Amazon Smartphone's 3D Real World Object Recognition Tech Detailed in Patent

[dgstorm]

Amazon has been very smart lately to cover their bases when it comes to potential future patent litigation. Based upon their large array of new patents over the past few years, their R&D department has been working overtime to come up with new innovations. Their latest patent seems to confirm earlier rumors they will be launching a smartphone with a real world 3D imaging and object recognition engine/sensor built in.

The idea behind this is that you can use your phone to take a picture of an object and it will recognize it to help you search for and purchase it on Amazon. It's called the “User guided object identification” patent, and the pics you can see in this post help showcase the concept.

For now, it is just a patent, so this isn't really proof that Amazon can already implement this in their oft-rumored smartphone. Of course, this is a brilliant idea for the retailer, so it's entirely possible it could show up in their first smartphone. If not, you can be it is technology they are working on to implement in some future Amazon device.

Source: UnWiredView

 

[mountainbikermark]

I can't say I blame them. It didn't seem that patenting of shapes and gestures would ever be necessary but it now is.

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I'm an "s pen aholic" Noteate

 

[johnomaz]

Ummmm.....The Big Bang Theory did it first with Penny getting Sheldon to help her make an app that would recognize a shoe and show here where to buy it and for how much. I'm not sure if their patent will hold much weight because of this Donald Duck, Patents, and Ping Pong Balls - Article One Partners It is practically the definition of prior art equal to the Donald Duck prior art. I get its somewhat silly, but still, the swipe to unlock patent was fought using one video from 2003 (I think thats the year) of a very early Windows Mobile device needing to be swiped across its early touch screen to unlock. Very different execution, but the idea was there.

Better/More detail about it The "Donald Duck as prior art" case (in Patents > When is something prior art @ iusmentis.com)

 

[devdeuce]

So, are you saying that if someone invented a teleporter they couldn't patent it because it was on star trek, even though that was for television and completely fake.

there is no spoon

 

[johnomaz]

So, are you saying that if someone invented a teleporter they couldn't patent it because it was on star trek, even though that was for television and completely fake.

there is no spoon

They can't patent the idea of a teleporter, but they can patent the technology they created to make it work. If two companies come up with two completely different ways to make teleportation happen, they both will be allowed patent that technology, but they can't block each other from the ability to teleport. That being said, there is nothing stopping them from trying to block it. It all depends on how much money is thrown at lawyers to fight it out for them. Look at Apple, they do it all the time. Money talks louder than the law in this world.