Google Glass with privacy shutter that only opens when filming or taking pictures
Ever since the ruckus over Google Glass privacy went into overdrive Ric has been wondering what all the commotion is about.
All you need is a retractable cover or what he calls a "privacy shutter" that makes it easily discernible when the camera is being used.
"It's such an easy fix, I assumed Google would have solved it on the spot... but weeks went by and I decided to fix the problem myself" said Mr Richardson.
His patent also covers the use of audio by Glass as a privacy concern. "I think the Glass concept is so important it would be a shame to see it crippled by social concerns when they can be so easily addressed by a technology fix. I want to use Glass in a theater, to get access to heads up ancillary information while watching a movie, without being questioned as to whether I am secretly pirating the film."
Ric plans to hand his work off to businessmen as soon as the technology is polished and ready for presentation to interested parties. Pictures from the patent drawings are available to the media upon request.
From time to time Di and I catch up. Her Uncle and I were deep long time friends and I couldn't help but be adopted into the family as a kind of distant cousin.
Even though Di is a popular author with no reputation as a technologist she is always exploring interesting issues and one she keeps coming back to is the NBN. Way back when I first came home she introduced me to Janelle Saffin (an MP from the Page/ Lismore area) to weigh in as a technologist on the value of the NBN. Janelle kindly introduced me to Stephen Conroy in an attempt to help him sell full motion full screen video conferencing as the NBN's killer app... as anyone who has experienced it knows, once you've used it you never want to go back... but that was 2009 and the killer app is still not being explained...
But back to Di.
I have always encouraged her to expose her scenic and insightful Australian bent on writing popular novels (especially with the ladies... my wife loved Barra Creek) to the Americans and I'm glad to report she is in Amazon now which is a great toe hold for her...
What a great design. A modular vehicle (see article) that allows multiple pods (or Ants as Cherry Automotive of China calls them) that can fit together in transit to make city driving more efficient...
Management of wild and pest animals that compete with Livestock for water and pasture is a constant problem in much of Australia. Eco sensitive land management supporters have found that when naturally arid properties (ie very little naturally occurring surface water) are allowed to dry out (by temporary de-stocking and plugging of bore water) the numbers of wild and pest animal populations also decrease.
The system devised by Ric Richardson takes advantage of this phenomena with a smart bore water trough that does visual animal recognition and only allows livestock to access water. The trough has a grid that is removed when livestock approaches but is replaced and stays in place when other unrecognized animals approach.
This process allows the normal attrition that occurs in nature, to regulate wild or pest category animals while allowing livestock to thrive using a more efficient water management system.
The grate swivels out of the way on animal approach using a solar powered motor. A medium range radio frequency warning system alerts station personal to maintenance or failure issues. The surveillance system is stand alone and low cost. A prototype would include a wireless communications system to fine tune animal recognition and remote reporting capability.
The patent for this technology is available as is supporting documentation and design notes.
A Chinese translation of all documents is also now available.
Is this poll proof that the time for software patents is over? No. Its proof that Software games supporters are rabidly loyal and that most people don't understand the real issues.
First some facts. This poll was taken during the heat of the anti-Uniloc publicity peak when they first sued Mojang over their game Minecraft.
We had thousands of visitors each day, most of them indignant gamers.
So this is what they said:
30% said patents are no good get rid of them
55% said just Software patents should go
6% said everything should be free (unless it affects my job no doubt) and;
8% said patents are good...
I wonder if you asked the same crowd about drink driving or about the decriminalization of heroin whether you'd get a similar response.
Software patents are about things like:
Do you think the inventor of the worldwide web should be compensated for providing such a wonderful thing?
Do you think that anyone should be able to make their own version of the iPhone and sell them?
Should anyone be allowed to copy Google's search engine and do their own?
Boiled down the question is anarchy vs regulation.
Im not totally fond of the patent system believe it or not. I think non competing use of a patent by 3rd parties should be allowed at reasonable royalty rates. ie I mean if Apple doesn't want to supply extended power supplies for MacBooks then they should be forced to allow extended life battery owners to pay a reasonable royalty rate for the magsafe connector...
And as far a software patents, I feel rather than shutting them down, just let everyone have a look at the patent before examination to make a case for its lack of novelty.. you could charge $100 to anyone who wants to formally file a claim of prior art or lack of novelty to stop people from filing nonsense, but it would give everyone a fair chance to have their say before granting...
