??
The Body Bus
Tom Zimmerman has shown that the noncontact coupling between your body and weak electric fields can be used to create and sense tiny nano-amp currents in your body. Modulating these signals creates Body Net, a personal-area network that communicates through your skin.
I'll stick with Bluetooth, or perhaps just good old-fashioned wires.
Does for my headphones.
Do you see what I did there?
...will be on cardiograms.
Will we need to install electric shields around the heart region if we refuse to pay MS tax?
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
It keeps my guts in like a sausage But can a sausage think? Feel the things I feel With my skin? I think not Therefore, I am a sausage
You have to remember that people LOVE to patent something and sue larger corporations like Microsoft. They're probably just being smart & heading off a potential lawsuit when some wise guy decides to patent using skin in this manner & sues the pants off Microsoft in some lame frivolous lawsuit. There are many instances that point the other direction...like Gateway suing the owner of gateway.com, who had owned the domain name long before they came into existance. Microsoft suing over using skin is not likely. I'm pretty sure this is defensive in nature.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
I just read an article about a company researching how the human body can actually create small amounts of electricity itself. This would be used to power things like, say, a pace maker. But I'm not sure if this is the same idea that M$ is going for. Anybody know what I'm talking about?
Wouldn't a Tatoo be considered Prior Art?
*bow* *bow*
-- If it ain't broke - overclock it more.
finaly my sig makes some sort of sense
Non-System foot or foot error. remove from mouth and strike any key when ready
Those who are defending this patent argue the MS is trying to patent power transfer more so than data transfer might wanna think about the fact that transfer power over your skin is extremely obvious. If the patent office were properly staffed with competent individuals these things would not happen. I mean anyone who has ever been shocked has discovered prior art for power tranfer over human skin.
No, honey, this isn't a threesome, it's a LAN party!
Prior art (The electric chair). What data you ask? a 60 Hurts(joke) signal.
So how long until wargrabbing becomes a commonplace event? I bet lots of Slashdot folks would love to get their hands on some insecure PANs (pun intended).
I'll be here all night.
Me calling my cousin:
"Dude, Microsoft just won a patent for electrifying human skin tissue."
My cousin:
"Oh my God. Oh my God..."
Based solely on that reaction, I believe this patent should be revoked!
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
I know it would be long expired by now, but wouldn't Nikolai Tesla have some kind of patent relevant to this? I mean, the man did send upwards of 50,000 volts through his body in front of large audiences, lighting lightbulbs and whatnot...
I wonder what would happen if my left hand wanted to know what my right hand was doing. Sure it may only be a few microvolts, but I wonder what my heart would think of the whole thing.
Using the bodys natral conductivity is refered to often in a number of sifi storys.
One group to use this form of networking is called "The Borg"
It's also used in many RP characters. Fan fiction. Etc.
In short it's a well travled topic in the sifi arena.
So did Microsoft actually create the technology to make this possable? Nope someone else did.
Clue for Microsoft when doing patents like this do it BEFORE a massive body of prior art is created.
I don't actually exist.
...still much better than a wireless personal-area-network, a la Bluetooth. At least physical contact is an event which you are generally able to detect and react to. If a stranger brushes up against you or places their hand on your thigh (possibly up your pantleg), you're more than likely to think something of it.
I don't care if it's microsoft or any company. No one should be allowed to patent anything that involves my body, my personal property. If I choose to wire myself to an outlet, no one should be able to claim patent infringement. Next McDonalds will be patenting the process of eating hamburgers with your mouth. You will have to pay McDonalds Corp a small fee anytime you chew a burger from anywhere. It all amounts to the same thing. We seem to be giving Microsoft the exclusive right to say wether or not I can allow the natural abilities of my property to perform their natural functions or not. Maybe I should apply for a patent on my body and charge Microsoft with infringement on my rights. My body is unique and is wholly mine, therefore should be patentable, (or so it seems according to the patenting process). If Microsoft therefore uses my patented product to make their product work, is that not patent infringment if they do not pursue a licensing agreement with me to utilize my property? Where is this all going to stop? I find it extremely disturbing.
It's not free as in "free beer", it's free as in "free love".
In this case, it looks like this one was 2002 (the other option is an unlikely 1996), which is 2 years after MS filed their patent.
