back to article Apple pushes patents for 3D avatar authoring

Apple is preparing to launch a 3D avatar app which could be a sign the Cupertino giant is ready to push its own gaming service. The company applied to patent the technology behind the app back in 2010, but the software is now in the final stages of development, according to Patently Apple, which dug up some images of the Apple …

COMMENTS

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  1. Oliver Mayes

    Prior art?

    That looks like either a Nintendo or xBox avatar, and the interface is almost identical to the once used in The Sime 2 & 3 to create your Sims.

    Only an idiot would think that this was in any way enforceable.

    1. The BigYin

      Re: Prior art?

      Never mind those, there has been ways to create "you" all the way back to basic GIF.

      Just because it is "3D" does not make any more "new" or "innovative".

      FFS - things like "Fuzzy Felt" have been doing this since the 1970s!

      Apple - take your patent and ram it!

    2. Richard 12 Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: Prior art?

      The Wii one for making Miis is 3D and practically identical, even down to the icons used!

      The only discernable difference is that the Wii one puts the user interface elements above and to the sides of the screen rather than below.

      If this actually got approved then it really should be the final nail in the USPTO office. It's way past time for it to be totally closed down for being utterly incapable of doing their job.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Prior art?

        Once again, I suspect Apple is banking on the USPTO taking their side against those evil foreigners and allowing them to claim that they invented it, therefore being able to block the sale of Nintendo products in the US.

      2. Craigness

        Close the USPTO?

        Bloomberg did a lengthy review of the patent wars recently and suggest that Apple's hoped-for Rounded Corner Monopoly is not as valuable as they thought they would be. Maybe getting the patent system shut down would actually help them now.

    3. Audrey S. Thackeray

      Re: Prior art?

      I assume that Friday booze is the only excuse for a lot of pillocking on about prior art from people who clearly have not read the patent application details.

      I've no idea if anyone else is using colour indexing to all for maintaining smooth colour gradients when the colour attribute of a single part is altered - they may well be in which case there may be prior art but I did this on my cell wall using my own faeces" doesn't count.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Prior art?

      Nope, been going on forever in many games and network sites.

      Maybe it is speculative, throw as much sh*t as possible and see what sticks.

  2. qwarty

    inventions?

    Anyone figured what Apple is claiming to have invented in these patents? Only took a quick look but didn't spot any wheat among the chaff.

  3. bobbles31

    Patenttards

    That is all.

  4. Jon Double Nice

    I'm totally gonna patent 4D avatars

    Which will be 3D avatars which are allowed to exist for more than one discrete moment of time, whether contiguous or otherwise.

    Step 3: Profit!

  5. g e
    Stop

    HAHAHAHA

    Any game that lets you mod a character... Mass Effect 1,2,3 anyone ?

    I bet they get awarded it, all the same... Useless Stupid Patent Troll Orifice

  6. thesykes

    I see what's new...

    It looks like this patent covers such new ideas as...

    100. White paper in a patent application

    190. underlining text in a patent application (possibly in conjuntion with 100)

    and

    114. applying a plaster (band aid) to the lobotomy scar of your typical Apple buyer

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sorry

    But there's no rational or polite way to say this,

    *enables cruise control*

    FUCK OFF AMERICA! YOU STUPID RETARDS YOU SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED A PATENT SYSTEM!

    Fuck.

  8. yossarianuk

    Prior art from 1990 (Amiga)

    I remember a game on the Amiga

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_(video_game)

    The Amiga version also had customisable content, this could be gained by sending a request to Core with details of the player and a passport photograph

    i.e - you sent the company a passport photo and they mailed (by post...) a disk back with your avatar (in 3D)

    p.s this game pre-dates Wolfenstien and the graphics knocked the hell out of that (because the Amiga was so far ahead..)

    p.p.s the Atari ST version didn't have this feature.....

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nintendo, Xbox, FFS people were building 3D avatars of themselves 15 years ago in VRML worlds.

  10. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
    FAIL

    3D????????

    3D????? When I saw "Apple pushes patents for 3D avatar authoring" I thought I was going to be some 3D ground breaking 3D holographic image.

    Instead..... ITS A FUCKING 2D IMAGE from the Wii with different POVs, lets see… THQ/Dawn of War had a very good implementation of this... in 2004... FFS how many games have implemented this in the past 10 years, I suppose they will all owe crApple royalties now..

