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Bill Gates Patents 'Virtual Entertainment'
theodp writes "In the '80s, Bill Gates and his then-girlfriend went on 'Virtual Dates' by viewing the same movie at the same time in different cities and discussing it on their cell phones. On Tuesday, Gates and 15 co-inventors were awarded U.S. Patent No. 8,012,023 for 'Virtual Entertainment', which Microsoft explains: 'The subject innovation provides for systems and methods that supply immersive entertainment, and create a sensation for a user(s) that is similar to having guests (who are in remote locations), to be presented as virtual guests to the user during performance of an event (e.g., a live sporting event, spectator game, television shows, games and the like).' And that silly Audre Lorde said there are no new ideas!"
Virtual Entertainment?
George Lucas has all sorts of prior "art" on that one.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
What am I gonna do about my porn now?
If you thought Bill G was done, think again!
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
In other, related, news the US [software and methods] patent system is completely fucked up - beyond broken. Everybody knows it but nobody is willing to fix it.
How is this different from an application of video conferencing?
It sounds like what 4chan /tv/ does every Monday night when there's a new House episode on.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Quick, someone patent Virtual Money so we can virtually pay for our virtual entertainment!
I'm going to patent "Virtual Housing", "Virtual Transportation", and "Virtual Utilities"...
Really... This is just fucking stupid. I'm so done. Please someone just blow up the patent office with a few RPGs, or there's going to be no end to this insanity.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Trade chat in World of Warcraft during the Superbowl or World Series or World Cup. Heh. (Of course, IRL I doubt I would have *any* of most of the people that troll trade chat in WoW over to my house, at least not without a plan to dispose of their corpses).
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo! http://goo.gl/J9bkO
Bill has so little friends he has to invent virtual ones?
Take Nobody's Word For It.
it is date of invention idea. If he, like many others, did this in the 80's, then it should be expired.
However, what amazes me is that with a patent like this, I am waiting for a patent to be approved for breathing.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
"... Step into the cell, and face the wall," the officer commanded. Virtual Reality did so, and the officer moved behind him and roughly released the cuffs.
"Do NOT turn around until I say so!" the officer barked, and the officer flinched a bit as he thought he saw movement in Virtual Reality's shoulder. The officer's hand flew to the tazzer on his belt, and he glared at Virtual Reality for a long moment.
Then the officer suddenly back peddled quickly and slammed the cell door shut. The electromagnetic lock snapped securely.
"You are lucky, really!" the officer smirked. "You get credit, as your sentence started in 2006. You only have to stay locked up for 15 years!"
There was a long pause, as Virtual Reality's forehead softly struck the wall. Somewhat muffled, he asked:
"....Can I turn around now?"
you actually can have all of that
Now With Collada Mesh Support!!
the only thing thats a bit iffy is the virtual utilities but you can have scripted objects that have to be "refilled" at intervals so that can be done. And SL has had Media On A Prim for months now
Holy Prior Art BOFHman!!
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
They existed in the 80s?
He's got a patent on tele-presence? Web cams? Virtual meeting rooms? Avatars?
I don't get it ... other than the belt, how is this conceptually different from lots of things which have been out there for some time now?
I mean, really, how far back can you go with a movie that has a hologram sitting at the meeting table? Star Wars maybe? Maybe older?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
My brother met his wife on World of Warcraft, and since they lived states apart at the time they had "web dates." They used to have a date night where they'd get on the cells and watch the same movie. They did all sorts of creative things to keep the relationship going, before she finally moved to live with him and they got married. So sorry Gates, couple's who met online have been doing this stuff for ages.
"Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad." [Ecclesiastes 7:3]
Yeah, but this is on the internet which is what makes it novel. Sure, we may have used video conferencing to connect people for business and video lectures at school to have students in multiple locations all share the same class and professor, but that was mostly CCTV. This is the goddamned interner we're talking about. Of course it's a novel, patentable concept.
Besides, if some goofball can patent "dividing the number of golf strokes outside 50 yards by # of greens in regulation" on an 18 hole round to get your "long game" handicap, certainly something like this deserves a patent.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I'd love it if there was a mechanism for Netflix Instant-Watch to sync up the playback of a movie on two different accounts. I watch movies over the phone all the time.
From 1993
Or from 1988
-- Intelligence is soluble in alcohol
Since TFA links to the pre-grant publication (with its at-publication-time-not-yet-examined claims) instead of the issued patent, here's the first issued independent claim:
A computer implemented system comprising: at least one processor that executes the following computer executable components stored on at least one computer readable medium:
a virtual reality generation component that emulates real-life activities of a guest that is remotely viewing a spectator event that takes place outside of a virtual environment into corresponding virtual activities of a virtual guest representation in the virtual environment; and
a presentation component that presents the virtual activities of the virtual guest representation to a user that is attending the spectator event as an in-person spectator, the presentation system to facilitate an interaction of the user with the virtual guest representation provided in the virtual environment as the guest is remotely viewing the spectator event.