Just heard my interview with Ross Greenwood this morning... what a dynamic guy.. I don't know how he does it day in day out... I've had 30 people visit the site since the story aired and its been really interesting to see how many people are listening to the radio on a Sunday...
Sadly in the short time between recording the Interview and publishing I found a California Mob who are already doing it... but its interesting to see what they have come up with...
Ross Also talked about my help for Inventors.. so if you want some feel free to sign up for my mail list where I inform everyone when there is some ProBono slots available
Ric tries to consistently make time available to help fellow inventors get their projects moving along. From time to time he provides a morning a week to talk on the phone or face to face with people who need his help
Here is what is booked and available for the next few weeks:
Tuesday 12thMarch from 4pm-5:30pm Neil Wallace -2.30pm-4pm - Face to Face - Confirmed Paul Vance - 4pm-5.30pm Face to Face - Confirmed Monday 18thMarch from 3pm-5.30pm Jeff Haseldon - 3pm-4.30pm - Face to Face - unconfirmed Zen Player - 4.30-6pm Face to Face - unconfirmed Friday 29thMarch from 9am -12 noon Ali McQuillan - 9:30-11am - Face to Face Slot - unconfirmed Helen Davenport - 11am-12.30pm - Face to Face Slot - unconfirmed Friday April 5thfrom 9am – 12 noon Jaye Bolger 9am-9:20am - Over the phone session - unconfirmed Bryce Murray 9:30-11am - Face to Face session - unconfirmed More slots will be added in a few weeks Please note:
Will require a $100 contribution to a cause of Ric’s choice payable to his account within 24 hours of his confirmation of your time with him…
Failure to make a contribution will free up the slot for someone else to use.
Phone Session
Will take place on the phone with Ric on the agreed day at the agreed time
Phone sessions will run for 20 minutes
Will require a $30 contribution to a cause of Ric’s choice payable to his account within 24 hours of his confirmation of your time with him…
Failure to make a contribution will open the slot for someone else.
Please deposit contributions to: Ric B Richardson BSB 062514 ACCT 10309226 Branch address: 56 Jonson Street, Byron Bay, NSW 2481
Please mark as “Contribution” in banking comments
Please note: if you have genuine circumstances that the contribution is a burden for you then I am open to hearing your situation however it may not be prudent for you to be trying to patent or invent something at this time.
My brother and I were sitting in the Iron Man 2 movie at the North Ryde Gold Club theater when we saw Tony Stark walk in a room and say "Mute" to turn off the volume of a TV... I though "I've got to get me one of those" but after when we discussed it we realised the reason that it was so cool was the fact that no one has done that... yet.
Amazingly, there are hi tech TV remotes out there that actually do feature voice control, but they are complicated expensive things ($400 or over) that require training and all kinds of tweaking... so I set about inventing my own simple TV Mute... it responds to just two commands... "Mute" and "unmute"...
Also I've been working on a prototype with a fellow Byronian wiz that will conceivably bring the cost price of the materials and components to under $20. So it is conceivable that you could see it in the stores for $50 ...
So if this invention is something you would like to own and turn into a business here are the details:
Asking price $25,000 for the following;
Provisional Patent,
a Patent execution strategy paper
a Prior Art search done by me,
a working prototype and;
a deliverable's listing outlining the component cost and a suggested supplier to have the thing made for you...
An unsigned copy of the patent assignment document
A limited amount of time for consulting may also be available at a reduced cost (Ric's normal rate is $10,000 per day)
If you are interested, please send your questions to Ricricho at gmail dot com and ill fill in the gaps for you.
A deposit of $5k will be needed to release the prototype to you for assessment and a formal commitment of interest needed before Ill send the patent and prior art search to you.
Also if you have a person in mind that may like to own this invention then there is provision for a 10% finder/ brokers fee. All you have to do is send an email to me citing the name of the person you wish to introduce and connect us up and I will honor that agreement.
The sales process is as follows:
You supply a formal request and expression of interest via email.
I supply a password to you to open the zip file with the available documents
We will require a 20% deposit if you:
want us to release the prototype to you for evaluation. (This process may take 2 weeks depending on how far from Byron Bay you are).or;
If you require a prior art search from an independent patent firm then I suggest Wallington Dummer from Sydney. They can do prior art searches for $2-2.5k. Te deposit will be used to ensure we do not sell the patent to a 3rd party during your prior art search period. We allow 10 days for a prior art search to be conducted.
