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Microsoft Applies For Page-Turn Animation Patent

eldavojohn writes "Ever seeking to out innovate their competition, Microsoft has applied for a patent on animating page flips in devices like the Nook or Kindle. The application summary reads, 'One or more pages are displayed on a touch display. A page-turning gesture directed to a displayed page is recognized. Responsive to such recognition, a virtual page turn is displayed on the touch display. The virtual page turn actively follows the page-turning gesture. The virtual page turn curls a lifted portion of the page to progressively reveal a back side of the page while progressively revealing a front side of a subsequent page. A lifted portion of the page is given an increased transparency that allows the back side of the page to be viewed through the front side of the page. A page-flipping gesture quickly flips two or more pages.' Maybe you've seen this before?"

293 comments

  1. Hurry up and someone patent.... by 3seas · · Score: 4, Funny

    .... reading.....

    1. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by spazdor · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hey, what does this Slashdot comment say? Can anyone help me determine this?

      Maybe if I throw in a licensing fee?

      --
      DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
    2. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by Runaway1956 · · Score: 4, Funny

      To hell with reading. I'm going to see if I can patent ball scratching. Think about it - half the people in the world scratch their balls, even before they come out of the womb. Reading is just for the elite, who have had time, money, and coddling enough to learn to read. Scratching balls? I can sue people for patent infringement even before they are born! I'll be richer than Microsoft, Apple, Government Motors, and the United States Government combined!

      Oh, for anyone who wonders - we have video from a sonogram that distinctly shows the kid scratching at his groin at around 7 months gestation. It's time we dragged that out and showed it to everyone again. LMAO

      --
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    3. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SMBO dude. (scratching my balls off)
      My life is pathetic!

    4. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by guyminuslife · · Score: 1

      Don't you mean:

      Method For Converting Character Sequences into Neurochemical Comprehension?

      It's certainly a step up from "Method for Intrapersonal Communication via Sequences of Orally-Emitted Sound."

      --
      I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
    5. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Your post just shows why you don't roll with the big boys, you're thinking too small! Instead patent cock stroking, then you get half the population PLUS the straight girls and hookers! Cha Ching baby, yeah!

      As for TFA, call me names if you want, but I don't blame MSFT (or Amazon, or IBM, etc) for patenting every stupid idea they can think of. In these days of patent trolls and havens like East Texas frankly any major corp would be stupid NOT to patent everything they can get by the worthless USPTO, because a huge patent warchest can help protect your company against lawsuits. By having large warchests you can end up like with Intel/AMD or ATI/Nvidia, where you cross license with your competitor and don't have to worry so much about a patent coming to bite you in the ass, as well as having ammo to hopefully use if a troll comes a knocking.

      So if you want to blame someone, don't blame the companies trying to build large warchests. In this day and age unfortunately they are required. Blame the USPTO and congress for letting patents and copyrights get as distorted as they are. The entire system is broken, but as long as your company has to work in it building warchests will simply be a fact of life.

      --
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    6. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by drkim · · Score: 1

      Hey, careful...

      Your: "Method for Intrapersonal Communication via Sequences of Orally-Emitted Sound." may be infringing on my "Inhalation of oxygenated air via oral/nasal passages" patent.

    7. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by mwvdlee · · Score: 2, Funny

      You're too late, I already applied for the more generic "Method for applying manual repetitive friction generation as genital stimulus".

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    8. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by supertrinko · · Score: 1

      What about a method for displaying to the public your sole right to ownership of a particular product and/or invention. Patent patents!

      --
      If it rhymes it must be true.
    9. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HyperCard app that turned pages based on the cursor movement. Microsoft's "patent" is so unoriginal it hurts. And, yeah, obviously reading...

    10. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, your numbers are an under-estimate: over half of the population scratch _their_own_ balls. You've left out those in the other half of the population (the ball lacking half) that might be scratching the balls of those in the ball-possessing half of the population. If they scratch, you can get them too.. ;-)

    11. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by cfc-12 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'll be richer than Microsoft, Apple, Government Motors, and the United States Government combined!

      Doesn't the United States Government pretty much cancel out the other three?

    12. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by ranulf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      He said richer, not having a greater spending power... The US govt. debt is currently $13 trillion according to wikipedia [United States public debt]

    13. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by guyminuslife · · Score: 1

      Hm, that's dangerously close to this one. Better be careful.

      --
      I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
    14. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by macs4all · · Score: 1

      As for TFA, call me names if you want, but I don't blame MSFT (or Amazon, or IBM, etc) for patenting every stupid idea they can think of.

      I understand. But in this case, MICROSOFT didn't think of it.

      To be fair, the page-curl gesture was first seen in the third-party iPhone e-reader app "Classics".

    15. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by macs4all · · Score: 1

      Actually, your numbers are an under-estimate: over half of the population scratch _their_own_ balls. You've left out those in the other half of the population (the ball lacking half) that might be scratching the balls of those in the ball-possessing half of the population. If they scratch, you can get them too.. ;-)

      You're both stupid. You have left out the most lucrative market of all: Homosexual males, who might scratch BOTH their own balls, AND the balls of another ball-possessing person or persons. Just THINK of the royalty potential!!!

      Amateur marketers... Pah!

    16. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by nagnamer · · Score: 2, Funny

      patent cock stroking, then you get half the population PLUS the straight girls and hookers!

      'One or more cocks are displayed on a touch display. A cock-stroking gesture directed to a displayed cock is recognized. Responsive to such recognition, a virtual cock stroke is displayed on the touch display. The virtual cock stroke actively follows the cock-stroking gesture. The virtual foreskin turn curls a lifted portion of the skin to progressively reveal the back side of the foreskin while progressively revealing the tip of the cock. A lifted portion of the foreskin is given an increased transparency that allows the back side of the foreskin to be viewed through the front side of the foreskin. A multi-stroking gesture quickly stokes two or more cocks.'

      There you have it.

      --
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    17. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by commodore64_love · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Neither did Apple. I have old 80s-era games that use the same page-curl and flip animation to tell a story. It's prior art and can not be patented.

      This reminds me of the story where some company tried to patent multiple screens/resolutions on a single desktop. A classic Commodore Amiga user drug his old 1985 machine into the courtroom and demonstrated that the idea existed as prior art, and therefore can not be patented.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    18. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by Sebilrazen · · Score: 1

      To be fair, the page-curl gesture was first seen in the third-party iPhone e-reader app "Classics".

      Myst, assuming you play it on a touch screen, as prior art? (1:20 to 1:30ish)

      --
      "There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
    19. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by shbazjinkens · · Score: 1

      Oh, for anyone who wonders - we have video from a sonogram that distinctly shows the kid scratching at his groin at around 7 months gestation. It's time we dragged that out and showed it to everyone again. LMAO

      You need to put that on Youtube. For progress!

    20. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

      Ahhh - first I'd have to hook up a VCR, capture it in some more modern format, etc, etc. And, it wouldn't be very popular, because it's not in color. The kid in the video is 22 years old now - the video was black and shades of gray, and it took a bit of training to actually see much.

      There must be some young mothers and/or fathers here with much better quality videos of their babies, in digital format and living color. ;^)

      Some pretty decent looking videos here - I'll watch a few later:
      http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sonograms+of+baby&aq=1

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    21. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by mpeskett · · Score: 1

      Hate to be "that guy", but I don't think drug is the past tense of drag.

    22. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by Chowderbags · · Score: 1

      I think Robert Hooke described "Simple Harmonic Motion" long before you. Good luck in court against that guy, no matter how many times you shoot him down, he'll spring back up!

    23. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      .... reading.....

      You can have the reading patent just so long as I can have reading ON A COMPUTER.

    24. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by BraksDad · · Score: 1

      ...I'll be richer than Microsoft, Apple, Government Motors, and the United States Government combined!...

      Hmm. I think the addition of the US Government will have you $Trillions in debt.

      You may want to rethink your goal.

      --
      Slowly waving my hand - "This is not the sig you are looking for."
    25. Re:Hurry up and someone patent.... by Meski · · Score: 1

      Some people probably think you can spend debt...

  2. Prior art? by thestudio_bob · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've seen this on Flash years ago as well as a Shockwave (Director)... the only thing they bring to the table is "on a touch display".

    --
    The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains /.
    1. Re:Prior art? by mattventura · · Score: 3, Informative

      the only thing they bring to the table is "on a touch display".

      Not even that. I've seen iPhone ebooks that do this.

    2. Re:Prior art? by hyphz · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Um. It's iBooks on the iPad. Has pretty much exactly that feature. Word for word.

      It's good to see Microsoft unseating Apple as the evil empire by deliberately forcing them into prior art litigation. Ugh.

    3. Re:Prior art? by Nadaka · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I've seen that on a tactile touch display that even varies in thickness as a number of pages are turned and it is powered by the kinetic energy of the gesture.

      Its called a god damn book.

    4. Re:Prior art? by vrmlguy · · Score: 1

      I've seen this on Flash years ago as well as a Shockwave (Director)... the only thing they bring to the table is "on a touch display".

      I've seen this in the openings of several Disney animation classics, which would start with books opening and turning pages. Admittedly, not much user interaction there, but the animation "curls a lifted portion of the page to progressively reveal a back side of the page while progressively revealing a front side of a subsequent page." OTOH, I don't recall ever seeing "A lifted portion of the page is given an increased transparency that allows the back side of the page to be viewed through the front side of the page," so you may not be in violation if you don't manipulate the alpha channel as part of the animation.

      --
      Nothing for 6-digit uids?
    5. Re:Prior art? by icebike · · Score: 1

      Yes, the Stanza reader had this in place before 2009.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    6. Re:Prior art? by Yvan256 · · Score: 1
    7. Re:Prior art? by thestudio_bob · · Score: 1

      Sorry I actually read the article, the patent date is January 2009.

      I knew the iPad, etc, had it, but I've seen this years ago. Hence my disbelief.

      --
      The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains /.
    8. Re:Prior art? by tepples · · Score: 1

      Books lack search. They also either lack quick and cheap delivery or are out of stock.

    9. Re:Prior art? by TheLink · · Score: 1

      That's just the relaunch...

      It didn't go so well the first time round: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

      --
    10. Re:Prior art? by gaspyy · · Score: 1

      The first time I saw the effect was in 2001, on HP website, a section dedicated to Shrek.

    11. Re:Prior art? by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 2, Informative

      How exactly is iBooks prior art for an application filed a year before iBooks was first shown?

    12. Re:Prior art? by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      "A lifted portion of the page is given an increased transparency that allows the back side of the page to be viewed through the front side of the page,"

      It's an odd one, that one. It seems like a mixed metaphor. Book pages don't go transparent, so why should the animation do it? Maybe in practice it works well, but I can't see why it would.

    13. Re:Prior art? by SpaghettiPattern · · Score: 1

      I've seen that on a tactile touch display that even varies in thickness as a number of pages are turned and it is powered by the kinetic energy of the gesture.

      Its called a god damn book.

      And soon we will have to pay MS royalties for reading one.

      --

      I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
    14. Re:Prior art? by gig · · Score: 1

      By "increased transparency" they don't mean transparent but rather translucent. You can see the print on the other side of a page through the page on a paper book, as well as in many digital presentations, including iBooks and many of the book readers that preceded it.

    15. Re:Prior art? by retroStick · · Score: 1

      A guy at my company made this for touch-screen Android phones a few months back.

    16. Re:Prior art? by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      By "increased transparency" they don't mean transparent but rather translucent. You can see the print on the other side of a page through the page on a paper book, as well as in many digital presentations, including iBooks and many of the book readers that preceded it.

      OK, well the patent application does say transparency, but having examined a few books now, I can see what's intended. Yes, translucency probably describes it better.

    17. Re:Prior art? by jbengt · · Score: 1

      Books lack search.

      That should be obvious, and it applies to both paper books and electronic books.
      In both cases search is a function of the reader.
      Of course, the electronic variety of search tends to be quicker, even though it tends to give a lot of extraneous results. But those issues can be mitigated by a good set of stored searches (otherwise known as an index).

