Last Friday saw a major shot fired at overly-abstract tech patents as Google, Facebook, Zynga, and several other companies filed an amicus brief with the US Court of Appeals on the case CLS v Alice.

Image via Robert Scoble

One of the traditional problems plaguing the tech sector has been the ease with which patents can be acquired for fairly basic ideas, without requiring the same kind of rigour as patents based more in real life products.

Many computer-related patents claims just describe an abstract idea at a high level of generality and say to perform it on a computer or over the Internet. Such barebones claims grant exclusive rights over the abstract idea itself, with no limit on how the idea is implemented. Granting patent protection for such claims would impair, not promote, innovation by conferring exclusive rights on those who have not meaningfully innovated, and thereby penalizing those that do later innovate by blocking or taxing their applications of the abstract idea.

Further, Google stressed that the abstract patents filed by Alice, the defendant in the original case, did not meet the standards for inventiveness as required by Mayo v Prometheus, pointing out that the company’s patents only:

• Add obvious steps
• Add non-specific steps
• Limit ideas to one environment, aka the computer
• Lack details in the patent, such as the machine the process is performed on.

You can read the full brief here.

If the appeal goes through, this could give a massive leg up to smaller players in the tech sector, as well as be great for future online innovation; after all, as the brief points out, “… ideas are much easier to come by than working implementations.” However, that’s a big if since there is already an entire other part of the industry with a vested interested in retaining control of their abstract patents, as well as a lot of money tied up in them. The prognosis is looking good though, since the US Patent Office just invalidated the infamous Steve Jobs patent on multi-touch interfaces on Friday.

Do you think Google and Co. have a winnable case? Share your thoughts below!

Again, it looks like the barriers between science fiction and real world science are blurring. I’ve just been reading up on several news stories about 3D printers being used to create, wait for it… human body parts.

Yep in a few years’ time your doctor might not be printing you a prescription for joint pain medication, he might just print you a new joint instead. Ok, creating a whole joint might be a long way off, but replacement cartilage could be here pretty soon.

Researchers have just published details of a method using a modified ink-jet printer with a special spinning machine to create artificial cartilage.

The system builds the cartilage up with a chemical polymer spun into very fine fibres. These fibres are then coated with live cartilage cells. The major benefit of the process is that it can produce porous artificial cartilage which is capable of merging with the surrounding tissue. Human trials are still quite a long way off, but the technology does show promise.

While the cartilage might not be ready for use in humans, doctors have used 3D printing technology to create a titanium jaw bone for a Dutch woman. Is anyone else thinking X-Men here?

The bone is a pretty complex piece of engineering with moving parts and grooves for nerves and veins to grow into. It was designed on computer and then made with titanium power melted together layer-by-layer with a special 3D laser printer. As it takes 33 layers to build up 1mm, you can imagine how many layers were actually needed.

And it’s not just joints that doctors are looking to print; there are plans to use 3D printers to help make internal organs. One of the main challenges involved in constructing artificial organs is incorporating blood vessels; if you don’t get blood to the tissue it’s just going to die.

US researchers believe they may have a potential solution. The idea to use a 3D printer to build the blood vessel structure out of sugar, grow the cells around the structure, then dissolve the sugar leaving behind a vascular system capable of carrying blood throughout the organ.

These technologies obviously open up possibilities for incredible new medical treatments. However, as I’m a scaremongering technophobe terrified of a robot apocalypse, I do have to point out that it also opens the door for the possibility for an evil artificial intelligence to build a human looking cyborg army. It might call them Terminators or something… just saying…

Should a line be drawn as to what’s an acceptable level of technology to be incorporated into the human body? Or should doctors be free to push the boundaries of what’s possible? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts.

Image via nooccar on Flickr

Many parents wish to instil a love of reading in their children, but with so much competition for children’s attention in today’s fast-paced world, it can be more difficult than ever to get them to sit down and focus on a book.

