Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Bezos Patenting 'Dumb' Tablets, Glasses, Windshields

Posted by Unknown on from the insert-x-terminal-joke-here dept.

theodp writes "GeekWire reports on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' pending patent on remote displays that communicate with base stations and operate on wireless power. Reducing devices to mere screens with minimal storage that receive pre-rendered content (e.g., bitmap images), the patent application explains, eliminates the need for bulky batteries or processors, and employing techniques like electromagnetic or electrostatic induction allows one to cut the cord completely. Such remote displays, Amazon suggests, could find a home on college campuses (tablets), in your car (windshield displays or DVD players), and even on your face (eyeglasses)." There's already a (not wirelessly powered) device similar to the one described in the patent.

22 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Great, he's re-invented the X station of yore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    $SUBJECT says it all.

    I'm thoroughly impressed.

    1. Re:Great, he's re-invented the X station of yore by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey, it's more innovative than "1-click"...at least we're heading in the right direction!

      --
      No sig today...
    2. Re:Great, he's re-invented the X station of yore by Mkx · · Score: 4, Informative

      Neither the X station nor the dumb terminal "receive pre-rendered content".

      You're not entirely right. They both receive partly pre-rendered content. Dumb terminals receive data about which character they need to display at certain (relative) screen location, however the shape of characters is done by terminals. X terminals receive parts of display content pre-rendered as bitmaps, they don't invent any of contents. Indeed they don't receive exact display contents in full and every time (eg. acording to refresh rate), they need to re-assemble full display content from incremental updates received from the mainframe/X client ...

    3. Re:Great, he's re-invented the X station of yore by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      Even if terminals don't, monitors do(and, while it may have shown up earlier in specific proprietary or embedded systems, Embedded DisplayPort 1.3 even includes "Panel Self Refresh", a power-saving feature where the LCD panel itself has enough memory to store a single frame, to avoid the GPU having to keep the link active just to keep displaying a static image).

      The developers of RFB(best known now as the basis of VNC) might also have a thing or two to say about the originality of a dumb client device that receives pre-rendered content(yes, VNC can operate in more sophisticated ways, updating only parts of the screen and using image compression; but at its dumbest it doesn't have to).

  2. Bezos is remarkable! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Even though he's a CEO, working 24/7 on that job, he still has time to invent all these things and patent them?

    Incredible!

    1. Re:Bezos is remarkable! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      He truly is the Thomas Edison of our time.

  3. Wii U Tablet by meerling · · Score: 2

    Hmm... Like the Wii U tablet?
    I'm not impressed, I sure hope the patent people don't fall for this one.

  4. Impressive... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't we call a 'dumb tablet' a "monitor"? Y'know, those crazy devices that have(ever since the earliest digital displays, even if you don't want to count the analog ones), explicitly depended on a more capable device to directly fill a tiny amount of storage(corresponding to one frame worth, sometimes less if there is a clever timing sync involved) with the necessary data?

    Christ, Bezos, just swapping a wire for a wireless link doesn't make it novel...

    1. Re:Impressive... by gsgriffin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      read more carefully...powered wirelessly. This means that a hunk of plastic with no power can display an image delivered and powered by something else. I want one!!!! Sounds very different amazing...if it can be done

      --
      jsut athnoer menagiensls ltitle psrhae for you to dcoede. Why do we wtsae our tmie dnoig tihs?
    2. Re:Impressive... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      That might make it a better product; but not a better patent.

    3. Re:Impressive... by chrisdc85 · · Score: 2

      The thing is that while wireless power is cool, it has been around for decades. People have been waiting to use wireless power for many things, the reason why they haven't has been due to efficiency. Recently things have been improving in this area (eg witricity), and so start making inventions described in this patent practical. Any invention behind this patent is purely down to the researchers working on the wireless power, low power electronics and screen tech. If anything this is going to slow development down because the people actually doing and funding the research have to licence this 'invention' from Bezos (if it's granted).

  5. curious authorship by Trepidity · · Score: 2

    It's more common at large tech companies to claim that one of your engineers invented something after careful study in the lab etc etc. Then you have them file a patent, but with assignment to the company. You don't typically put the CEO's name on the patent, because it's not so plausible that random things the CEO sketches out are properly patentable inventions that have had real technical work go into them.

    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  6. Pre-rendered? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    So it's more like a TV set or a VGA display?

    About time someone patented that. I mean: so much intellectual property going to waste. What a pity!

  7. Great invention; have been using it for months now by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've been using an old, broken (touchscreen no longer working) no-name brand 7" Android tablet as a third screen for months now. It displays the Chrome developer console window.

    I'm using RedFly, but there are atleast 3 similar apps for Android and 2 for iOS devices and this kind of functionality has been around for much longer than I've been using it.

    How come Amazon keeps getting away with getting patents on completely obvious and common technology?

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  8. Who would have thought of this?! by Alejux · · Score: 2

    Remarkable inspiration. Such originality! I'm glad we have a patent system to protect such ingenuity.

  9. We can only hope ... by Rambo+Tribble · · Score: 2

    ... the patent office folks remember that bit about "obvious".

  10. Re:Little narrower than the summary by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

    I'm not ranting at you. I'm ranting about the patent.

    Not that these claims are patentable as is, but it seems to be more about smooth handoff between the first base station and second base station.

    That's the irritating thing about these patents. It doesn't actually cover how to do the smooth handoff (a difficult problem with many extant solution), it just says "it happens by magic and I invented it".

    Also, wouldn't the VNC or X11 or RDP or a whole variety of other protocols running over 802.11 in infrastructure mode, or GSM/3G/whatever cell data cover the whole part of wireless remote image display with smooth handoff?

    It relates to automatic cable tensioning:

    Now, I'm really not an expert in this area. But this whole area itself is not new, and I'll bet it's been patented to death 50 years ago by mechanical engineers. There are thousands of different spooling systems out there for thoudands of different tasks. We'll see...

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  11. CruisePad by MDMurphy · · Score: 2

    I was thinking more like this: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/bibuxton/buxtoncollection/detail.aspx?id=178

    "Rather than a free-standing slate/tablet computer, the Zenith CruisePAD was a remote terminal to one's PC. It was designed to allow the user to interact with that PC's applications from a distance over a wireless network. What made it interesting to me was that it let one do so directly on the CruisePAD's screen, using either a stylus or finger."

  12. Re:Little narrower than the summary by Theaetetus · · Score: 2

    In other words, much of the patent (ignoring the wireless power bit) is covered very well by existing software and hardware stacks. It's not even an innovative use of either.

    Certainly seems that way... But, otoh, that implies that you could strike all of the data transmission bits from the claims, have a claim that's just about wireless power transmission and handoffs, and you may be patentable. And if so, then adding the data stuff back in doesn't take away from patentability. A Delorean with a Mr. Fusion and time travel capability is still novel and nonobvious, even if a Delorean itself is well known.

  13. Congratulations on Patenting by PortHaven · · Score: 3

    The Wireless Mainframe Terminal...

    WOOT!!!!

  14. WiDi? by kheldan · · Score: 2

    Aren't we really just talking about a portable WiDi display that also happens to support an input device of some sort? How is this innovative or original?

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  15. sounds like VNC by rmelton · · Score: 2

    Except for the discussion of power it sounds like what I first read about VNC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Network_Computing The description I read described using it for things like telephone displays etc.