Comments on: Canon wants your NFC smartphone as a DSLR screen in new patent application http://www.slashgear.com/canon-wants-your-nfc-smartphone-as-a-dslr-screen-in-new-patent-application-24121180/ Feeding Your Gadget and Tech Obsessions Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:23:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: AdamG http://www.slashgear.com/canon-wants-your-nfc-smartphone-as-a-dslr-screen-in-new-patent-application-24121180/#comment-84039 AdamG Fri, 24 Dec 2010 16:55:27 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=121180#comment-84039 Honestly, the patents I see on this site blow me away. The idea that you can take functionality that has been technically possible for years, even decades in this case, just never bothered with because it’s a little esoteric and not obviously a good idea, and patent that… I just don’t understand the usefulness of patents in these cases. It’s like these companies are too big for their own good: they would rather expend the energy on mining the playing field than playing the game well. (The game being making quality technological equipment.)

Here’s an idea for a patent for a flashlight manufacturer: Put a NFC chip it your flashlights, then have a smartphone app that can turn the flashlight on and off. It’s really no different than this this smartphone – camera patent.

Here’s an idea for a patent for a book publisher: Create a smartphone app that is used to take a picture of the page the person reading the book is on, analyze that picture, figure out what page that is, store that page number for future reference. Some might call it a bookmark, but it uses your phone! Patent it, quick!

I could go on all day with stupid ideas like that, and like this Canon patent.

]]>