A new iPad app called Bookboard may provide a solution to the book vs. technology dilemma by tapping into kids’ love of shiny, interactive tablets and other devices to promote an interest in reading. Bookboard works on a model similar to that of Netflix, Lovefilm and other video streaming sites, but in place of films and television shows allows parents and kids access to a library of digital picture books.

The brainchild of colleagues Nigel Pegg and Fang Chang – both former executives at Adobe -  Bookboard doesn’t include games, widgets or other special features that would distract from the simple joy of reading a book. However, it is designed to encourage kids to read through what Pegg calls “an addictive chain reading experience” – that is, the more kids read, the greater the number of books they can access, a set-up which will also appeal to any young reader with a slight competitive streak.

The Bookboard app launched last week and will remain in beta until early next year, at which point the service will become paid via a monthly subscription. In the meantime, children and their parents can try out the app for free, with access to a library that currently offers around 300 children’s books from publishers including Twin Sisters, Bubblegum Books, Charlesbridge, Illumination Arts and Orca.

It will be interesting to see if Bookboard can successfully provide a decent range of material at a competitive price once it switches to the paid model. Other companies, such as Oyster and 24symbols, are attempting to develop a subscription-based model for ebook lending for adults, but so far the process seems to have snagged on a number of issues.

Chief amongst these is how authors will be paid for their books’ inclusion in such systems – developers are still debating the issue with publishers, who in many cases have yet to be convinced of the financial advantages of taking part. Bookboard and 24symbols both pay royalties to publishers based on the number of pages read and the popularity of their content on the app, but so far the number of titles available is relatively limited (24symbols currently offers around 1000).

For the systems to properly take off, publishers would have to recognise the marketing value of an ebook lending service in placing books before a new audience of readers. This is what the developers at Oyster hope will occur – that publishers will realise the usefulness of a platform that circumvents the Amazon bestseller lists (which currently are the main driver for ebook traffic) and exposes their content to a wider audience of readers who can be further influenced through social recommendations and suggestions based on their previous reading history.

Hopefully Bookboard will find a way to build on early enthusiasm from parents and convince more publishers to come on board, as in theory it sounds like the perfect means by which to mobilise the educational potential of iPads and other gadgets to encourage, rather than distract from traditional reading.

More information on Bookboard and how to sign up to try the app in its beta stage is available on the Bookboard website.

Do you think an app like Bookboard will encourage kids to read more? Would you sign up for an ebook streaming service?

Image via topgold

Doesn’t it seem like only yesterday that everyone gathered around the laptop to enjoy a Windows 7 party? Well it wasn’t. That was ages ago and if you’re still enjoying the post party glow then you are out of date . All the cool kids are desperately searching for a new operating system like an addict in need of a fix.

So before you go crazy and start experimenting with Linux, Windows 8 has arrived to make it all better, but is it really better? Well let’s find out from some experts. What do you say experts?

The Guardian

So for Microsoft, Windows 8 is a huge leap forward – and yet it’s doing it while holding all the baggage of the “old” Windows going back decades. Expect some cries of pain in the weeks and months to come as people adjust. However, viewed more broadly, it couldn’t do anything else: the desktop paradigm is getting tired, and the tiles approach is fresh and quickly becomes intuitive. In a few years, taking a trip down to the Morlocks’ level may feel like a fleeting visit to a long-forgotten friend: so much to talk about, but much more important things to do elsewhere.

Slash Gear

Windows 8 is beautiful, it’s fast, and most importantly, it’s easy to use (once you get through that initial rough patch of adjusting to the changes, at least). Microsoft only made changes where they would matter, and has left much of the Windows we know and love untouched. The company deserves a pat on the back for that one, because it realized that not everything about Windows needed to be completely revamped in this latest release.