I'm lazy.. I hate having to use cal(1) to figure this out.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
This will finally put an end to the engineering argument over what is or isn't a male/female data connector!
Mod me troll, if you must, I can't help it.
It's not my bag either, but we are talking about Microsoft. I'm sure they will market it your way but use it their way, as explained above.
They see your potential and apply it!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Can this be used to project a little green bar above your head showing how many hit points you have left?
- Donny was a good bowler, and a good man.
If this becomes a standard, there will have to eventually be upgrade paths... right? I keep imagining things like subdermal conduits for improved bandwidth or current-carrying capacity. Geeks flaunting their gear with brightly colored stripes running down their arms, just beneath the skin.
Cite one study that successfully demonstrates a CAUSAL (not casual) link between cell phones and cancer.
It's funny because it makes you angry, AC. With language like that, you need a penguin powered Vchip.
Doctor: "Now say: Big, floppy, donkey dick."
Cartman: "NO!"
Doctor: "Success! The child no longer wants to swear!"
and it's always in the same place.
Microsoft Matrix: Your Probe Today.
...Microsoft announces plans to sue legendary
science fiction writer Ray Bradbury for copyright infringement regarding his famous science fiction story 'I Sing the Body Electric'.
Fuc|ing Patent Office! G0|) DA|v|N M$ deserves to BURN IN H3LL!!!! ARRGGG!!!!
wouldn't a touch activated lamp qualify as prior art?
Like I want Microsoft sending current through my body. Blue-Screen-Of-Death takes on whole new conotations.....
The last couple of days I've been playing with the idea of a company that consults and designs 'wearable' power supplies that generate power from our movement. Maybe through kinetic energy, or maybe something else, no need to limit ourselves.
For example, I would think that a reasonable amount of power could be generated by implementing a device in the sole of a shoe.
So this morning I was pondering about the transportation of the power and I wondered if it would be possible to use the human body directly.
Well, then I read this.
The headline could just as well have been 'Forget about it'.
I hate to say it, but the US is no longer the place for innovation.
Initially I thought, well, these frivolous patents (and quite honestly, this is not the most frivolous patent, it sounds like) are not a real problem. Especially if there is prior art, then at some point it will come to a lawsuit and it will be proven that there's prior art and that's the end of it.
The problem with that of course is that you can't fight a lawsuit as a small company against companies like Microsoft. The DOJ has proven this, after all.
I was thinking of a way to limit the damage that patents do to innovation.
I came up with some ideas. The gist of it is as follows:
- a company can not 'sit' on a patent and do nothing with it. If it does not produce a product that makes use of the patent, then other companies are free to use the idea.
- when a company makes a product that uses their patent, they have to identify in their balance sheets, the added value of the patent. Haven't really thought through exactly how, but maybe they should pay themselves or something.
- the company can not discriminate when it comes to charging for licenses. In other words if the charge themselves $2 then others can license the same technology for $2 as well.
not water-tight by any stretch of the imagination but this should solve the problem with companies 'stocking up' on patents, just for the purpose of litigation and at the same time allow other innovations to continue on.
I think it's absurd that companies can apply so much power through patents. It's just ideas, why should only one entity have all the rights to that idea? Just because they thought of it 2 days earlier?
I thought that whoever invented the "Old Sparky" should have the rights to this idea. :-)
Now we've got to worry about a whole new form of virus. Remember to wear your gloves, folks!
great M$ technology in my body... Great, what if I get a virus?
oh yeah m$ lawyers also advise rubbing a ballon on your head and sticking it to wall to amuse your children is now illegal.
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
Isn't there SCADS of prior art on this topic How the hell does M$ think they are going to repatent Blue Tooth by simply stating all the devides are attached to a human body?
Of course, if M$ is really smart, they will patent applying mild electric shock to the human skin and GRAFTING these devices to the skin (using the skin as a comm-conduit of course) THEN they might actually have something....oh wait, prior art again....see The Borg legal departmemnt.
"We are Borg Legal, you will be litigated, resistance is futile, pleabargain is your only option" Come to think of it, isn't that how M$'s legal team works today?
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
Defibulator - power conduit
EKG - Data Bus
So, now we should all move underground because of the pollution?
We used to physics expetements at school where you hold each others hands any make a light come on, I'm sure we had to try and be synchronised, that to me is using the skin as a serial bus.
