Microsoft Patents "Fonts With Feelings"

Posted by timothy on Wednesday June 2, 2010 @03:10AM from the schoolhouse-rock-prior-art dept.

theodp writes "Seems like those old IBM flaming logo commercials (video) should count as prior art, but the USPTO granted Microsoft a patent Tuesday for inventing Fonts With Feelings. Giving font characters sound, motion, and altered appearance, Microsoft asserts, gives a user 'the impression the fonts have personalities,' thereby enhancing the user's understanding and/or fluency of words. From the patent: 'As a few non-limiting examples, the word 'giant' can get very large; the word 'lion' can morph into a line drawing of a lion; the word 'toss' can morph into a hand that animates a ball toss; the word 'bees' could show bees flying around with or without a 'buzz' sound effect'. If you're curious, Microsoft Research offers some explanations and examples of 'fontlings' in action — don't miss 'f' kicks 'a'!"

1 of 150 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Kawaii? by VickiM · 2010-06-02 04:26 · Score: 3, Interesting

For some reason, this makes me think of the kawaii movement that happened in Japan. School girls started adding drawings to their letters, making them very cute and difficult to read. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawaii