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Microsoft Granted Patent For Augmented Reality Glasses

another random user writes with an excerpt from the BBC about Microsoft's vision for augmented reality glasses: "A patent granted to the U.S. tech firm describes how the eyewear could be used to bring up statistics over a wearer's view of a baseball game or details of characters in a play. The newly-released document was filed in May 2011 and is highly detailed. ... Although some have questioned how many people would want to wear such devices, a recent report by Juniper Research indicated that the market for smart glasses and other next-generation wearable tech could be worth $1.5bn by 2014 and would multiply over following years." Noticeable differences from Google's version: two lenses, a wrist computer, and wires.

89 comments

  1. In Store Shopping Assistance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Will this "augmented reality" be used in stores to help convince people to buy a Windows 8 phone?

    1. Re:In Store Shopping Assistance? by Joce640k · · Score: 0, Troll

      They're much more likely to be used for watching porn during boring baseball games.

      (...and for blocking out disturbing images of people masturbating at baseball games)

      --
      No sig today...
    2. Re:In Store Shopping Assistance? by Nerdfest · · Score: 3, Funny

      In copying everything Apple, Microsoft wants a 'Reality Distortion Field' and has to resort to hardware to do it.

    3. Re:In Store Shopping Assistance? by Dishevel · · Score: 1

      I just want to know if they will make Windows 8 look like a usable desktop OS?

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    4. Re:In Store Shopping Assistance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It looks like its specifically for live events (part of the patent is that it detects that you're at a live event), and probably intended to be provided by the event planners with your ticket. An example would be the NFL handing out Super Bowl stat glasses to get info on the players and see instant replays from your stadium seat.

    5. Re:In Store Shopping Assistance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, Apple's reality distortion field prevents Apple fans from seeing that Apple sucks. However, Apple only gained that with the Cult of Jobs and the iPhone. Microsoft has had a more subtle reality distortion field for a lot longer that lets Windows fans say Windows sucks but there's nothing worth switching to.

      Yet another example of Apple's innovations being a minor change on something that already existed.

  2. Patent nonsense by Seeteufel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am with Richard Stallman and the FFII: Stop all the nonsensical software patent granting. All of them are a disgrace to professionals in the field, a hostile takeover from laywers and patent parasites.

    1. Re:Patent nonsense by Bearhouse · · Score: 1

      Absolutely! This is getting beyond a joke - pretty soon we'll have patent lawyers scouring the SciFi back catalogue and patenting everything in there, since most of what we see coming to market now, or "real soon now" has already been imagined and sometimes described in great detail.

      *rushes off to patent phasers, transporters, replicants and geosync orbits*

    2. Re:Patent nonsense by Hentes · · Score: 1, Insightful

      This is a piece of hardware, and a specific implementation of it. This is exactly what patents are for.

    3. Re:Patent nonsense by cristiroma · · Score: 0

      -1: Troll
      Is that you Steven Gibson?

    4. Re:Patent nonsense by Seeteufel · · Score: 1

      All the functionality is software.

    5. Re:Patent nonsense by Iamthecheese · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually patents are for non-obvious specific implementations of hardware. This isn't.

      --
      If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
    6. Re:Patent nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Obviously you and the people who modded you insightful didn't even bother to read the the first sentence of the abstract of the patent. This is NOT a piece of hardware, rather it is "A system and method to present a user wearing a head mounted display with supplemental information when viewing a live event". The head mounted display is already assumed in this patent - this patent is just talking about presenting live statistics/info about the event in a manner that doesn't obstruct the viewing of said event.

      Again, not hardware.

    7. Re:Patent nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope this is a specific hardware implementation with an example software attached and patented as a software "invention".

      This kind of patents should be banned and those companies that do them should be banned for 20 years of registering any other patent as penalty.

    8. Re:Patent nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Broad and generic, something that should not be patentable. We had patents granted because very old stuff happened on touchscreens, we are getting another round about glasses now. Quite silly.

    9. Re:Patent nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm with RMS as well. That said, this is a fascinating development.

      Contextual statistics. !!!

      How valuable would that be in political live debates?

      Perhaps Faux News could be required to have the real statistics pertaining to what they're broadcasting displayed across the bottom of the screen?

