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IBM Patents Tweeting Remote Control

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the just-put-a-clock-in-something dept.

Fluffeh writes "IBM has applied for a patent on a network-enabled smart remote control that sends out a message to Twitter, Facebook or a blog when you start watching a TV show." Hopefully this launches an exciting patent landgrab of devices that are socially enabled. Your car can tweet when you leave your garage. Your dishwasher can tweet when the load is done. Your skillet can tweet when your eggs are burnt. And they say innovation is dead.

1 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. Re:this should be easy by mea37 · · Score: 0, Troll

    A self-selecting subset of viewers voluntarily sending unverifiable messages over a social network will prove to be a useful solution to the problem "how do we tell how many people are watching Channel X"?

    I doubt it. Your viewing habits are already being tracked by means far more reliable. (And simpler.)

    So, close but no cigar. Show me a problem that this technique actually solves but to which it is not an obvious solution, and then if this patent had been filed as "a method to (solve that problem)" I'd believe it was a valid patent.