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

Re:Very subjective

[Anonymous Coward]

A disproportionate number of violent crimes are committed by blacks, at least in America and Africa.

Even if you aren't attacked, such a technology could save you a lot of stress and embarrassment. Have you ever walked with an attractive white woman past a group of black men?

Whoo-WEE! Hey, baby, wanna real man?

Dayum! Bitch be bangin! Lookat dat little punk she wit'

Fo' sho,' nigga, I turn dat girl out real good.

And they will all slowly crane their heads as you walk by, like hyenas, and they will say those things out loud without regard to anybody within earshot. Some of you may find this comment offensive, but truth is not politically correct.

You know, I'm normally against quotas

[squiggleslash]

...but the number of racist assholes posting to this thread makes me think it's time to require that people selling homes in neighbourhoods with a very high proportion of white people (say, more than 95%) be required to sell only to members of ethnic minorities.

Now, that may not be politically correct (in the real sense of the term - comments you can't make in public without people getting all huffy and blackballing you), but it's pretty much the only way we're going to get out of this "OMG! BLACK PEOPLE! LET'S NOT GO THERE!" rut.

Re:Good idea, if it's never been done before.

[stdarg]

Crime correlates with poverty, not flavor.

Depends who you talk to. One common argument is that since the system and the police are racist, blacks are policed more heavily and convicted more frequently so the stats really do show that blacks commit more crimes than other races even accounting for differences in income or education level. Therefore the stats themselves are also racist..

Re:Very subjective

[cayenne8]

[deliberately ignoring the racist trolls]

Err.....where so far has anything RACIST been mentioned?

I've only seen comments, including the article, saying to avoid violent or dangerous neighborhoods. What's wrong with trying to stay safe? I saw NO mention anywhere of race???

Are YOU saying minority neighborhoods are inherently dangerous? THAT sounds a bit racist to me.....