RSSMicrosoft Patents Borg Technology
By David Worthington | Published June 23, 2004, 9:06 PM
Researchers at Microsoft have devised a technique to assimilate the human body as a conduit for consumer electronics. How did Microsoft accomplish this feat? Electrodes attached to body use the skin as a system bus to transmit data and as a conductive medium to distribute power between devices. Microsoft's desired effect is to cut back on the I/O redundancy that results from when multiple devices attempt to communicate.
A glimpse of the exact technique used by Microsoft is outlined in United States patent number 6,754,472 and was awarded to Microsoft and its associates this past Tuesday.
"By exchanging data, e.g., as part of a network, a single data input or output device can be used by multiple portable devices, eliminating the need for each of the portable devices to have the same input/output device," the patent reads.
A Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews that the patent does map to any products that are out now and that there are no specific plans to use the technology; although, the patent brief was filed nearly four years ago.
"When referring to Microsoft's market success, I've heard some folks use the 'resistance is futile' phrase, referring to Star Trek aliens, the Borg. One way to look at the patent is cybernetics. After all, the body is electrical," said Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst with Jupiter Research.
The researchers who invented the technology behind patent are: Lyndsay Williams of Cambridge, GB; William Vablais of Woodinville, WA; and Steven N. Bathiche of Bellevue, WA.
Watch out for the blue screen of death ;)
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|I wonder if you could overclock yourself, and if so, how would that affect you?
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|I've always wanted a deeper, more personal relationship with my photocopier...
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|"One way to look at the patent is cybernetics."
Apparently, MSFT was asleep during the Terminator movies *rolls eyes*
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|This would literally make people hackable. All somebody would need to do is make contact with your skin (easy enough in a packed subway or some other similar situation, and you are immediately compromised in terms of security. Would we have to wear our firewalls?
Does this also mean that your dermatologist would have to be Microsoft Certified?
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|MS may have been granted a patent on this, but the basic technique has been around for years. MS may be first to market a product with it. (Think Xerox PARC with windows & Apple Lisa) One proposed use would be to exchange contact info when you shake someone's hand.
There is no (known) danger using this technique because of the ultralow frequencies involved.
I wonder what would happen to your electronic device the first time you get a good static electric shock?
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|Microsoft wants to create Borgs...
The Matrix is becoming a reality ... (Human Batteries)
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|"Electrodes attached to body use the skin as a system bus to transmit data and as a conductive medium to distribute power between devices."
I don't know about you but that just sounds dangerous to me. Is there any long-term side effects to this (eg. Cell-phone brain damage)? Surely they have tested this long-term wise. Personally, I would never trust Microsoft's Borg technology "playing with me".
And being awarded a patent for this...come on people. Why don't you just give them Nobel Prize for "World Domination"?
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|Microsoft has a Patent on borg technology?
OMG Emagen the future everyone is a borg. RUNNING WINDOWS! I meen everyone would be frezzing. And what about the blue screen of death... everyone starts choking and dies?
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|Not trying to be pedantic, but it's IMAGINE not EMAGEN, and MEAN not MEEN and FREEZING not FREZZING.
Red Dwarf
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|yeah
http://www.kepesifi.co.y...img/bill-gates-borg.gif
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|What won't microsoft come up with next? First they make an operatiing system that is identical to MAC's OS then they make a console to try overtaking sony's share in the console business. Now borg technology?
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|Identical to the MAC OS.... your kidding right?
If you want to go down that road... The MAC OS looks just like the original Xerox OS.
Please do remember that if it was not for MS, Apple would no longer exist. Many of you MAC people seem to forget the $51 million bail out from MS a few years ago.
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|I believe that was something to the tune of $150,000,000 (150 Million).
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|To add to what has already been said...
You mean Microsoft went into the console market to take over Sony's share? I do believe that Sega and Nintendo (as well as several before them) were around well before Sony ever stepped in.
People who rag on Microsoft just for being Microsoft annoy me.
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|don't get me wrong i like microsoft i run windows xp professional on my PC. but this technology there getting a patent on is a little extreme.
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|atari also was one of them, people just have short attention spans.
they forget who had the bigest market share before sony, nentendo,
my snes still gets more play then my ps2, for some strange reason...
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|You know, if I remember correctly, the money MS gave to Apple wasn't a big deal and was more symbolic then anything else. Apparently at the time, Apple had billions in cash reserves (though business wasn't so hot then, and they were in the red). What was a big deal was that MS was released MS Office for Mac. Huge deal for Apple in terms have having the world's most common document format being portable between Macs and PCs.
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|I don't think you all grasp what MS, or anyone else who would pursue this form of technology is going for. Lets say you have a pager watch that is capable of sending and receiving 2way text but obviously is too small for a keyboard, but since the watch makes contact with the skin it could interface with a pda in your hand to facilitate the typing of text messages. Not only does this simply contectivity immensly, it also offers reduced power consumption because these devices are not longer required to use radio of somesort to communicate (skin is a suprisingly efficient conductor)
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|can anyone say big brother, the mark of the beast or endtimes/revelations? think about it - if this were to become a common technology, ie cell phones, watches, etc., how much more control or knowledge would others have about us and how much less control would we have over our own lives? it's bad enough that andthing you do online can be tracked, there are video cameras everywhere looking at what you do and all your purchases via noncash payments are in a database trying to figure out who you are and will know what you're going to be next before you do. i'm not paranoid, really i'm not (*i know they're out to get us*.)
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|Your paranoia is well justified
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|It's a must have technology, another way to avoid putting a lot of cables (i.e. portable music player to earphones), but that Borg patent is going to be another Windows Only technology, that's what piss me off about MS.
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|The only person who has said anything sensible is "reverand". The patent is obviously not some crazy matrix style way to control and manipulate people and their bodies. Its simply to help elliminate excessive wiring and I/O adaptors.
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|There was already shockingly realistic movie made on this topic. "Ghost in the Shell" describes what could happen if Tech components start to replace human body part and everybody's mind can be hacked and rewritten.
People should definitely take couple of steps back before implementing this technology. I like to see the Borg ship as much as any SciFi fan, but only as a tourist.
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|Not so... as a Trade Secret, you would be correct, but then the technology/product is subject to reverse engineering (a.k.a. Coke-Cola). As a Patent, anyone who wishes to pay royalties can implement or improve the design (a.k.a. the light bulb).
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