Completely pointless
Stinky nerds don't have friends to avoid........
Google has been granted a patent on a device to detect when a person stinks – to help them evade others to avoid embarrassment. We would like to say that this is a loose interpretation of a more complicated patent, but that really is all there is to it: the web ad giant wants to tell when you flat out reek and how you can …
A couple of possibilities come to mind:
1. Google engineers have an unofficial competition to see who can get the daftest idea through the IP department as far as a patent;
2. It's an ironic statement by Google on how much the US patent system stinks.
If it's not a joke then somebody really has lost their marbles!
"a variety of sensors (such as body temperature and heart rate) to detect when the wearer might be getting smelly ... the possibility of perspiration and odour ..."
Could be useful for folks getting a 'bit on the side' who don't want to be seen by their gossipy friends ...
Or those who, by all evidence, swam through a moat of dollar-a-gallon eau de fuqme on the way to work? Or the wondrous breakroom aroma of microwaved casserole de who-knows-what that inevitably wafts throughout the building? Sorry, I think our culture has gone overboard in expecting people -- biological meatsacks -- to have zero aroma, must be the work of the cosmetics industry. (Not that I'm excusing those whose last meeting with a bar of soap was last week, mind.)
A long, long time ago (pre WW II) most average joes just walked around smelly and didn't worry about body odor too much. Then along came the Ad industry who convinced everybody that they stank and that anti-perspirant was the answer.
Would be kinda fitting for the Big G to carry on this fine tradition, but in a shinier, high tech fashion. Can't wait to see the apps.
Me first, so here we go: AnBoDetect, ISmell, and IPong (all Registered Trademarks of AC Enterprises)
"So there's no indication that the device will ever be prototyped,"
In which case, tell them to piss off. If you want to patent a physical invention, a minimum requirement ought to be to produce at least one working prototype within some reasonable time period or the patent expires. Otherwise your effectively patenting a theory.