The 4 worst patents of 2015

Depressing Year for Patent Law

This had been a depressing year for patent law, which had lost sight of its constitutional anchorages as a limited and balanced source of motivations for innovators. Although Congress, the courts as well as the Patent and Trademark Office individually made their own respective efforts to rein in a system widely considered as out of control and eventually nobody had made much headway. For instance, over 200 new patent lawsuits had been filed on a day in November, as plaintiffs had rushed to beat a change in federal procedure which needed added specific claims.

Several were from companies which tend to buy up patents of doubtful quality and utilise them to extract troublesome settlements from actual innovators. A polite name for such types of companies is `non-practising entities’, though most of us are aware of them as patent trolls.

According to the Consumer Technology Association, they have exhausted over $150 billion from the U.S economy at an accelerating pace. Besides this, there also seems to be a mismatch between expanding patent coverage and the quickening pace of disruptive change that has become one of the biggest sources of risk to the innovation economy.

An attorney with the Electronic Frontier foundation, Daniel Nazer has highlighted the worst patents across this year. He holds the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents and had little problem coming up with these four rejected from a monthly `Stupid Patent of the Month’ post, that he writes for the EFF site. Each of them tends to focuson a different crisis in the badly misaligned patent system.

1. Changing the quantity of goods on order

The patent office had approved US Patent No, 9,013,334, in April that covered `notification systems which handle changes in the quantity of items that are delivered or picked by a customer. The inventor of this invention is not an entrepreneur but a patent lawyer clearly gaming the system. In 2003, the holder had filed a provisional claim which he had used to shoehorn around 20 patents, most of which were vague, broad and abstract. As single claims are challenged, the lawyer tends to simply add new ones to the earlier filing which according to Nazer are largely indistinguishable. Thereafter the company tends to sue a new set of defendants, in quest of settlements of about $50,000 which is too small in mitigating the cost of fighting a winning battle in court.

2. Firewalls that cannot be configured

A stupid patent wisely abandoned by its own inventorcould be the cause of chaos. The patent office had granted the application for an Internet firewall, in 2000 which was already a standard feature due to the inventor repeatedly insisting that it was something else, a firewall for users too dumb for using a firewall. After the holder had permitted the patent to expire in 2012, it had been purchased by a newly formed patent troll, Wetro Lan, LLC. which filed a suit against providers both large and small of Internet security technology and most of it was totally unrelated to the patent.

In the first place, it should have not been granted and could be too expensive for individual defendants to combat. The new holder could only claim for the damages by going back six years prior to the patent’s expiry though it is endlessly in internet years. Wetro Lan states that EFF `had sued everyone who tends to sell product linked with network security from Avaya to ZyXEL’.

3. Connecting something/anything to the Internet

A garbage patent of 2006 has been used to threaten anyone involved in the Internet of Things, which is a new discussion of application with the potential of linking daily items to the cloud. The patent that EFF considers was `spectacularly mundane’ even in 2006, seemed to be mainly nonsense. It defines a system of adapting products comprising of solids and fluid, by enabling the user to enter `preferences’, linking a drink mixer to the Internet, in other words.

EFF had noted that `theapplication had not disclosed any new networking technology or any new beverage making technology. However, the over-taxed patent office had granted it and now the trolling company holding the patent, Rothschild Connected Devices Innovation, LLC has been suing all who tend to connect something to the Internet, inclusive of ADT (security), Rain Bird (irrigation and OnStar (cars).

4. Using electronics to control sex toy

In early 1980s, Howard Stern, a radio personality had demonstrated computer based sexual stimulants, a category known now as `teledildonics’. However, in 1998, that did not stop the patent office in granting anoutrageously broad application from Tzu Technologies, LLC for a patent on a method of `Interactive Virtual Control of Sexual Aids Using Digital Computer Networks’.The language of the claim as usual is garbed in scientific sounding terminology in order to conceal its certainty. Nevertheless, as written and approved, the input device could be nothing more than a microphone and the `stimulation device could be just a stereo speaker.

There's Now a Games Console for Dogs

A Games Console to Keep Pets Busy

A game console to keep your pet dog busy has been developed in the form of CleverPet. CleverPet essentially, is an interactive treat dispenser with your pet having to hit light up panel to release the tasty snack in it. Head Trainer, Graham Bloem has explained that `a dog with a job is a happy dog and so when first introduced to CleverPet, there was something for these problems, keeping the dogs engaged and busy when no one is at home’.

The game console features many games like `Catch the Squirrel’, which seems to be a light chasing game that asks your pet to put a paw on the flashing light in time with the movements. There is also `Pattern Plan’, which evidently challenges them to learn progressively complex patterns.