    18. Re:Prior art? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, I use this quite often on my Nintendo DS with a cartridge (yes, I BOUGHT it! ;-))
      called, strangely enough: "100 Classic Book Collection":

      http://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Classic-Book-Collection-Nintendo/dp/B001LK6XKE

      Quite good, contains all the usual classics, great to read while on a train/plane, etc.
      (Currently reading "The Rights of Man" by Thomas Paine...although I think most of these rights are now extinct...sigh...guess we need another revolution! ;-))

      Yep, use the stylus to turn the page, etc. :-) Sounds like M$ is trying to play catchup/destroy/embrace/extend/lockin the ebook market...

    19. Re:Prior art? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ummm...looks like M$ is trying to destroy/extend/embrace/lockin the ebook market...good luck with that.
      Myself, I enjoy reading books on my Nintendo DS ;-)

      http://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Classic-Book-Collection-Nintendo/dp/B001LK6XKE

      Currently reading "The Rights of Man" by Thomas Paine. Highly recommended.
      Sadly, I think most of these rights are now extinct...perhaps another revolution is required? :-)

      Yep, use the stylus on the touch screen to turn the pages...:-)

    20. Re:Prior art? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      uhhhh, Flash and Shockwave pre-date iphone by many years

    21. Re:Prior art? by jim_v2000 · · Score: 1

      The crappy software that came with my Lenovo tablet does this.

      --
      Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
  3. Yeah, That's New by mwandaw · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You gotta be kidding. There have been Flash animations like this available for years. I guess this is an example of a patent process gone wrong.

    1. Re:Yeah, That's New by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      You gotta be kidding. There have been Flash animations like this available for years. I guess this is an example of a patent process gone wrong.

      What eBook reader were you playing Flash animations on?

      One or more pages are displayed on a touch display. A page-turning gesture directed to a displayed page is recognized. Responsive to such recognition, a virtual page turn is displayed on the touch display. The virtual page turn actively follows the page-turning gesture. The virtual page turn curls a lifted portion of the page to progressively reveal a back side of the page while progressively revealing a front side of a subsequent page. A lifted portion of the page is given an increased transparency that allows the back side of the page to be viewed through the front side of the page. A page-flipping gesture quickly flips two or more pages.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    2. Re:Yeah, That's New by vlueboy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Companies like Microsoft hogging the patent means there's little chance the someone will slip up and fail to renew or take people to court over "small" offenses. A small company would hardly have the resources to find AND sue me for having a 10-year-old transition animation on a personal webpage, for instance.

      It bothers me that smaller companies almost never pull this kind of anti-prior-art stunts, dealing a blow to the bigger, noisier fish who would be suing us in their sleep for stuff like the above. Maybe it's the difference in headcount-to-lawyer# ratios.

    3. Re:Yeah, That's New by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You gotta be kidding. There have been Flash animations like this available for years.

      Yeah. You'd think the patent application would involve more than an animation, like a touch screen and a specific action.
      Oh wait, it does. Sorry, I'm a complete idiot for thinking that merely an example of an animation would invalidate it.

    4. Re:Yeah, That's New by artg · · Score: 1

      And all the places I've seen it (mostly animated catalogues) are hateful. I hope Microsoft get the patent and make it really expensive to use - then I'll never see one of the stupid things again. Just give me the next page dammit without a cutesy animation.

    5. Re:Yeah, That's New by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      That's actually a good point. Getting a page-flip animation to work in an eInk device like Nook would be impressive and I think maybe even novel enough for a patent. Getting it to work as described (flip follows finger) on Kindle would be even MORE impressive, as Kindle doesn't have the requisite touch screen....

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
    6. Re:Yeah, That's New by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You gotta be kidding. There have been Flash animations like this available for years. I guess this is an example of a patent process gone wrong.

      Erm, could you please provide an example of a patent process gone right?

    7. Re:Yeah, That's New by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wal*Mart and Target local ads. Yes for years and years.
      I wonder if Wal*Mart has enough money to challenge Microsoft. This Battle of the Giants would be good on ESPN.

    8. Re:Yeah, That's New by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How exactly has is this an example of wrongdoing? The article states that they applied for it, not that it's been granted, and there's no signs to indicate that it will be granted at all.

  4. Next Patent... by christoofar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Microsoft Fast Page Flip Lick Moistener (TM). It's for when you moisten your index or other page-flipping finger on your tongue to flip faster.

    1. Re:Next Patent... by symbolic · · Score: 1

      Well, to keep more than one virtual page from turning at once.

  5. Maybe you should ask the right question: by Dachannien · · Score: 3, Informative

    The real question is, has anyone seen this before:

    Claim 1. A digital reading device, comprising:

    a first touch display region;

    a second touch display region;

    a logic subsystem operatively coupled to the first touch display region and the second touch display region; and

    a data-holding subsystem holding instructions executable by the logic subsystem to:

    display a back side of a first page on the first touch display region and a front side of a second page on the second touch display region;

    recognize a page-turning gesture directed to an outer corner of the second page;

    display, responsive to the page-turning gesture, a virtual page turn that actively follows the page-turning gesture, the virtual page turn curling a lifted portion of the second page to progressively reveal a back side of the second page while progressively revealing a front side of a third page and while progressively covering the back side of the first page;

    recognize a page-flipping gesture directed along an outer edge of the second touch display region; and

    display, responsive to advancement of the page-flipping gesture, a virtual page flip in which pages quickly flip from the second touch display region to the first touch display region.

    1. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So how does the patent system work. If I create the same thing minus one of those features am I infringing on the patent? For instance what if I display a blue back side of the first page instead of black?

    2. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Who cares if we have seen it before, it is obvious as all get out.

    3. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by geekoid · · Score: 1

      no, it's not.

      Please explain to me how implementing that is obvious.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    4. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2, Informative

      Since it is a single claim, if you create the same thing minus one, you are indeed not infringing (at least not as far as that claim goes, as there may be more there).

      I'm not sure by what you mean by "blue instead of black", though, as I don't see the mention of "black" anywhere in the wording of the claim.

      Now, if you do it on just one screen, you should be in the clear.

    5. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you put it on a device that doesn't use a touch screen, but a mouse instead, you've (theoretically) circumvented the patent.

      As a side effect, you've also explored a new avenue of input devices that you wouldn't have before.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    6. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by XanC · · Score: 1

      Implementation is a different question. They're not protecting a particular implementation. That would be done with copyright.

      With this, they're preventing anybody else from creating their own implementation of this.

      Why software needs both patents AND copyrights remains a mystery.

    7. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by tofubeer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      All the physical books on my bookshelf. Making a computer mimic the real world is 100% obvious.

    8. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Claim 1. A digital reading device, comprising:

      a first touch display region;

      a second touch display region;

      Two places/pieces to touch how amazing, totally novel, oh wait no not at all.

      Hell they even showed off something just like this then canceled it. Bolting two touchpads together sure is not very novel.


      a logic subsystem operatively coupled to the first touch display region and the second touch display region; and

      Lawyer talk for app can read both spots.
      Duh!

      a data-holding subsystem holding instructions executable by the logic subsystem to:

      display a back side of a first page on the first touch display region and a front side of a second page on the second touch display region;

      Wow, just like a book, what everyone would do with two touch panels.


      recognize a page-turning gesture directed to an outer corner of the second page;

      Just like a book, I bet they got an MBA to think this up, so simple one might have been able to to grasp it.


      display, responsive to the page-turning gesture, a virtual page turn that actively follows the page-turning gesture, the virtual page turn curling a lifted portion of the second page to progressively reveal a back side of the second page while progressively revealing a front side of a third page and while progressively covering the back side of the first page;

      hmm seen that some place before, oh yeah books!


      recognize a page-flipping gesture directed along an outer edge of the second touch display region; and

      display, responsive to advancement of the page-flipping gesture, a virtual page flip in which pages quickly flip from the second touch display region to the first touch display region.

      Either this means finishing the flip which would be another duh, or a quick flip of many pages, which might be something.

    9. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by thrawn_aj · · Score: 1

      I would welcome this patent if they actually made something with it first. The Courier vaporware thing made me cry =( I wanted it so bad!

    10. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by hedwards · · Score: 2, Funny

      They probably canceled that one so they could have a huge party and sell 503 kin. Note the lack of a unit, that's 503 units, not thousand or million.

    11. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      > Please explain to me how implementing that is obvious.

      Apple "re-invented" this without looking at Microsoft's patent (or application).

      It doesn't get any more obvious than that.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    12. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If anything, it shows that Courier was not really varporware as claimed, but a real project that got canceled. "Two touch screens side by side" practically screams Courier.

    13. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by yyxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They didn't patent the implementation (which is unpatentable, even if it's a lot of work), they patented the look and feel. And the look and feel of this feature has been around for many years, implemented by other people who had to work a lot harder on ancient 3D hardware to make this look good.

      This patent is theft and fraud, pure and simple.

    14. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      Who cares if we have seen it before, it is obvious as all get out.

      [Citation needed]

      You can't claim something is obvious, after having read it, and more than a year after it was filed for. If it was so obvious, where was it then? Or where are the other pieces of prior art that could be combined in an obvious manner to do it? I mean, internal combustion engines are totally obvious, now, but to claim they were obvious back in the late 1800s is just sour grapes.

    15. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      All the physical books on my bookshelf. Making a computer mimic the real world is 100% obvious.

      Tell me... when you turn a page in a physical book, does it turn transparent? 'Cause that's in the claims of this application. Frankly, none of my physical books include transparency, nor do they include the ability for me to turn groups of pages by dragging a finger down the edge.

    16. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      Claim 1. ....

      recognize a page-flipping gesture directed along an outer edge of the second touch display region; and

      display, responsive to advancement of the page-flipping gesture, a virtual page flip in which pages quickly flip from the second touch display region to the first touch display region. Either this means finishing the flip which would be another duh, or a quick flip of many pages, which might be something.

      That's what it is. There are two page-flipping gestures in the claim. The second one is the quick-flip, which, as you admit, "might be something".

    17. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Qzukk · · Score: 1

      does it turn transparent?

      Try reading a Bible, or any other book printed on thin paper.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    18. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 0, Troll

      does it turn transparent?

      Try reading a Bible, or any other book printed on thin paper.

      And does the transparency change as you flip it?
      No. Therefore, not the same.

    19. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Qzukk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Please explain to me how implementing that is obvious.

      Implementing what? The page turn animation that's been around for years?

      Or the "WITH TOUCH!!!!!" part of the patent, which is the default for any touchscreen that works as a mouse, where your finger clicks and drags the page just like a mouse would have.

      If I run a 10 year old program that used the mouse to drag the page on my computer and plug in the 10 year old serial-port-mouse touchscreen monitor overlay, do I infringe the patent right away, or only when I drag my finger on the screen to turn a page?

      Of course, Microsoft's version is pretty specific on the application side (I'd have to find a buggy app that shows the next page through the current one as soon as I start turning it) but frankly, any patent claiming to have invented the default mode of operation of hardware a decade old should be invalid.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    20. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by tofubeer · · Score: 1

      You can see through to the other side in many cases, so not transparent but translucent depending on the lighting.

    21. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Nadaka · · Score: 1

      There is prior art in actual paper books.

      Adding the behavior/look/feel of a real book to the already existing features of a book simulator is pretty obvious to me.

    22. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Nadaka · · Score: 1

      Since when can you not turn a lot of pages by dragging your finger down the edge of the book? If the book has divets (many bibles and dictionaries do), it is much less random. But any book has this feature.

      The transparency issue has already been commented on, so I won't go there.

    23. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by blackraven14250 · · Score: 1

      Yes, it does, since the ratio of light in front of the page vs behind the page changes, and thus the perception of how transparent it is also changes.

    24. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      You can see through to the other side in many cases, so not transparent but translucent depending on the lighting.

      Sooo, no variable transparency as you turn the page, just static transluency...
      [Prior Art Busted]

    25. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by samkass · · Score: 1

      You answered your own mystery. Because a copyright doesn't protect from other people re-implementing your system and methods. The entire point of patents is to protect a way of doing things, whether that way is physical or virtual. You can argue that you don't think virtual things should get the same protection as physical things, but since patents and copyright do different things I don't see why you think the latter should immediately not apply.

