#TechBytes: 5 amazing technologies patented this month
What's the story
Every month, tens of thousands of technologies/systems are patented with the goal of augmenting human capabilities, simplifying lives.
Only some of them make it to the real world, but they all highlight the future of modern-day tech.
December was no different, but thanks to TNW, we've now got five most interesting patents from a batch of nearly 30,000.
Let's take a look.
Patent #1
3D web surfing from Amazon
The first patent comes from Amazon and envisions a future of 3D web.
Yes, the e-commerce giant has envisioned a system that could let you browse web pages with three-dimensional elements, appearing at different heights and depths.
The idea sounds a bit weird but could prove handy by doing things like protruding important parts of an article and recessing less important elements like ads.
Patent #2
'Liveness' detection from Facebook
Facial recognition technologies are good, but in order to make them even better, Facebook has patented a system of 'liveness' detection.
With this, the system will look for natural signs of a 'live' three-dimensional face, including things like blinking or smiling.
This way, biometric security could improve a lot and eliminate the risk of facial recognition bypass using photos/videos of a registered face.
Patent #3
'Connected' shin pads for soccer
Nike has patented 'connected' shin pads to take the game of soccer to a whole new level.
These guards would be equipped with haptic devices or motors connected to a wireless transmitter in the hands of the team's manager.
This way, they'd be able to trigger different levels of vibrations denoting different movement signals to the players, maybe even to the entire team.
Patent #4
Weather-based food suggestions
Sometimes weather defines the type of food you want and IBM knows that very well.
The company has filed a patent for a system, which would use your local weather data and an Artificial Intelligence system, dubbed Chef Watson, to suggest different food items in the form of ads.
It would use weather data and previous ad responses to pitch highly relevant food, beverages.
Patent #5
Artificial reef data centers
Owing to the burden of pollution and overfishing, coral reefs and the aquatic species dependent on them are dying.
However, Microsoft has filed a patent to change that with the help of a especially-designed reef data center anchored to the ocean floor.
It would use water as a heat sink to remove heat, regenerating reefs and allowing marine life to grow and flourish.