Virtual Entertainment? - George Lucas has all sorts of prior "art" on that one.
Let's hope he sues. And everyone sues everyone, until everything comes to a standstill, an impossible-resolution scenario. After Intellectual Property World War One, perhaps we'll have some peace treaties. Because as things are going, soon you won't be able to buy soap and bread anymore, you'll have a Subscription to Biological Sterilization and Nutritional Services, with an Agreement and License to Use Proprietary Methods for Human Sterilization and Nutritional Planning Programs. For only $698.50 per month, you can get service contracts, training programs, and... soap, milk, and bread.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
So this patent was applied for in April 2008 and has just been granted. Disregarding any prior-art that existed before that date, what happens if you or your company "re"-invented this technology between 2008 and now? Do you now have to pay a nice fee to Bill Gates and his friends? That seems a little unfair to me.
Bonus question: If it took 3 years to grant a patent from 2008, and more and more things are being patented as the years go by, how long will it take to grant a patent filed in 2011? Six years? Doesn't look like this arrangement is sustainable to me.
One can only get a software patent if hardware is involved.
For example: you can't patent using an float calculation, but you can patent float calculation inside a GPU and framebuffer when nobody but you (or your company) has been engaged in researching it. (AMD has been sued for that and lost).
Walking on two legs has been done before by other, so no patent for you. Walking on two legs in a computer program can't be patented either, because there is no hardware involved that you invented or thought up that nobody used before.
What you could patent is a software program that aids a soldier who had his legs blown of during war, in walking, by having the software run on a processor that analyses with a 3D camera (depth values and speed) where to place the next step and then steer some robot legs, so someone can walk forward, without realy thinking about it.
But then you'd have a useful invention, even if software and robot legs have already been invented before.
So do you want to write of such inventions? Or where do you draw the line (patenting a link on the Windows 98 CDRom to go to a Microsoft website)? And based on what, how do you decide what is wrong and what is right?
Here be signatures
So my reading of it says that a teleconference is NOT the same. If you have a real image of the person on the other side of the communication, that's not the "virtual reality emulating real-life activities" in the patent.
Michael J.
Root, God, what is difference?
Ideas are not patentable! Patents cover IMPLEMENTATIONS!
According the article:
For example, one of the scenarios shown by Microsoft in the patent filing a belt with “electronic and electromagnetic tracking components” for sensing the movements of the user (although the patent doesn’t appear to be limited to that specific approach).
It sounds like they patented some vague idea of how something might be accomplished. That's not what patents are for.
this patent application was actually submitted way back in 2006 and only approved after years of back-and-forth with the patent office
I can see why... since it isn't a patent. Why was it granted at all? So in case I'm just overblowing this, lets look at the patent itself...
...Moreover, the presentation system 101 can employ a personal computer, a projection unit, a system including 3D goggles and headphones, or a simulator providing visual, audible, and physical stimulation, and the like, to present activities of the virtual guest to the user....
Aaand how would you do that? Elsewhere in the patent it talks about presenting virtual smells to the user. Right now, there is no technology to do that. This would be like me patenting teleportation by saying there is some sort of matter-to-energy and energy-to-matter device at either end, with some form of communication in the middle. That's the *idea* of teleportation, not a patentable implementation of it.
Almost every paragraph in the patent says something like this:
What has been described above includes examples of aspects of the claimed subject matter. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the claimed subject matter, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the disclosed subject matter are possible.
So it keeps admitting that they have no idea how to do this, or what combination of devices might achieve it, but they want to have all of them covered. Ordinarily, a patent author tries and make the patent broad enough to cover similar implementations - so that a trivial change can't be used to avoid paying the royalties. But this is ridiculous.
I think this is perhaps the second most quintissential example of the patent office gone wrong. The best example was when someone patented the tire swing. (Can someone find that? The closest I found was The patent on how to swing.
... my future wife (married in 1976) and I did this. We watched our first opera together -- Don Giovanni on NBC -- she in Wisconsin, I (7 ayears old at the time) in Oklahoma. Of course, it would be a while before we would actually first meet each other. ;~}
MEK
Credo quia impossibilis -- Tertullian
social loser, to me.
Watching a movie on TV while you talk to a girl watching the same movie on TV is the most pathetic date I can imagine. Only Fucking Bill Gates would think of patenting this -- he should patent ordering pizza, sitting around in his underwear, and squeezing pimples while he's at it.