What about a lie detector test, don't they measure skin conductivity and that kind of stuff.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
This article clearly calls for the Bill Gates Borg icon instead of the patent pending one.
Senator Orrin Hatch has also requested that if your body devices detect DRM violations, the next time you touch your computer your body bus tazers it so it explodes.
ctrl-alt-delete this!
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
Taser and stun gun users (Zappers and Zappies) may be sued by MS next!
Every stuck you finger in tha back of a T.V. arial socket to get a better reception. That's multiple modulated frequencies. If my video pickes up some information from that signal to start recording then I've selectivly activated a device.
In the audable range, I've used myself as a very noisy conductor for hi-fi equipment before, maybe I had a pizeo attached.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
IMAO becouse IANAL some of this may not apply.
Skin networking research at MIT
The diffrence between MITs prior art and Microsofts patent is the power distrabution.
But.. DU.. the data is electrical... power distrabution is an implied part of that.
Any time you have a reliable electrical signal you have a power source.
Basicly Microsofts patent is a minnor and obveous modification of an existing patent and as I understand it patenting the obveous is not permitted.
I don't actually exist.
IT DUDE: Somebody set up us the slashdotting
Well I've thought of this for years, and also I've had some ideas including inserting small heat-devices near veins (inside body) to make the blood transport heat through the body.
AND I've talked to others that have somewhat thought of similar ideas. I think this patent is just another nail in the coffin for the U.S. Patents.
Excuse me for being arrogant, but you Americans should really start looking into what's happening.
"Well, detective, the coroner's report cited the cause of death as a Blue Skin Of Death."
There's gonna be some great Law and Order episodes from this one.
What if this weren't a hypothetical question?
didn't ol' sparky take advantage of the fact that the human body is conductive and provides some resistance???
There are two reasons I can think of that this sort of system wouldn't be ideal: 1) I don't want to let MS run electricity through my body and 2) it would be far easier to sync all my devices with a wireless network, even if I had to do something to activate the syncing. Besides, if this patent is in the clear, it will likely be expired before anything significant has been done with it.
I'm somewhat scepticle about the whole powerlines cause cancer thing... but if that's true, what will running the power right through us do?
We'll see...I'd like to see the long term affect of running higher powered devices thorugh the body. And would we create a person magnetic field? You think static is bad in the winter now?!!... ;)
I call prior art on myself (should be in some old slashdot posts). One dumb-terminal touch-screen palm-pilot sized device to control all the other devices you have in your pockets eg mobile, mp3 player, laptop (in brief case) etc. Except i thought it would be better wireless so it could interface with say a public computer in an airport to give you a map and tell you were your gate is. How will you control something in your pocket if it doesnt have skin contact? (apart from throwing out all your clothes and buying foil lined fabric)
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Individual claims on a patent merely comprise the patent, it is the entire patent which is voided (or not) by prior art. In fact, in many patents some of the claims directly cite prior art, hence the ability to patent an improvement to an existing device or method.
Exempla Gratis:
#1 - Patent for The Thingmeister
Claim A - it has feet
Claim B - it can talk
Claim C - it hates your cat
#2 - Patent for The Rotoscoping Thingmeister
Claim A - it has feet
Claim B - it can talk
Claim C - it hates your cat
Claim D - it hates your dog
Claim E - it has a rotoscope!
#2 must still meet the requirements of being nonobvious and unique, but it can include the identical claims of #1 provided that it elaborates upon the previous thing in such a way as to be considered new and different.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
Just imagine the lawsuits from companies who've patented parts of the human genome...
If something is counter-intuitive, i.e. countrary to the gut feelings of someone with reasonably good general knowledge in the relevant fields of science, it is important to question such numbers.
In this case, while the linked-to slashdot text claims (as you quote) "amazing 10 megabits per second", the statement in the actual article is significantly weaker: "The companies have confirmed in an experiment that data can be transmitted at 10 megabits per second".
Hence this "10 megabits per second" is under laboratory conditions (without the kind of electromagnetic noise that will necessarily be there if you're close to other people using a "body bus").
Also, that article talks about a single, unidirectional data transmission, not about a bus. I suspect the experiment may have been about the case of the sender and receiver being in shoes. That case is much easier to get to work with good bandwidth, because you'll actually have a closed electric circuit, with the floor functioning as an additional conductor.
