Microsoft patented technology for organizing virtual conferences
Last month, Microsoft received a patent for office devices that allow users to organize meetings using holographic images of meeting participants. Nothing like?
This patent is not about the actual hardware and software that could create such holographic meetings, although it contains 21 images and diagrams of such meetings. Patrice Simard, research manager and manager of the recently reorganized Microsoft Live Labs, is listed as one of the authors. Among other things, Live Labs is also responsible for developing Photosynth and several other interesting web applications. Simard is the author of a whole bunch of Microsoft patents, including some on machine learning, activity detection, digital ink, and display systems. Given this, it can be assumed that one day holographic meetings will become a web service for Windows Live users, which will combine a kind of common PowerPoint and voice applications that are used for virtual meetings today.
')
Microsoft has attached the above image to its patent. The image below is intended to show how the top picture will look like in reality.
Gestures like commands
Along with this, in May, Microsoft also received several other patents in the field of interesting user interfaces. For example, patent number US20090125824 describes a “user interface with a physical mechanism for controlling gestures”. A patent describes it as follows:
A method for invoking an action in response to user input, a method that includes the steps: receiving a gesture from a user that is sensitive to pressing a surface; determining the type of gesture that was obtained by a pressure-sensitive surface using a sensor array and a single mechanical contact change activated by the sensor array; reproduction of the action in response to the accepted type of gesture, the action must at least partially simulate the behavior of a physically embodied object.
Similarly, Microsoft received the second, associated with the first, patent number US20090125811 for "user interfaces that provide feedback to the user." This interface allows the computer to emit associated signals and other sounds in response to gestures made on the corresponding panel, made in the manner described in the gesture control patent.
Interestingly, at the recent TechEd conference, Microsoft’s chief editor and reporter specializing in Microsoft Eric Lei (Eric Lai) mentioned that Microsoft has big plans for recognizing gestures over Surface, and not just touches like today. In the future, users will be able to hold hands over the table and use gestures instead of commands. Lei argued that this could lead to the development of special libraries that recognize gestures, and soon the discussion turned into the area of ​​future user and computer interfaces. Judging by this patent, Ley was right.
Magic wand
Probably, we learned about the most amazing Microsoft patent from blogger Todd Bishop (Todd Bishop), and, judging by him, Microsoft’s technology director Jay Allard (J Allard) clearly recently read a lot of Joan Rowling. According to the patent issued by the US Patent Office, whose authors include Allard and several other people, Microsoft received a patent for a "magic wand".
Obviously, we are talking about some kind of movement-sensitive device, such as the Wii Remote, but made in the form of a stick. The patent contains very little information about the device itself (in particular, whether it contains a phoenix feather).
Bishop explains it this way:
Although it was published just a few days ago, the patent request itself was filed back in November 2007 — about a year after Nintedo released its Wii with its special, wand-like controller. This controller is a wand-shaped controller with many built-in sensors that can manipulate and interact with their surroundings, including holographic images and video, while using a biometric connection with the user.
The patent presents two options for using the device: determining with a wand the fact of falling into the user's hands and interacting with other wands in the manner of portable radios.
If the magic wand inspired your imagination, then you may also be interested in another patent, the application for which Microsoft filed in May, and which allows the user to access the "secret information during a multiplayer game." The technology itself is more prosaic than its name, although it doesn’t discourage Microsoft from patenting it. According to the patent, it will allow to ask a secret question in the game and the answer to it will be published on the screen. Yes, this means that the answer will be visible to all players, but the question itself will remain a secret.
It seems that the future of computer user interfaces will be very similar to what Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars and Harry Potter from the film of the same name use.
draiverok
This patent is not about the actual hardware and software that could create such holographic meetings, although it contains 21 images and diagrams of such meetings. Patrice Simard, research manager and manager of the recently reorganized Microsoft Live Labs, is listed as one of the authors. Among other things, Live Labs is also responsible for developing Photosynth and several other interesting web applications. Simard is the author of a whole bunch of Microsoft patents, including some on machine learning, activity detection, digital ink, and display systems. Given this, it can be assumed that one day holographic meetings will become a web service for Windows Live users, which will combine a kind of common PowerPoint and voice applications that are used for virtual meetings today.
')
Microsoft has attached the above image to its patent. The image below is intended to show how the top picture will look like in reality.
Gestures like commands
Along with this, in May, Microsoft also received several other patents in the field of interesting user interfaces. For example, patent number US20090125824 describes a “user interface with a physical mechanism for controlling gestures”. A patent describes it as follows:
A method for invoking an action in response to user input, a method that includes the steps: receiving a gesture from a user that is sensitive to pressing a surface; determining the type of gesture that was obtained by a pressure-sensitive surface using a sensor array and a single mechanical contact change activated by the sensor array; reproduction of the action in response to the accepted type of gesture, the action must at least partially simulate the behavior of a physically embodied object.
Similarly, Microsoft received the second, associated with the first, patent number US20090125811 for "user interfaces that provide feedback to the user." This interface allows the computer to emit associated signals and other sounds in response to gestures made on the corresponding panel, made in the manner described in the gesture control patent.
Interestingly, at the recent TechEd conference, Microsoft’s chief editor and reporter specializing in Microsoft Eric Lei (Eric Lai) mentioned that Microsoft has big plans for recognizing gestures over Surface, and not just touches like today. In the future, users will be able to hold hands over the table and use gestures instead of commands. Lei argued that this could lead to the development of special libraries that recognize gestures, and soon the discussion turned into the area of ​​future user and computer interfaces. Judging by this patent, Ley was right.
Magic wand
Probably, we learned about the most amazing Microsoft patent from blogger Todd Bishop (Todd Bishop), and, judging by him, Microsoft’s technology director Jay Allard (J Allard) clearly recently read a lot of Joan Rowling. According to the patent issued by the US Patent Office, whose authors include Allard and several other people, Microsoft received a patent for a "magic wand".
Obviously, we are talking about some kind of movement-sensitive device, such as the Wii Remote, but made in the form of a stick. The patent contains very little information about the device itself (in particular, whether it contains a phoenix feather).
Bishop explains it this way:
Although it was published just a few days ago, the patent request itself was filed back in November 2007 — about a year after Nintedo released its Wii with its special, wand-like controller. This controller is a wand-shaped controller with many built-in sensors that can manipulate and interact with their surroundings, including holographic images and video, while using a biometric connection with the user.
The patent presents two options for using the device: determining with a wand the fact of falling into the user's hands and interacting with other wands in the manner of portable radios.
If the magic wand inspired your imagination, then you may also be interested in another patent, the application for which Microsoft filed in May, and which allows the user to access the "secret information during a multiplayer game." The technology itself is more prosaic than its name, although it doesn’t discourage Microsoft from patenting it. According to the patent, it will allow to ask a secret question in the game and the answer to it will be published on the screen. Yes, this means that the answer will be visible to all players, but the question itself will remain a secret.
It seems that the future of computer user interfaces will be very similar to what Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars and Harry Potter from the film of the same name use.
draiverok
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/61476/
All Articles