      --
      E pluribus unum
    26. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      There is prior art in actual paper books.

      Adding the behavior/look/feel of a real book to the already existing features of a book simulator is pretty obvious to me.

      I've never seen an actual paper book where I can turn bunches of pages by sliding one finger down the edge, have you?

    27. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      Yes, it does, since the ratio of light in front of the page vs behind the page changes, and thus the perception of how transparent it is also changes.

      So, there's a static translucency that depends on the amount of light visible behind. That's different than transparency that changes responsive to a gesture.

    28. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Nadaka · · Score: 1

      Yes. I have.

      Its called using your finger to turn a bunch of pages by sliding it across the edge.

      The feature is enhanced in many bibles and dictionaries by indentations along the side that point specific points of interest. But it is a workable, if somewhat random, way of turning a bunch of pages at once in any book.

    29. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by siddesu · · Score: 1

      The other "right" question is, is this something that is non-obvious and new? I think not.

    30. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by XanC · · Score: 1

      I seem to recall the other half of the patent deal being that the design of the patent is open for all to see. That's the benefit that society gets for enforcing the monopoly.

      If software is to be patentable, it should not also be protected by copyright. One or the other (preferably a sanely-limited copyright).

    31. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by netsavior · · Score: 1

      not if the physical gesture is changing the amount of visible light that is behind the page by changing the distance between the page and the rest of the book.
      The patent is clearly trying to mimic turning a real page.

    32. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      But it is a workable, if somewhat random, way of turning a bunch of pages at once in any book.

      So, you're saying that a precise way would be an improvement? The patent act expressly states that improvements are patentable.

    33. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 0, Troll

      not if the physical gesture is changing the amount of visible light that is behind the page by changing the distance between the page and the rest of the book. The patent is clearly trying to mimic turning a real page.

      Yep, but since it's on a 2-dimensional screen which, by definition, cannot have any "visible light that is behind the page by changing the distance between the page and the rest of the book," it seems to be a new patentable system. Instead of just flipping the page, they had to come up with new ways to make transparency dependent on x-y position, which a physical book doesn't have to do. New stuff. Patentable.

    34. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Trahloc · · Score: 1

      The observed transparency does as more light enters through the rear the further you pull it from the other page. Pretty much exactly in line with how the digital equivalent would occur. An obvious digital recreation of a real world process, something that should be unpatentable.

      --
      The Goal: A long simple life filled with many complex toys.
    35. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by tofubeer · · Score: 1

      It is still mimicking the real world, and is thus obvious.

    36. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by ActionGaz · · Score: 1

      Claim 1. .... recognize a page-flipping gesture directed along an outer edge of the second touch display region; and display, responsive to advancement of the page-flipping gesture, a virtual page flip in which pages quickly flip from the second touch display region to the first touch display region. Either this means finishing the flip which would be another duh, or a quick flip of many pages, which might be something.

      That's what it is. There are two page-flipping gestures in the claim. The second one is the quick-flip, which, as you admit, "might be something".

      Always on Slashdot there's these raging discussions about patents without understanding the details. For a claim to be novel, only one element of it needs to be novel. What this patent is describing is the fast flip idea. iBooks does not do this.

      As well, this bit "which might be something" seems like a good, novel idea which would enhance iBooks.

      Disclaimer: however, I am against software patents. But we need to understand them.

    37. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by thrawn_aj · · Score: 1

      No idea what that meant so I googled 'kin'. First hit was this little stubby phone thing that looked like an aborted GPS unit. If this abomination was the reason the Courier lost out, I have officially lost all faith in MS =(

      Their naming department needs a spanking by the way. "Kin"? Really? Besides the embarrassing ripoff from the Kindle, isn't that just a sophisticated word for "bro" ? =p

    38. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eureka!!!

      Just filed a patent for flipping BACKWARDS. Oh yeah, baby.

    39. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by russotto · · Score: 1

      Or where are the other pieces of prior art that could be combined in an obvious manner to do it?

      Touch screens. Existing ebook readers (all of which have instant page flip, and many of which have multi-page gestures). Existing ebook software run on general purpose computers (some of which has simulated page flips). Paper books.

      You can't claim something is obvious, after having read it

      Ah, so I can only object to patents on obviousness grounds if I don't know what they contain? Well, today's my lucky day, because this is Slashdot where no one reads the articles.

    40. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Locutus · · Score: 1

      The BeOS did page animations for page turns and didn't someone put BeOS on a tablet years ago? I would expect that it was part of that.

      What gets me here is not that Apple is patenting page flipping animations but that they are trying to patent it on a device that's portable and _that_ is their invention. Using gestures to direct action on computers is also not new so how is this non-obvious? As is typical, the governments only business in this patent stuff is to play clean up later after they've collected money and spent no effort to prevent these patents from harming real business. IMO

      LoB

      --
      "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
    41. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      would the patent hold against me if I did everything but that last part?

      or if I used sliding the finger up instead of down?

    42. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by ActionGaz · · Score: 1

      Everything but the last part? No, the patent application would have no impact on you. You have to do everything in a claim to infringe it. Can you can more but not less and infringe.

      Up instead of down? Yes, patent claim 1 doesn't detail what the gesture is.

    43. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      New stuff. Patentable.

      I picked my nose. New. Patentable. Parasites like you should get out more.

    44. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Alef · · Score: 1

      What you described is easily thought up during five minutes of brainstorming by any reasonably creative person. Do you really think we (the society) should grant them a 20 year monopoly on that idea, for them to regain their "research costs"?

      I don't know when it happened, but it seems today people view patents like some kind of intellectual homesteading. "I claimed this first, so it is mine!"

    45. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by deisama · · Score: 1

      My Comic reader app does all that on Windows Mobile phones right now.
      http://forums.comicreader.mobi/showthread.php?347-One-Year-Aniversary!-Special-Feature-annoucement!

      As cool as it is, I wouldn't even dare call that an original idea.

      But, if they're not going to listen to empirical evidence, that's not much you can do :p

    46. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by kootsoop · · Score: 1

      Let me correct that for you:
      Claim 1. A device, comprising:
      a first display region;
      a second display region;
      a subsystem operatively coupled to the first display region and the second display region; and
      a data-holding subsystem to:
      display a back side of a first page on the first display region and a front side of a second page on the second display region;
      recognize a page-turning gesture directed to an outer corner of the second page;
      display, responsive to the page-turning gesture, a page turn that actively follows the page-turning gesture, the page turn curling a lifted portion of the second page to progressively reveal a back side of the second page while progressively revealing a front side of a third page and while progressively covering the back side of the first page; recognize a page-flipping gesture directed along an outer edge of the second touch region; and
      display, responsive to advancement of the page-flipping gesture, a page flip in which pages quickly flip from the second display region to the first display region.

      Sounds like a book with pages to me!

      --
      "Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get" - Jerry Avins
    47. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      What you described is easily thought up during five minutes of brainstorming by any reasonably creative person.

      ... and yet, no one did, until someone invented it and then told everyone about it. The steam engine is also easily thought up during five minutes of brainstorming... now that we know about it. Do you think the steam engine was obvious?
      If this was so obvious, how come no one was doing it?

    48. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by sjames · · Score: 1

      Take any Disney animation of a page turning (as they do in animations from time to time). Now, attach your touchpad to the jog control of a good vcr. POOF! there it is.

      As for the idea itself, let's see, making an e-book look and act like a ......bicycle? NO!, A ....DOG? nahhhh, I know, make it look and act more like a BOOK!! Wow Johnson, you're a genius!

      Sorry, couldn't resist. Making an e-book look and act like a book (only do it electronically) isn't exactly a great leap though.

    49. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The BeOS did page animations for page turns and didn't someone put BeOS on a tablet years ago? I would expect that it was part of that.

      What gets me here is not that Apple is patenting page flipping animations but that they are trying to patent it on a device that's portable and _that_ is their invention. Using gestures to direct action on computers is also not new so how is this non-obvious? As is typical, the governments only business in this patent stuff is to play clean up later after they've collected money and spent no effort to prevent these patents from harming real business. IMO

      LoB

      We all understand your blinding rage towards Apple, but it was actually Microsoft that filed this particular patent application.

    50. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by TangoMargarine · · Score: 1

      Why would I want the page to turn transparent during the animation anyway? If it only takes like half a second to flip the page...

      --
      Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
    51. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Alef · · Score: 1

      Either because no one had needed to before, or people really have been doing it, and you just don't know about it.

      And just because you don't find it obvious doesn't mean it deserves a patent. The question is if it is obvious to an expert in the field. Thinking "hey, why don't we make the page transparent" and calling that an invention really is ridiculous. Name an area in computing and I am sure the slashdot crowd could come up with twenty ideas of similar technological height within an hour.

      The purpose of the patent system isn't to reward anyone who has an idea (and registers it). Ideas are cheap, and anyone can have them. Most are never written down, and fewer still are realized. It gains society nothing to hand out monopolies for each and everyone who fills out a form. The purpose of the patent system is to protect those who have invested a lot to create an invention, so that they may regain their losses. The steam engine required empirical research and engineering work, and the patent would contain drawings and instructions on how to recreate the machine. It was a lot more than simply saying "hey, maybe we could use steam to turn a wheel".

    52. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      Name an area in computing and I am sure the slashdot crowd could come up with twenty ideas of similar technological height within an hour.

      And yet, this has still not been done before. And yet, there are many people skilled in computing, both on Slashdot, and at Apple, Microsoft, Google, and other companies.
      Seriously, your whole argument boils down to "it's obvious... why? Because, having read it, I say so. Why didn't I come up with before? Well, I totally could have, if I wanted to. I just don't like coming up with commercially valuable ideas, because I'm hardcore like that."

      The purpose of the patent system isn't to reward anyone who has an idea (and registers it). Ideas are cheap, and anyone can have them. Most are never written down, and fewer still are realized. It gains society nothing to hand out monopolies for each and everyone who fills out a form.

      Actually, as you note most ideas are never written down, so people have to keep coming up with them. It gains society quite a bit to hand out time-limited monopolies to people who disclose their ideas. It reduces the need to constantly reinvent the wheel.

      The purpose of the patent system is to protect those who have invested a lot to create an invention, so that they may regain their losses.

      No, that's the method of the patent system. The purpose of the patent system is to encourage inventors to add to the wealth of knowledge in the public domain by disclosing their inventions, instead of keeping them trade secrets. It's not that without the patent system, no one would invent, as you seem to think... it's that, with the patent system, they fully disclose their invention to the public so that everyone doesn't have to independently recreate the same trade secrets over and over.

    53. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Alef · · Score: 1

      Seriously, your whole argument boils down to "it's obvious... why? Because, having read it, I say so. Why didn't I come up with before? Well, I totally could have, if I wanted to. [...]

      And your argument is that everything that is done for the first time is by definition not obvious. This completely neglects the fact that many things are done only when the need arises, or when technology makes it possible. Someone has got to be first, regardless of how simple it is.

      [...] I just don't like coming up with commercially valuable ideas, because I'm hardcore like that."

      I make my living coming up with commercially valuable ideas. Do you?

      Actually, as you note most ideas are never written down, so people have to keep coming up with them. It gains society quite a bit to hand out time-limited monopolies to people who disclose their ideas. It reduces the need to constantly reinvent the wheel.

      If that really were the case, how come software developers essentially never go through patent databases to find ideas when they are looking for a solution to a problem? It may be a nice idea on paper, but in practice the patent system really doesn't work the way you think. In fact, it is often a good idea not to do patent searches simply to avoid exposing yourself to liability for knowingly infringing on a patent. Today it has become near impossible to write a moderately complex piece of software without accidentally infringing on several patents.

      The purpose of the patent system is to encourage inventors to add to the wealth of knowledge in the public domain by disclosing their inventions, instead of keeping them trade secrets.

      So you mean that if Microsoft wouldn't get a patent on their page flipping graphics, they would keep it a secret and we would never know about it? How exactly would they go about that? By not selling any e-books?

      This patent fulfills the purpose of the patent system even less with the definition you gave.