You may wish to add additional requests for information and these can be supplied after payment as part of the transaction price. Price will be negotiated at that time. Consulting with Ric can also be requested and added to the price as needed.
Once you are satisfied that all documents are as advertised you request an Invoice
I charge you and you pay the Invoice
Upon receipt I sign and send to you the executed Patent and Rights assignment (a copy is included in the document package)
Any additional documentation and or consulting time will be provided as agreed.
Sometimes a great idea that youve been working on is allready DONE.
Ive been tinkering with the idea of a bluetooth headset that sits on your chest and is activated like the Star Trek Command Badge (ie you tap a badge on your chest to communicate). Worked on the noise cancelling and the limiting of the speaker so it doesnt send your conversations out all over the room you are in... but... turns out someone beat me to it.. and filed a patent no less....
Here it is....
Not quite what I had in mind but close enough...
I had more of a disk shape in mind with a speaker and mic that projected sideways out the edge of the device...
Oh well back to the drawing board... another prototype bites the dust.
Ever found it irritating that you may want to sell a car or something else big and expensive like that but you didn't want someone trying to put it on their credit card? The other extreme is to have someone go through the rigmarole of doing a bank transfer when they need to look at your car before they buy? Well this concept is designed to fill that need.
It enables people to make a deposit on a large item, to place it on hold until they can inspect the item and complete the transaction. This is especially important for big or expensive items. It's great for the seller too because it shows them that the buyer is serious.
How would it work?
The seller places the ad on their web site advertising the item for sale and its full price.
The seller places a "Pay Deposit" button on the site.
When the buyer decides they want to place the item on hold with a deposit they click on the "Pay Deposit" button.
A screen appears floating above the sellers sales page enabling the buyer to pay for the deposit with their credit card. (There is no need for the seller to go to a separate site to pay)
The button status changes to "Deposit Taken"
I came up with this idea after suffering the frustration of not being able to take deposits for my patent sales over the years. Yet again this is a project that is too small for me to poor my effort into so I'm asking you to help me find a home for it...
Patent: Deposit Button Patent
Type: Provisional
Included: Patent specification, drawings, receipt, patent rights and assignment, prior art search (by Ric) and implantation notes.
The original version of this invention came to life after a friend of mine and former neighbor Herb Elliott (the famous runner and business man) asked me how I invent... I said you just solve problems and so he asked his wife for a problem to solve and voila. This is what appeared after some fun brainstorming the problem.
As the tire rotates the arm (see number 32) hits the inside of the tire as it starts to deflate and triggers a noise maker (number 34) to make a noise that can be heard inside the cabin.
Put simply, the idea relies on the simple fact that the space between the hub and the inside of the tire becomes smaller as a tire deflates. The most simple version of the invention is to just stick something in their that makes a noise when the tire starts to go flat. I also tried to make sure the noise maker was not dependent on electronics but the patent covers using something like a smoke detector beeper to let you know the tire is getting flat...
At the moment the document package only contains the patent and drawings but Ill be adding my development notes and a prior art search in the next few days as the patent get's sold.
Patent: Flat Tire Alarm Patent
Type: Provisional
Included Documents: Specification, drawings, receipt (prior art search and development notes coming soon)
Over the last year or so the number of really cool transaction technologies has started to get going. The ability to trade with visitors to your site is becoming simpler, faster and more friction-less. This technology is an extension of what we are seeing in that it take the best of what is out there and builds extended selling capabilities such as the auction process into the same easy embedded approach allowing visitors to your site to bid in an auction without having to go to another site or interact with a third party.
If you are interested or know someone who may want to take over this patent please email me at ricricho at gmail dot com. There is also a significant finders fee available to anyone that introduces me to the eventual buyer, just ask me about it.
Patent: Auction Button Patent
Type: Provisional Patent
Included: Prior art search (by me), Implementation strategy notes and an FAQ regarding the tech.
Price: $16,000 AUD
Key features:
Ability to conduct auction from your site without going to third party site.
Easy to use embedded code
Well known and much used overlay interface.
This encrypted package contains the patent as filed. I am also adding additional documents to support the buyer and they will be included as I get to them.
Don’t assume that selling patents with Ric is only for the
big timers. Many of Ric’s patents are quite low priced so that everyday people
can buy them and make a business out of them.
