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Microsoft Patents "Fonts With Feelings"

Posted by timothy on 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'!"

7 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Just like WordWorld and a million others by jbeaupre · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.wordworld.com/ Then again, the actual claims of the patent may be something entirely different than the summary.

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  2. Prior art exists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    There are kids shows already doing this "Word world" among them. Gratz to MS for patenting something that is probably 10 years old and in common usage.

  3. 40 years of Prior Art by lymond01 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Apparently no one at Microsoft watches Sesame Street.

  4. Hi there ! by thrill12 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I am seeing that you feel sad today ! Would you like me to comfort you by becoming a bit italic ?
    -> No
    You are very stubborn today, that fits just perfectly with a bold face type ! Would you like me to change to bold ?
    -> No
    Ah, you probably misunderstood me and want to get a clear sans-serif font ! Yes ?
    ....
    Clippy's offspring ? :)

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  5. Sounds stupid, looks worse by bhunachchicken · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The very first thing I thought of when I read the summary was those annoying cursors, graphical emotes, and the ton of Smiley Central-like websites that did the rounds a few years ago.

    If Microsoft having a patent on this idea stops us having to put up with:

    lol!! i just got an email with all the letters dancing and singing, and doing a poo on each other!! lol!! i'm going to forward on to everyone i know who won't give a fuck!!1 hahahaha!! lol!!!!

    then they can keep it. It'll likely be about as successful and world changing as the Zune was, anyway.

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  6. I'm actually OK with granting MS this patent by gman003 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm actually OK with granting MS this patent, because this is a terrible idea. These "animated fonts" are going to be worse than Comic Sans. Most people have difficulty reading text moving in any way besides scrolling, and even that can cause problems.

    If MS gets essentially a monopoly on this, then once they realize how retarded it is, nobody will be using them.

  7. Kawaii? by VickiM · · 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