    54. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      And your argument is that everything that is done for the first time is by definition not obvious. This completely neglects the fact that many things are done only when the need arises, or when technology makes it possible. Someone has got to be first, regardless of how simple it is.

      No, my argument - which is the legal one, upheld by the Federal courts - is that everything that is done for the first time and isn't a trivial combination of things already done is presumptively non-obvious. It can be rebutted, but the burden is on the other side - precisely because it's very easy to read the patent and then say in hindsight, "pff, that's totally obvious. I could have come up with that."

      I make my living coming up with commercially valuable ideas. Do you?

      Yes, actually.

      If that really were the case, how come software developers essentially never go through patent databases to find ideas when they are looking for a solution to a problem?

      Because the patent system encourages public disclosure. It doesn't have to be the disclosure system, too. Instead, since the inventors have to publicly disclose their invention in exchange for the time-limited monopoly, there's no harm in disclosing it elsewhere. Thus, we have the RFCs, code repositories, schematics, genetic databases, etc. There's no point in not publishing, since you have to publish to get the patent, so you might as well publish and get the benefit of mass development and innovation.

      It may be a nice idea on paper, but in practice the patent system really doesn't work the way you think.

      No, it works exactly the way I think. It doesn't work the way you think I think.

      So you mean that if Microsoft wouldn't get a patent on their page flipping graphics, they would keep it a secret and we would never know about it? How exactly would they go about that? By not selling any e-books?

      By black boxing their systems, by requiring and enforcing major licenses to use their software, etc. You know, things that were done before the patent system existed, back when everything that could be kept as a trade secret was.

    55. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Alef · · Score: 1

      No, my argument - which is the legal one, upheld by the Federal courts - is that everything that is done for the first time and isn't a trivial combination of things already done is presumptively non-obvious.

      And this is a trivial combination of animation, transparency and touch gestures. Regardless, the current legal state (in the US anyway) isn't necessarily a good one.

      So you mean that if Microsoft wouldn't get a patent on their page flipping graphics, they would keep it a secret and we would never know about it? How exactly would they go about that? By not selling any e-books?

      By black boxing their systems, by requiring and enforcing major licenses to use their software, etc.

      Black boxing an interface? In a consumer product?

    56. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      And this is a trivial combination of animation, transparency and touch gestures.

      Maybe, but to prove that, you can't just "it is"... You have to show that the individual pieces of animation, transparency, and touch gestures all existed - and not those broad concepts, but the individual pieces that are in the claimed invention.

      Regardless, the current legal state (in the US anyway) isn't necessarily a good one.

      Actually, after KSR, it's pretty good. Sure, there's no clear test for "what's obvious" or not, but can you articulate one? And not in hindsight, but a test that could be applied to all future inventions to determine if they're obvious or not?

      By black boxing their systems, by requiring and enforcing major licenses to use their software, etc.

      Black boxing an interface? In a consumer product?

      ... or "requiring and enforcing major licenses". If you think software licenses are oppressive now, consider if each and every user had to sign an NDA to use software. More likely, software would only be available to the very wealthy or to large corporations, and so such NDAs would be more easily enforced. In other words, there wouldn't be consumer products, because there wouldn't be economic value in something that your competitor could easily reverse engineer and sell, without any government-enforced monopoly protection.
      Frankly, I believe that's a bad thing. I like having consumer products.

    57. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Alef · · Score: 1

      Sure, there's no clear test for "what's obvious" or not, but can you articulate one?

      There could be some sort of review process, consulting a number of experts, similar to peer-reviewed scientific journals. Because no matter how you do it or where you draw the line, in the end it will always come down to someones judgement. There will never exist a "mechanical" definition that can be applied with absolute objectivity, unless you make it a degenerate case such as "nothing is obvious" (almost where we are today) or "everything is obvious".

      ... or "requiring and enforcing major licenses". If you think software licenses are oppressive now, consider if each and every user had to sign an NDA to use software. More likely, software would only be available to the very wealthy or to large corporations, and so such NDAs would be more easily enforced. In other words, there wouldn't be consumer products, because there wouldn't be economic value in something that your competitor could easily reverse engineer and sell, without any government-enforced monopoly protection. Frankly, I believe that's a bad thing. I like having consumer products.

      Consumer products would continue to exist just as they are today, just like they do in areas where IP legislation isn't upheld to the same degree, and just as they did before software patents started to be approved. Of course there is still value in adding a page flipping animation. Obvious or not, coming up with the idea carries an infinitesimal cost in relation to the market size, and being first to market with it gives you an advantage. You think innovation would stop, I do not.

      The idea of slapping an NDA to a consumer product is rather silly. Not only would it do nothing to prevent the ideas from leaking out, but it would be a huge disincentive for customers comparing products. Those without the NDA would sell more e-books.

      And by the way, the market is littered with products that are easy to copy and/or carries no IP protection, and they are still profitable. This is the case for any kind of commodity (oil, food, steel, wood etc.) as well as many other products (most clothes for instance). You can still make a cheaper or higher quality "copy" than your competitors. Or you can brand them -- Coca Cola still makes incredible amounts of money selling a product of which there are many equivalent (and cheaper!) "copies".

    58. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      There could be some sort of review process, consulting a number of experts, similar to peer-reviewed scientific journals.

      That's not a test, just a process... What test do they apply? The important thing about any test for obviousness isn't "are the people reviewing the application or patent experts or are they performing peer-review", it's "are they engaging in hindsight?" Because everything is obvious in hindsight. You can have the top experts in the world doing your review process, and they're still prone to using hindsight. And if they do, their judgment is invalid, by definition.

      Consumer products would continue to exist just as they are today, just like they do in areas where IP legislation isn't upheld to the same degree, and just as they did before software patents started to be approved.

      Areas where IP legislation isn't upheld to the same degree: China, Vietnam... a few others like that. Consumer products exist there because they're imported from countries where IP protection exists. So, no... Not so much.

      Of course there is still value in adding a page flipping animation. Obvious or not, coming up with the idea carries an infinitesimal cost in relation to the market size, and being first to market with it gives you an advantage.

      Being "first to market" is useful in industries where startup capital is a requirement. It's not a requirement in the software industry, where you can duplicate someone else's million-dollar efforts for a penny. There is no advantage merely to being first to market, without IP protection.

      You think innovation would stop, I do not.

      Both economics and history support my position. Yours? Only wistful dreaming.

      The idea of slapping an NDA to a consumer product is rather silly. Not only would it do nothing to prevent the ideas from leaking out, but it would be a huge disincentive for customers comparing products.

      Yep. And pre-patent protection, how many consumer products were there? Not many. That's my point... NOT that "every piece of software would be sold with ginormous NDA licenses" but that no software would be sold to consumers. You know, similar to the way consumers didn't get access to many inventions pre-patents. Again, history and economics are on my side.

      And by the way, the market is littered with products that are easy to copy and/or carries no IP protection, and they are still profitable.

      [Citation needed]

      This is the case for any kind of commodity (oil, food, steel, wood etc.) as well as many other products (most clothes for instance)

      Most products - including "most clothes for instance" - have IP protection. In fact, almost every product has IP protection of some sort.

      You can still make a cheaper or higher quality "copy" than your competitors. Or you can brand them -- Coca Cola still makes incredible amounts of money selling a product of which there are many equivalent (and cheaper!) "copies".

      Gosh, if only Coca-Cola had intellectual property. Oh, wait... They have one of the strongest trademarks in the world, they have many trademarked and copyrighted products, they have design patents on their bottles, and they even have trade secret protection in their formula. Actual reality argues against your point in every single arena of IP law.

    59. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Alef · · Score: 1

      That's not a test, just a process... What test do they apply? The important thing about any test for obviousness isn't "are the people reviewing the application or patent experts or are they performing peer-review", it's "are they engaging in hindsight?" Because everything is obvious in hindsight. You can have the top experts in the world doing your review process, and they're still prone to using hindsight. And if they do, their judgment is invalid, by definition.

      But you can't get away from that. Many things are obvious in hindsight, but some of them were obvious without the hindsight as well. This is a judgement call someone has to make, or we will have patents on obvious things (which is a bad thing). The situation is exactly the same for peer-reviewed journals: unless what you are describing in your article is novel and non-obvious, it does not deserve publication. And we do the same with criminal law (is there unreasonable doubt?). You can help by writing guidelines and establishing precedence, but someone or some people still has to evaluate each case. If you want a perfectly "fair" process, you'll get a degenerate one, and that is worse than having a somewhat subjective but balanced process.

      Areas where IP legislation isn't upheld to the same degree: China, Vietnam... a few others like that. Consumer products exist there because they're imported from countries where IP protection exists. So, no... Not so much.

      And yet strangely, when I have been to China I have found consumer products not available in the west. (Or [Citation needed], as you would have put it.)

      Being "first to market" is useful in industries where startup capital is a requirement. It's not a requirement in the software industry, where you can duplicate someone else's million-dollar efforts for a penny. There is no advantage merely to being first to market, without IP protection.

      And here I thought we were discussing patents, and not copyright. No, you cannot duplicate the page flipping animation efforts for a penny, if you mean a software having the animation. You can duplicate the idea of animating a page for a penny, but on the other hand i wager it cost Microsoft about as much for someone to get the idea in the first place.

      In software, ideas cost essentially nothing (unless they are very theoretical, in which case we are talking about math). Implementation costs money, but that is covered by copyright, not patents.

      It wouldn't have gained society anything to give William Golding a patent on stories about "children stranded on a deserted island", but giving him a copyright on Lord of the Flies was a good thing.

      Both economics and history support my position.

      Here we disagree again.

      And pre-patent protection, how many consumer products were there? Not many. That's my point... NOT that "every piece of software would be sold with ginormous NDA licenses" but that no software would be sold to consumers. You know, similar to the way consumers didn't get access to many inventions pre-patents. Again, history and economics are on my side.

      I don't know where you read your history, but that is very much not the case. Consumer software existed well before software patents where being handed out, and it continues to exist in parts of Europe where software patents still have not been upheld. There is really no evidence to support your position, and I don't know where you got it from. Otherwise, please do provide the evidence.

      Most products - including "most clothes for instance" - have IP protection. In fact, almost every product has IP protection of some sort.

      Gosh, if only Coca-Cola had intellectual property. Oh, wait... They have one of the strongest trademarks in the world, they have many trademarked and copyrighted products, they have design patents on their bottles, and they even

    60. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      But you can't get away from that. Many things are obvious in hindsight, but some of them were obvious without the hindsight as well. This is a judgement call someone has to make, or we will have patents on obvious things (which is a bad thing).

      But it's not a "judgment call someone has to make" without any pre-defined test. Otherwise, it would be an arbitrary decision and violate due process. Hence why we have an existing legal test for obviousness.

      Areas where IP legislation isn't upheld to the same degree: China, Vietnam... a few others like that. Consumer products exist there because they're imported from countries where IP protection exists. So, no... Not so much.

      And yet strangely, when I have been to China I have found consumer products not available in the west. (Or [Citation needed], as you would have put it.)

      When did you go? If it was within the past decade, then China is no longer an example of a place with little to no IP protection.

      And here I thought we were discussing patents, and not copyright. No, you cannot duplicate the page flipping animation efforts for a penny, if you mean a software having the animation.

      A penny is hyperbole. For probably an hour or two of a programmer's time, you can rewrite the page flip software, now that someone has already had the idea and published it.

      You can duplicate the idea of animating a page for a penny, but on the other hand i wager it cost Microsoft about as much for someone to get the idea in the first place.

      In software, ideas cost essentially nothing (unless they are very theoretical, in which case we are talking about math). Implementation costs money, but that is covered by copyright, not patents.

      You say "ideas cost essentially nothing", but without any proof. Furthermore, if that's true, why would it apply just to software? Wouldn't the idea of a gasoline engine also "cost essentially nothing", and just the implementation cost money? Or the idea of a new pharmaceutical drug "cost essentially nothing", and just the implementation and FDA testing cost money?
      In fact, you have it almost exactly backwards... In software, the implementation is relatively cheap, because you're only paying for labor, not materials, unlike machines and pharmaceuticals. However, the idea is the expensive part, because you're paying for creativity and innovation.