If your gut feelings are different from mine, fine. That'd be a reason to dig up actual research data. But I'm going to disregard your request to keep my gut feelings to myself :-)
Under construction: swpat politics overview article
See claim #28 on Microsoft's newest patent.
Now they can go out and sue all those companies
that make pacemakers and maybe get SCO to sue all
the people walking around with a pacemaker.
Now we go from getting screwed up the bum - no grease! to getting screwed all over - still no grease.
If our patents were declined because of prior art, or because they are too obvious (which they probably would be since we aren't Microsoft), then we would be able to use the fact that this patent was declined to fight any patent awarded in the same field later.
If our patents were accepted, we would just do whatever it takes to make sure that royalties are never ever ever demanded on the 'patented' technology.
Anyone know why we (the OSS/Free Software people) haven't done this already? How much does a patent application cost?
Sean
"'Yrch!' said Legolas, falling into his own tongue."
Yeah, but it only really manifests itself at high frequencies... perhaps Microsoft's innovation here is that they have gotten it to work for low-bit-rate data ;-)
its all a conspiracy.
Microsoft are trying to get people with big hair (like myself) to be antenni, so they can steal all information passed arounnd your body. i new there was a conspiracy in it somewhere, you just have to think about it...
(note to self: even though this post is sarcastic, mods usually have no sense of humor)
I'll make out like a bandit!
Everytime I get a static shock from touching a door handle I'll have to pay a royalty to friggin' Bill Gates.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
We're in some seriously deep fucking doo-doo if this is the kind of blanket freedom a corporation gets while individual liberties are trampled daily.
The revolution will not be patented.
IMHO there is:
Microsoft is being sued by God, holder of patent #0 ("Universe, including all living and non-living things, culminating in independently operating human beings") for infringement. God claims that "at minimum, humans already conduct electrical signals via their skin, as can be evidenced by measures of electrodermal activity". God's reference to the use of scientific data represents a departure from His traditional stance. His justification for this was given as "Hey, I created everything, so I created science, right? Besides, this Gates guy is really starting to piss Me off."
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
And both Bradbury and Microsoft are thus haunted by Walt Whitman, who is the original source of the phrase "I Sing the Body Electric." p?Not that I expect slashdotter's to know such things.
Sounds a lot like what I wrote about in my thesis (the mobile memex) in 2003.
I talked about functional overlap between personal information devices in the Body Area Network. Sharing of Sensors and Actuators in a JXTA based P2P network using dermal conductivity. Hell I even called this system "Bodybus" because of the lack of a better name on the comparison on page 29...
http://www.ubiq.org/downloads/m3x_thesis.pdf
We never should have used gold in electronics, it's a prissy little element.
Open Source Java DAO Generator
Amen.
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
From the abstract of the patent:
"One or more devise to be powered,"
With a Microsoft OS running on the devices, the Blue Screen of Death suddenly becomes a serious issue.
Everyone that's ever played with one of those probably quickly found out that you could link hands with several people, with only the two people on the end of the chain each touching a peeper electrode, to get the same effect.
Microsoft patents Ohm's Law?
Matt
Hey, I heard of BAN (Body Area Networks) years ago! The US patent office seems to be lame retards that doesn't check whether someone has done this before. I can't recollect who did the experiments but read an article about 5 years ago of a computer worn in the shoes drawing power from movement (and maybe foul air =) ). When people shaking hands their computers swapped electronic businesscards. So after a day of shaking hands on meetings, fairs etc you could get a list of whom they were and everything.
How the heck can you get a patent on something that is already out there?
Why don't we file a patent for "sending information through variations in airpressure" (also knows as talking)?
the drm switches your dick off
while(karma less_than enough_karma){karma++}
Micro$oft has finally found a way to licenses breathering.
Honestly, who in there right mind would ever plug themselves into a Micro$oft product? Can you say reboot feedback....OUCH!!!
I really DON'T like the idea of Bill Gates holding any sort of weird patent concerning the skin on my labia or breasts!
Will require 2 second fart into fart powered generator to access hard drive
while(karma less_than enough_karma){karma++}
I hope they use good encryption, otherwise we'll all have to wear wet suits to avoid "hackers" in a crowd.
