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Scary Smartphone Motion Control Patent Granted

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the can-i-patent-the-reuben dept.

An anonymous reader writes "On March 16th, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a very broad patent on motion control in computing devices, one that seems to cover any smartphone that uses a built-in accelerometer. It was filed in July 2006 and preceded by a nearly identical patent granted in 2004 after a 2001 application. So it predates many of today's popular smartphones — the iPhone, the DROID, the Nexus One, etc. What will happen if the company that owns the patent asserts it?"

4 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. To hack a patent... by alain94040 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here's how you hack a patent. From claim 1:

    wherein the initial motion meets or exceeds an initial motion threshold; sensing a complementary motion of said computer device in a reverse direction to the initial direction

    As long as the iPhone or Android do not use one threshold and are more generic than detecting reverse direction, they do not infringe on that patent. Whoever wrote that claim made it way too specific, and easy to work around it.

    --
    co-founders wanted.

    1. Re:To hack a patent... by nkh · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Oh noes, they only claimed their invention...whatever shall they do???

      You call it an invention, I call it an algorithm.

  2. What about inertial navigation systems? by ircmaxell · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Inertial navigation systems use accelerometers as input to a computer for controlling its output (Navigation readings, autopilots, etc), and have been used in (civilian and military) aviation for decades. Doesn't that negate this patent as prior art? Or can you now patent the application of an idea to a market? Or am I misunderstanding how vague this patent is?

    --
    If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
  3. I'd claim my pedometer as prior art. by Myrv · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I had a pedometer in the 90s that used motion to record events, each motion event would trigger an update on the display, it was hand held when reading the display, and it was a computing device that would calculate distance traveled (not to mention history). Sounds like it covers just about every aspect of that patent.