Microsoft Patents Bad Neighborhood Detection

PolygamousRanchKid writes with these lines culled from InformationWeek: "With the grant of their US Patent #8090532 Microsoft may be attempting to corner the market on GPS systems for use by pedestrians, or they may have opened a fertile ground for discrimination lawsuits. ... Described as a patent on pedestrian route production, the patent describes a two-way system of building navigation devices targeted at people who are not in vehicles, but still require the use of such a device to most efficiently route to their destination. ... For example, the user inputs their destination and any constraints or requirements they might have, such as a wheelchair accessible route, types of terrain they are willing to cross, the option of public transportation, and a way point such as the nearest Starbucks on the route. Any previously configured preferences are also considered, such as avoiding neighborhoods that exceed a certain threshold of violent crime statistics (hence the description of this as the 'avoid bad neighborhoods' patent), fastest route, most scenic, etc." Having lived in some high-crime neighborhoods, the actual feature (versus the patent) sounds like a great idea to me.

Comments

Patent loophole

[Anonymous Coward]

If TomTom or some other competing GPS device manufacturer wants to implement identical functionality without running afoul of the patent, they can simply use demographic data rather than crime data. Since blacks are at least seven times more likely to commit a violent crime and Hispanics three times more likely, it would be just as good to use neighborhood demographic data as a basis for plotting a safer route.

Of course, it would not be as politically correct to admit that race and crime have such a strong correlation. Perhaps a Chinese GPS manufacturer could capitalize on this and sell into the Western market. The Chinese don't give a rat's ass about PC!

Re:Political Correctness?

[couchslug]

Quite right. All crimes with location data should be in a national online database so bad areas can be avoided.

I have a policy when dealing with realtors. It's not AT ALL politically correct, but my safety trumps everything else so I don't pretend to care.

I select realtors of similar demographics to myself, and bluntly inform them I want "no/few fucking neighbors, and none who are poor, and none who don't look like me".

I got what I wanted.

VOLUNTARY segregation is "the right of free association", and I'm all about me so I practice it when making the massive investment of a home. That's no time to bother with principles which are not to your advantage.