      This isn't to say that the idea isn't expensive for other industries... Just that your claim that ideas are essentially free and it's merely implementation that costs money is false.

      It wouldn't have gained society anything to give William Golding a patent on stories about "children stranded on a deserted island", but giving him a copyright on Lord of the Flies was a good thing.

      1) It's an abstract idea. Doesn't support your point that software shouldn't be patentable.
      2) It's not useful. Also doesn't support your point that software shouldn't be patentable.
      3) Was not a new idea, at least in that broad term. Doesn't support your point that software shouldn't be patentable.

      For at least those reasons, your analogy is improper and fails to support your point.

      >I don't know where you read your history, but that is very much not the case. Consumer software existed well before software patents where being handed out, and it continues to exist in parts of Europe where software patents still have not been upheld.

      First, software patents are valid in Europe. I don't know why people on Slashdot keep making this claim, except perhaps for willful blindness. The EPO uses almost exactly the same test as the CAFC in Bilski.
      Second, there have been software patents since the early 1970s. I'm not that old, but I don't recall reading about tons of consumer computer software in the 1960s. Or even many consumer computers

    61. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Alef · · Score: 1

      Look, this debate can evidently go on forever, and I have better things to do. I could provide arguments against most of what you said, but fundamentally, you are the one who wants the government to hand out monopoly rights to private entities, so frankly, the burden of proof is on you to motivate why this gains the public. And I mean solid data, not theoretical arguments or simple assertions.

      As a software developer, also designing and working with various hardware solutions (covered by patents), I can tell you that software patents helps me nothing. In particular when they are granted for trivial things (like animating a book page in a certain way). Patents are expensive to file for, they are hard to make any money out of, and the tens or hundreds of thousands of existing software patents makes development a legal quagmire. The primary reason to have them is to fsck with you competitors, forcing them to jump through hoops to solve the same problems.

      As for a "test" for triviality, Swedish legislation for instance says something in the lines of: If an expert in the field posed with the same problem could likely come up with the same solution, then it is trivial. So in this case, if there is a significant chance that a MMI-expert would think of making the page transparent, while trying to find a good way to animate page turning, then it is trivial. I think even this is a bit loose, but finding some reasonable phrasing isn't the problem if you accept that in the end it has got to come down to subjective judgement somewhere.

    62. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by Locutus · · Score: 1

      a/c - no clue what's up with "blinding rage towards Apple" comment, probably an Apple fanboi but good point on my mistake regarding who is doing the patenting. IMO it is even worst since I distrust Microsoft far more than Apple.

      LoB

      --
      "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
    63. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by tofubeer · · Score: 1

      To make it more like reading a physical book... isn't that... "obvious"?!

    64. Re:Maybe you should ask the right question: by hacksoncode · · Score: 1
      Real books don't work the way this particular gesture does. Drawing your finger down the right edge of a book doesn't cause a bunch of pages to flip over to the other side progressively, nor do the pages become transparent.

      There may be (probably is?) prior art for this invention, but books are not it.

  6. unique by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    how does this differ from the ipad reader?

    1. Re:unique by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      how does this differ from the ipad reader?

      It differs by predating the iPad by over a year.

      However, I don't think that it is prior art that will invalidate this patent. None of the examples that I have read here do so. Note to all: the headline is a lie! This is not about a simple transition animation.

      What should invalidate this is that the whole idea is the most obvious use of a gesture interface ever! It looks like one of those simplistic examples they use in the introduction of a book on user interface design. Getting a patent is more than just being first to apply - you also have to have a non-obvious invention too. Unfortunately, the patent office is not known for understanding this.

    2. Re:unique by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

      how does this differ from the ipad reader?

      It differs by predating the iPad by over a year.

      How about the iPhone Stanza app?

  7. similar to but not exactly by meerling · · Score: 1

    Sounds a lot like (but not exactly the same) as the 'previews' of various pdfs in many online stores, such as drivethrustuff.com
    The one described in the article is a little fancier, but it sounds pretty much the same to me.
    I'm sure slashdotters can find many many other examples which are even better than that.

  8. doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Doesn't matter if it's been seen before, if you have a boatload of cash you need a boatload of defensive patents to keep the parasites who don't produce a thing off your back. Maybe companies like MS, that actually make stuff (whether you think their stuff is good or bad) and contribute, should just be auto-granted immunity from all that bullshit. As it is right now they have to think of and officially enumerate everything they don't want some worthless sleazeball non-company looking for a quick buck coming after them for.

    1. Re:doesn't matter by insertwackynamehere · · Score: 1, Redundant

      This isn't insightful because iBooks did this word for word. Go to an Apple store and play with iBooks on an iPad.

    2. Re:doesn't matter by T+Murphy · · Score: 1

      I better patent being insightful so you can't ruin my Evil Corporation stories anymore. Jerk.

    3. Re:doesn't matter by maxwells_deamon · · Score: 1

      if you are a pure patent troll you do not need defensive patents.

      They produce no products but lawsuits and thus violate no other patents.

    4. Re:doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoooooosh.

      Reading comprehension: not just for standardized testing.

    5. Re:doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just fucking stop software patents.

  9. Microsoft by Noitatsidem · · Score: 1

    The most original idea ever.

    --
    Feel free to mod me down, just know that unlike some Anonymous Cowards I'm not afraid to express my views as myself.
  10. rather it is an example of by unity100 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    patents being wrong. im watching and wondering, when will everyone without exception (profiteers aside) will realize that concept of 'patents' cannot work.

    1. Re:rather it is an example of by IrquiM · · Score: 2

      Patents can and do work other places in the world, just no in US

      --
      This is blinging
  11. I claim prior art by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I used that in a short story I wrote that was published in the 80s and it's on record both in the US and Canadian copyright systems.

    MSFT can't patent what I already described in a public magazine.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:I claim prior art by thrawn_aj · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you have a legit claim. Lemme know how the lawsuit works out =)

    2. Re:I claim prior art by Theaetetus · · Score: 2, Funny

      I used that in a short story I wrote that was published in the 80s and it's on record both in the US and Canadian copyright systems.

      MSFT can't patent what I already described in a public magazine.

      Dude, my Canadian girlfriend, who is totally real, remembers reading that story in the 80s. I asked her about it while I was totally boning her and she remembered it because both her and it are totally real. Next time she visits, I'll totally ask her what it was in!

    3. Re:I claim prior art by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      I used that in a short story I wrote that was published in the 80s and it's on record both in the US and Canadian copyright systems.

      MSFT can't patent what I already described in a public magazine.

      Dude, my Canadian girlfriend, who is totally real, remembers reading that story in the 80s. I asked her about it while I was totally boning her and she remembered it because both her and it are totally real. Next time she visits, I'll totally ask her what it was in!

      Sweet. Was she in The GOT or at SFU? Or was it the French reprint for Solaris?

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  12. stanza by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    Stanza on my iphone does this now, and i am sure the weren't the first.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:stanza by Barny · · Score: 1

      Really, your Iphone has 2 screens? Thats impressive!

      RTFA

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
  13. Software patents suck ass by turing_m · · Score: 5, Funny

    A page-flipping gesture quickly flips two or more pages.

    I'd flip Microsoft a gesture but they've probably patented that too.

    --
    If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
    1. Re:Software patents suck ass by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 0

      I'd flip Microsoft a gesture but they've probably patented that too.

      It's Ctrl+Alt+Del for Natal/Kinect ~

    2. Re:Software patents suck ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have already patented A Method Of Semantic Communication Of Displeasure And/Or Defiance Using The Middle Finger Of The Human Hand. My attorney will be contacting you shortly.

      BONUS: captcha "cymbal" [rimshot not included]

  14. Nothing so profitable by OnePumpChump · · Score: 0, Troll

    as patenting someone else's work. Microsoft's very existence is living proof of that.

  15. You mean like this!! by future+assassin · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.pixelwit.com/blog/page-flip/ I can flip the page back and forth on my works MultiTocuh monitor. Exactly like MS describes it. I've seen this about 5+ years ago on sites.

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
    1. Re:You mean like this!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A lifted portion of the page is given an increased transparency that allows the back side of the page to be viewed through the front side of the page

      I'm pretty sure that pixelwit doesn't do this part.

    2. Re:You mean like this!! by thestudio_bob · · Score: 1

      Bingo!

      That's the one I was looking for and I couldn't remember it. Your googling skills far out-weigh my own. Kudos to you.

      --
      The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains /.
    3. Re:You mean like this!! by Nadaka · · Score: 1

      Pages in real books/magazines tend to do this, though there is an upper limit on translucency based on the ambient light, thickness of the paper and density of the pigment.

      Applying real page behavior to a simulated page is pretty damn obvious.

    4. Re:You mean like this!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But the pages don't turn transparent.
      It also doesn't consist of two touch sensitive screens with a foldable spine.

      The patent is very specific. Having someone has doing something that's similar to half the features sometime before doesn't mean anything.

    5. Re:You mean like this!! by tom17 · · Score: 1

      The Canadian Tire online flyer has been doing this for years and it does a better job than the one above as you have free movement of the page corner.
      Click on the flyer

    6. Re:You mean like this!! by werdnapk · · Score: 1

      Or this... http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/msg/corp/flashdreamworks.html ...mentioned in the parents link.

    7. Re:You mean like this!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do not get it. It is single touch, and by that, also, a mouse interaction. We are talking serious innovation here, it is finger touch and by that possibly also too many multiple fingers in it, getting their hands dirty.

    8. Re:You mean like this!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The pages in your example do not become transparent as described in the MS patent.
      The virtual page turn also does not actively follow the page-turning gesture in your example (it's a present animation).
      A page-flipping gesture does not quickly flip two or more pages in your example.

      "Exactly like MS describes it" my ass. At least try to read the summary before being a dick about it.

    9. Re:You mean like this!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BeOS had a virtual "book" animation that allowed flipping pages with a mouse (probably would have worked with a touch screen) and this was in the mid/late 90's

  16. Yes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ... in the original Myst.

  17. Cessation of forward movement icon by Un+pobre+guey · · Score: 1, Redundant

    1. An icon indicating that users must cease forward movement for a designated period of time comprising a large octagonal metal plate with white letters spelling the word "STOP" on a red background with a thin white border.

    2. The icon in claim 1 mounted on a wooden post.

    3. The icon in claim 2 mounted on a post or surface of any solid material.

    4. The icon in claim 1 represented as a graphic painted or otherwise depicted on any flat surface.

    5. The icon in claim 4 depicted on a surface of any shape or size.

    6. The icon in claim 4 represented in digital or any other electronic form.

    7. The icon in claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 in which the word "STOP" appears in any human language.

    8. The icon in claim 7 in which any shape, color scheme, or graphic layout is used for the icon or its text.

    9. The icon in claim 8 with any sort of movement indication in addition to or separate from "STOP," including but not limited to "YIELD," "GO," "SLOW," etc.

    10. The icon in claim 9 with any cautionary or supplemental information relevant to physical movement including but not limited to "SCHOOL," "SPEED LIMIT," "DEER CROSSING," "CAUTION," etc.

    11. The icon in claim 10 including any kind of numeric or non-numeric complementary metric, including but not limited to "SPEED LIMIT 35 MPH," "CONSTRUCTION ZONE NEXT 5 MILES," etc.

    1. Re:Cessation of forward movement icon by SalsaDoom · · Score: 0, Interesting

      7. The icon in claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 in which the word "STOP" appears in any human language.

      So... whats "STOP" in Klingon? Patent time baby!

      --
      "Computers will never truly be free until the last windows user is strangled with the entrails of the last mac user."
    2. Re:Cessation of forward movement icon by selven · · Score: 1

      1. An icon indicating that users must cease forward movement for a designated period of time comprising a large octagonal metal plate with white letters spelling the word "STOP" on a red background with a thin white border.

      1. A passive visual information transmission mechanism comprising of an octagonal plate consisting of metallic elements with an instruction to cease forward movement inscribed in a visual lexical information transmission medium, with a background consisting of a thin coating of material that reflects electromagnetic radiation primarily of wavelengths between 630 and 740 nanometers with a thin border encircling the outside that reflects radiation in the entire visible portion of the spectrum.