The last 5 patents Ric has sold are in the $16,000-$45,000
range and a few of them involved a broker’s fee where someone helped Ric find a
home for the patent.
The patents are usually first advertised here on this blog
so you can see what the sale includes and you have everything you need to help
find someone you know or do business with who would benefit from having a Ric
Richardson invention and patent.
The way it works is this:
You register your interest in the form below in working with me as a broker and then
Look at the list of patents currently available for sale on the tab above that says "Patents for Sale" and see if you have ideas for any of them... there are over 40 available so tell me your field of interest in the form below and ill try and find a good fit for you.
I'll send you the broker terms which are a healthy percentage of the sale price.
You tell me what patents you want to help sell.
When I sell the patent to a person you introduced me to I pay your broker percentage out of what is paid.
The way I work is that if there are brokers I know who have
a good network to sell a patent I will give them a period of time to try and
sell the patent and then if no sale eventuates I advertise the patent directly
on the site including the sale price with no brokerage fee included.
The reason I do this is because I love inventing but I only
have limited time to work on the most important projects.
So what happens to
all the inventions?
They sit around waiting for me to get to them. I’d rather
see them find a great home where people love the idea and want to do something
constructive with them, even if I only get a small fraction of the return that
I would if I fully developed the idea…
So what do you reckon?
Want to work with me?
Just fill out the form below and let's see if we can work together.
It seems no one has worked out the reason why Gmail canned responses seem to vanish from time to time. Canned responses are really helpful when you get lots of enquiries and want to send the same info to lots of people simply.
The problem has been that you spend a lot of time crafting a good all purposes response and then for some reason it vanishes and is no longer available to use in your replies...
The answer?
Check your draft folder! It looks like Gmail stores the canned response templates as draft emails in your draft folder... so when you go through it cleaning up old and unsent emails you will more often than not miss the fact that the draft emails also contain templates for your canned email responses...
Here is a tip....
Since the canned responses do not use the subject field but keep the original subject you are replying to you can name the subject field of the canned response anything you like...
I use something like DO NOT DELETE - Canned response template for "Name of Template"
Does that help? Please make a comment if you think Ive got this wrong...
Thanks for visiting.
The Inventors Association of Australia very kindly hosted me to speak to a roomfull of eager inventors in Brisbane last Wed night. A couple of ladies even came down from Cairns just for the evening so the pressure was on to make it all worthwhile.... the big idea for the night was the idea of segregating yourself into different roles and looking objectively at yourself regarding your value as a entrepreneur versus an inventor versus a manager and getting realistic about what help you need to get your invention out there...
How to fight the tendency to think that as the inventor we are by default the person that must get the project going... and started talking about how to get people with the respective special skills to work with you rather than try and do it yourself... it was a long discussion with a lot of people continuing to ask me about business related problems when my gut instinct was telling me that they really should not have been doing the business but rather finding the right person to partner with so that their strengths cover your weaknesses.
The simple answer is: if you feel you have to keep your idea secret because you've never seen it done before it is more than probably worth a provisional patent which costs $110.
Once you've got a provisional you can do a more thorough search of the internet and the patent databases, but that takes time and I prefer to risk the $110 provisional filing fee than sit around trying to see if there is something out there already.
It is a bit of a problem asking other people if they think your idea is patentable because most of them are weighin the question against the 5-10k you need to spend to get your full patent application filed... but that is a long way off...
If you file your own provisional patent you have 12 months of protection to work out whether its worth proceeding with a full patent... so at about the 10 month mark is when you need to start putting big chunks of money together to get the patent attorney to file your formal applications depending on which countries you want to patent in... ie its about 5-10k for the US and about 5-7k for Australia.
Hope that begins to answer your question...
Now. How to patent?
I learnt how to patent things myself with this book... Patent pending in 24 hours.
Chose the download ebook format to get it immediately
I used this to understand the main parts of the patent and to come up with my own flavour of patent format... I also found the many examples of provisional patents really helpful in seeing how simple a provisional patent can be compared to the full application... This took the scariness out of doing a provisional for myself.
Here is an example of a patent I wrote myself to give you an idea of what a simplified provisional looks like:
This was an early patent of mine and still had some hiccups in it but it will give you a good idea...