      Maybe implanting them, with electroshock feedback for telling an obvious lie, could be required in order to run for political office?

      I like this gadget, properly used...

    10. Re:Patent nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would anyone give a damn about the abstract? It's completely irrelevant to what the patent actually claims.

      The patent has exactly three independent claims, 1, 9 and 19. The remaining 17 claims are dependent, and each relies on one of those independent claims. Nothing can infringe this patent unless it completely implements at least one of those three independent claims.

      How the fuck do people like you get modded up when you don't have the first idea of which part of a patent even describes the invention?

  3. Prior art? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    30 years of cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk say, "Hi!" Not that it will count for anything under what America laughably calls calls a patent system.

    1. Re:Prior art? by SoundGuyNoise · · Score: 1

      I don't think depiction in fiction counts as prior art. If so, by this point Apple should be owned by the Roddenberry Estate.

      --
      You never expect irony, do you?
      Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
      @iyfwrestling
  4. I'll just say this now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Augmented reality is not a fad and its not going away.

    It will start to creep into the mainstream in the next few years and will probably be ubiquitous in the developed world within 10.

    There will be plenty of naysayers but that is solely due to their lack of vision, just like people said that tablet computing would never take off, that mp3 players were a flash in the pan, who would ever need an "app store," etc.

    We are going to see some pretty remarkable (both bad and good) changes in the next decade, even in the face of what the Internet has already accomplished.

    1. Re:I'll just say this now by xtal · · Score: 1

      I'll raise you a "never going to happen".

      I wear glasses because I'm basically blind without them. Glasses are a pain in the ass to deal with. With most of these systems, I would have to wear contact lenses AND glasses. That sounds great!

      Putting things on your face is a pain. Watches are dead now aside from demonstrations of disposable income.. killed by the smartphone. These glasses offer no major advantages over a smartphone.

      Tablets are a different animal; they always have been. Tablets offer a substantive advantage over a notebook - weight, battery life - and larger screens than a smartphone. But tablets, like smart phones, get put away when they're not being used.

      Augmented reality glasses offer no substantive advantages whatsoever.

      For all the type of this, a really nice, lightweight, HUD display for simulations and other environments would be a lot more widely applicable.

      --
      ..don't panic
    2. Re:I'll just say this now by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Augmented reality glasses offer no substantive advantages whatsoever.

      That is a lot of cockery. However, they do have to not suck. For example, they need to function as an Eyetap. You can do convincing reality overlay without using an eyetap (which eliminates parallax error) but it requires a lot more processing power, or additional hardware. If you're going to have additional hardware, why not have it be ideal? The eyetap can have a focus adjustment in it, solving the "I need glasses" problem.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:I'll just say this now by mrbester · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My watch glows in the dark so I only have to look at my wrist at night to see what the time is. It is powered by my wearing it so I don't need a mains supply (and cable / proprietary adapter) to recharge it. It can withstand water pressure of 10atm.

      It also only cost me £30 a decade ago and hasn't had any problems whatsoever.

      Until my smartphone can do all of those things I'm keeping it.

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    4. Re:I'll just say this now by spire3661 · · Score: 2

      I wear my CHRONOMETER as a practical matter, not an affectation.

      --
      Good-bye
    5. Re:I'll just say this now by themusicgod1 · · Score: 1

      These glasses offer no major advantages over a smartphone.

      • You can use both hands while wearing them, and probably drive and operate complex equipment requiring both hands with them

      It's not like they won't be able to make them with curved lenses. The *glass* might have to be somewhat custom to the wearer, but that's already the case for most of our computers/mobes anyway, right?

      --
      GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
    6. Re:I'll just say this now by HappyPsycho · · Score: 1

      Why do you need to wear both? why not just clip on the AR system to your existing glasses?

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18091697

      Take a look at the pics in that article, not exactly a quantum leap in design to make it a clip on instead of a full set of glasses (stability is the only major concern I can think of).

    7. Re:I'll just say this now by Culture20 · · Score: 1

      Putting things on your face is a pain.

      Do you know how many sunglasses are sold annually? Reduce the cost of these AR glasses enough, add in UV filters and focusable liquid lenses, and you've got the new rich man's (sun)glasses. Eventually they would become everyone's glasses.