Neowin

If you are willing to put aside how you expect Windows to operate and open yourself to the new workflow, Windows 8 has a lot to offer both tablet and traditional PC users. But, you can’t overlook that the learning curve is far steeper than the previous iterations of Windows and that may cause unrest among those who are stuck in the ways of yesterday.

CRN

Microsoft’s rethinking of Windows offers an adequate UI for tablets, and with changes in the release version, it’s no longer so terribly different from Windows 7 as to be unusable. The best scenario we came across for using Windows 8 in the office was to run it with two monitors, using one monitor for the Start screen and the other for the desktop. That way, live tiles continue to inform us of trending hashtags, incoming messages and upcoming appointments while we remain productive with apps on the desktop.

Gizmodo

Using Windows 8 is pleasant, especially if you don’t have to do anything in a particular hurry. It’s a totally new way of thinking about how you want to operate in a desktop OS—and maybe not entirely in the way you think. But it also seems like a rough draft of a deeply interesting idea.

Are you looking forward to the new interface that Windows 8 provides? Tell us in the comments section below. 

Wow! You can change a can of beer into the FA Cup! Even the most die hard football fan would download the app, try it and uninstall it quickly because it isn’t worth the precious space on your smartphone.

Not all AR is like this of course. One of the biggest impacts it’ll have in the future is on the retail market. Whether it’s a magazine or at a bus stop, expect to see people pull out their smartphone to look at an ad. Here are some great examples of AR put to good use.

Do you think Augmented Reality is a tech fad? What do you think of the videos? Tell us in the comments section below.

In a move that could spell the end of untended baggage maverick Spanish innovator Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez has dreamt up a suitcase with a difference – it will follow its owner around!

Dogged

With a size format of as typical ‘carry on’ case visually, there is little to distinguish the “Hop!” from other bags with one exception: there is no handle. Manual manipulation is not required as this piece of luggage is able to move itself.

The bag will follow its owner around, in the manner of a loyal dog. It is fitted with a caterpillar track similar to those found on tanks, so it should also be able to traverse the most hostile airport departure lounge without hindrance.

Bluetooth

In tracking its owner, the Hop! robot suitcase makes clever use of Bluetooth technology. Receivers in the bag connect to the owner’s mobile phone,  which can be used to give it commands.

Obedience

Not only will the moving suitcase follow its owner, it is also able to follow commands. It can be told to ‘stay,’ and it can also be told to follow another person, for instance: a member of airport staff or hotel bellhop.

hop! the following suitcase from rodrigo garcía on Vimeo.

Finalist

The Hop! has been selected as a finalist for the prestigious James Dyson Awards. These are awarded for outstanding product design and invention. Hopefully this will help give the inventor the profile that they need to put a manufacturing operation into place.

What previously inanimate object would you like to be able to follow you around? Comment below!

Yes my friends, me and my anti-robot agenda are back with a vengeance. My apologies for being off the grid for quite some time, but I’ve had serious matters to attend to. I’ve actually been engaged in a little empire building, specifically building my robot killing hamster army into a formidable force; running recruitment drives, fitting them with miniature tinfoil hats and holding boot camps (complete with rows upon rows of heavyweight hamster wheels) and such. I’m glad to say I’ve moulded them into a crack team operating like a well-oiled machine… ok that’s a lie. They’re actually more of an insane rabble of little furry rabid berserkers, but fearsome nonetheless.

Now don’t you worry I have still been keeping tabs on all the most disturbing robot related news out there on the interweb. The most troublesome story to have caught my eye involves the US Navy developing fire fighting robots to work on their ships.

Developed by RoMeLa , the Shipboard Autonomous Fire-Fighting Robots (SAFFiR) are designed to be able to fight on-board fires which it’s particularly dangerous for humans to tackle. They’ll have an advanced sensor array, be impervious to smoke, extremely heat resistant and capable of using hoses.