When you have something you think looks like the patent you want to submit got to IPAustralia.gov.au to set up your account and file it... if you want to be careful just get a patent attorney to give you half an hour to tell you if there is anything deathly wrong with your patent.. should only cost about $200.. fix what you can and file... remember its their job to get you to pay 5k for something that you only want to spend a couple of hundred bucks on until you know the idea is strong so dont let them force you into something...
This patent and Technology has been sold as of Mar 1st 2013.
This invention for a system that allows a localized search result to be shown along with a general search result has been cooking for over 3 or 4 years when I first saw Evernote embed its search results for your own documents with a general Google search result.
I thought "wouldn't it be cool to know if there were search results in a quick driving range for stuff that I was searching the whole net for?" And voila this is it...
Basically it is a means of overlaying the search results of a search engine that ONLY displays close by results was so that it appears below the main search results.
A cool way to implement this is to change the search engine of choice in your browser to the local search engine talked about in the patent and then have your main search results also displayed by choosing Google or Yahoo etc as your secondary search engine.
The above rough drawing is actually from the patent! I don't mess around making things all perfect when I'm writing patents... as soon as the idea is fully formed and the testing proves the viability of the invention I get it filed ASAP. No messing around.
The screen above is the search query page for both the local and general search. You type the search terms in as usual, but also set the search location (usually your postcode), the distance you want to search ie within 10k 20 50 etc and the search engine you want to use for the main results.
The results page is a Google Search result with an overlay showing very local results at the bottom of the page. I started doing this for my self just using two Google search criteria: one for a general search and the second for a Google search with the postcode added to the search string... but the obvious opportunity is there for a local search or classifieds web site to service people who dont want to get results from all over the place.
The business model is pretty interesting too. Because only local results are displayed in the local search results page, it encourages people to fill that valuable space with relevant products, services or information. For example, I search for guitars on the net and I see that a local store sells guitars but not the model I'm interested in... I could place an add instantly to let others know that I am looking for a guitar and it will appear in future searches by other local people looking at the search term guitar... pretty cool.
Again, I am not stopping the train to find a home for this invention so I'm letting it go to someone who will give it a good shot for the cost of my time... I'm asking $16k AUD. Email your interest to ricricho AT gmail dot com.
Title:System for display of multiple search engine results from a single
query
Filed: 6th Feb 2013
Asking price: $16,000 AUD
Included: Patent, Assignment of all rights, My own search results/ prior art search, Patent strategy paper and Product Development strategy paper.
This patent is in a very busy space so the commissioning of your own prior art search using a patent lawyer may be a good idea for your own piece of mind... Im happy to wait for you to have the search done as long as you are happy to place a 20% deposit on the purchase to avoid having someone else buy it out from under you.
Here is how it works:
1. You download the encrypted patent package from this address:
2. You request a password from me . Please give me enough information to ensure that I am happy that you are a serious buyer as I don't think the eventual buyer will want a whole lot of people looking at the patent they've bought.I send the complete info to you.
3. (optional) you send me a 20% deposit and proceed to get the prior art search done (usually 1.5-2.5k in price/ I can recommend some good patent lawyers) this usually takes 10 days or less.
4. The remainder is paid and I sign the patent assignment and release and the patent is YOURS.
Today I filed a patent for an application of Sonar that I
think is very promising.. Yes Sonar, like the way bats navigate, but different
in that my technique does not use echoes.
Basically the idea is more like GPS. With GPS, the ID of the
satellite and the time stamp from each satellite along with the satellites
location above the earth is sent out for people to navigate by.
Since all the satellites use the same time reference, the
device you are using simply measures the time it takes for each time signal to
get to your device at the speed of light and using triangulation principles to know pretty accurately where you are on the earth’s surface.
About 14 months ago I started working on the idea of using a
similar system but using sound waves instead of line-of-sight radio waves for
triangulation in smaller spaces...
It explained that using sound rather than radio waves
enables the receivers to be much more accurate since they are limited to how
fast they can track the movement of signals.
That work bore fruit today when I filed the patent entitled System for the use of Sound to accurately
calculate Location.
It describes an adaptation of the principles of GPS but
applied to Sound and using smart devices and audio broadcasting systems instead
of satellites.
Here is a scenario.
You are at a concert as you wait for the show to start the
sound system for the show is broadcasting a series of tones through each
speaker from the stage. The left, centre and right speakers all send out tones
which can be read by your iPhone as timing and location information.
