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.'"

Comments

What problem

[Anonymous Coward]

What problem are they trying to solve here? If people don't want to read, why force them? Sure, reading is a skill we all should possess, but by doing this you don't help with learning how to read at all. So all the benefits of forcing them to read are removed.

Re:What problem

[lxs]

The problem is the mentality that something is only worth doing if it makes you feel better right now. This "solution" only makes things worse. It's like a parent trying to get compliance by bribing their toddler with candy.

Re:What problem

[loufoque]

I don't understand. Reading Shakespeare is enjoyable.
What is wrong with those kids?

Re:What problem

[chthon]

No, no, what is wrong with Bill Gates? (My personal take says: everything)

Gates does not seem to be able to distinguish technology from the way people work.

Re:What problem

[readingaccount]

The problem is the mentality that something is only worth doing if it makes you feel better right now. This "solution" only makes things worse. It's like a parent trying to get compliance by bribing their toddler with candy.

I'd like to connect your quote with something another commenter said:

Why do we object so strongly to the idea of teaching children the value of deferred please; that hard work and effort now can produce greater rewards down the line?

Both of you have the same concern as I do - that as a society we only seem to be interested in short-term efforts if they bring immediate rewards (with the exception of perhaps college, but only because so many people have to these days to get a half-decent job it seems). Long-term investment in time and effort is seen as a waste because the payoff might take quite a while to eventuate... and the problem is that not only is this true, it's also not guaranteed that a payoff will even eventuate after all that work.

Short-term effort shows the results reasonably quickly, good or bad. Long-term effort is a difficult thing to justify in our busy lives, so many people avoid it, whether that be consistent exercise, working on a hobby that will take months to produce something half-decent, or indeed, building any skills that aren't strictly necessary to survive.

Re:What problem

[bfandreas]

I don't understand. Reading Shakespeare is enjoyable. What is wrong with those kids?

The language is now a bit dated. Also the plays are always hard to read if you have no imagination. They were meant to be performed. In many ways this patent describes the job of a director. In which case I would have to decline. Politely.
In most other cases it is a prosthetic for imagination and thought processes.
At this point I would have mandatory philosophy classes just to get the kids back on track. Just the basics. Logic, the nature of knowledge, the old Aristotle vs. Plato argument, Munchhausen trilemma. No complex post-Renaissance/modern stuff. Just a kickstart for the old noggin. Then MAYBE they will learn to read and understand texts, the spirit they were written in and their context.

Re:What problem

[mwvdlee]

The problem they are trying to solve here is the problem of another company potentially inventing something cool having to do with books and not having a weapon to bludgeon that company into submission.

Re:What problem

[Aguazul2]

Short-term effort shows the results reasonably quickly, good or bad. Long-term effort is a difficult thing to justify in our busy lives, so many people avoid it, whether that be consistent exercise, working on a hobby that will take months to produce something half-decent, or indeed, building any skills that aren't strictly necessary to survive.

I agree. All this will achieve is distract children from actually understanding anything by looking at a feed of supposedly related pictures/videos instead. It reminds me of a YouTube video of "My favorite things" (Sound of Music) in which someone had put clipart pictures of all the things. How completely irrelevant and distracting. The point of the song is not the list of things!

Re:What problem

[Attila the Bun]

The problem is that people are being taught Shakespeare without seeing the plays. The books are just scripts - useful for studying the play, but they were never meant to stand on their own. Without the actors the lines are dry and uninteresting.

Even a video doesn't convey why Shakespeare is regarded as one of the greatest English writers. His plays were meant to be watched in a theatre, where actors can captivate the audience and convey their story. Good actors will make the story clear and accessible to anyone, as Shakespeare intended, in spite of the old-fashioned and sometimes-difficult language. Only then, once you've seen and understood the play can you start to study it in more detail.

The patent sounds technically dubious, but it's not even addressing the real problem.

Re:What problem

[pr0fessor]

Sound like they are trying to have your device take over for your imagination.

