Mobile Sharing: "Bezos Beep" Vs. Smartphone Bump

theodp writes "GeekWire wonders if the 'Bezos Beep' could replace the smartphone bump for mobile content sharing. A newly-published patent application listing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as sole inventor describes the use of audio signals to share content and communicate between devices, eliminating the need for NFC chips and facilitating the simultaneous sharing of content with multiple people via a remote server. From the patent application: 'For example, a first device can emit an encoded audio signal that can be received by any capable device within audio range of the device. Any device receiving the signal can decode the information included in the signal and obtain a location to access the content from that information.'"

Comments

New and interesting technology

[pryoplasm]

Doesn't sound like a software based dialup modem at all...

Re:New and interesting technology

[SuricouRaven]

Actually it's talking about a broadcast medium, where any device within range can listen to the encoded signal.

Modem? They are trying to patent talking!

Re:New and interesting technology

[ledow]

Seems like we have indeed come full-circle, except now the audio just encodes a link (presumably with no lengthy initial communication phase) and the rest of the content is actually on the Internet.

Also seems less secure - now anyone can play one of those sounds and try to get you to go to it, or intercept the communication to work out what you're doing.

Re:New and interesting technology

[langelgjm]

Yeah, I read the claim (there's only one):

1. A method of sharing information for accessing content on a computing device, comprising: generating, on a first device, an encoded information signal, the information signal including information associated with accessing the content; outputting the encoded information signal as an audible signal; audibly receiving, at a second device, the encoded information signal; decoding the information signal to identify the information associated with accessing the content; and accessing the content with the second device utilizing at least part of the information associated with accessing the content, wherein the second device accesses the content from a source other than the first device.

So... if I take an acoustic coupler, amplify its volume, and put it near two handsets, then use the connection to access a URL, I'd be violating this patent. If this is granted, it will be (another) sad day for the USPTO.

Re:New and interesting technology

[L4t3r4lu5]

New form of urban terrorism: Ringtone trolling. Set your ringtone to loud, have it as the encoded URL to $ShockSite.

Re:New and interesting technology

[Archangel Michael]

Wouldn't a 300BPS acoustic Modem qualify as Prior art, other than the "content from another source". I'm asking, because the "other source" shouldn't really matter ... should it?

And, while I'm thinking about it, should the "acoustic" be key part, shouldn't this be abstracted more? If the abstracted version of the process is common, why would the specifics be granted, especially since this is all abstract in the first place?

Re:New and interesting technology

[rgbscan]

Or, say, broadcasting Commodore 64 software over the radio...

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-08/20/finland-radio-code-broadcasts?page=all

Re:New and interesting technology

[Xemu]

New form of urban terrorism: Ringtone trolling. Set your ringtone to loud, have it as the encoded URL to $ShockSite.

In the next generation of this technology, there will be a secure way of transmitting messages by moving the audio in a small tube connected to the other device.

Future developments may include sending audio messages to multiple devices across a network of interconnected tubes.

Re:New and interesting technology

[sentientbeing]

Luddite.

Yeah, and...

[6Yankee]

...marketers won't use this to hijack my phone anywhere they can get hold of a speaker.

Re:Yeah, and...

[GrumpySteen]

Who needs surgery? Just listen to lots of loud music (or let yourself age for a couple of decades) and it'll happen on its own.

Re:Yeah, and...

[TheGratefulNet]

they'll play it so loud, it Hertz!

Dang

[nortcele]

Jeff just patented the 300 baud modem.

Re:Dang

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Jeff just patented the 300 baud modem.

No, no, no! He said 'encode' and 'decode' rather than 'modulate' and 'demodulate', which makes this totally different. Plus, we all know that the patentability of an otherwise ridiculous claim can be magically restored by the addition of 'over the internet' or 'on a cellphone'. This patent includes both!

Audio version of QR Codes....

[DontScotty]

Audio version of QR Codes....

Yet another failure brought to you by people targeting people unwilling to type in a URL.

"The needs of the stupid outweigh the needs of the smart, or the sane"
-Doctor Speck, Start Wreck

R2-D2

[Misagon]

R2-D2 communicates with other devices (C-3PO) using beeps, ... and he can store and play back content in form of holographic messages.

Besides, R2-D2 was made a long long time ago... Definitely prior art.

Prior art? chrp.io

[Anonymous Coward]

This app has been around for a year or so:

http://chirp.io

Might be considered prior art?

Zenith Space Command

[SIGBUS]

The old Zenith TV remotes used ultrasonic signals to activate TV functions. There's nothing new here other than "on a computer."

Re:Over the Radio

[fritsd]

So do I, it was called BASICODE.