3 ms·
How can one patent something so obvious as measuring how far away something is based on how long the signal takes to bounce back? That principle underlies...so
by williamscales 8y ago
How can one patent something so obvious as measuring how far away something is based on how long the signal takes to bounce back? That principle underlies...so many things.
Edit: I looked up the patent. Here it is: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8930045 https://patents.google.com/patent/US8930045. I understand that patents protect novel inventions and that under some standard this may be considered "novel". On the other hand, I myself have frequently used the technique of sending a signal, awaiting a response, and then using timing to derive the distance. It seems such an obvious application to this use case that there is nothing novel here.
- rachelbythebay 8y agoHmmm. 2013? I beat them by a year. http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2012/02/07/ping/ http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2012/02/07/ping/
- fjsolwmv 8y agoA few years before 2002: https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html
- db48x 8y agoYou just have to convince the patent examiner that it's not obvious. There's bound to be prior art (radar), so it could probably be invalidated if you want to spend the money on it, and you don't have some alternative ready to hand.