    8. Re:I'll just say this now by mikael · · Score: 1

      Augmented Reality to provide statistics on geology samples in real-time:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWrDaYP5w58

      Current geology smartphone applications allow you to overlay surface map and geological layer data over a camera view. There are also some smartphone applications that present the visible stars and planets from your location as a 3D view. But if that could be superimposed over a camera image, that would be better.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  5. Nobody is going to wear these things by xtal · · Score: 1

    Seriously.

    Unless it's indistinguishable from normal glasses, which it won't be, there's no market here outside of some very specific and special industries.

    Why can't we have kick ass VR glasses, like Carmack is working on, instead?

    Cool, yes. Is my mom going to want a pair? Probably not.

    I cite the entire contact lenses industry as evidence.

    Shenanigans!

    --
    ..don't panic
    1. Re:Nobody is going to wear these things by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why can't they be indistinguishable from normal glasses? Google's prototypes are pretty close to normal glasses already:

      http://blog.sitestogo.biz/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/google-glasses.jpg

      You think that thick part can't be integrated into the frame and the screen can't be part of the main lens?

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    2. Re:Nobody is going to wear these things by xtal · · Score: 0

      Yes, I do think it can't be integrated. Barring a star-trek advance in battery technology, or a wire running down your back, or a microwave battery power transmitter you carry. Those all scream cool.

      These things are so dorky it hurts, and don't offer any serious advantage over a smartphone, that everyone already has anyway.

      --
      ..don't panic
    3. Re:Nobody is going to wear these things by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 1

      Well... I already use an unconventional eyeglass (one-piece impact-resistant polycarbonate) and I do not give a damn what others think when I'm using it. I really would like to use one that also had a real, functional HUD :-)

      --
      Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    4. Re:Nobody is going to wear these things by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

      And yet in 20 years we've gone from dead-nuts-basic cell phones the size of a house brick (with batteries bigger than today's phones) to having far superior phones built into computer watches that cost about the same as a comparable standalone device. Yet a modest size decrease in these glasses is impossible?

      I could see all the electronics being built into the front of the glasses frame and the batteries being in the arms, even using today's battery tech. They might look a bit like hipster glasses but they would be normal glasses. If today's bleeding-edge battery tech was on the shelf, battery life would easily beat today's smartphones.

      I'll admit there are upsides and downsides vs. today's smartphones, but look at today's smartphones and tablets, inferior to other options on the market but still wildly popular.

      If I were to get such a device I would use it as a companion device to a smartphone. It would replace a bluetooth notification bracelet, bluetooth headset, and give me a second camera and convenient non-dorky use of AR.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    5. Re:Nobody is going to wear these things by Sloppy · · Score: 1

      It seems reasonable at first to predict that people won't tolerate their own glasses looking unusual. But I think the same way you predict that, can also be used to predict that nobody will ever walk about with bluetooth crap sticking out of their ears. Yet, there the gargoyles are.

      This guy was the future but this guy wasn't? Are you sure you have the fashion expertise to really distinguish between the two? (I'll be the first to admit that I don't have that expertise either...)

      --
      As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
    6. Re:Nobody is going to wear these things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder if they'll make a model that people can wear together with their prescription glasses.

    7. Re:Nobody is going to wear these things by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      That would be tricky (and dorky-looking, at best it might look like the current prototype), but there should be no problem replacing the flat panes in these glasses with actual lenses.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    8. Re:Nobody is going to wear these things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually these will take very little battery power to run. They are not LCD's in front of the eyes they have no back lights and the processing will be done on your holstered cellphone. It takes tiny amounts of power to have a few OLEDs light up and a bluetooth link in operation.

      As far as these being used,
      They are nothing like a smartphone. You are a fucking moron with no friends.

    9. Re:Nobody is going to wear these things by HappyPsycho · · Score: 1

      VR glasses? Like these?

      http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Virtual+Digital+Video+Glasses&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AVirtual+Digital+Video+Glasses

      Play whatever you want, all these are missing is sensors to determine orientation / movement (same sensors inside almost every smart phone).

  6. When it's sunny by Threni · · Score: 2

    You'll appreciate the cool blue tint of the screens of death.

    1. Re:When it's sunny by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Well the jokes just write themselves, don't they?

      First to mind is that all they absolutely must make BSOD blue a chroma key for transparency so that when it crashes, you don't.