    3. Re:Cessation of forward movement icon by Un+pobre+guey · · Score: 1

      Admirable, but too specific. We want the patent to cover as much signage as possible, then sue the shit out of everyone.

  18. Umm, what about a book? by Souffle · · Score: 1

    Does a Book count as prior art? Or does someone already have a patent on "method for emulating real life object behavior using animated graphical artifacts"?

  19. Spot the prior art by TiggertheMad · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ok, quick little game of 'spot the prior art'.

    My entry: Master of Magic, by Microprose software (currently rights are held by Atari, I think). c1994-ish? Showed page turning animations in a spell book when you clicked on next and prior pages, creating a virtual book. Sounds like what MS is trying to do here, so it might count.

    Can anyone beat 1994? There must be earlier stuff than that..

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
    1. Re:Spot the prior art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Myst 1993.

    2. Re:Spot the prior art by thrawn_aj · · Score: 2, Informative
      Screw MS for patent-trolling but your specific argument is incorrect.

      One or more pages are displayed on a touch display. A page-turning gesture directed to a displayed page is recognized. Responsive to such recognition, a virtual page turn is displayed on the touch display. The virtual page turn actively follows the page-turning gesture.

    3. Re:Spot the prior art by WindBourne · · Score: 5, Informative

      Hypercard on Apple by Winkle. late 80's.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    4. Re:Spot the prior art by Your.Master · · Score: 1

      That's not prior art to the actual patent described, which is about turning the page in response to a particular touch gesture. That the animation is being patented is eldavojohn's invention.

    5. Re:Spot the prior art by algormortis · · Score: 1

      Can anyone beat 1994? There must be earlier stuff than that..

      A real book. 3000 B.C.

    6. Re:Spot the prior art by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Yup. I was about to post the same thing. It was done so long ago that the patents are expired already. I'll be interested to see who challenges this bogus patent first.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    7. Re:Spot the prior art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      eldavojohn should patent his invention!

    8. Re:Spot the prior art by camperdave · · Score: 1

      They didn't have books in 3000BC. Clay or wax tablets, yes. Scrolls, quite likely. Books, no. They weren't invented until around 1000BC possibly later.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    9. Re:Spot the prior art by Barny · · Score: 2, Informative
      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    10. Re:Spot the prior art by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Funny. I remember playing with it a few times, but I do not recall the book corner. Regardless, there is SOOO much prior art that I am amazed that MS is trying this. What it shows is that the MS RD of old that I recall is going strong; Steal what you can and claim it for your own.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    11. Re:Spot the prior art by Sethumme · · Score: 1

      Here's a perfect example, with the page corners dynamically pinned to your cursor's position: http://www.pageflip.hu/
      The demo has been updated as recently as 2010, but it was linked to from another site in 2006, post

    12. Re:Spot the prior art by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 1

      I'm going to patent a touch screen that flips you the bird graphically if you gesture on it with the back of your middle finger.

      --
      This space available.
    13. Re:Spot the prior art by Sethumme · · Score: 4, Informative

      Prior Art? Here's the flash file from May 11, 2005: iparigrafika.hu at archive.org

    14. Re:Spot the prior art by rtb61 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A certain Uncle Fester Ballmer is desperately trying to retain his position, hence any patent imaginable will be claimed and a hyper inflated book valued placed against it in, to up the companies book value, in order to try to pump up the share price and thus protect Ballmer's position. The more desperate Ballmer becomes to maintain his position the more clumsy and self destructive will the "Beast of Redmond" become (all really rather lame and pitiful).

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    15. Re:Spot the prior art by beakerMeep · · Score: 1

      Johannes Gutenberg, late 1440's

      --
      meep
    16. Re:Spot the prior art by gnupun · · Score: 1

      So page turning animation has plenty of prior art. And there is nothing innovative about using a touch gesture to turn a page on a touch device. So where is the non-obviousness required for a proper patent?

    17. Re:Spot the prior art by Racemaniac · · Score: 1

      putting them together ofcourse?
      isn't that the entire purpose of software patents?
      just find a new, useful combination of existing things, and you've got yourself a brand new patent!

      maybe we should make a random patent generator

      perform
      [existing action A]
      on
      [new technology B]
      with
      [fancy eycandy/plain obvious extras C]

      and you've got yourself a software patent :)

    18. Re:Spot the prior art by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      I want to apply for a patent on a device that combines an erasable ballpoint pen, a pencil, an eraser, and a safety razor into a single device.

      Ooh. Even better. A tattoo inker and a safety razor.

      Ooh. Even better. An electric razor and a vibrator.

      *Slams head repeatedly into a wall*

      Get out, terrible ideas! Get out!

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    19. Re:Spot the prior art by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Yes, there were no books prior to gutenberg. All knowledge started in 1440's.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    20. Re:Spot the prior art by JP205 · · Score: 1

      This is the best example of prior art I can think of: http://www.chumby.com/guide/widget/Page%20Turner You can flip through the pages, and it's for a touch screen device.

    21. Re:Spot the prior art by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      That widget is dated a month after the Microsoft patent application was filed.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    22. Re:Spot the prior art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cyborg Assault c. 1984, the in game game manual. Only 6 pages to turn, but it did this.

    23. Re:Spot the prior art by gtall · · Score: 1

      Do you really believe Ballmer is making patent decisions? C'mon, he fucks up the company at much higher levels than this. Get a sense of proportion.

    24. Re:Spot the prior art by TangoMargarine · · Score: 1

      there is nothing innovative about using a touch gesture to turn a page

      Legally? Are we sure?

      --
      Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
    25. Re:Spot the prior art by TangoMargarine · · Score: 1

      It's already been patented. Wasn't there an article a few months back about HP or somebody patenting the process of finding patentable processes?

      --
      Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
    26. Re:Spot the prior art by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      He sets the pace and establishes the methods of legal review. Obviously someone at the top, Ballmer has told the their patent lawyers to let anything and everything through in the hopes that some of it will stick, that would be the (bull)shit principle I believe. Of course if your argument is Ballmer is not really running the company or establishing the principles of operation but spending all his time in protecting his position, eliminating competition and coming up with one 'hair' brained scheme after another (I would suppose his baldness reflects in the failure of those schemes), well that also remains a distinct possibility. All in all, likely the worst possible combination of both mismanagement principles.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    27. Re:Spot the prior art by fibonacci8 · · Score: 1

      How about 1983, Penny's Computer Book on the cartoon show Inspector Gadget?

      --
      Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
    28. Re:Spot the prior art by fibonacci8 · · Score: 1

      Fine. did anyone play any of the examples on a tablet PC with a touch display circa 1993?

      --
      Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
    29. Re:Spot the prior art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      O ....snip... Can anyone beat 1994? There must be earlier stuff than that..

      I think I have to watch George Jetson and Harry Potter again. Then there was 'You have Mail' on "Sleepless in Seattle". i.e. animation of real life phenomenon is not novel or new. Lots of web pages do this now... I wonder when the first j.s. code to do this was writen.

  20. Prior Art by bradgoodman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Didn't the "Notepad" "Desk Accessory" in the Original (old-school) MacOS do page-turn animation?

    1. Re:Prior Art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure did.

    2. Re:Prior Art by HermMunster · · Score: 1

      Not novel, but has to be something that someone skilled in that field would not have been able to work out as a natural progression from an existing concept.

      That makes this patent application based on something obvious.

      --
      You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
    3. Re:Prior Art by H0p313ss · · Score: 1

      Boy do I suddenly feel old. Back when the first Mac was cool and new and shiney my step-mom brought the experimental Mac home from the IT dept of Queens University. I spent hours banging away on that thing making cool (for a 12 year old) graphics and putting them into the word processor and writing stories about them. And of course now I'm sitting here 26 years later typing this on an iPad... Pretty freaky quarter century it's been!

      --
      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
  21. Have all the knowledgeable people left Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'm guessing that most of the intelligent, technically knowledgeable people have left Microsoft. So now non-technical employees are pretending to run a technological company. It's worth it to them to put a lot of effort into pretending that they are doing a good job, because they would not be paid as much somewhere else.

    One indication that the smart people have left is when a company brings out a new version of software, and the big change is in the menus. Menu changes are something people who don't care about technology can do.

    There have been a lot of technological embarrassments at Microsoft in recent years. An obvious patent is just one of them.

    (The Microsoft Vista operating system was, it is said, not a failure, but an intentional method of getting people to pay for two operating systems, by deliberately releasing an unfinished one.)

  22. Prior art from 32 years ago by Stormwatch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Animated virtual pages? Nicholas Negroponte has been there and done that, back in 1978.

    1. Re:Prior art from 32 years ago by dredre123 · · Score: 1

      The story you quote is from 1996. Not 32 years ago.

    2. Re:Prior art from 32 years ago by Stormwatch · · Score: 1
      Be sure brain is in gear before engaging mouth...

      Today's Manuzios are the flock of researchers looking for display materials capable of producing handy, portable, and pocket-size flat-panel displays for PDAs [...] In general, these efforts miss the point of "bookness," because the act of flipping through pages is an indisputable part of the book experience. In 1978 at MIT, we animated flipping pages on a screen and even generated fluttering sounds. Cute, but no cigar.

    3. Re:Prior art from 32 years ago by dredre123 · · Score: 1

      Ah, thanks for the kind reply, I see the stretch you were going for there.

  23. Prior Art by craftycoder · · Score: 1

    What the hell is novel about this?

  24. Obviousness! by Otakui · · Score: 1

    So what's next? Patent for the transmission of information stored as pigment in the form of alphabetical characters on a flexible planar physical medium?

  25. Re:Have all the knowledgeable people left Microsof by yuhong · · Score: 1

    (The Microsoft Vista operating system [time.com] was, it is said, not a failure, but an intentional method of getting people to pay for two operating systems, by deliberately [pcmag.com] releasing an unfinished one.)

    Really? I would not go that far, especially without evidence.

  26. OK, so what's the penalty for IP fraud? by kale77in · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If IP theft is possible, then surely IP fraud must be? If I claimed to own any random houses I happened to see, and put them down as security on financial documents, this would be viewed dimly by the courts. This is that.

    If patents secure intellectual 'property' then where's the aggressive penalty enforcement for intentional (or unintentional but negligent) misrepresentation of property rights? Given the money at issue, and their strain of their enforcement on the court system, these penalties ought to be severe, esp. for corporations. If anybody knows a government looking to increase revenue, then here's some.

    1. Re:OK, so what's the penalty for IP fraud? by Artifakt · · Score: 1

      Because the biggest effect of this fraud is to prop up share value in the stock market. Most of the largest, 'most stable', 'all-american' companies found in hundreds of retirement portfolios and mutual funds today have more IP assets than tangible assets (with Walmart, Caterpillar, and International Paper as a few possible exceptions).
            If this becomes obvious fraud, recognised by most investors, then the DOW is worth maybe 4,000, less than half its current value, and the severe recession we are currently experiencing becomes The Great Depression.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
  27. holy douglas adams zebra crossing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please let Microsoft patent a method of establishing and deeding intellectual property rights and cause the USPTO to just shut down.

  28. Office Depot has been doing this for years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In their weekly sales flyers online. . .

  29. I know one by MaxToTheMax · · Score: 1

    BeOS had something like this, didn't it?

  30. Old patent application... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This was requested back during the Courier development years, and filed in January of 2009. So no, there was no prior application or device on the market that did this. And it damn sure isn't a copy of the iPad. This headline is sensationalism at it's best.

    1. Re:Old patent application... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wonder who they payed for dating this back to January 2009...

    2. Re:Old patent application... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, 2009 wasn't really that long ago.

      And the problem has nothing to do with the iPad. It's the fact that using gestures and page-turn animations in virtual books as described in the patent has tons of prior art. Touchscreen devices have tons of prior art. Logically, you could load up a virtual book app written a decade ago and load it up on a touchscreen computer, and you'd have what the patent is describing.

      The fact that the iPad is the first popular tablet with a touchscreen book reader with pretty animations doesn't mean that it isn't a completely obvious thing to do.

