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Medicine

Paralyzed Patients "Speak" With Their Pupils 72

Posted by samzenpus from the trying-to-listen dept.
sciencehabit writes "Lying in bed, unable to move a muscle, so-called locked-in patients have few ways to communicate with the outside world. But researchers have now found a way to use the widening and narrowing of the pupils to send a message, potentially helping these patients break the silence. The trick is a webcam-like setup that tracks pupil dilation. When people focus on a hard problem--say a math problem--their pupils dilate. Employing the approach, some locked-in patients could answer 'yes' and 'no' questions just by dilating their eyes."

Comment Re:Figure 1 (Score 1) 255

by ChasmCoder (#41834267) Attached to: Surfcast Sues Microsoft Over Tile Patent
Note "Some definition of Humorous"
"
humorous (hjumrs)

— adj
1. ***funny***; comical; amusing
2. displaying or creating humour
3. archaic another word for capricious

funny (fn)

— adj , -nier , -niest
1. causing amusement or laughter; humorous; comical
2. ***peculiar; odd***"
-Dictionary.com, 2012-10-31 @ 12:21PM PST


The whole point being, they are suing someone for using their patent, whose own patented and licensed material was utilized as a visual aid in their patent application. This brings "fair use" into play. My opinion, for whatever it is worth, would be that the use of those specific visual aids wouldn't fall under "fair use" and could be used by Microsoft against the Patent Holders.

Now, I'm also not condoning the use by Microsoft of a Patented technique without first acquiring a license. But I've a general distaste for attempts at patenting method of producing GUI elements or generally trying to patent anything to do with a GUI, save perhaps for some proprietary technology that facilitates a more rapid and memory efficient method of displaying GUI elements. That would be an invention. There is nothing special about displaying a grid of "tiles" as a "Tile" could easily be considered a Border-less Child Window of a Multi-Document Interface (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_document_interface) being displayed in "Tiled" mode. Something that has existed possibility since Windows 3.0 released on May 22, 1990 (so would say the Might, but fallible WikiPedia) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiling_window_manager). Further, windows are sizable and their contents scale-able. So, MDI with border-less child windows scaled to fit the screen or some other bounds.

I again state, "I'm not FOR Microsoft(or anyone for that matter) using a patented technology or technique without first acquiring the license.". I do however suggest that it has already been patented under another name before and, in general, such "technologies" should not be patent-able in the first place.

My $0.02 is that the arrangement of GUI elements or categories of GUI elements, visual queues, etc. Should not be patent-able. I have, rather a strong opinion on the subject. So I'm going to end it here.
Space

North Star May Be Wasting Away 129

Posted by Soulskill from the julius-caesar-wanted-to-go-on-a-diet dept.
sciencehabit writes "The North Star, a celestial beacon to navigators for centuries, may be slowly shrinking, according to a new analysis of more than 160 years of observations. The data suggest that the familiar fixture in the northern sky is shedding an Earth's mass worth of gas each year."

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