The tones can be anything that makes sense to the phone...
an old modem tone, a telephone tone (ie dial 1 etc) or something new like the
17+ kilohertz systems being experimented with lately. Even a predetermined set
of tones that the phone expects can be used.
Your iPhone’s microphone hears the messages and a location
app calculates its relative location from the three speakers using the location
information of each speaker (that it sent as part of the audio) and the time it
took the audio to get to your phone.
Now you know where you are exactly in the auditorium... Big
Deal?
Well it starts to get interesting when you find one of your
FaceBook friends is exactly 4o meters away sitting off to your right!
And that the nearest toilet is behind you to the left. And
that two seats towards the front have not been claimed and that you have won a
random prize to upgrade to them if you chose to... this is really getting fun.
Industry wide, this approach can be used for many
applications.
If
used from user to user, a group sitting within earshot of each other can be
individually identified and specifically located.
Starbucks
can identify a specific person to deliver that latte to. Every table and
every seat in a restaurant can be linked to an order and a specific dish...
...
in fact the more I think about it, this Sonar Positioning System (yeah I'm
calling it that.. SPS get it!) could easily be positioned as a location
system sitting between the global measurements of GPS and the product
specific measurements of RFID... but with SPS all you need is a phone with
a speaker and a microphone.. pretty cool.
People that could be interested in this include:
Apple:
as a catchup tech avoid adding RFID hardware
Google:
As a location system to add to its recent initiative to map out internal
buildings and locations.
Techno
savvy musicians and artists who want to involve their audiences in their
performances.
Promoters
of big events and conferences.
Facebook
Google
Plus
In
fact all the social apps that want to connect people in sub GPS location measurement
distances... or anywhere indoors.
This project has been interesting but does not tip the scale
as a primary invention for me so I am making the patent and its rights
available for purchase.
The package includes:
Research
and proofs
Prior
art search (informal by me)
Patent
filing, drawings and specification
Patent
execution strategy paper.
Product
development strategy paper
A
patent and invention rights assignment
If you are interested or know someone who is interested
please email me at ricricho at gmail dot com. There is also an agents fee
available to people who want to manage an introduction to a buyer, however
please note, Id like to keep the deal simple so I can move on to other projects
and stick to working on the big projects that make a big difference. Thanks for
your interest.
My daughter Lily and I have been working on a concept for wearable personal speakers that allows someone to listen to their itunes library but without cutting themselves off from the world... even though she is a fan of Apples in-ear earbuds she really helped me zero in on the need to allow her and younger generations to tune into their life's soundtrack...
... the wearable speakers are safer she admits since you can hear cars and other people around you without sacrificing the fidelity of the music you listen to.
The device, which is not yet finished or patented, allows the user to have two little speakers aimed at the users ears for everything from music to answering the phone...
Lily also helped with the branding and marketing plan for the device... she's named the device Weakerz... playing on the wearable speakers idea and has also done the trademark and design brief.
A few months ago a part time inventor from Adelaide named Ros Branson asked me for help with her invention... a classy and simple pen holder for ring binders... for the life of me I thought id seen the idea before but its turned out to be very uncrowded space especially for something so obviously useful...
For any of you that know me personally, you will know I swing from personal management system to system trying to find the ultimate approach and I always return to paper so this classy but simple addition is going into my quiver of useful tools along with a reminder of the hard effort and mental energy that is being poured into great ideas like this.
Ros told me today she is thinking about doing a small production run with a local manufacturer and going to sell it to the stationary and office chains... I for my part will support her with a reference wherever she needs it.. Good on you Ros.
One of the most disruptive parts of buying from a website is the ordeal of setting up an account and then being forced to go to another site such as Paypal to complete the transaction. It is of paramount importance to not make the buyer jump through any unnecessary hoops and to minimize what is necessary in the first place.... Enter the "One Button Merchant Services" button.
This simple use of XHTML and Javascript combined with a smart back end allows shop owners to offer their online buyers a simplified streamlined purchase completion process that occurs right in the page the customer is viewing... no need to go to various screens to be engulfed by a complex purchase process...
The buy button appears to be normal when browsing the site. But when the visitor decides to buy...
A layer appears that allows the user to select their payment method and complete the purchase. Technology like this appears with companies like Ribbon.co however this methodology expands way beyong that simple system buy allow an array of merchant services such as Bitcoin in addition to the traditional transaction services of Mastercard, Visa and Paypal.