The other day we ran out of aluminum foil and I was telling my son how I had built a model rocket out of the cardboard roll from a box of aluminum foil when I was his age 13yrs old... I told him about building a small generator that would power a light bulb using old speaker magnets and enamel copper wire... he found none of it the least bit interesting and went on about playing his video game.

Re:What problem

[Baby Duck]

Romeo and Juliet makes no sense. If the "poison fiasco" would have worked as Juliet intended, she would have ran away with Romeo into the country. However, her own father flat out told her he would disown her if she didn't marry that other guy. Why couldn't she just say, "OK!", not marry that dude, let the disownment happen, and run away with Romeo into the country any goddamn way. Why go this elaborate poison route?

You could argue Juliet was just too young, too dumb, too passionate, not clear-headed, etc. However, none of that excuses Friar Laurence who provided the poison and hatched the whole harebrained scheme in the first place.

Your beloved play does not hold up to cursory scrutiny. Admit it. And stop making kids read it for a grade.

Re:What problem

[fahrbot-bot]

However, none of that excuses Friar Laurence who provided the poison and hatched the whole harebrained scheme in the first place.

Obviously, Romeo and Juliet is *really* about a sadistic serial-killer who's MO is getting people to commit suicide.

I want it for

[e70838]

the integral collection of Marquis de Sade

Re:A patent on making textbooks less boring?

[reve_etrange]

I'm not sure what "it" is since the patent itself doesn't describe an algorithm. It's just a wish list of potential features.

Re:Headline

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.arstechnica.com ./ has become so full of shit and its all thanks to its amazing editors. Job well done

No algorithm should mean no patent

[reve_etrange]

This patent is just a wish list of features with no disclosure of any technique for realizing any of those features.

Re:No algorithm should mean no patent

[Nerdfest]

... also known as a software patent.

Re:No algorithm should mean no patent

[gl4ss]

you know what's funny? such wish lists have been written before.. and it'll be expired by the time people can make it reality in state that's not total bull.

I was just gonna say

[dutchwhizzman]

The first thing this will be used for is going to be porn, not Shakespeare. The disturbing thing is that it will be used for all sorts of porn "frowned upon" as well. How legal is this generated porn and can the creator of the application be held liable for generating the content?

Re:I was just gonna say

[Opportunist]

Unfortunately, people tend to dislike the idea of having their life ended prematurely, so it is very unlikely that the average child molester will come forward to collect his bullet. Since precrime doesn't really exist, you have to wait for someone to actually commit a crime before you can convict someone.

And if virtual kiddy porn can keep just one from going for the real deal, it's worth it.

Re:I was just gonna say

[sbjornda]

The first thing this will be used for is going to be porn, not Shakespeare.

Hey, it's not "either-or".

HAMLET to OPHELIA: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
OPHELIA: No, my lord.
HAMLET: I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA: Ay, my lord.
HAMLET: Do you think I meant CoUNTry matters?
OPHELIA: I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.

--
.nosig

Re:A patent on making textbooks less boring?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure what "it" is since the patent itself doesn't describe an algorithm. It's just a wish list of potential features.

Isn't that how *all* software patents are, nowadays? A lot of hand-waving and absolutely zero meat.

Imagine if all patents were like SW patents. You could patent the flying car, and all you need to write is a description of what your flying car will/should be able to do. And anyone who actually builds such a flying car will be hit over the head with your patent! That's totally Apple's style of doing business.

Catastrophically awful idea

[RogueyWon]

This proposal just makes my flesh crawl. Why are we so afraid of the idea that some classic works of literature (just like classics in the field of art or film) require a degree of diligence and attention to get the most out of them? Why do we object so strongly to the idea of teaching children the value of deferred please; that hard work and effort now can produce greater rewards down the line?

It's not just a problem in the arts. If we teach the next generation that all study should be easy, quick and fun, then how do we get over the fact that a learning lot of the science that underpins our current standard of living is none of those things.

