09-01-2012, 05:50 AM | #1 | ||
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Will consumers still feel the 'pinch' after Apple ruling?
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/d...829-24zyw.html
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And who hold the patent on "circle to zoom", "tap to zoom" etc... Maybe somebody should patent "blow to zoom." You blow air toward the screen and it zooms. I just came up with this innovation. Or how about "tilt the head to the right to zoom." Here's how it would work. The screen has sensors that could tell when a person head tilt to the right. This is the signal for it too zoom. "Voice command to zoom" is another innovation that I'm sure has been patented. You say "zoom in" and the screen would zoom in. Pretty neat! Quote:
Last edited by Top100EbooksRank; 09-01-2012 at 05:56 AM. |
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09-01-2012, 09:31 AM | #2 |
Basculocolpic
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Nope, that is one of the design elements that were upheld by the court decision.
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09-01-2012, 09:41 AM | #3 |
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Interesting. I seem to recall seeing demos of surface devices that used two fingers for zoom and rotate. Sure, it wasn't a pinch. But that was mostly due to the size of the device. The implementation in software should be similar.
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09-01-2012, 09:58 AM | #4 | |
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They can use pinch to zoom at will: cross-license. Lost in all the angst is that utillity patents are expected to be licensed. Companies can be sued for *not* licensing them. What most companies due is they cross-license each other's portfolios. So patenting something doesn't mean nobody else can use it; all it means is they can't use it for free. But the payment doesn't have to be cash. In fact, except for patent trolls or when dealing with newcomers to the industry (like B&N) without patents, most major companies prefer to cross-license. (Ideas are more valuable than coin.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-licensing Anyway, pinch-to-zoom is easily replaceable. Google has a patent application from 2009 for a spiral-to-zoom gesture. It is even single-touch so it would work beautifully with the cheapest android gadgets with pressure touchscreens. http://www.google.com/patents/US20110029917 I had a notebook PC that came with a utility that let you use gestures on a touch pad that used spiral zoom quite effectively. |
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09-01-2012, 09:59 AM | #5 |
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I was talking about a rectangle with rounded corners.
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09-01-2012, 10:04 AM | #6 |
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When was apple granted the pinch to zoom and other gestures? They're not only incredibly obvious, anyone who has turned a page on a book would come up with using a swipe gesture to turn a page on the screen, only difference is few fingers or hand vs single finger.
Anyone who watches sci-fi films will have likely seen a pinch to zoom too, minority report in 2002 had a full hand pinch to zoom and swipe gestures http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwVBzx0LMNQ I really wish when it came to software, you had to just rely on copyright. Nobody should be allowed to steal your code, but if they can reproduce a feature without seeing your code or how you did it, that should be fine. Last edited by JoeD; 09-01-2012 at 10:06 AM. |
09-01-2012, 11:50 AM | #7 |
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blow to zoom would most easily be accomplished with the microphone. the sound of the air blowing at the microphone. tilt to zoom using the motion sensors on board is already used in some cases. tilting your head to zoom could easily be implemented with the front facing camera
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09-01-2012, 12:10 PM | #8 | |
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Apple does not own "Pinch to zoom":
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09-01-2012, 01:11 PM | #9 | |
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In terms of real life analogues, I would argue no. Pinching tends to squish things in non-linear ways. The opposite action will stretch things in non-linear ways at best, and do nothing or tear things at worse. The same goes for rotation. When you look at it in terms of computation though, it is much more obvious. The start and end points of the pinch define a transformation, which may be linear. The same goes for rotation. Of course, you could use other transformations to define the same functions since you are just trying to get a set of numbers from the user. An example are sliders being used for rotation in traditional user interfaces: the slider is left-right, yet the action is a rotation. So how do you define obviousness in these situations? At the end of the day I would say that this stuff is more trivial than obvious. Since it does fall on the trivial end, it is probably better to deny patents to encourage uniformity (and avoid user confusion) and competition based on less trivial differentiating factors. |
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09-01-2012, 01:58 PM | #10 | |
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Now, the hardware which can accept simultaneous touch points can be patented (and probably is). If it was up to me, I'd leave it at that. |
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09-01-2012, 02:15 PM | #11 | |
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09-01-2012, 02:53 PM | #12 |
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Apple is the only one allowed to make smartphones. That's about the jest of this whole thing. Too bad Henry Ford didn't patent the steering wheel. I wonder what the rest of the world would have done to steer a car.
Apple is just stifling the electronics industry and is the reason I will never waste my money on a Mac. |
09-01-2012, 03:15 PM | #13 | ||
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I don't know why you bring up the car industry; much of what goes into a car is patented, and there are significant legal actions to enforce them. I'm sure that some versions of the steering wheel *were* patented at some point. Do you think inventors should work for free? |
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09-01-2012, 03:48 PM | #14 |
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No, I don't think inventors should work for free, but there should be a limit on what they can patent. There has to competition in the marketplace and it appears Apple doesn't want any. And the funny part is that Apple started off by copying other company's ideas.
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09-01-2012, 04:15 PM | #15 | |
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Those who claim that Apple products are being copied also focus upon the similarities rather than the differences. If you take that approach, it's going to look like everyone copied Apple because you are failing to accept contradicting evidence. Take a step back and consider a few things: what constitutes copying? What is considered innovation, and what is considered as incremental progress? What should be proprietary, and what should be a part of the public domain? Rich questions will lead you to richer answers. |
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