On the surface building shipboard fire fighting robots may seem like a fine endeavour, but let’s just step back and think about this for a minute. Hollywood teaches us that the most likely cause of the extinction of the human race would be a robot apocalypse. So, when the robots eventually do turn against us, do we really want them aboard Navy warships? And what if they’re put on submarines carrying nuclear weapons?

To my (paranoid delusional) mind it just looks like the military is planning to put its most dangerous potential enemy right in amongst some of its most important strategic assets, not only that but to give this terrifying enemy access to some of the most powerful weapons on the planet. I’d just like to know which egghead genius had that idiotic idea.

There is actually another grave problem which makes this development even more troubling: hamsters can’t swim. Oh, such a cruel twist of fate; I spend months recruiting and training the most devastating anti-robot fighting force in the history of the world and they’ll be no use at all against robots at sea. Alas, a visionary hero’s work is never done… hmmm… otters maybe?

Oh, and as an obvious ploy to curry favour with the public and mask the obvious dangers of putting robots on warships RoMeLa have been telling anyone who’ll listen that the new robots are inspired by C-3PO, the bumbling harmless robot from Star Wars. Take a look at the photo below and tell me if you can see the resemblance?

What do you think of this plan to put fire fighting robots on warships? Do you have any ideas on how to defeat seafaring killer robots? Let us know in the comments box below.

Japan gave the world the haiku, and later the modern video game. The modern video game then gave us gamification, and enriched all of our lives. Now my gift for you, Japan:

Gamification.
Game form recasts, enlivens
the mundane, the dull.

All leaps forward in human civilisation draw their detractors. But in recent times gamification has confirmed its place in modern life as an entirely necessary, and zero-per-cent-superfluous pursuit. So what’s new in this vital and exciting sphere?

First stop, a choice gamification example from the motherland…

Charging your phone?

An everyday routine… No! It’s a game…

First watch – I didn’t understand, and was startled by mishearing profanity at 1:05 – “a what kind of championship”? It’s a Plug-in Championship.

Second watch and it becomes apparent that the goal is to time your ‘plug in’ to coincide with the meter being at its highest – much like timing your swing in that golf game. Hours of fun.

The life-about-town of an attractive young woman?

It’s a game!

Over to the USA (or an augmented reality version thereof):

Welcome to Cachetown, an “event-based scavenger hunt that utilises location-based augmented reality to put you at the heart of the action”, and most importantly lets you ‘win stuff’. Watch this space, I’m tipping an evolved version of this start up for success…

It’s free and rewards players with prizes, a tried-and-tested formula that works with people just as it does for dogs. And add to the mix huge potential for location-based advertising and brand promotion.

The simple chore of commuting?

Ripe for a game!

Sticking in the Land of the Free, Waze aims to unhitch drivers from the losing time to traffic snarl ups whilst collecting points and fuel coupons.

Waze rode a wave of good fortune following the recent Apple Maps debacle. Tipped by Tim Cook as a worthy alternative in his public apology, and promoted in the App Store, the Wall Street Journal reported a 40% increase in downloads of the free app.

What gamed-up apps and services do you like?

Let us know with a comment below

We’re always on the hunt for the most excellent and innovative projects on Kickstarter. This month, five projects that draw our attention…

I’ve recently pledged for the I Draw Comics project, so I am obviously a big fan of the platform! Looking through different categories is almost like an on-line shopping. It gives you a great opportunity to find very unique products and ideas that often haven’t been invented before. Have a look at this month’s selection and let us know what is your favourite project!

Multiplo deigned an open source system to build robots.  According to the project founder,  learning about building robots has been restricted to the elite for too long. With the introduction of the project, Multiplo hopes to make robotics more accessible and easier to learn. Project has already been founded so you need to be quick to get your robot mechanics kit!

iExpander is a product we’ve been waiting for a very long time. It works as an iPhone cover, but it also expands the battery life as well as memory with an external SD card. It improves the picture quality taken in a low light by introducing separate LEDs built into the case. I’ve seen similar products but never as a one device. I just really hope it will be also available for the iPhone5.