"Sit down, shut up and read" might not be patentable as a teaching method due to prior art (though part of me wouldn't be surprised if somebody tried), but it strikes me as far more useful than the technology described in TFA.

Re:Catastrophically awful idea

[Sockatume]

The proposal isn't actually about literature; it's explicitly about textbooks. I dare say it'd have a really hard time with literature because important contextual information is unlikely to be held in the text snippet that it's supposed to visualise. For example it would be pretty trivial to put together an illustration of "1000 men storm the river whatevs" given that it's an abstract, but "What light through yonder window breaks?" takes a lot more foreknowledge.

I suspect the original intention was for them to be able to programatically generate those little illustrative videos you used to see on Encarta articles. Most of the claims are trashed so whatever the original patent was, it was quite a bit more substantial.

Re:Catastrophically awful idea

[Chris Mattern]

To be fair, Shakespeare's plays aren't *meant* to be read. They're meant to be performed. So seeing a performance of the play is actually quite appropriate.

Re:Catastrophically awful idea

[gstoddart]

Because hard work down the line doesn't translate into higher exam scores today.

But it will translate into a generation of children getting out into the workforce who can't do any actual work because they've been coddled and who have been educated in such a way as to maximize standardized tests.

And then we'll be really screwed. Pay the cost of educating them now, or pay the cost of living with that as your workforce later.

Re:Catastrophically awful idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Original Romeo and Juliet Balcony Scene:
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief (5)
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.

Translation:
Look at that lady up there. That bitch be fly!

I used their patent to learn using Windows

[ctrl-alt-canc]

Learning to use Windows is quite boring, so I used their invention to make the task most interesting. I scanned the textbook, but the system returned me a boring image, with the pixels of the very same colour. I guess it is suggesting me to think about the sky or the sea, but I do not understand why...

Since when has Shakespeare been boring???

[fuzzybunny]

Misleading headline aside, Shakespeare is hilarious.

Violence, sex, creative insults galore, betrayal, incest, murder, sword fights, pork sword fights, ghosts, and more invented words than you can shake a pork sword at.

It is awesome and even suggesting that the short attention span squad deserves being pandered to is borderline criminal.

Ok, attention-span might be a target problem

[jdagius]

... but the proposed gadget will likely make the problem worse

Literal Adaptation

[gsslay]

I used this autogenerated video already for my study of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

That's how I know about his brave fight against a sea monster called Fortune, despite having come under heavy fire from arrows and sling shots.

Strange that they always cut that bit out of the film adaptations, I thought it was the most exciting part of the play, even though it didn't seem to make much sense.

I tried to read the patent

[Chrisq]

... and it could definitely be improved with some pictures and captions

Prior art already exists

[kruach aum]

It's called "imagination."

Re:Headline

[Mikkeles]

Besides, this patent just describes storyboarding, but on a computer!.

Re:Prior art again Bill!

[flyneye]

I'd have settled for Key Comics ancient releases of Shakespeares tales.
Not a new idea Bill. If you had the patent, you'd probably sue a comic book company for that. Shame on you, now go away and stay out of my news.

Well, I think it's a good idea.

[RamiKro]

After all, even typography is all about making text more readable and beautiful. And that's not too objectionable unless you're an MLA submission committee. I'm sure there was a time when spaces, capital letters and punctuations were debatable as crutches.

I would personally find use in an algorithm that highlights nouns or verbs to facilitate speeder reading.
Another idea I have is an eye tracker in an eBook reader that will pick up on you getting stuck on a word and will sound it out for you to hear. If you're still stuck, it could pop up a definition and a thesaurus.

For little kids and with enough computing power, you can have a Dora animation to do it where appropriate. For all I care you can have clippy too. That much is definitely within Gates' desire.

So, overall not a bad idea.

Is it just me ...

[NikeHerc]

or are these guys trying to reduce knowledge to idiocy?