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
I could see Linden Labs fighting this is they wanted to. regardless of what people think of Second Life they've already done this for several years.
How the hell does a patent so vague and obvious get granted when there is so much prior art? Video conferencing, IRC, VR, muds / MMOs, remote controlled sex devices, outdoor screens, pub quizes, remote TV broadcasts, etc. etc. There is prior art stretching back years.
Yeah, storm the place with a whole lot of Role Playing Gamers with swords and wearing armor (and a handful of clerics and magic users.)
Should have been denied on that basis alone
These views express my own personal opinions, not those of the other voices in my head
Of course - we're all just responding to the /. synposis, though even that suggests that it is a patent for a particular set of technologies/methodologies for providing the experience and not the experience in general:
Windows Live Messenger, for instance, provides a "Watch this Together" link when you past a video or youtube URL to someone, which provides an API for synchronized viewing of the linked content. Obvious idea, sophisticated and non-trivial behind the scenes implementation.
-- A change is as good as a reboot.
sounds like what i can do in PS3 home now.. invite people over to "my place" and we can watch videos on my virtual TV and talk at the same time.
in his novel "Against the Fall of Night", talked about this with a whole stadium of spectators. It also was made to seem that each of them thought they were in the best seats in the house and seated next to their friends.
I think this story was published in the 50s.
...Priceless.
My blog
Watching a movie on TV while you talk to a girl watching the same movie on TV is the most pathetic date I can imagine.
It depends on the girl. The reality is that some of us are living a long way from our loved ones for a few months or years and this kind of thing is the best we can do for now. An idiot would say, "Well your reasons for being apart must be stupid!" but who cares what an idiot says?
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
Great! Then the lawyers will have even more of the money, and more of the influence! Take that, you corporations!
I seem to remember something like this in some Science Fiction book. I do believe it might have been Fahrenheit 451.
Prior art!?
I have plenty of prior art, starting with Camfrog, where I stream it all from art that I'm working on to design of hydro systems, plus occasionally stream a youtube video for discussion or what not.
Been pretty fucking obvious, really. The software to get all of this done has been around for quite some time.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Microsoft has patented this in 2006.
Second Life has been doing this since March 2005.
There are also other, less known virtual worlds that have been doing it since prior to 2005.
(I think Active Worlds had this running in the same year or earlier? Needs to be checked.)
I wonder if this patent would hold against this sort of a prior art?
2006? People have been doing that in Second Life since its inception in 2003!
But even IRC has prior art, the "imaginary friends" of millions of children throughout history.
I've read a fair amount of science fiction over the years, and whenever I read about interesting aliens (not just humans with fake ears or brows as in the movies), I've often imagined what it would be like giving them a tour of wherever I was at the time. I'd guess that many sci-fi readers have had fun thinking of the reactions of neighbors to a visiting 8-foot insectoid or 100-kg millipede or cute cat-girl or Deinonychus or Pierson's Puppeteer walking down the street, stopping to talk, etc.
I guess when we engage in such daydreams now, we'll have to pay Bill Gates his royalties.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
You patent a specific way of doing something, not the general thing itself. Therefore it's not possible for Microsoft to patent the idea of virtual entertainment because that idea already exists. All Microsoft can do is patent the way THEY would do virtual entertainment and then the patent lawyers and judges decide if patent infringing cases apply to the patent or not.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I think this is perhaps the second most quintissential example of the patent office gone wrong. The best example was when someone patented the tire swing
My personal favorite is the patent on the wheel. There is an austalian one and an american one.
Microsoft's holodeck monopoly doesn't look good for the 24th century.
Seems like the proposed psychoacousticteledildonics, as described by Ted Nelson in the 70's, would be an example of prior art.
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
Bill Gates: "Im gonna patent entertainment!!!"
Steve Ballmer: "I made moar $dollars"
Melinda Gates: "Honey those chldren in africa don't know how to read! "
George Lukas: "These are not the patents you are looking for"
Bill Gates: "Ohh look a butterfly..."
-- no sig today
my bad
-- no sig today
Bill Gates was late to the party. There were plenty of virtual dates in the 1970's between computer geeks.
so "back in the day" was the mid to late 90s? Son, the things you've seen would fill a thimble. ;-)
In the 70s, we used to use the CB radio to check in with buds at another drive in theater on how the movie was. The HAM guys probably pre-date that too but with less portability.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
dibs...
I call BS on this one...
Anyone who has a television and a phone line will be subject to licensing fees...
I think this qualifies as Prior Art Big Time!
My WWII vet dad and I watched the taking of Baghdad from opposite ends of the country via "virtual entertainment"
looks like it ... i hereby officially take back the part where i said the Gates seemed not that bad since he left the rudder of M$
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?