Microsoft Patents Bad Neighborhood Detection 317
PolygamousRanchKid writes with these lines culled from InformationWeek: "With the grant of their US Patent #8090532 Microsoft may be attempting to corner the market on GPS systems for use by pedestrians, or they may have opened a fertile ground for discrimination lawsuits. ... Described as a patent on pedestrian route production, the patent describes a two-way system of building navigation devices targeted at people who are not in vehicles, but still require the use of such a device to most efficiently route to their destination. ... For example, the user inputs their destination and any constraints or requirements they might have, such as a wheelchair accessible route, types of terrain they are willing to cross, the option of public transportation, and a way point such as the nearest Starbucks on the route. Any previously configured preferences are also considered, such as avoiding neighborhoods that exceed a certain threshold of violent crime statistics (hence the description of this as the 'avoid bad neighborhoods' patent), fastest route, most scenic, etc." Having lived in some high-crime neighborhoods, the actual feature (versus the patent) sounds like a great idea to me.
Re:Very subjective (Score:5, Funny)
You live in Baltimore?
Re:Very subjective (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Very subjective (Score:2, Funny)
Add accelerometers and detect "GPS A approaches GPS B - sudden impact accelerations - GPS B begins sharing coordinates with GPS A". Block GPS A and update violent crimes map (also, call 911).
Re:Philadelphia (Score:4, Funny)
Sorry, but Detroit called 'dibs'.
Re:Very subjective (Score:4, Funny)
Modded funny, but as someone who just recently moved to BalDimore from the midwest, this is more insightful.
My wife and I relied heavily on our GPS units to find places when we first got here. We would joke that the software seemed to have a "get crack" option enabled, as it routed us through some fairly scary neighborhoods.