    3. Re:Old patent application... by andre1s · · Score: 1

      Well IPad is obviously the highest profile device and while patent was filed in 2009 work on IPad has being going on at least since early 2009 including demos and deals with book/magazine publishers, prototypes manufactured by subcontractors etc. so there should be very large witness base to testify should it be needed.

  31. I can't wait to see if they get their ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    wheel patent. Just imagine what you could do with four of them and a gas engine.

  32. when are you starting the revolt, America? by 2fuf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What I don't understand is why you keep bending over to get royally ass-raped by the big corporations all the time?!

    1. Re:when are you starting the revolt, America? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Because it's no longer about our rights, we just can't afford to buy the guns they make without the paychecks they sign.

    2. Re:when are you starting the revolt, America? by jordan_robot · · Score: 1
      Seriously? How do you propose we do this?

      If you have any good ideas, please let us know.

      Sincerely,

      The ass-sore Peoples of America

  33. Kill them all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsucks trying to patent what already is.
    Kill the patent trolls.
    Ban patents.

  34. Cartoons did it in the 1930's by karl.auerbach · · Score: 1

    Cartoons showed this sort of thing back in the 1930s - I am sure that with a bit of digging we could find Mickey Mouse of Bugs Bunny flipping through the pages of a book.

    And there are more than a few movies from the 1940s and 1950s that have their leading credits done with a visible hand turning pages.

    There is nothing novel about this idea and it is something that is rather obvious even beyond the people who build computer graphical interfaces.

  35. BeOS had it a decade ago, and I doubt it was first by izomiac · · Score: 1

    The classic BeOS demo video shows the page turning animation in the intro, and goes into more depth at ~1:50 in the second part. I remember being pretty impressed with that in 1999, especially given it was on a dual PII 266 MHz.

  36. Awesome! by cfriedt · · Score: 1

    Oh wait... no, sorry. I misread the title of this article and thought that it said "Microsoft Apologizes for Page-Turn Animation Patent".

    Schya... and maybe monkeys will fly out of my ass.

  37. idiots by presidenteloco · · Score: 1

    ...well at least those of use who don't want to pay them will all be on the same page...

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  38. Thank god! by Orgasmatron · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Now I won't have to suffer through yet another pointless UI animation for an action that should be instant.

    --
    See that "Preview" button?
  39. 25 years ago.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpX6TIa3U1o

    At about 4:11, you'll see the mighty Commodore 64 running GEOS flipping a page.

  40. The trouble with patents by Phroggy · · Score: 1

    I personally haven't seen a good implementation of this, with all the features described. It's quite possible there isn't one. However, the concept of what they're doing is completely obvious. People have been making page-turning animations for virtual books for decades; most of them are less fancy than what Microsoft is doing because the graphics technology didn't exist. Somebody mentioned HyperCard, for example, which did have page-turning animation but not with multitouch gestures, not in 3-D, not with transparency, and not in color, because it was created in the 1980s. Given today's technology, what Microsoft has described should be plainly obvious to anyone "skilled in the art."

    Of course, the actual implementation is a different matter. I don't know nearly enough math to actually make this work. I'm sure it's very complicated, and optimizing it to the extent necessary to make it run perfectly smoothly on a mobile device is nothing to sneeze at. If Microsoft were patenting an implementation, I would be fine with that. The whole point of patents is to get people to reveal to the public how their invention works (instead of keeping it a secret that will die with them), in exchange for the right to prevent anyone from making it (or, the ability to license the patent to others for profit).

    But of course, this isn't a patent on Microsoft's implementation - it's a patent on the concept, versions of which have been around for a quarter of a century. This patent hurts society. :-(

    --
    $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  41. BeOS R4 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    BeOS R4 had this back then before Windows ME came out.

  42. Re:Have all the knowledgeable people left Microsof by nmb3000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm guessing that most of the intelligent, technically knowledgeable people have left Microsoft. So now non-technical employees are pretending to run a technological company.

    Filing for patents like this has absolutely nothing to do with technical people. What probably happened is something like:

    1. Engineer designs cool interface with gestures and page animations
    2. He shows his project manager neat interface
    3. Project manager like it, sends it up the chain to see what higher ups think
    4. VP over section likes the idea, sends it to legal (like everything else) to make sure it won't be a problem
    5. Legal drone sees no prior patent filings for the interface idea. Sends idea to his boss.
    6. Legal over-drone notes no existing patents and thus automatically files a patent for the interface idea.
    7. ???
    8. Profit!

    The software patents filed by a company have little or no bearing on the quality of the engineers working there.

    One indication that the smart people have left is when a company brings out a new version of software, and the big change is in the menus. Menu changes are something people who don't care about technology can do.

    You don't say?.

    (The Microsoft Vista operating system was, it is said, not a failure, but an intentional method of getting people to pay for two operating systems, by deliberately releasing an unfinished one.)

    Said by somebody who almost certainly never even ran Vista. Vista's real problems were:

    • Hardware companies didn't want to adopt the new driver model (which they had years to plan for). Instead they released half-assed drivers, in part to make Microsoft look bad (for creating work for them).
    • The huge amount of third-party software available for Windows was filled with poorly-designed programs that required users to be administrators. Microsoft pushed UAC and limited-user rights to try and get this to start changing. There was absolutely no way to make this any easier on people than they did.
    • Vista did have higher hardware requirements than XP, and people were installing it expecting it to run well on their 256MB of RAM and Pentium 3. The "designed for Vista" logo/sticker just made things worse (and honestly, I think this is the biggest place Microsoft screwed up Vista. They should have been much clearer with regards to hardware requirements).

    The way software patents work right now is every company is trying to get as many as possible. It's basically the Cold War all over again, except instead of nuclear weapons it's software patents. Microsoft is doing it for the same reasons Google, Apple, Palm, etc are: Mutual Assured Destruction.

    --
    "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
    /)
  43. Yknow - (slight offtopic). by Securityemo · · Score: 1

    I tried to put in something like this into a little "analog-sim" notebook python program I wrote (and use), because I really wanted to use an ordinary notebook but my fine-motor skills preclude that. I couldn't figure out a way to do it efficiently in python without porting to OpenGL (nope, can't draw either). I've tried to find an existing app that does what I want (simulating the "look and feel" of a physical notebook), but it doesn't really seem to exist even though you'd think it would. Anyone have any suggestions?

    --
    Emotions! In your brain!
  44. Sign of the decline? by HumanEmulator · · Score: 1

    Microsoft may not have yet have hit the steep slope in its inevitable decline, but does anyone doubt that this is just the tip of the iceberg? They'll become full on IP patent trolls until the eventual winners (Google?) decide they're cheaper to buy than fight In court. It may be 20 years from now, but there's a great Microsoft IP war in our future.

  45. The Door Into Summer by StonyCreekBare · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Robert A. Heinlein in his 1957 time-travel novel described exactly this idea in detail when his protagonist awoke in the "far distant" year of 2000. So it is hardly new.

  46. Re:Have all the knowledgeable people left Microsof by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 1

    You poor, naive sap.

    Microsoft are like Metallica: They think that they can do anything they want because people will buy every turd they put out just because it has their name slapped on it, despite the fact that all the credible consumers ditched them in the mid '90's.

  47. Too bad by nu1x · · Score: 1

    We have no jurisdiction over Klingon, annd I doubt we would in any case :P

    --
    I have nothing to lose but my bindings.
  48. More prior art by malevo · · Score: 1

    Spellbooks in games like Master of Magic, when you click in the page corner it shows a page turning animation.

    http://www.roughseas.ca/momime/screenshots/spellbook.gif

    1. Re:More prior art by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Apparently you didn't even bother to read the summary on slashdot, never mind the actual patent application.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  49. Unfortunately, MS still doesn't understand UI, so by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Their implementation will pop up a dialog half-way through the page turn: "Do you really want to continue? [YES] [CANCEL]"

  50. Damn - my start up is screwed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The start up I work for has an ebook device that has fancy page turn animations, but they started on it about 3 months after Microsoft's file date. Not good for my start up!

  51. Anyway i dont get what this is good for. by drolli · · Score: 1

    What is a "page" on an electronic device? I enjoy free resizing (with reflowing) and positioning of the text i want to read. And actually the one button i want tactile feedback *outside* the display area may be the next page button. i have an ebook reader and enjoy that you can hold it (an turn the page) when holding with only one hand. i am sure they did not choose the activation force of the buttons randomly. Needless to say that i also enjoy the next page to appears as fast as possible (to flip quickly trough the book).

    Needless to say that i prefer a slow (but nearly zero energy) e-paper display over something suitable for animations.

    1. Re:Anyway i dont get what this is good for. by H0p313ss · · Score: 1

      Needless to say that i prefer a slow (but nearly zero energy) e-paper display over something suitable for animations.

      I prefer one running a micro-kernel based multi-tasking OS with an OpenGL capable 1024x768 full color display touch screen and enough flash memory to store all my music and pictures that also handles my email. To each his own.

      --
      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
    2. Re:Anyway i dont get what this is good for. by drolli · · Score: 1

      For this i already have a device.

  52. Quick by Tokerat · · Score: 1

    Someone patent an animation that looks like a real life action of turning a book page via a touch screen gesture...over the internet!!!!

    --
    CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
  53. Prior Art - Acorn Archimedes by ajv · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Acorn Archimedes, circa 1984, had a image animation demo in the default software package which had a rendered page turning effect similar to the one described.

    The ARM chip was the only processor in a desktop machine at the time powerful enough to do this by CPU alone. It would be years before an Intel chip would be powerful enough to do the same thing.

    --
    Andrew van der Stock
    1. Re:Prior Art - Acorn Archimedes by H0p313ss · · Score: 1

      The ARM chip was the only processor in a desktop machine at the time powerful enough to do this by CPU alone. It would be years before an Intel chip would be powerful enough to do the same thing.

      I call BS on that. Note that the first version on autocad shipped in 1982 and the first macs shipped in 1984.

      --
      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
    2. Re:Prior Art - Acorn Archimedes by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      I call BS on that. Note that the first version on autocad shipped in 1982

      So what? I did a class on Autocad in the late 1980s on a PC. It would take seconds to redraw even the simplest of wireframe drawings. Animation? No way.

      the first macs shipped in 1984.

      And everyone was impressed by this animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgTW3R4FmHo#t=1m
      3D realtime animation? Forget about it.

    3. Re:Prior Art - Acorn Archimedes by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Wow, I didn't know that system had a touch screen display. Oh, wait, it didn't.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  54. Re:Have all the knowledgeable people left Microsof by TheLink · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Uh there are so many reasons Vista sucked. I work for a company that's a Microsoft partner and even the "koolaid" drinkers there won't deny that Vista sucked. Windows 7 less so (some things are better, but others aren't really an improvement from Windows 2000).

    1) It took years for the hardware companies to stop making so many drivers that bluescreen XP or cause other problems (heck some still do), so it's no surprise if Vista gets crappy drivers. If Microsoft or anybody was expecting otherwise, they're stupid.

    2) While Windows NT/2K/XP allowed users to not be administrator (and I've set up many machines that way, for myself and others), Windows XP in the installation process tended to make the first user an admin and not make it easy for "newbies" to set up something like the OSX/Ubuntu/Win7 model.

    Lastly, there has really been very little UI improvement from the OSS world (wobbly windows don't make you more productive) or Microsoft.

    I do like the application grouping thing in Windows 7 (but I'd prefer if you could adjust the task button positions within an app group).

    Other than that, Windows 7 sucks. Using the start menu (or the start menu search) is slower than my current XP config at home (classic mode with custom menus so I can use winkey, <number>, <number> to launch my commonly used stuff very quickly).

    The search sucks. The network configuration screen is overly complex and cluttered.

    FWIW, I'm the sort who likes stuff like Tree Style Tabs for Mozilla, the type of person who has lots of tabs and windows open, and has written a program to allow a user to quickly set up hotkeys to switch amongst tasks/windows. I don't care about those stupid animations. If I want a window, I want it NOW, not after some fancy song and dance.

    Don't get me wrong, I can see why others like those animations (they're like fancy cutscenes in games), but the UI designers should also cater for those who want to use their precious UI to actually get work done faster (so that we can waste more time on other stuff e.g Slashdot ;) ).

