Bill Gates Seeking Patent To Make Shakespeare Less Boring

theodp writes "GeekWire reports that Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold are seeking a patent on making textbooks less boring by using a cellphone or other device to scan text on a page, parse its meaning, and automatically create suitable accompanying video or pictures to keep students engaged. From the patent application for Autogenerating Video From Text: 'A student is assigned a reading assignment. To make the assignment more interesting, the student may use his or her mobile phone to take a picture of a page of the textbook. The systems and methods described herein may then generate a synthesized image sequence of the action occurring in the text. Thus, rather than simply reading names and dates, the student may see soldiers running across a battlefield.' Furthermore, the patent explains, the experience may be tailored to a user's preferences: 'For example, in a video clip about a Shakespearean play, the preference data may be used to insert family members into the video clip instead of the typical characters.'"

I want it for

[e70838]

the integral collection of Marquis de Sade [wikipedia.org]

I used their patent to learn using Windows

[ctrl-alt-canc]

Learning to use Windows is quite boring, so I used their invention to make the task most interesting. I scanned the textbook, but the system returned me a boring image, with the pixels of the very same colour. I guess it is suggesting me to think about the sky or the sea, but I do not understand why...

Literal Adaptation

[gsslay]

I used this autogenerated video already for my study of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

That's how I know about his brave fight against a sea monster called Fortune, despite having come under heavy fire from arrows and sling shots.

Strange that they always cut that bit out of the film adaptations, I thought it was the most exciting part of the play, even though it didn't seem to make much sense.

Re:A patent on making textbooks less boring?

[jythie]

'Wish' is right. This might make a nice bit of speculative fiction, maybe the core of some future story about a dystopian eduction system where the heroin discovers that evil people have altered the universal animation program to deliver subconscious ads for soyelnt green into the minds of impressionable youth causing an increase in demand for human flesh resulting in a sharp population decline allowing the villains to buy up all the twinky factories before a radioactive comet hits the earth (which they have been suppressing) allowing only them to live. Add a cute side kick and a puppy and we have next summer's blockbuster movie... all thanks to Bill Gates and his wonderful imagination.

Re:A patent on making textbooks less boring?

[arth1]

If all patents were like software patents, the perpetuum mobile would have been successfully patented a long, long time ago.

Like US 6,362,718 [google.com] and US 6,867,514 [google.com], you mean?

Re:Catastrophically awful idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Original Romeo and Juliet Balcony Scene:
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief (5)
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.

Translation:
Look at that lady up there. That bitch be fly!

Re:Prior art again Bill!

[Notabadguy]

It's not prior art that concerns me, it's the intentional rewriting of history.

History 101, post Bill-Gates Video Learning:

Final Exam Essay: Describe the Battle of Waterloo:

In 1815, an Imperial French army under the command of Emperor Jean-Claude Van Damm was defeated by the armies of the Dirrrty South, comprised of a coalition of Lil Jon and East Side Boyz, Britney Spears, and Leonidas' 300. Emperor Van Damm's Universal Soldiers blitzkrieged the 300, who's phalanx withstood repeated attacks until Lil Jon got crunk up in there and broke through and skeeted up the French lines. Britney Spears' forces then hit that baby one more time.

Citation: Video textbook.