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Microsoft Trying To Patent a 'Magic Wand'
theodp writes "Newly-disclosed USPTO documents show that Microsoft is seeking patent protection for a 'Magic Wand,' a device with various gizmos and sensors that can manipulate and interact with its environment, including video and holographic images, while using biometrics to connect with the user. 'Even the most pragmatic individual,' explains Microsoft, 'would have trouble arguing against the merits or utility of, say, a magic wand that actually worked to control or communicate with objects or components in an associated nearby environment.' No doubt. The inventors include CXO/CTO J Allard, and Sr. Researcher Andy Wilson."
Wonder if they get into trouble with Nintendo.
-- John
I have prior art, I was born with a magic wand!
This is the first search result for "magic wand":
http://www.amazon.com/Vibratex-HV-250R-Hitachi-Magic-Massager/dp/B00005M1WE
I think MS needs to rethink their naming. I doubt this is what they have in mind. Besides, the Wii beat them to it in designing a controller that looks like a sex toy.
The Magic Wand has been around for years.
I can't believe that Microsoft is abusing the patent system.
Microsoft is trying to pwn my Bluetooth trackball?
Surely someone is going to point out the comparison to the original magic wand? I think this might prevent Micro$oft's patent as it came out in the 1970s??
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16896630001
The Doctor called... He wants to have a word with them about his sonic screwdriver.
The Digital Sorceress
... "Hey, baby, want to see my magic wand?"
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
It's time Microsoft stopped inventing things that already exist!
but they still can't use it to make Vista disappear.
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
RECTUMSEMPRA...
which is either a spell from Harry Potter or Latin for Timely Assholes.
Magic Wang Err wand.
Inane Comments are Generously Disregarded
a magic wand that actually worked to control or communicate with objects or components in an associated nearby environment.
What about Wand of Levitation, Wand of Cold, Wand of Teleportation and Wand of Wonder?
Once again, Microsoft is late to the game.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Having something that operates a bit like a wii controller combined with a universal remote.
Imagine pointing the wand at your receiver and giving an upward flitting motion and the receiver bumps up the volume. or flick to the right and it changes stations or goes to the next track. Twirl it in a circle clockwise to turn on or counterclockwise to turn off etc.
And would only react to the device you point at. (might have to establish separate gestures for nearby components etc)
I'd buy that.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
circumvented due to its being a Trade Secret?
Should have been GPLed a long time ago or at least been made public domain to protect all the magician practitioners. Now how do they make a living? Is there no justice in the U.S., are we on the road to ruin because Obama's insistence on NOT visiting the sins of the past? Maybe a poet will address the issue long after it can be an effective prescription for political and financial health of this failing state.
Txt
... As long as it works by magic, and not technology, give 'em the patent.
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
Are you mods crazy? How is parent off-topic?
turn this down, it is too generic, it should be impossible to patent an idea or concept, only actual products manufactured should be patentable...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
...let's see how well you use it. And so began the great wand battle of '09 between MS and Nintendo.
Sorry about the mess.
Somewhat off-topic, but the wording in patent applications always amuses me. For instance, the abstract says:
They say "one or more sensor from a collection of sensors", which is redundant. They could just say "sensors". And why say "can further issue an instruction to update a state of an environmental component" when it is simpler to just say "can update another component"?
I understand the need for precision. And I guess if they don't claim "one or more sensors" then someone can try to circumvent the patent by doing the same thing with only one single sensor (or whatever). But it still sounds ridiculous, and is no excuse for making confusing sentences. So many sentences are needlessly complicated or outright superfluous. Is there really no better way to word patents?
Can anyone comment? Is that kind of wording truly necessary for the patent to be robust, or is the wording intentionally obtuse and confusing, so that they can later use the ambiguity to argue for broader applicability?
Before people start saying this is a WiiMote rip-off, be aware that Andy Wilson has been working on this stuff for many years. From an article November 2002: '"We're trying to get away from ... the universal remote where you have 300 buttons," says Andy Wilson, the Microsoft researcher who was key in developing the device. The Xwand, a prototype, contains a set of motion sensors that tell a nearby computer whether it is pointing left or right, up or down.'