The internet is for porn

[spectrokid]

Brilliant! Instant porn versions of all masterpieces! My kingdom to be hung like a horse!

Re:A patent on making textbooks less boring?

[jythie]

'Wish' is right. This might make a nice bit of speculative fiction, maybe the core of some future story about a dystopian eduction system where the heroin discovers that evil people have altered the universal animation program to deliver subconscious ads for soyelnt green into the minds of impressionable youth causing an increase in demand for human flesh resulting in a sharp population decline allowing the villains to buy up all the twinky factories before a radioactive comet hits the earth (which they have been suppressing) allowing only them to live. Add a cute side kick and a puppy and we have next summer's blockbuster movie... all thanks to Bill Gates and his wonderful imagination.

Re:Headline

[arth1]

I don't even understand how someone thinks a patent is going to improve anything? That's not even what patents are for.

Correct. The purpose of patents is to make some people money by preventing others from making money on the same thing.
It works from the assumption that this stimulates invention as the patent holder will use the extra income to finance his next invention.

Next patent

[chepati]

for pre-chewing food.

Have we become so lazy that now we can't be bothered to read the text and visualize it ourselves, but have to rely on a computer algorithm to generate a video of its interpretation of the said text? This is the magic of the written word, that it stimulates our brain to build an entire world and populate it with locales and characters, to breathe life into a seemingly dead medium. The intellectual effort is the exercise that keeps our brain fit, that enables it to improve. You take that away and you're left with just a passive observation, ie a movie.

Species this lazy does not deserve to reproduce and consume resources.

Re:A patent on making textbooks less boring?

[arth1]

If all patents were like software patents, the perpetuum mobile would have been successfully patented a long, long time ago.

Like US 6,362,718 and US 6,867,514, you mean?

Re:Headline

[__aaltlg1547]

The computer is supposed to do the storyboarding. It hasn't been automated before. What's missing is the WHOLE PROGRAM. The patent office needs to start demanding working code for software patents. If you don't have working code, you don't have an invention, just an idea that you might eventually some day years from now turn into an invention -- if it's even an invention.

These devices will be great for a time in 20 years when kids don't bother to learn to read and can't even listen to a story but must have everything shown to them in video clips. In short, it's for the brave new world of subhumans.

Re:Prior art again Bill!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

It did strange things, to my guitar building textbook.

I think it may have been the phrase "Ebony Stiffeners".

Re:Headline

[king neckbeard]

No, the purpose of patents is to stimulate invention, or more specifically, to "promote the progress." The legal monopoly is the means by which the patent system tries to reach this goal. And no, there's no specific intention of a next invention, although that may be a benefit in some cases. If that were the case, we could just much more efficiently hand out research grants to promising researchers with promising ideas. We can do that already.

Re:Headline

[tinkerton]

And Shakespeare isn't boring really. People just think it probably would be.

Re:Newthing

[arth1]

This needs pretty advanced natural language processing to work.

Simple word matching would be a good start.

The Audobon member proudly showed her his collection of tits. "I had a blue footed booby too, but the pussy ate it."

What could possibly go wrong?

Re:Prior art again Bill!

[Notabadguy]

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.

Re:Prior Art?

[BrokenHalo]

I'm sure the 'reduced shakespeare company' might have something to say about making the bard more interesting.

Shakespeare is never boring. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs either an English comprehension course or medication for attention deficit disorder.

Then teach how to find plot holes

[tepples]

Your beloved play does not hold up to cursory scrutiny.

If William Shakespeare's plays are as overrated as you claim, then high school literature teachers are doing their students a disservice in not showing them how to find plot holes like this.

Re:Prior Art?

[BrokenHalo]

Shakespeare is mono-cultural, reason enough for it to be discarded upon the ashcan of history

Right. Which is why Shakespeare's work has been successfully performed in Hindi, Mandarin and Arabic.

You are perfectly entitled to not appreciate Shakespeare, but you are not entitled to take his work away from those who do.