    --
  55. Microsoft VP said Vista was not ready for release. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Background material:

    Vista class action lawsuit.

    New York Times article: "Corps of Microsoft engineers, for example, have been dispatched to tweak hardware and software to make Vista PCs faster and less prone to crashing."

  56. Let's turn the page on this silly story... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and move on.

  57. I have patented how to flip the bird . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It has to be your middle finger of both palms or either palm holding the elbow. Now every time you do that to microsoft , ka-ching !!!

  58. Read about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    1. Re:Read about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do any of those links (especially the Dvorak abortion) prove that Microsoft did it deliberately to sell more operating systems? You're clutching at straws.

  59. Re:Have all the knowledgeable people left Microsof by KiloByte · · Score: 1

    Vista did have higher hardware requirements than XP

    And why exactly that "better" OS would require 8 times as memory, an order of magnitude better CPU and so on to do the very same tasks as its predecessor without providing a single non-cosmetic improvement?

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  60. Alright! which one of you did it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who gave Ballmer cupcakes and malt liquor?!

  61. Out of control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The patent system is. Very much so. So much so, that the profliferation of rights management is slowly invading every facet of our lives, and we can barely breath without violating some bullshit licence on something.

    What ever happened to owning something when you bought it? What ever happened to patenting and copyrighting to help inventors and creative people get benefits for their talent? Now its just a load of bullshit on every last everything to enlarge the income of Bill Gates, Apple, xxIA member oorgs. Fuck that. Fuck all of that. I hate that I have to either pay 60 bucks for a game that will only work for 9 months to 2 years before the rights servers are shut off. Or maybe I am just without internet for a couple days, and want to play a fucking game that I spit a fortune for. Or maybe I just want to read a mother fucking book without having to know that some beaurocratic nickle and diming crack whore working in the basement of microsoft has a patent on what I am looking at.

  62. Re:Have all the knowledgeable people left Microsof by jcr · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'm guessing that most of the intelligent, technically knowledgeable people have left Microsoft

    I wouldn't say "most". There are plenty of smart people there, they just have horribly dysfunctional management.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  63. Prior Art is a load of crap in the US. by pablo_max · · Score: 2, Insightful

    On slashdot, we see many of these bogus patent articles as well as several patent troll litigation articles. On everyone we see the same tired arguments, hey, this was done since the 80's or that company implemented it long long before that! Sometimes we even hear, hey this company just bought the unused patent from a dead guy and doesn't even make a product, which invalidates the patent.

    Well, non of that crap matters in the US. Seriously, how often do these patent trolls win? Almost always. That patent / legal system is so fucked up that actual law matters very little anymore.
    This is one big reason that companies continue to pull out of the US.

    Just do a quick Google search for "broken patent system" or "out of control patent system" and you will see this has been going on for years. Hell, back in 2000 folks were sure any time now there would be patent reform, yet the we are no closer to it.

    It's time for you to get involved people. It's time to write to your representatives to demand reform. The US patent system is a drain on our economy and seriously hampers proper innovation. Something must be done soon, time is running out for the US. Well..at least IMO.

    1. Re:Prior Art is a load of crap in the US. by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Please list the prior art in question and demonstrate how it applies to this patent with references to the patent.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  64. Re:Have all the knowledgeable people left Microsof by mbstone · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I probably should have tried harder to get a job there back in the day, when being a MS employee was a path to personal financial success. Nowadays every couple of months I get a call from some child MS recruiter, who doesn't actually work for MS but for some Recruitment Process Outsourcing company, who hasn't read my resume, and who wants me to do some job that anybody who actually did read my resume would realize is a lousy match to my skill set. Not only that, he wants me to work for some other outsourcing company so that they can take 1/3 of my bill rate and send me to work there with few benefits and a funny-colored badge that says Non-Microsoft Employee. They can stuff it. I assume their sheer size and inertia will carry them for another decade or two as a going concern, but I wouldn't give them much longer than that.

  65. Re:Have all the knowledgeable people left Microsof by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're right, Vista in itself was actually really cool..

  66. do they ? by unity100 · · Score: 1

    software patents are banned in europe. you need a working, unique machine to have a patent. you cant go on patenting base logic level actions.

  67. RTFA by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    No, i will not RTFA. The story summary should be accurate/informative enough to allow one to base an opinion off of. If its inaccurate or lacking facts, too damned bad.

    That is the whole point of a summary.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:RTFA by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      The story summary should be accurate/informative enough to allow one to base an opinion off of.

      Hahahahahahahaha

      That's the funniest thing I've read in weeks.

    2. Re:RTFA by Barny · · Score: 1

      Yeah, seems like the kinda person who reads a headline on The Onion and start telling everyone he knows that it "was on the news" :)

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
  68. Master of Magic did it first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The first game I know of that has this feature is "Master of Magic", from 1994.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_magic

    Here is the page turning in action.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPnUd2kBcEo#t=2m36s

  69. Misleading title. by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1

    The patent is not for "page turning animation" it is for a VIRTUAL PAGE TURN, which consists of a page turning gesture made on a touch-screen device which causes a page turn animation as well as changes the displayed page and allows a kind of half-turn allowing the user to see the next page without actually turning the page.

    While it may or may not worthy of a patent, there is no excuse for the misleading title. Nor is there any excuse for all the "there is prior art for page turning animation" comments when simply reading the summary shows what is actually being patented.

    One or more pages are displayed on a touch display. A page-turning gesture directed to a displayed page is recognized. Responsive to such recognition, a virtual page turn is displayed on the touch display. The virtual page turn actively follows the page-turning gesture. The virtual page turn curls a lifted portion of the page to progressively reveal a back side of the page while progressively revealing a front side of a subsequent page. A lifted portion of the page is given an increased transparency that allows the back side of the page to be viewed through the front side of the page. A page-flipping gesture quickly flips two or more pages.

    It is on having the animation follow the page turning gesture, displaying the next page, just like flipping through a book, not just an animation.

    --
    There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  70. Stanza and Kindle iPod Apps by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

    But what does that have to do with anything? Msft pulls this same scam all the time.

  71. Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MOD PARENT UP. Interesting observations.

  72. page turn by tinkerghost · · Score: 1

    So, they've taken the new fad of gestures instead of clicks & added it to the page turn imagery that's been in use for at least 5 years on some of the Comic book houses. Oh, how novel is that. Why, I can't believe that nobody else in the whole wide world could come up with that idea.

    Next are they going to patent using a stylus instead of a light pen to guide sprites around a virtual game board on smart phones?

  73. "Non-obvious" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't there a requirement of non-obviousness? I realize it's heavily qualified/specified by the Graham Rules and whatnot, but this still seems pretty...ridiculous. It's no more than a patent for taking page-turn animations used in a mouse-driven interface, which have been around for 20 years or more, and applying them to a touch interface.

  74. I have seen this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On a touchscreen, for the purpose of reading a book. There is a software title for the Nintendo DS titled "100 Classic Books" in the USA and as "100 Classic Book Collection" elsewhere in the world.

    The software allows you to read over 100 books on the small touchscreen, with the ability to advance page numbers with the flick, or "flip", of the touchscreen. The action executes a simulated page turn and audio to simulate the sound of a page turning.

    Perhaps we can patent the sound of a page turning, or would that be a copyright? I will have to verify with the RIAA.

  75. Stupid patent by IAmAMacOSXAddict · · Score: 1

    If they are allowed to patent that, I want to patent Breathing. I'll make Millions in Stupid lawsuits...

    --
    MacOSX, because making *NIX better is a lot better than waiting for Micro$loth to fix Windows
  76. Re:doesn't matter (MS *needs* to be a troll too) by mike.mondy · · Score: 0, Redundant

    An AC thinks it's a good idea to make a company immune to patent lawsuits as long as said company "actually makes stuff". As if there are no valid patent lawsuits? As if valid patent lawsuits aren't against someone using an idea to make something? We do this, we might as well get rid of patent lawsuits. At which point you might as well get rid of patents. Well, yeah, that is indeed one way of killing trolls. But this gets +4 Insightful? How about -5 lame?

  77. I assume you're joking, but... by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1

    ..what's being patented here is a visual effect.

    You may as well patent dress designs or hairstyles or recipes. There is nothing new here technologically. It is simply a matter of putting together existing stuff to generate a very specific effect. The only thing even potentially (if questionably) new is the effect itself. Why on earth would the patent system even come into play?

    --
    Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
  78. The benefit of the design being open by presidenteloco · · Score: 1

    is only a benefit if:

    1. The specification of the problem is not obvious
    or
    2. The design of the solution, once the problem is specified, is not obvious

    To me, this patent fails both 1. and 2. as in:

    1. Hmm. I wonder if it would be useful or aesthetically pleasing to emulate the page turning of real books on a computer screen?
    Hands up who thinks that isn't an obvious idea.
    (so describe the process details inherent in turning a page, as the requirements of the virtual process)

    2. How can I use standard graphics models and transformations and standard rendering technologies to realize this?
    Pretty obvious. Just break the design problem down using standard software design analysis techniques (OO isomorphism of representation and represented things and relationships), functions and subfunctions, calls to well-known rendering and geometry techniques. Bloody obvious to anyone with a good grade in a comp-sci degree and a little time on their hands.

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  79. Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So even an animation deserves a patent.... I can't believe it!

    I think I could patent "getting up from bed using right leg first", an surely it would get approved ;-)

  80. Prior art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Page flipping animation - earliest I can think off the top of my head, is the Faery Tale Adventure (by Microillusions), circa 1988.

  81. Amstrad PDA 600, anno 1993 by knarf · · Score: 1

    I just had to retrieve my ancient, sticky (because of the disintegrated rubbery coating) and mostly forgotten Amstrad PDA 600 from the bottom of a drawer to insert a borrowed CR2032 battery and three half-charged batteries so I could turn it on and watch it do its page-flipping thing... ...and flip it does. On a touchscreen no less. Click the 'binder rings' and it flips the page forward or back depending on whether you click the upper or lower rings.

    The copyright message on this thing says '1992, 1993'. It is quite likely that there are even older copyrights involved in the making of this first of the touchscreen equipped, handwriting recognizing PDA's. It predates the Apple Newton by several weeks...

    1993 is a long time ago... but it would not surprise me to find page-flipping somewhere in Engelbart's notes.

    So Microsoft, sod off with your useless patent. I hope you did not pay to much to the swindlers who told you it was patentable.

    --
    --frank[at]unternet.org
  82. Prior art by StikyPad · · Score: 1

    Stanza for the iPhone already does exactly this. I personally find it annoying -- I'd prefer continuous vertical scroll -- but it's already done.

  83. When the index sucks by tepples · · Score: 1

    Let me rephrase: The index in an electronic work tends to be far quicker and more comprehensive than that in a book. Novels tend not to include an index at all; good luck finding and reviewing a clue that the author left several chapters ago.

  84. 20th Century by iliketrash · · Score: 1

    Welcome to the 20th century, Microsoft.

  85. prior art : 1991 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Penpoint OS. Lord knows how many more things from penpoint have been "adopted"(read "stolen") by .. aargh why am I writing this? jsut watch the demo :

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9140399149118885327#

  86. Re:Have all the knowledgeable people left Microsof by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your conclusions about Vista assumes some competence.

    When I see Microsoft, I don't see competence, rather, I see someone lucking out with MS Office, and then going downhill from MS Office 97... It's been a long road, but Windows XP was the best Microsoft OS money could buy, and probably still is regarding application support. After XP and MS Office 97, what has Microsoft been doing? It seems nobody knows where to go from here, not even Apple, and even Google has some problems gaining momentum and creating truly luser-friendly solutions while also catering to the geek in us..

  87. Lets patent EVERYTHING! :-) by bandmassa · · Score: 1

    Bags I the patent on doing a shit. I'll be as rich as shit! ;-)

    --
    "I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for, er... food." Col. Jack O'Neil, SG-1
  88. Penpoint OS had this in 1991 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Watch the Full vid of Penpoint OS demo by GO Corp given back in 1991
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9140399149118885327#

  89. seen this before ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yes, in some old good games on apple II, and more recently in shrek...

    click or hit a key and you go next page...