      Alternately, they function as peril-sensitive sunglasses. When windows crashes, you can no longer see your wrist-mounted computer.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  7. This is Not Fiction? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't think depiction in fiction counts as prior art. If so, by this point Apple should be owned by the Roddenberry Estate.

    ...and this is not fiction? Last time I looked there were no practical working implementations of AR glasses.

    This seems like just another "Do common task X but now on device Y" patent.

    1. Re:This is Not Fiction? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed, in the early times you had to provide a working sample for every patent you applied for. The reason this was dropped is that there are inventions you cannot be reasonably provide a working model of because they would simply be too large and/or too expensive. However if you couldn't even build such a model in principle, it is not an invention, it's at best an idea for an invention. But patents are there to protect inventions, not to protect ideas for inventions. The patent application should require at least a proof that you know how to build that thing.

    2. Re:This is Not Fiction? by HappyPsycho · · Score: 1

      "No practical working implementations"? Has done no research on the matter has you, yessss....

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mann - This is just the most famous of the group.

      There are no "consumer ready" AR glasses for various reasons but fully working implementations have been in existence for years.

  8. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by RaceProUK · · Score: 4, Informative

    I would hesitate getting Google's reality glasses because it would mean that all my data would go to Google. Instead of that, Microsoft's version would process things independently on the wrist computer. That's a huge difference and suits to people who want to keep their privacy.

    Doesn't look like it:

    It indicates that most of the processing work - identifying people and other objects in view, and deciding what information to show about them - would likely be carried out by remote computer servers in order to keep the equipment slimline.

    So you'll probably need a .NET Passport/Windows Live ID/Microsoft Account/whatever-they're-calling-it-tomorrow to use it.

    --
    No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
  9. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by RaceProUK · · Score: 1

    Shill

    Such eloquence, such insight! Makes me wonder why I bothered to post this... oh wait, you're being a total douche aren't you?

    --
    No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
  10. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    From TFA: "It indicates that most of the processing work - identifying people and other objects in view, and deciding what information to show about them - would likely be carried out by remote computer servers in order to keep the equipment slimline."

  11. Re:Stagnation by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    I played AR games on my Treo. I'm sure you can find many for any modern smartphone.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mann by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "First post"

  13. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by schitso · · Score: 1, Troll

    Is there an issue with pointing out obvious shills?

  14. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would hesitate getting Google's reality glasses because it would mean that all my data would go to Google. Instead of that, Microsoft's version would process things independently on the wrist computer. That's a huge difference and suits to people who want to keep their privacy.

    Yeah but try getting it through airport security!

  15. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by RaceProUK · · Score: 1

    Not at all, if you're willing to back it up.

    --
    No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
  16. The next BIG thing! by ElitistWhiner · · Score: 1

    More than a fad...more than cool and better than Rx; Cx glasses are disruptive game changers. They stand on the shoulders of the PC, Internet, SQL, 802.11xx and HUD at the corner of Fashion and Future hawking the promise of all knowing all seeing Superman intelligence. What kid isn't gonna want to be like that when he grows up? LOL

  17. NONE OF THAT is augmented reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I work in the area, and:

    Displaying some tables or gauges on your glasses is not augmented reality.
    Filming stuff with them and displaying it somewhere else (a la Google Glasses), also is not even remotely augmented reality.

    Actual augmented reality integrates. Actual augmented reality is stuff that fits itself into reality, and augments it.

    Actual augmented reality would be when you walk through your city, and there’s a pillar there that isn't really there, and you can walk up to it, and trigger a switch. It is when you can have a rendered monster walk around the corner of the wall of a skyscraper. Actual augmented reality is seeing through walls because some database knows more about the other side. Or being able to tune the weather/theme of your view. Or just primitive stuff like having the shop windows display something different for everyone, depending on preconfigured preferences. (Or in my case, show nothing, since I would have an ad blocker.)

    It’s when you see and hear things that aren't there, and don't see and hear things that are there, and it's not schizophrenia. ;)

    This here, on the other hand, is shit.

  18. The future is blue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With little white tiny letters, but blue nonetheless..

  19. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How are those glasses different from the computers, tablets and phones with cameras we always pass through airport security?