See http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2002-11-18-bonus-microsoft-xwand_x.htm
and set of blingy neck chains, a runes book, and do jigs and circus moves. That'll impress me. Games makers already are on this, ms, so back off. Your acts further justify massive patent reform's need, clowns.
(Yeh, shills/acolytes, go ahead, marke me inflammatory/troll...)
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Imagine pointing the wand at your receiver and giving an upward flitting motion and the receiver bumps up the volume. or flick to the right and it changes stations or goes to the next track. Twirl it in a circle clockwise to turn on or counterclockwise to turn off etc.
. . . I'm imagining hurling the thing at my television, which is showing politicians making lame excuses about why they used taxpayer money to clean the moats of their private residences (and other wacky stuff). And that the politician can actually feel the pain when the wand hits the screen.
Now that is what I call political accountability.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Remember, swish and flick!
Come on people, get with the program!
1. They totally missed on the Tablet PC concept and burned OEM's on it. Don't worry J's going to fix it!
2. They *totally* screwed device developers by dropping their OEM DRM scheme and release one of their own. Don't worry J's going fix the Zune.
3.They totally missed integrating new HID in xbox. Don't worry J's going to fix that too!
4. J's going to be working on an operating system GUI in about a decade. He'll fix that too!
What are the chances just one of those things will work out well for Microsoft?
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
[quote]device that can manipulate and interact with its environment[/quote]
I will stick with the katana .. it manupulates and interacts with the phyical enviroment very well.
Does a good job on people with pesky magic wands too!
No sensors or gizmos needed, and only effects what you point it.
YMMV
Get out your robe and wizard hat. That'll impress Britney.
From our garden simulator help file:
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/help100/00000136.htm
"The magic wand is used to grow plants, to pull all plants in a soil patch, to duplicate plants and soil patches, to rename plants, to reseed plants, and to place plants in stasis (or remove them from stasis). The tool actions associated with any tool can be changed in the tool editor."
You could also map action from other tools, like the "growcorder" onto the magic wand to use it for that functionality:
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/help100/00000134.htm
"The growcorder is used to scan, magnify, or scan and magnify garden objects to find out more information about them."
I guess the way our patent system works, we can expect a cease and desist order from Microsoft any day now for using the ideas we developed over a decade before them. :-)
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Oil prices could have gone down, Iraq could have been sorted out. WMD's could have been conjured...
Micosoft Wang.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Will Apple compete with iPixie Dust? Java already has magic beans covered.
Table-ized A.I.
Harry Potter
While the concept may be thousends of year old, Microsoft might talk about the implementation. On the other side, they could read Xerox PARC research reports to see how it actually was done. (I don't remember when.)
Probably just a stretched-out Clippy.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Seriously, we have to stop this before someone gets harmed.
FROM ACROSS THE ROOM!!!!!!!!
As a method of projecting power, there's a lot to be said for the patent system, as opposed to billy clubs, but beyond that it usually seems really lame.
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
And apparently, in their filing, Microsoft thinks that any sufficiently obvious idea is indistinguishable from innovation.
--
Toro
Isn't there prior art?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I swear I read in the instructions for an SGI mouse back in the 90s "do not insert the mouse in your mouth or any other body orifice."
So there is a need here...
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Specifcally, infinitives?
I'd love to get some of these for coding (ala Edelman's Jump 225 series of books)!
Imagine firing up code space - it makes all those vi/emacs flamewars look like amateur night!
More people should read that series. They're books about writing software for crissakes.
...[Zap!] You're a toad!
-- Merlin
Have gnu, will travel.
It's already in the shape of a wand. And it can do everything described with simple software updates. Do you get a patent just for using someone else's design now? And that's not considering how innovative the Wii controller is itself.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
...he wants to point out that his Programming Bars in InfoQuake/MultiReal are just these things.
