6 ms·

Not just suing, they have an injunction and at the moment you can't buy a saw in the USA with Bosch's REAXX technology, which actually works quite differently t

• Sniffnoy 9y ago
  Clarification: If I'm understanding this right, the stopping the saw works differently, but the detection works the same.
  • randyrand 9y ago
    So they are patenting capacitive sensing in the context of detecting a finger? you know, like a touchscreen? Wow. The USPO fucking sucks. For the record, I don't even know how the sensing actually works in the saws. I'm just guessing because its fricken OBVIOUS.
    • joosters 9y ago
      So many things seem obvious after they are explained. Fact is, no-one had built this kind of thing before sawstop. If it were so obvious, how come only one company did it?
      • GauntletWizard 9y ago
        Because they got a patent right as the technology became feasible.
        • joosters 9y ago
          Really? Which bits of the technology were infeasible prior to this?
          • jessaustin 9y ago
            2004 was a long time ago. Can we just assume for the sake of discussion that the state of the art in electronic devices was different then?
            • joosters 9y ago
              We're talking about a small piece of circuitry that detects a current. This was possible in 2004, it was hardly the dark age of electronics back then. Besides, the more complex part of the sawstop, at least to my eyes, is the part where you have to stop a big metal blade from spinning very fast ASAP. Just putting some brake pads on it like a bicycle wheel is not going to be good enough.
              • balfirevic 9y ago
                Poster above said that the stopping works differently in Bosch saw.
              • jononor 9y ago
                Any electric motor can be ran as a generator, which can be used to do electronic braking. It is the foundation for regenerative braking on electric cars and often used on big trailer trucks as the primary braking system.
            • logfromblammo 9y ago
              The theremin, a device for detecting fingers using capacitative coupling, was patented in 1928. It output an analog audio signal, where pitch indicated proximity of one hand, and volume indicated proximity of the other. The children's game Operation used an effective means to detect when the game's forceps contact the metal chassis. Can we assume that the difficult and novel part of the invention is not generating the sensor signal, but acting upon it quickly enough?
      • rasz 9y ago
        >So many things seem obvious after they are explained but randyrand guessed (I assume correctly, its so obvious I didnt bother checking, googling now ... yep capacitive coupling) without prior explanation. This is one of those 'X, but on a smartphone' patents.
        • joosters 9y ago
          Are there other tools that detect fingers and stop heavy machinery instantly? Did they exist prior to sawstop? Just because someone can guess how an invention works doesn't mean it was obvious, you've also got the benefit of being told of the idea in the first place. It's an invention that saves over ten life-changing injuries a day, if it was so inherently obvious, why did no-one else think of it before? So many comments on here seem to focus on the electrical side of the patent, yet it's only part of the invention. There's also the non-trivial discovery of how to safely stop the fast spinning blade instantly.
          • mohaine 9y ago
            The REAXX saw uses a completely different method to stop the blade so it is the electrical side of the patent that is being used to stop the only other example. Also, the electrical side of the patent seems to be the most obvious. Detecting touch on metal has been around for > 30 year. Seems like the obvious way to answer the question of how to tell if somebody is touching a metal blade.
      • logfromblammo 9y ago
        Why aren't there more theremin players? Just because the tech exists doesn't mean it will be popular or economical.
• raverbashing 9y ago
  It would be fun if Bosch countersued with some of their patents (but I guess most of table saw patents are expired now) Yes, this seems like rent-seeking on SawStop so they can go and eat a sausage. As a sibling comment said, detecting the finger is the obvious part (and there should be ample prior art)
  • syrrim 9y ago
    They aren't suing based on the finger detection - they're suing based on the retraction method.
• kashkhan 9y ago
  if he really cared about fingers, he would sell the patent for a million and save thousands of fingers a year. Just like volvo gave up the three point belt patent for public interest.