This technology is currently under development and on sale will include:
Provisional Patent as filed + filing receipts
Example Code and Architectural explanation
Patent Execution Strategy
In House Prior Art Search
Technology Implementation Strategy
Patent and Assignments Rights Agreement
Please contact Ric Richardson at ricricho at gmail dot com for details.
I've been privileged to be the opening speaker at this years TiE conference in Melbourne at the Hyatt next Monday the 3rd.
Even though technically I am not an entrepreneur now, the first 15 years of my time at Uniloc was pretty much all about being an entrepreneur.
This year they are talking about integrity of vision, coming from the right place to ensure success and other important whole person attributes.
They are also talking about work life balance... something I am still working on but at least I'm in Byron Bay... that ought to rub off some how....
Anyway, if you are able to come please say hi as I will be hanging around the conference for much of the day and dont get the chance to come to Melbourne as much as I'd like. See you there. Ric
Thanks so much to all of you who have shown interest in the Sound wave based sharing application patent. There are a number of serious interested parties and I have decided to make the process of working with them all a bit simpler by posting a link to the supporting documentation for the patent here:
The link goes to a zip file with all the files encrypted so all I need to do is send a password to the person making the inquiry.
The package includes:
Clip of filing data.png - A clip from the IP Australia site documenting the provisional patent filing data.
System for automated sharing of data using common sound analysis.pdf - The patent specification
Sound sharing fig1.jpg, Sound sharing fig2.jpg - Two jpegs with figures 1 and 2 from the patent.
Soundsharepatentpriorart.pdf - Notes from my prior art search
Soundsharepatentexecutionstrategy.pdf - An outline of my patent execution strategy for this patent based on certain milestones and options
SoundshareSoftwaredesignandcomponentstrategy.pdf - Software design and component strategy
Since the eventual owner will not want this important information all over the internet I would ask that you include in your request for the package some information about yourself so I know that the information is only going to serious buyers... I apologize for that but it is in the best interests of everyone including you if you are the person that buys the patent.
Ever wanted to share something with others simply? A photo with a group at your dinner table? A business card with someone you just met? But don’t want to be typing out email addresses.
This issue has been a thorn in my side for some time but this latest patent may fix that.
By using the noise that surrounds us all the time our phones can work out that we are nearby someone who we want to share something with. Pretty obvious once you look at how we as humans work!
With this in mind all we need to do when we want to share something on our phones is to have them connect to each other and use the noise around us to make sure we are not inadvertently sharing something with a total stranger. It allows us to make super fast, convenient and easy connections with anyone nearby. It's kind of like talking... only the people nearby can hear you talk even if you are in a room with a hundred people.
Here is how it works:
I tell you I want to share something with you... a photo, a music file, a business card..
I go to my sharing app and select the item I want to share and send it of to a sharing server on the Net where it will sit waiting to be picked up by you.
The two phones start listening to the environment of the phones and send off little samples of the sound to a server on the net that looks for a match...
Nearby conversations, your own talking, background music or even wind noise is forming a unique signature that will be common only to your two phones...
When they are matched the you are shown a screen asking if they want to accept the shared file and it is then downloaded to you.
I get a little message saying that you have received the file and the sharing session is over... fast, easy and simple.
Q: Sounds like a great idea... why aren’t you building the thing yourself Ric? A: This idea has been niggling at me for some time, but so has underground wireless power transmission, logarithmic compression of data and many other projects that are a lot more complicated and large scale. Selling the patent for this small amount means that the idea will get worked on and it will have a good chance of being done, without taking a lot of time from other projects that are really big scale and take pretty much everything Ive got to solve... the problem is, that I love solving these little-er problems... they niggle away at me in the night and I hate to see them die on the vine because I’m committed to these other big projects... so if somebody wants to help me find a new home for them... good on them.. I’d love to see them be used.
By the way this project is not such a small thing... with the right approach I can easily see Apple computer using it in their IOS operating system to enable super convenient local sharing. For example, when you select the share button that is available in most iPhone Apps you could have the option to local share, and the receiving person could hit an icon on their home screen that says accept a local share and the two phones would find each other and share in a flash... it would be really cool.
Of course any of the big guys could use it... Google, or any App Developer especially the social app developers like FaceBook or Twitter... what I like is that you can share anonymously, ie you don’t even need to know the name or account or email address of the person you’re sharing with... it’s like real life... you don’t have to have a formal connection with someone to share something with them. Bono could share a photo with everyone at a concert in a button press... its really cool.