  11. Wang N Staines

    This is about the level Apple operates at, these are the sort of craps that came out of Apple in the last 10 years.

  12. Brian 59

    BT

    BT also had a booth at the Millenium dome pre-wii, I think in conjunction with MS to create avatars for joe public that they would then be able to use in programs etc

  13. John70

    Prior Art

    With all this prior art over avatars, no doubt the brainless fuckwits at the USPTO will grant Apple the patent.

  14. LaeMing
    Flame

    Remember kids...

    ...It isn't whether the patent has any validity, it is whether you can afford to go one-on-many in a courtroom against a faceless mega-corp's lawers.

  15. Daniel B.

    Yet Another Stupid Patent

    IMVU

    Wii/Mii

    Second Life

    All of these allow you to do these avatars, and the patenty stuff e ven looks like something ripped off from the Wii's Mii. This is getting stupid!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Yet Another Stupid Patent

      I think the patent love fairy has been through down voting anyone that points out the USPTO is a piece of shit and all its members are prime candidates for the B ark

      I have a better example, REAL FUCKING LIFE, I'm pretty sure the world is full of 3 dimensional objects that represent us. We can put clothes on them, cut their hair, have surgery to change them, cut bits off of them, all sorts.

      It's obvious that we'd want to duplicate the experiance in alternate environments (and have been doing for millenia with story telling)

      Now, if Apple have made an amazing new camera that uses never before thought of technology that defies all common sense in "how to make a 3d image" then they should get a patent on their wonderful new technology, other wise they and the USPTO should fuck off and die.

      TBH I don't blame apple, they do what they do to maximise profits, it's the USA as a whole that allows such a worthless system to exist that I blaime. Of course companies will bs a patent system if they're allowed. The solution is simple, Patent offices should have to stand side by side with who evers patent is being tried and must pay 50% of all the costs for trying or upholding a patent, there should also be a very large fine for issuing patents that are later revoked.

      All the fines should go to encouraging science teaching at schools.

  16. Paul 129
    Big Brother

    Still waiting for a Dr Who episode

    On patent Trolls. A technically superior race comes to earth, n allows all its technology to be used under license. You find out that they're all a bunch of dullards who cant think for themselves, and are attracted by the latest shiny shiny, and the best thing they can aim for is to win big and get a small lot of land an retire (i.e. die n get buried). The evil genius in control, never came up with a new idea, they just patent all processes to death, make species dependant upon their technology and slowly strangle them with licenses, until they're just dumb comsumers.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Love" the site's tagline...

    "Celebrating Apple's Spirit of Invention"

    Spirit of Invention? My Arse!!!

  18. Steven Roper
    WTF?

    "Patently Apple"

    There's an entire fucking magazine devoted to Apple's patent portfolio?

    I had harboured some hope of humanity, but this tears it. I'm off to tell the lizard overlords that this planet needs to be destroyed. Now. For the good of the Universe.

  19. brain_flakes

    Design patent?

    This is a design patent and not a technology patent right? Right??

  20. Eguro

    The future is bright indeed!

    Welcome to the land of tomorrow (aka 10 years in the future):

    "Apple created avatars you idiot! Nobody did that before Apple!"

    I also like the fact that the avatar shown in the picture looks rather nervous about something.

  21. Alex Gollner
    Go

    The examples used in patent applications are designed to distract...

    ...to make sure that future plans remain hidden.

    Applicants usually use examples of the idea in an unrelated area. This leads to 90% of those bothering to read the patent not understand the implications.

  22. Grease Monkey Silver badge

    Yet another Apple patent that fails on the tests of prior art and obviousness and yet the patent will be granted and will remain valid right up until the point where Apple try to enforce it. Or more likely it will remain valid right up until the point where somebody successfully appeals against a case upholding the patent.

    One more time, the patent system has been broken since the days of Marconi (or if you prefer Lego) and since it wasn't fixed then it won't be fixed now.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    MS hasn't pulled have the crap that Apple have yet it got an Anti-trust law suit thrown at it.

    Why hasn't the US Government brought one yet? Because it's puppeteer doesn't want it.

  24. Gareth 18

    Hmm

    *checks date*

    APRIL FOOLS!

    1. Gareth 18

      Re: Hmm

      Except it was published yesterday. d'oh!

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