"It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." ---Buffalo Bill Gates
Just as long as they don't patent the "Body Buzz" I'll let this one slide. /me has another.
... is still in development
The Human Nervous System?
I recall seeing a demonstration by IBM where a guy was using the body as a conduit to transmit data from one person to the other.
Is that the same? Anyone know where the demo is?
Did they ( M$ ) use live or dead bodies ???
Did they steal some bodies from the morgue
and conducted experiments??? That's sick!!!
If so, how decomposed does the body can be
to be useful ???
DisClaimer: My comments do not reflect nor represent anyone else nor my current employer's views or attitudes.
You're trying to fool me into reading the article, huh?
Well, well, if it's not the dirty ol' trick of telling something is in the article to fool one into having to read it to check...
Didn't work this time, pal, better luck next time!
Can't remeber whether it was PopSci, SciAm or BYTE
but 10-15 yrs ago I remember an article about ibm
researchers doing business card and phone number
info between people using a handshake, or
having several peopole's devices 'synched' at once
using a banister / handrail.
Knowing IBM i'm pretty sure they paid a visit
to the patent office.
Firefox &
Microsoft is going to be suing Texas for their electric chairs!
MOUNT TAPE U1439 ON B3, NO RING
that Micro$oft performed much of their pre-patent ...
testing at Abu Ghraib prison, using Saddam's
test equipment and some Iraqi "volunteers"
As someone said it's called "the nervous system"
AC comments get piped to
The Blue Screen Of Death...
(brought to you by the Microsoft the makers of Personal Area Netwoks, and Pfizer the maker of Viagra. They both ask "Where in the hell do you want to go today..."
Umm, research does not equal patent.
Next question?
What will we use to sniff packets on the PAN?
...I don't want to involuntarily wet myself when my Windows CE palmtop gives a blue screen.
I haven't seen any prior art combining these elements, nor do they seem particularly obvious to me (at least, when I read it, I said "cool", which is my usual metric for would someone skilled in the art, such as myself, have anticipated the invention based on what was known at the time).
There's nothing at all wrong, illegitimate, or invalid about patenting combinations of previously known technologies. Heck, *all* inventions are combinations of previously known technologies.
Oh yeah, their already half way through that process
Yes, it's corny and will probably be moderated into oblivion, but oh well.
Need Gmail?
Bill Gates, if I decide to let signals from a device on my body go through my body to get to another device on my body, I sure as h___ ain't interested in paying you royalties on it! Go to h___!
Microsoft Patents the idea of using a conductive stuff as a way to conduct stuff. I don't understand what is new about this.
The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.
Does this work just as well?
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Why does everyone go beserk because Microsoft patented this or that? Whos gives a shit? Sure, I am in Europe and the laws are different; but the only people worrying should be Microsft shareholders. THAT is a watse of money.
Intrabody Signalling 1995
Can touch this 1996
What someone needs to do is set up a site where people can help fight this crap by supplying references to prior art for bogus patents.
Isn't that how trackpads work?
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
I seriously doubt you are going to get more power transmitted through the human body using conduction than you are going to get via RF or via body-powered batteries or motion powered generators.
Keep in mind that you need two conductors to make the circuit. Something like an earring is going to have two electrodes very close to each other very far from the power source, which is like having two high resistance wires with lots of low resistance wires between them.
I think they never tried this. Furthermore, the patent does seem to claim data transmission by itself, and that clearly has lots of prior art.
Blue skin of death?
...ahem. Sorry.
Does this make my brain look big?
Patent applies to devices that use single point for IO. Hmmm... Like a heart monitor, or pace maker. They really messed up, because if you want to interact with a device, you'll need more than one IO. So if you raise your blood pressure, does that mean quick go to the next message in your email goggles???
several years ago ibm showed(patented?) a system where suits at a conference could exchange electronic business cards by touching hands :-)
Have you ever heard of... Microsoft Borg?
Strength, balance, courage and reason. If you know what's this about, contact me!
I volunteer to demonstrate this new technology by shoving a taser up Bill Gate's arse.
Putting syrup in coffee is some form of blasphemy.
I have (at home, unfortunately or I could give a hard refrence) a copy of the IBM Systems Journal from about 1997, which was a focus on the MIT Media Lab (remember Nicholas Negroponte?)