Another game is the `Word Learn’ where for instance, one could record the voice saying `left’ and your dog will have to press the left pad. Besides this, there is also an accompanying app which enables you to see the live updates, schedule when CleverPet tend to turn on or off and track the amount of treats your pet had gobbled up

A Dog with a Job is a Happy Dog

Co-founder of CleverPet, Leo Trottier, who has a PhD in cognitive science from University of California, San Diego, has explained during a start-up pitch session at CES 2016 that `most of us would never leave a family member at home all day and ask them to sleep the whole time. From a dozen or so start-ups to take the stage, CleverPet seemed to be the only one drawing whoops and cheers from a generally passive crowd and the judges also seems to agree, and awarded it the first place in the start-up pitch battle.

But it was the only product that had been designed for dogs. Trottier had commented that `right now, people tend to cope by leaving the TV or radio on and crossing their fingers, a dog with a job is a happy dog’. The CleverPet Hub is considered to be a plastic dome having flashing lights, speakers and a dispenser which tends to give out dry dog food when a task has been successfully completed. Trottier describes the system as an `automatic, all day interaction at scale, which is powered by software.

Compatible with any Kind of Dry Dog Food

Trottier states that it is compatible with any kind of dry dog food and one can open the hatch put in the food and setup the game to entertain the pet for hours. The system tends to give pet owners, a controlled option of providing food for their pet throughout the day while keeping a tab on what their pet is up to through the mobile app.

He comments that the system seems to be an appropriate replacement for `doggy day care’ or a less extreme option for people who tend to worry about their dogs getting bored when they are alone at home. The idea had debuted on Kickstarter in 2014, raising $180,000, $80,000 more than its goal.

Two years thereafter together with more than 1,000 happy Kickstarter customers, it is ready for pre-order for the public. The CleverPet Hub will be offered at a price of $299 with the company planning to ship the first units in the next couple of months.

This FDA-Approved Medical Syringe Fills Bullet Wounds in 20 Seconds

Xstat Rapid Hemostasis System – Designed to Control Haemorrhaging

Around 30 – 40% of civilian death from traumatic injury is due to haemorrhaging and 33 – 56% of them tend to die prior to reaching the hospital according to the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research.The best option of survival is to staunch the flow of blood as rapidly as possible. Hence a newly approved medical device has come up. The Xstat Rapid Hemostasis System is mainly a syringe filled with tiny sponges which is now made available to people. It has been designed to control haemorrhaging especially for bleeding which cannot be stopped with a tourniquet.

The sponge filled syringe tends to fill gunshot wounds within 20 seconds and the device which had been formerly limited to military use, has received approval for use on the general population in America. Recently the Food and Drug Administration had cleared the syringe which is designed to prevent the flow of blood from an open wound, for use on adult and adolescent citizens. The Xstat had been initially developed for use by the military, wherein the risk of traumatic injury and bullet wounds was higher than in the civilian population.

Sterile Sponges of Cellulose

It was earlier organized in 2014, though the FDA has now finished evaluating the device and has made it available for use by first responders in case of an accident, shooting or natural disaster. In the Xstat syringe there are 92 tablet-sized sterile sponges made up of cellulose which is intended to stop the bleeding in wounds that do not stop easily by any other means.

Bleeding can usually tend to be effectively slowed with simple tourniquet which restricts the flow of blood to the injury. However a bullet wound or any other deep injury would be difficult to close. In such a situation, the Xstat is inserted into the wound and activated to release the sponge wherein each sponge tends to have an x-ray marker so that doctors can ensure that they are all removed from the body later on.

The Verge reports that the syringe tends to work on wounds that cannot be stopped with the use of a tourniquet which is a compression tool developed to control haemorrhaging. These may be wounds in the groin or the armpit.

Control on Severe Life Threatening Bleeding

As per io9, the Xstat Rapid Hemostasis System tends to work by filling a wound with a group of sponges which tends to expand rapidly thereby blocking the flow of the blood and provides pressure cause the bleeding to stop. According to Dr William Maisel, acting director of the Office of Device Evaluation in the FDA’s Centre for Devices and Radiological Health had mentioned in a press release issued by RevMedX which manufactures the devices, that `when a product is developed for use in the battlefield it is usually intended to work in worst case scenario where advanced care would not be immediately available.

 It is exciting to see this technology transition in helping civilian first responders control some severe life threatening bleeding at the time of the trauma scene’. Each applicator tends to absorb around a pint of blood and works up to four hours which provides adequate time for the injured person to receive surgery for the wound.

What is 5G

5G Soon a Necessity

After the first 4G smartphone had hit the market, five years ago, the wireless industry has been making progress in preparing for 5G and each of the four nationwide cell phone carriers together with the smartphone chipmakers accompanied with the major network equipment companies have been working in the development of 5G network technology.