  20. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Tapewolf · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not at all, if you're willing to back it up.

    I don't know about you, but when someone with a brand-new account kicks off the discussion with a first post that praises Microsoft and denounces the competition, and that is their only comment, that looks rather odd to me.

    When you remember that there have been a lot of new accounts doing exactly that over the course of this year - the Visual Studio ones being some of the most blatant - well, writing that off as normal user behaviour starts to look like burying your head in the sand.

  21. Snowcrash provides prior art by IBitOBear · · Score: 1

    The novel snowcrash profides prior art to all the wearable computer glasses/goggles thing. I know I have read the same thing in other books too, they just don't come to mind.

    The whole patent thing is just so screwed up. If the guy who developed the waterbed was denied patent because of Stanger in a Strange Land, then the system as written already disallowed all this crap.

    But that's just reason and logic.

    --
    Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
    --"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
    1. Re:Snowcrash provides prior art by MnemonicMan · · Score: 1

      Snow Crash was written in 1992. For an even earlier conception, see Earth which was written in 1990.

      These novels provide protection over the general idea of "augmented reality" but however, they do not provide protection for the specific implementations as those will likely be very complex assemblages of various technologies that are much more involved than just a general idea.

  22. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Um, his comment was posted before yours. Don't get all whiny about it.

  23. Well fuck. I guess I'm screwed. by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

    I've been using AR glasses with my smart phone for YEARS.
    It's often times faster to overlay the 3D noise source map (gathered from sensors in the field) over the readily available physical model -- Depth culling to remove obscured sources in real time (industrial noise abatement). Sometimes it's faster if the CAD files can be imported easily, to just do it digitally, even so, I can just turn off the cameras. I rarely used my phone when doing this sort of work, but I have done so. I've used it experimentally in the field to visualize the pre-recorded 3D noise volumes in real time walking (while all the equipment is safely turned off). It's safer and sometimes faster because it skips the step of constructing a 3D model of the environment.

    No longer work in that field, but I now do some game development on the side, and I've found craploads of uses for AR in game dev... Overlay a wireframe of the scanned object to the real 3D clay model, correct minor defects, add wrinkle details, seams and screws and bolts. It's sort of like the modern equivalent of a painter working on a portrait with a live model. If the cameras didn't make me look silly (or pervy) I'd wear them in public to do "Google Glass" right now.

    I abstain from reading any patents if I can. I hope MS's new patent is properly limited so that it doesn't PREVENT EXISTING USES OF AUGMENTED REALITY. No, really, just end all patents. This is retarding.

  24. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by RaceProUK · · Score: 1

    You win the 'Stating The Obvious Award'! Congratulations!

    --
    No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
  25. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by alexhs · · Score: 2

    Proof 1
    Proof 2, specifically time stamp, and FUD that would have been obvious if you RTFA instead of trolling :

    Microsoft's version would process things independently on the wrist computer

    vs

    [Patent] indicates that most of the processing work [...] would likely be carried out by remote computer servers [...].

    These astroturfers have been operating in the same way for a long time (more than a year I think), posting first-posts pro-Microsoft Anti-Google FUD.

    Do you carefully check each and every mail by some Nigerian wanting to transfer some big money via your account ? Maybe THAT one isn't a scam ?

    --
    I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
  26. Anonymous Pedant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is only a published patent application and not a granted patent. Big difference. I originally thought the blame lay with the BBC, but they have it right in the article, at least at the time I accessed it.

  27. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by RaceProUK · · Score: 1
    --
    No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
  28. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Not at all, if you're willing to back it up.

    OK, two points of proof to back up user Presentss is a shill.

    1 - UID is 2780313 registered 11/23/2012 (aka Today)
    2 - http://slashdot.org/~Presentss/comments

  29. Too much clutter by wcrowe · · Score: 1

    This is probably going to sound like a "get off my lawn" kind of post, but "augmented reality" bothers me. I go to baseball games and plays as an ESCAPE from reality. I don't want it "augmented" by screeds of information. I just want to enjoy the experience. Don't get me wrong, I think there are uses for augmented reality, but does life suck so bad for people that they cannot simply live it and enjoy it without cluttering it up?

