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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.

5 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. 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!

  2. 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!

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  3. 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...

  4. 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 ...

  5. 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?

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