Symbio from Daniel Wee is a great little tool to make the most of your iPhone and Mac computer. The app transforms your phone into a remote controller that allows you to control games, video and system functions, browse and open applications and much more. Any keyboard short cut can be assigned to a ‘button’ on your phone allowing you to be faster and more productive.

Learning another language can be difficult, and we all know that. John Perry created PolyKeys.com, a free service that teaches you how to type in multiple languages. You can already try it yourself with the demo version available. I don’t think it can be used as the only tool for learning a foreign language, but it definitely works as a great addition to more traditional methods.

Though this particular project isn’t at all related to technology, I thought it was a great idea. The Ostrich Pillow is a solution to all of us dreaming of taking a nap after the lunch break at work. According to the research, by taking a 20 minutes power nap you can improve your productivity and concentration at work. It isn’t like any other travel pillow or eye mask, and it looks like a lot of thinking went into the design.

Share your favourite Kickstarter projects with us! Follow the conversation on Twitter and Facebook and comment in the section bellow.

Last week the BBC show Horizon aired an episode entitled “How Big is the Universe”, quite simply, it was mind boggling.

Image via NASA

Our sun is in a galaxy (the Milky Way) of nearly half a trillion stars, that’s around 400 billion or 400 thousand million or 400,000,000,000.

In the observable universe there are 170 billion galaxies (170,000,000,000). And that’s just the observable universe; even with an infinitly powerful telescope we could still only see light which has had time to reach us. When we look at the closest star to our sun, Proxima Centauri, which is around 4.2 light years away, we are actually seeing light from 4.2 years in the past.

The further away we look, the older the light is which we’re looking at. The universe is around 13.7 billion years old, so the furthest we could possible see is 13.7 billion light years away. From our vantage point we can see 13.7 billion light years in every direction, making our observable universe a ball with a diameter of 27.4 billion light years (oh and just remember a light year is 5,878,625,000,000 miles). In that ball there are approximately 6.8e+22 stars. I have no idea what that means so here’s that number again with just the zeros:  68,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

When numbers start to get really large it becomes impossible to actually wrap your mind their scale. Looking at that approximated number of stars in the universe, it feels impossible to imagine anything larger.

However, on the BBC show, a couple of astronomers used geometry and complex science stuff involving fluctuations in the universe’s microwave background to try and figure out how big the universe actually is. The method involved plotting a triangle and measuring the angles of the triangle; if the angles added up to more than 180 degrees we would know the universe was curved and could work out the size of the universe.

It turns out that the universe appears to be flat. Now the word flat seems weird to use after we’ve talked about the observable universe being a ball with a diameter of 27.4 billion light years, a better description might be that the universe is not curved.

So, just what does it matter if the universe is curved or not? Well if the universe is not curved the simplest explanation would be that it is, in fact, infinite. Basically, it just keeps on going in every direction, galaxy after galaxy after galaxy. The theory goes that there is no quantifiable number of galaxies, stars and planets; there are just more.

So just to scale this back:

• Imagine sitting on a beach containing billions of grains of sand
• Then try and imagine how small that beach is in relation to the country it is in
• Then try and imagine how small that country is in relation to the planet
• Then try and image how small the earth is in comparison to the sun and how far away it is (it would fit inside about 1.3 million times and it would take around 11,735 earths lined-up to reach the sun)
• Now consider that there are approx. 400,000,000,000 stars in our galaxy
• Then consider that the stars actually look tiny in comparison to the distances between them
• Now consider that there are 170,000,000,000 galaxies in the observable universe
• And that galaxies look tiny compared to the distances between them
• Finally consider that it looks like there are an infinite number of galaxies in the universe

To help illustrate the vastness of the Milky Way check out this video:

Do you believe the universe is actually infinite? If it is, does that meant that everything that could conceivable exist does exist? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.