Scifi becomes a patent issue
This is a pretty amazing development. As the patent war heats-up in the mobile computing sector, Scifi is being recognized as instances of "prior art."
Essentially, Samsung is using a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey to bash Apple's IP case, citing it as prior art for tablets. There isn't much in the scene that shows tablets in actual use (two sit on a table playing an interview but there's no interaction with them). Better clips might have come from Star Trek: The Next Generation, which uses PADDs throughout that and the following series.
Read the article at FOSS Patents
We have two thoughts:
1. To interaction designers, this means knowing scifi could become a vital part of their work, since it's public prior art.
2. To studios, this creates some pressure to use experienced designers (outside of production designers) on staff (or consulting) for interface/interaction design. It might also signal the possibility for studios to begin patenting what comes out of their own imaginations, since the relevancy to industry may be just a matter of time.
Essentially, Samsung is using a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey to bash Apple's IP case, citing it as prior art for tablets. There isn't much in the scene that shows tablets in actual use (two sit on a table playing an interview but there's no interaction with them). Better clips might have come from Star Trek: The Next Generation, which uses PADDs throughout that and the following series.
Read the article at FOSS Patents
We have two thoughts:
1. To interaction designers, this means knowing scifi could become a vital part of their work, since it's public prior art.
2. To studios, this creates some pressure to use experienced designers (outside of production designers) on staff (or consulting) for interface/interaction design. It might also signal the possibility for studios to begin patenting what comes out of their own imaginations, since the relevancy to industry may be just a matter of time.
Comments
Hi Nathan!
I realize this is months late, but enjoyed the post and wanted to chime in.
To push your implications further, I wondered how novels might factor in. One could argue that descriptions of use could be better indications of device features and functionality than a movie prop.
Hope all's well,
Barry
Posted by: Barry A. Martin | December 7, 2011 10:10 AM
I have to admit that I have used sci-fi like Minority Report, Star Trek for ideas for interface design. Interestingly enough the interfaces, devices in Matrix are not what I consider optimum. It provides only scenario of decline.
Looking forward to read this book.
Posted by: Dolly Parikh | December 18, 2011 4:04 PM
Barry, Sorry for the very late reply. Yes, novels can offer much deeper descriptions of interaction. Unfortunately, for our purposes, they don't lend themselves well to lessons since what I imagine reading a passage may be very different than what you do. Our process is only one way to "read" SciFi and there are, no doubt, others. Hopefully, this book will inspire others to use SciFi in new ways.
Posted by: Nathan | December 27, 2011 11:28 AM