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| Authored by: Marc Mengel on Monday, June 11 2012 @ 12:02 AM EDT |
I've run lots of software over the years -- in my head, with pencil and paper as
assistance. This is the usage that makes it most clearly mathematics.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: jonathon on Monday, June 11 2012 @ 03:22 AM EDT |
>there's definitely hardware involved generating the input,
there would be no software without some fairly-specific hardware.
That "fairly specific hardware' and "software" would be the
chicklet keyboards from circa 1985, which, if one took the time to learn how to
make the specific gestures, enabled data entry the same way that SWYPE does.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 11 2012 @ 07:06 AM EDT |
The hardware is not aimed at performing the specific task which the software
accomplishes. That's what makes the difference, and the distinguisher between a
general purpose computing device and one that is not. The whole software (and
not parts of it) plus the hardware would be patentable.
A washing machine with control software might be patentable. It's aimed at
washing and not to do anything else, and the software is aimed at making that
possible. (Still, the software itself would be maths, and could not be patented
- only the whole thing)
A general device with a touchscreen which can be used in a myriad of forms, of
which the software creators choose to represent a keyboard image on it, is not a
device aimed at acting as a keyboard. The whole software does not consist just
on the input part, and should therefore not be patentable separately.
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| Authored by: jesse on Monday, June 11 2012 @ 07:09 AM EDT |
No device there:
A keyboard image - already an abstract mathematical representation.
a way to track the finger doing the swiping - already patented as the touch
pad.
a way to display results - again already patented.
So exactly what is patented? an abstraction (the "swipe") of an
abstraction (the sequence of locations from the touch pad which are nothing but
an array of Cartesian coordinates--- ooh more mathematics!)?[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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