Though there are several obstacles which the industry companies need to clear prior to seeing a bit of 5G symbol near the signal bars on the smartphone screen. For instance, it needs to yet determine what 5G means besides what it would look like and when it intends to get here. Since the user tends to use up quickly increased amount of 4G bandwidth by watching streaming videos on their phones, 5G would very soon tend to be a necessity.

As the telecom engineers tend to work energetically in the development of 5G technology, a lot is made clear regarding the 5G. The `G’ in 3G, 4G and 5G stands for `generation’ and 5G would be the fifth generation of the wireless network technology.

Permitting a Swing of New Wireless Devices

Standards for the 5G has not been set yet and according to the president of AT&T – T, Tech30, network operation, Bill Smith, 5G would probably be defined in 2018. The standards for 5G would also be organized somewhere in 2019 by the standards-setting International Telecommunication Union, which is a branch of the United Nations.

Moreover, the standards will also regulate which wireless technologies would be called `5G’ and what its characteristic would comprise of, like how fast it would be. Based on the developing technologies which the wireless industry has been experimenting with, there is a possibility of guessing what the 5G would look like. 5G would be much faster, smarter and consume less power than 4G, permitting a swing of new wireless devices and enable the consumer to have faster smartphones, more smart-home devices with longer lasting wearable gadgets.

 5G would have the capabilities of offering speeds up to 40 times quicker than 4G which would be quick enough to stream 8K videos in 3-D or probably download a 3-D movie in around 6 seconds, while on 4G; it would take about 6 minutes.

Real World Speeds of 100 Megabits/Second

For consumers, unfortunately there is a variance between lab experiments and reality where at peak speeds it is fun to dream though in the real world, the real speeds tend to be much slower that guaranteed. One of the biggest 5G players – Nokia, is of the belief that it is 5G technology which will permit real world speeds of about 100 Megabits per second when the network is jammed, which is around four times faster than the top speed of 4G.

Another characteristic of 5G is that it has ultra-low latency, which means that it could radically reduce the time span it may take for the network to respond to the commands. This would provide the appearance of faster loading websites, apps, messages and videos.

Lot of the wireless companies’ 5G experimentation has been occurring in super-high frequencies as high as 73,000 MHX and presently the networks broadcast signal of cell phone is in a range of 700 MHz to 3,500 MHz.

A Learning Advance in Artificial Intelligence Rivals Human Abilities

Artificial Intelligence Surpassed Human Competences

Computer researchers had recently reported that artificial intelligence had surpassed human competences for a narrow set of vision related task. These developments are remarkable since the so-called machine vision methods are being a commonplace in various characteristics of life comprising of car-safety methods which tend to identify pedestrians and bicyclists and in video game controls, Internet search as well as factory robots.

 Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University together with the University of Toronto have recently reported a new kind of `one shot’ machine learning in the journal Science, wherein a computer vision program seemed to beat a group of humans in identifying handwritten characters founded on a single example. The program seems to have the ability of learning quickly the characters in a variety of languages as well as in generalizing from what it has learned.

The authors recommend that this ability is the same wherein humans tend to learn and understand perceptions. Bayesian Program Learning or B.P. L as the new approach is known is unlike the present machine learning technologies known as deep neural networks. Neural networks can be trained in recognizing human speech, identify objects in images or detect types of behaviour on being exposed to large sets of examples

Bayesian Approach

Though these networks may have been modelled on the behaviour of biological neurons, they have not yet learned the way human tend to do, in quickly acquiring new concepts. In comparison, the new software program defined in the Science article has the capabilities of recognizing handwritten characters on `seeing’ only a few or a single example.

The researchers had compared the capabilities of their Bayesian approach as well as other programming models utilising five separate learning tasks which involved a set of characters from a research set. This was known as Onmiglot which comprised of 1,623 handwritten characters sets from 50 languages.

 The images as well as the pen stokes that were need to create characters were taken. Joshua B, Tenenbaum, professor of cognitive science and computation at M.I.T. together with one of the authors of the Science paper had commented that `with all the progress in machine learning, it is amazing what one can do with lots of data and faster computers. But when one looks at children, it is amazing what they can learn from very little data and some come from prior knowledge and some is built in the brain’.

Imagenet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge

Moreover, the organizers of an annual academic machine vision competition also reported gains in lowering the error rate in software for locating and classifying objects in digital images. Alexander Berg, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill had stated that he was amazed by the rate of progress in the field.

The competition which is known as the Imagenet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge pits the teams of researchers at government, academic as well as corporate laboratories against one another in designing programs in classifying as well as detecting objects. The same was won by a group of researchers at the Microsoft Research laboratory in Beijing, this year.