Allard: "Why is Ballmer having us make a 'magic wand', anyway?"
Wilson: "He says it's important to his plans of world domination. And if you know what's good for you, you'll refer to him as 'The Nobleman Ravenstyl' like he commanded in his last company-wide email!"
When someone says, "Any fool can see
He claims prior Dark Art.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
So was this the first thought for anyone else when they read this story?
http://bash.org/?111338
Yes, this makes me feel like a horrible person.
A description in a work of fiction is enough to discount the application as not being an original and/or non-obvious invention right? The first thing that comes to my mind when I read the summary is the wands Adele Mundy of Chatsworth uses constantly to interact with her computer systems.....
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj
If I could wave my magic wand...
I am made from the dust of the stars
And the oceans flow in my veins
Here I hide in the heart of the city
Like a stranger coming out of the rain
The evening plane rises up from the runway
Over constellations of light
I look down into a million houses
And wonder what you're doing tonight
Don't ask me
I'm just improvising
My illusion of careless flight
Can't you see
My temperature's rising
I radiate more heat than light
>a magic wand that actually worked to control or communicate with objects or components in an associated nearby environment.
>a magic wand that actually worked to control or communicate
>wand that actually worked to control
>that actually worked
Nothing to see here, move along.
According to this item at Hackday.com anyway.
http://www.creativekingdoms.com/CK1.html Creative Kingdoms
Their MagiQuest game uses a motion-sensitive "magic wand" with an IR transmitter to interact with objects in real space. The game is geared for kids, but it's rather fun to walk through the hotel and trigger animated objects by flicking the wand at them.
There was some hullabaloo back when Nintendo first announced the Wii's capabilities because Microsoft had been working on a "magic wand" since somewhere around 1997, I believe. I'm totally unable to find any references, but there WAS a project page hosted by Microsoft which featured (besides an ugly color scheme) photos and text talking about the project/experiment.
Anyone else know what I'm talking about?
Digital Sailor
Prior Art!!!! Wiccan's have been using magick wands a lot longer than Microsoft has been around! No Patent!
Already invented it, he named it the tricorder!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricorder
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
What do you expect from a company that patents "Double Clicking"? haaa....
..."swish and flick!"
Scope. You want your patent to be as inclusive as possible because you don't want to have to file another one to adjust for some small changes.
Quack, quack.
...that Microsoft will never understand that it's not the *size* of the wand...
Me. Me and Harry Potter and like eighty other people.
Seriously though. Wand broadcasts audio to Mac, Mac recognizes text, executes scripts, controls X10 network, controls stuff inside and outside house, including lights and other computers. Also have X10 keychain built into handle if speech borks.
kulakovich
I think we're ready for a new meme ... I vote for "The Gates-Ballmer Paradigm"
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
If it's made by Microsoft, it will probably just cause all my appliances to magically BSOD. I can't wait to wave my wand at my fridge and have it quit cooling, or begin cooling intermittently, or stop cooling and light up with a red sign saying "THIS COPY OF YOUR REFRIGERATOR DOES NOT PASS WAND GENUINE ADVANTAGE"
Seriously, besides an obvious rip off of the wii-mote, I have NO faith in MS ability to put out a decent product. I can't think of ONE MS product I've liked, ever!
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
... *blink* ...?
Manipulate and control the environment...
Biometrics to connect to user...
I think it's called a "hand".
"a device with various gizmos and sensors that can manipulate and interact with its environment, including video and holographic images, while using biometrics to connect with the user.".....wait don't we call this a p*nis?
Emma Watson?
OK.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
now you can be like harry too
A remote control?
There were infrared and accelerometer based 'magic wands' with MIDI interfaces available for sale back in the early 90's. I used them in several performance art pieces I worked on in Santa Fe back then with the Vasulka's.
It is called the Buchla Lightning MIDI controller. We used it to control computers, robotic devices, cameras and of course musical instruments. Lots of prior art here.