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IBM Patents Tweeting Remote Control
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.
There goes using a remote control to watch porn. The naked walk to my TV to change the channel is gonna get annoying real fast :(
So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
Now when I go to a friend's Twitter, I can know when his toilet has finished filling up after a flush.
I LOVE THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY!!!!!!111!!!!
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Hopefully this launches an exciting patent landgrab of devices that are socially enabled.
... or suppresses any such innovation, since there's a prior patent.
My Mouse Tweets anytime I click on anything, if its inside the web browser it tweets the URL I'm at, if its inside a game it tweets my headshots, and if I'm working it tweets how much I'm NOT on /.
My sidearm can tweet when it's unloaded! The possibilities are endless!
Twitter, I mean. I don't understand why it's so popular, am I just getting old?
What's its draw?
Free Martian Whores!
This patent will prevent most remote-control manufacturers from ever producing a device that does this.
I'm going to go out and patent all kinds of devices being "socially"-enabled. It's the only way to be sure.
Mmmm.. Donuts
Couple of months ago I was in Agile training at work and our ad-hoc group was tasked with making a better mouse trap. We decided to create a mouse trap (on paper) that would report its status via Twitter. Whether the trap was sprung, caught a mouse, was out of bait, etc.
Seems like it would be great to have a private network of twitter-enabled devices where only you or friends would be able to monitor their status. There's way too many privacy concerns with an open network like Twitter.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Nah... prior art. Sort of. Obligatory Penny Arcade Twitter Comic.
welcome our new tweeting masters (i.e. twits)
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
I really wish people would stop saying the equivilent of 'oooh oooh prior art' without ever reading the actual patent.
The primary reason why AutoProfile is not prior art is because the IBM patent specifically refers to a:
remote controller, suitable for use while viewing media programming and content
and:
The enhanced remote controller allows the viewer to both communicate with a blogging server, and thus to a blogging service, as well as to display responses to and from other bloggers with whom the viewer is communicating. These blog communications may be accomplished without the viewer having to leave the broadcast receiver of the television.
which AutoProfile is not and has no functionality for.
Read the patent before jumping to conclusions.
I am tweetting
I am tweetting
I am tweetting
I am tweetting
I am tweetting
I am tweetting
I am tweetting
^C^C^C
Mmmm maybe that is not such a good idea, forget it
What sig ?
I think it would be sweet if my toilet seat could tweet, and announce each major feat every time that I excrete. If the flowing bowl's replete I don't want to be discrete; I would tweet to the elite "Look at how I can compete!"
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
This totally infringes on my patent for doing something stupid with twitter.
Ok to get together with your friends...as long as you tweet about it.
Seriously, this whole auto-tweeting thing has a lot of useful applications; a real-time life logger. Now we need to make triggers based on the tweets that start other activities. Tweet my dog when I get into my car at the end of the work day. Actually, that dog knows when I'm coming home, so that's a waste. Some sort of weird, semi-obsessive dog radar.
How about tweeting when my mother-in-law pulls into my street? I can turn out the lights.
Best regards.
According to this logic no invention in the history of computing has ever been novel because it can all just be broken down to "interacting with a computer".
To me that seems more fair than the current Patent system.
I really wish people would stop saying the equivalent of 'oooh oooh read the patent' without ever considering how unoriginal these minor variations being patented are.
The primary reason why the patent shouldn't be granted is it's a minor variation on existing ideas that takes no real effort to dream up or create. A 10 minute brain storming session could come up with dozens of ideas of equivalent value. Also, a prototype of the device could probably be created in minutes using a computer or smartphone with an IR port. Or look at a custom pvr setup.
This is hardly a patent protecting any real R&D. This is like patenting different configurations of three blocks of Lego. Oh yes, my patent is original! The top block is shifted one peg farther to the right! It's a completely new design!
The primary reason why AutoProfile is not prior art is because the IBM patent specifically refers to a: remote controller, suitable for use while viewing media programming and content
I primarily use my computer to "view media programming and content." The remote controller in this context is usually called a computer mouse.
and:
The enhanced remote controller allows the viewer to both communicate with a blogging server, and thus to a blogging service, as well as to display responses to and from other bloggers with whom the viewer is communicating. These blog communications may be accomplished without the viewer having to leave the broadcast receiver of the television.
which AutoProfile is not and has no functionality for.
Sorry, wrong plugin.
If it's the fact the remote can post twitter updates, how is it any different than a nokia tablet with mythetomer? Or a phone that can also be used as a remote control? I use bluetooth to change the channels on my MythTv for example, and could you really say your tivo isn't technically a computer?
I'm aware that Nokia and Motorola didn't specifically design a phone for this purpose, but it probably is already used as such by some users.
These patent guys remind me of little children who see a toy in a magazine and get in a fight over who saw it first. They also remind me of the 'frist post' guys here on Slashdot. They aren't being innovative, they aren't producing anything, and they are a general pain in the rear. They should all be taken out to the toolshed and beaten.
10: PRINT "Everything old is new again."
20: GOTO 10
Alright asshole... have you read the patent? It constantly mentions "not having to use a computer" to do this "autoblogging". However, you are using a computer. A small one, designed for a specific purpose, but still a regular old computer. By your thinking the netbook is patentable. The laptop was too (although perhaps when first thought of this might have been patentable). But with the amount of small computer devices (phones, pdas, even computer controlled led-screened remote controls, netbooks and much more) that already have an IR port and can do all of this with a computer... this invention of a small computer to reproduce things that can already be done does not constitute a novel idea. If you think so, that's fine. But I will conclude that you are the one using stupid logic. If you think adding the words "facebook" and "twitter" make it novel, more power to you and your lifetime of following the crowd.
No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
How easy it is to build a prototype really doesn't matter.
What does matter is whether the approach is novel. A novel approach can be very easy to implement once you have the key insight, and reaching that insight (not constructing a prototype) is the work that earns patent protection.
My problem with this patent is this: I don't think you can state a problem to which this is a novel soltuion. The reason this hasn't been done isn't that nobody could figure out how - it's that nobody cared. If somebody had said "I want to do X", what aspect of the patented invention wouldn't have been an obvious part of the solution?
This patent covers a solution looking for a problem. In a certain demographic, it may carry a certain "cool" factor that allows it to catch on. "Hey, cool, I hadn't thought to do what this invention does." But that's not what patents are for.
Don't get me wrong - it's possible to have a "solution looking for a problem" that is novel and merits a patent. In those cases, when someone hears about the invention they would say "hey, cool; I hadn't thought of it, but I'd like to do that... however, I can't say I understand how you did it".
Thank you so much for telling us your lifestyle habits. It's especially useful to know exactly when you leave your house and to be informed of your daily activities while you're out so that we know when you'll return. I also like receiving information about your purchasing habits as well as knowing the names of your dog, fish, and children. I'm especially fond of the little red-head. Perhaps I will visit the school she goes to so we can get to know each other better. Afterall, I know exactly when you usually pick her up.
Your television in your living room is a 52" plasma?! Awesome! I'll be over shortly to take it as well as any other valuables you constantly blab about on your twitter account. You make it so much easier for me to do my job. Thank you ever so much!
-Your Neighborhood Nice Guy
I would want it tweeting the location of my tv remote. I am always losing them.