    --
    Proverbs 21:19
  30. Art as prior art? by seanellis · · Score: 1

    The Personal System glasses from "Norbert and the System", a short story by Timons Esaias from 1993, may anticipate some of the features of this system. I haven't read the patent, but the overlay of contextual social information sounds a lot like what the original poster describes.

    (Here's a link: http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/Sci-Tech-Society/Esaias-Norbert.pdf)

    1. Re:Art as prior art? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Rainbows End, by Vernor Vinge, has a good layout of future direction of this.

      The glasses understand the entire reality around you, and can erase objecs and replace them. People thus put on virtual costumes, or put them on other people. People also have huge battles using virtual weapons.

      Also, people "tag" places, ala Google Earth, and wherever you go you can "see" tag indicators. Some places have spam cluttering things up.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  31. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This has been going on much longer than a year.

    This was over a year and a half ago:

    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cdd1ea06-7cc0-11e0-994d-00144feabdc0.html
     

    Burson-Marsteller, a WPP-owned PR agency whose clients also include Microsoft, contacted US newspaper reporters and opinion-piece writers with a view to securing coverage on Google’s alleged use of personal information from Facebook and other social networks.

    MS vs ODF (2009):
    http://techrights.org/2009/05/27/ghettoblaster-may-be-microsoft-astroturf/

    MS vs Linux (2001):
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/09/26/ms_targets_linux_mac_rivals/

    There is so much more too....

  32. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would hesitate getting Google's reality glasses because it would mean that all my data would go to Google. Instead of that, Microsoft's version would process things independently on the wrist computer. That's a huge difference and suits to people who want to keep their privacy.

    Thank you for mentioning that, Presentss. You know, Microsoft(tm) products make everything I do easier and more enjoyable too!
    These glasses will be a great add-on for Microsoft(tm) Windows 8(tm)! Ha ha ha (big smiles). Now let's both turn and look at the
    camera while keeping these smiles frozen on our faces. Annnnnnd cut. Nice job, Presentss.

  33. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by RaceProUK · · Score: 1

    Apologies for not doing a full background check on all /. users I reply to.

    --
    No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
  34. Why so insecure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are you so insecure that you need to re-post your own comment multiple times in a discussion about whether the OP is a shill? That's not even relevant and just makes you look like you're defending him because you want to be sure your reply is well modded or some other such vain nonsense.

    Do you even understand the post you replied to here? The guy was making fun of you because you seem to think it's better to rationally argue with a 419 spammer than call them out/ignore/mod down/etc.

    Please, do us all a favor and stop posting. Judging by your comment history, it would be a BIG favor.

    1. Re:Why so insecure? by RaceProUK · · Score: 0

      Stop me - I dare you

      --
      No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
    2. Re:Why so insecure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Douche

  35. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by HappyPsycho · · Score: 1

    They can record the TSA agents too, can't have that!!!

  36. Even -if- prior art did not exist, this is obvious by Press2ToContinue · · Score: 1

    There is so much of this in the movies and in sci-fi that we've all see our futures with such a device, ever since our childhoods we have seen this. I don't see how this could fail the "obviousness" test. How much more proof does one need to show how broken the patent system is?

    --
    Sent from my ENIAC
  37. Man, the U.S patent system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The U.S patent system isn't even ridculous. Given that glasses is the next UI, should spesific content ble patentable?

    Reminds me of light blue cowbos shoes: Only in America.

  38. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the new account is a good sign, but the comment is valid. Screw having the advertising giant strap a camera, gps, and screen to my face.

  39. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To be honest that's one point. Also your ignoring whether the comment has any value. I for one arn't thrilled about the idea of the biggest advertising giant and data analysis company in the world strap a camera, gps, and screen to my face.

  40. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So don't freaking buy one!

    Seriously, if you can't control your actions so much that you purchase things you despise, you have no right to complain about the fact you purchased it.
    And if you aren't going to purchase it, then what the hell are you bitching about?

    Until a Google rep comes to your home with a gun pointed at your head, the GP has no point nor value to his shilling post.

  41. Re:Why MS is better than Google's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i still want the tech just not from google, and considering this is a story about microsoft you can go fuck your self.

  42. minority report by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    without the psychic stuff, the glasses reported someone not logging into facebook? must be a psychopath

  43. another reason why the USPO is retarded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    enough said!!!!!!!! read the subject response........