Microsoft who have been doing it tough lately, are now moving into the digital makeup and the brain pedometer business, according to patents filed in the USA. They have even patented an application crash alert system which some say is a bit rich coming from Microsoft.
Microsoft who have been doing it tough lately, are now moving into the digital makeup and the brain pedometer business, according to patents filed in the USA. They have even patented an application crash alert system which some say is a bit rich coming from Microsoft.
According to recent filings with the US patents office Microsoft, has been awarded several patents including a patent on a process for applying digital makeup to participants in a video-conference call. Then there is the patent for a “proxy window” that alerts users when an application has crashed.
The “visual indication for hung applications” patent seems relatively straightforward, but what is not explained is why Microsoft is not designing applications that don’t hang in the first place.
And in one of the more unusual of Microsoft patents the Company who last month launched Windows 7 has applied for a “brain pedometer” patent that can be used “to ensure that an individual is maximising their brain activity.”
According to Tech Flash, a local Seattle web site, the company originally applied for the digital makeup patent in May 2005. In the meantime, such video effects have become relatively commonplace. The basic idea is to alter the video stream to make a person look better, but the patent also references a scenario in which “the video conferencing participant tries to make his or her own image look comical or altered.”
According to documents lodged at the US Patents office Microsoft applied for the patent on the “brain pedometer” concept last year, and the patent application was made public last week.
“The system includes mechanisms that obtain indication of brain activity associated with an individual who can be utilised to ensure that the individual is maximising his or her brain activity,” the abstract reads. “Where it is determined that the individual is not optimally utilising his or her brain, feedback can be directed to the individual in order to stimulate brain activity in a specified response centre of the brain.”
