Microsoft Seeking Hot-Or-Not Patent

theodp writes "In its just-disclosed patent application for the Online Personal Appearance Advisor, Microsoft describes the 'invention' of its three Microsoft Research employees in these words: 'The contributor uploads self images for viewing and rating (or voting) by viewers who choose provide an opinion on different fashion and/or cosmetic looks of the contributor.' So what do you think — is Microsoft's invention really Hot or Not?"

Comments

29/m/Australia

[acehole]

I hate sunlight, fresh air and physical activity. I'm pasty white and commonly sport cheeto stains on my shirt.

Am I hot or not?

Re:29/m/Australia

[Anonymous Coward]

It depends. What is your annual income?

Re:29/m/Australia

[PrescriptionWarning]

Well assuming you have an Australian accent you can probably still melt panties in any American bar and/or club simply by saying a few key words made famous by the Crocodile Hunter

It's not really the same

[jperl]

Well Hot or Not is mainly about breasts and not about fashion. This is what might differ.

Re:It's not really the same

[syousef]

Well Hot or Not is mainly about breasts and not about fashion. This is what might differ.

Hot or not is mainly about sexual attraction and self esteem. What do you think fashion is about? Did you think that plunging neck line was fashionable because it didn't accentuate breasts?

Re:It's not really the same

[kwiqsilver]

Well Hot or Not is mainly about breasts and not about fashion. This is what might differ.

They're both about rating the visual aesthetics of a person. If a Hot-or-Not chick has a mullet and 'stache, she's going to get dinged no matter how top heavy she is.
This is close enough that the site that was created a decade ago, without any input from Microsoft, should count as prior art.
Hell, Miss America or every fashion magazine ever printed could be claimed as prior art. They look at images of people and rate the appearance. Just because MS uses computers to connect the people involved doesn't make it special.

There's also the "non-obvious" requirement for a patent. This is blatantly obvious.

That would be almost as lame as Apple patenting LCD technology and saying it's "new" because everybody else was using it on TVs and computer displays, but they're using it on phones and portable music players.

Now if MS created an algorithm for the computer to do the rating, that would be the level of innovation the patent system was intended for.

Re:It's not really the same

[symbolset]

Plunging necklines and short skirts are about the things they've always been about: the stock market trends.

Desperate for Future Income?

[Jager Dave]

Does Microsoft realizes that nobody in their right mind is going to immediately switch to Win7 (if at all?)

They're trying to secure as many patents that could potentially bring them some sort of income NOW, lest they go bankrupt in the future.

The vagueness of this patent could easily cover someone's picture on Facebook if they said "Tell me how I look!", "What do you think of this makeup?", or "Do you think the pocket-protector goes with these pants?" Back off Microsoft - you're not IBM - leave the pointless patents to them...

Re:Desperate for Future Income?

[symbolset]

Y'know they're filing shotgun patents all over the place. They remind me of a marketing geek who accidentally got reassigned to engineering once. Previously I had helped him design an air duct that put cool air where we needed it. When a subsequent design eliminated the need for the duct, he said "That's an important piece. We have intellectual property on that."

Without blinking I told him "The Romans had prior art. It's redundant, and out it goes."

Re:Desperate for Future Income?

[hairyfeet]

I've been telling my customers to wait until Win7 SP1, preferably SP2. Most have had me build them new XP machines with easy expandability so they can sit out Win7 if it turns out to be another Vista turkey. I personally used some of my profits to build a new AMD that will go up to quad Phenom II and 32Gb of RAM so I can hang onto XP X64 and ride out Win7 if it turns out to be a turkey.

So while I have been hearing lots of good things about Win7, I also remember all the good things I heard about pre release Vista. And never underestimate the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mindset either. The new Vista driver model broke a whole lot of apps, and I kinda doubt that Win7 will make that situation any better. After switching to XP X64 I personally have no desire to switch to Win7. I have tons of RAM, all my apps work, everything just runs smooth, so why switch?

I'll wait until SP2 when the bugs have been worked out like I did with Win2k to WinXP SP2. Let some other sucker be the beta tester. Me and my customers (most of whom aren't even using 2Gb of RAM in XP, so I doubt the 32bit RAM limit will be a problem) will wait until SP2. And talking with some of my friends running corporate networks many have adopted the same attitude. XP is easy to lock down with GPO, all the apps they need work, and XP will be supported until 2014. Most have site licenses so they can run what they want, so why deal with all the headaches of switching? By the time Win7 SP2 rolls out we will see most of the bugs squished, most of the problems with needing to install apps as an admin will hopefully be gone, and the users are quite happy with their XP machines. So I think in this case a wait and see approach is probably the most prudent one to take.

Re:Desperate for Future Income?

[Dogtanian]

I'm sure that MS will sell Windows 7 to OEMs to be shipped on new PCs - there probably won't be as much resistance as Vista saw

(Which I'm taking to mean that you think most people will be mostly happy to keep Windows 7 on new systems).

but unlike many of the previous Windows releases, most XP users generally seem to be pretty happy with the status quo to I'm not really expecting to see huge numbers of people flock to the shops to buy upgrades for their existing systems.

That may be a red herring then; as far as I'm aware, the majority of new OS installations nowadays occur on new computers rather then existing systems. In other words, most people get the new OS when it's installed on a new computer (doing all their "upgrades" in one go by buying a new computer).

So if it's offered on the new computer and they're happy (enough) with that, then Windows 7 will eventually be a success.

Microsoft and Fashion

[redkcir]

Like anyone in their right mind would take the advice from MS on fashion issues. They have a hard enough time trying to keep their OS running and that's their main job. If they can't do that I hardly think their fashion advice will be any better.

How many would it take?

[xianthax]

I always preferred the approach of howmanywouldittake.com (now defunct)...

always seemed so much more realistic to rate attractiveness by required level of intoxication than some artificial 0-10 scale

Re:In other news

[wisty]

In other news... there's a revolution going on in Iran and it's turned violent.

But that's not Stuff That Matters, so yeah, let's talk about Microsoft's stupid patent applications because that's News For Nerds.

Intellectual property is a serious point of discussion. China's monopoly on tea and silk caused empires to rise and fall.

If patents go to far, they can completely destroy the incentive people have to innovate, as all their innovations will be reliant on other patented processes. If Yahoo had owned a patent on internet search, then Google would never have had a chance to monetize Pagerank. But Yahoo would never have gotten so far, because previous companies would have patented the technology Yahoo used.

The medieval guilds arrested a lot of development, by guarding their secret knowledge. The Masons were not powerful because of their political connections, they had political connections because they simply knew how to build stone buildings. Sure, they had earned that knowledge from previous Masons, but the process of knowledge transfer was so opaque that corruption and inefficiencies were bound to creep in.

The printing press destroyed the monopolies of the guilds, because their knowledge could be cheaply and efficiently disseminated. Open source, the FSF, Wikipedia and other open movements are furthering this movement.

But patents are a way for the establishment to fight back, and try to create an environment in which they can reap more profits than a free market would allow.

So yes, it is Stuff That Matters.

out of touch

[speedtux]

I think a lot of these bogus patent filings from Microsoft simply show that the people at Microsoft have not the slightest idea of what is going on in the real world. Microsoft is designing software for the last century. Even Bing is merely a Google clone.

Patents = $ for Employees

[sogon]

Microsoft Employees get a $2500 bonus for every patent. They don't have to write it either, The patent lawyer does.
All you do is describe the idea and give any pertinent documentation and someone else converts it to a patent.

I have a few MS patents under my belt when I worked there.

Re:In other news

[Ragzouken]

(Score: -1, Delusions of Grandeur)