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Bill Gates Seeking Patent To Make Shakespeare Less Boring
theodp writes "GeekWire reports that Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold are seeking a patent on making textbooks less boring by using a cellphone or other device to scan text on a page, parse its meaning, and automatically create suitable accompanying video or pictures to keep students engaged. From the patent application for Autogenerating Video From Text: 'A student is assigned a reading assignment. To make the assignment more interesting, the student may use his or her mobile phone to take a picture of a page of the textbook. The systems and methods described herein may then generate a synthesized image sequence of the action occurring in the text. Thus, rather than simply reading names and dates, the student may see soldiers running across a battlefield.' Furthermore, the patent explains, the experience may be tailored to a user's preferences: 'For example, in a video clip about a Shakespearean play, the preference data may be used to insert family members into the video clip instead of the typical characters.'"
It's not prior art that concerns me, it's the intentional rewriting of history.
History 101, post Bill-Gates Video Learning:
Final Exam Essay: Describe the Battle of Waterloo:
In 1815, an Imperial French army under the command of Emperor Jean-Claude Van Damm was defeated by the armies of the Dirrrty South, comprised of a coalition of Lil Jon and East Side Boyz, Britney Spears, and Leonidas' 300. Emperor Van Damm's Universal Soldiers blitzkrieged the 300, who's phalanx withstood repeated attacks until Lil Jon got crunk up in there and broke through and skeeted up the French lines. Britney Spears' forces then hit that baby one more time.
Citation: Video textbook.