In that issue, this very idea was the focal point of an entire article, and it showed pictures of working prototypes, including the exhange of electronic "busines cards" via the bioelectic fields of two people shaking hands.
I find it very hard to believe that neither of MIT or IBM have not already patented this, and if they haven't, there is definite, published even, prior art.
Did the Patent office not even bother doing a literature search?
IBM has done this sort of research many years ago. Knowing how IBM is on the ball with patent law, I doubt they didnt patent this before.
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/user/pan/pan.html
see for yourself, this type of thing is old hat.
Good. Now Billy can shove it up his ...
I seriously need a memory upgrade...
No really! My hardware is cutting edge tech from 1976!
When will they stop stealing from thieves? This is like Apple/Microsoft of old over the Xerox software!
... and now there will be a company with some resources behind it to finally get that technology to the marketplace - those bastards! IBM and those other companies should have decades to sit on this, after all they thought of it first! So what if they aren't doing anything with it.
Next thing you know they'll take this SUPERSET of the other technologies and make it user friendly (just to trick people) and then outsell the competition.
The bastards!
At least we'll be able to rage against them even more now!
Microsoft should just close shop and go away; how dare they try and make things work? They never get it perfect anyway. They should just stop trying so we can get back to a garage company economy.
Keeper of the terrible karma ---
H.U.M.A.N. (host unit for multimedia advanced network) - a multimedia network platform designed to explore real world. Devices included: speaker system ('Mouth'), dual-mic ('Ears' - sometimes not working), dual-cam ('Eyes' - always on), rechargable battery ('stomach'), central processing unit ('brain', only in some units available), multiple sensors, build-in transport system (compatible with all public transport systems), ... No with additional speaker system to annoy environment! Invovate!
Honestly, first time I hear aboyt this and is generating and interesting thread, so what is your point?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
think about the embarassment of leaving your "dongle" at home.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
What the hell is an "M$ powered computer"?
It's a computer that makes the operator run around in circles, pull their hair and curse like most of the AC fanboys that follow me around. Co-incidence? I think not.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Responding to a patent story with prior art, in this post's parent, is moderated as "redundant". Slashdot metamoderation needs a new option, beyond "Un/Fair": "Funny". Oh, could it be an M$ partisan taking issue with my accurate assessment of the M$/Fed monopoly collusion? That's more like "+1: Redundant".
--
make install -not war
"Personal Area Networks: Near-field intrabody communication"; IBM Systems Journal, vol. 35, No. 3&4, 1996 --MIT Media Lab, 11 pages.
This article was mentioned as a reference in the patent, and is included as prior art. I guess that means that what has been already implemented at the Media Lab is excluded from the Microsoft patent.
It seems that the patent is for an actual implementation of this idea, and thus would allow you to invent your own without violating, as long as you are not using Microsoft's tech in your creation. In other words (shock, horror) it's a good patent that references previous work.
Read, L
Microsoft is aware of that work and even mentions an article from the "IBM Systems Journal, volume 35, nos 3 & 4" about the work at the Media Lab.
This patent is only for Microsoft's implementation. As much as I like to bash McSoftware and their business practices, there's nothing wrong with this patent. It references a lot of prior art, and points other developers to information that might allow them to create thier own Personal Area Network without stepping on Microsofts IP.
I still think they're greedy pigs, but apparently they do have people who are ethical and can "play nice" (thx to Lyndsay, Bill, and Steve for not trying to "Sarnoff" or "Von Neuman" this one.)
Read, L
The very first thing in Your Slashdot Homepage Preferences is Date/Time Format with no less than 15 options which include a year. And just for the record, the article in question was posted on 2002-10-07.
From what I can tell, you seem to be not nearly lazy enough. Just choose the format you like and be done with it. Unfortunately, there is no format equivalent to ISO-8601 compliant date/time string or date -u '+%Y-%m-%d %A %H:%M:%S %Z' which I personally would prefer for Slashdot posts.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
There already is such a religion, The Church of Emacs, which--according to Saint IGNUcius (a.k.a. Richard Stallman or "RMS")--I am proud to be a saint of. It has little to do with Microsoft per se, but rather all proprietary software not being kosher:
To join the Church of Emacs, you need only say the Confession of the Faith three times:
It is actually one of the smartest religions I have ever heard of.
Now, this I find insulting.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."