Ok, I’m interested, what do I get for my $13+k?
You can look at the patent drawings below.
The specification is password protected and I can send a password to you when I know that you are a serious buyer.
You will get a release from me saying that you own the patent and the invention described by the patent.. You can supply your own release form or we can use one of mine.
I have done a prior art search with the results stored as a pdf and this can be released to you when I know you are seriously interested.
I have a patent strategy paper which shows how I would get the various patents done in the various countries based on the progress that the invention makes in the next 12 months.
I also have a fairly basic software design outline that I will release to serious parties. It includes a summary of the main components of the software, how they are connected and short list of the people I would use to get the job done.
Assuming I like what I see how do we move forward?
Its pretty simple:
Send me an email at ricricho at gmail.com stating that you are formally interested in buying the patent...
I send you the docs that are private so you can make sure you are happy you have all you need.
You deposit the $13,350 into my account and;
I send you the release and assignment along with the receipt.
Interested? I’d love to see this great idea find a great home.
The first attempt to do an Inventor Hangout was a pretty abysmal affair.. I ended up talking to Inventors by phone instead!... but still seems worthwhile exploring so lets try a new tack.
First of all you must have a web cam and a microphone connected to your computer... or if you have a smartphone you can use the Google Plus app to join the Hangout from your phone!
Step 1:
First of all I recommend you go to this page: http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/?hl=en
To see how Hangouts work and also to see if you can Sign in to Google Plus or need to join Google plus top be able to do the Hangout.
Step 2:
If you havent already done so you need to download the Google Hangout plug in on this page:
I will be inviting you to the hangout from my account.. so you will receive your hangout invite FROM YOUR GOOGLE PLUS PAGE. Not from your email
I will be trying out the event feature which may deliver an email but from what I can tell your invite will only appear on your Google Plus page...
It takes a while for the session to start but be patient... you can also call Ric on his mobile phone to make sure you are connecting.. I will be sending an email with my phone number before the hangout starts... expect to see the hangout invite about 5-1 minute before the hangout starts as I am often booked back to back with other work...
This video is of my presentation at the IP Australia software forum with software patents being the basis of discussion... the IP Australia guys positioned me as the Pro Patents guy and had an anti-software patent guy follow me so the session was a bit contentious, but I hope the reasoning I used has some credibility. Unfortunately the anti software crowd is particularly vocal and even abusive so the opportunity for real discussion is often ruined as no one serious wants to engage in an inane shouting match. At this occasion anyway the crowd was thoughful, open minded and reasonable. I spoke later at Sydstart on the same topic with about 800 in attendance and even though the crowd started out negative about patents, I did get two lots of really supportive clapps as I made a case for patents using a couple of projects I am working on at the moment... so yes most people are reasonable... and it's great to see.
This week started with a bit of a hiccup when I couldn't get Google Hangouts working for an Inventor session... it was really painful and I have to work out what is going on there... On Thursday I started out helping Matt Allen from Coaxe diesel engines with some inventor/ start-up advice as a favour for my mate Pete Cooper who runs the Sydstart events... its a really interesting diesel engine design that radically reduces vibration and runs more efficiently than a standard engine.. they are in the UAV space because the obvious application ie helicopter engines is dominated by turbines... I hope my advice made a difference for them as it is a really interesting idea....
Then I went to the Tweed Coast to catch up with the iDesign guys who have an automated houseplan/ lot matching system for land developers and home buyers. I helped them with a business model patent back in 2010.. there stuff is really maturing...
Then I met Simon Oleary and his brother in law who are working on a really cool idea for an intelligent BUY button... cant say more than that but it is a great idea...
On Probono Friday I spoke to Evan Samways about a twist on a pet cleaning system that we brainstormed on for patent opportunities... Evan really had the inventor spirit driven by a basic problem that he wanted to solve and see used by Pet owners.... he was close but needed more work... then I met with Ian Clapham about the idea of a tech centre here in the North Coast... kind of like Fishburners (see below) but in a farm setting. Youve heard of Silicon Valley, Sydney wants to be Silicon Beach... how about Silicon Farm! :-)
Photo from Fishburners site - credit Fishburners.com.au
Then I met with Victor Cassar. The magnet expert of Australia :-) What a classic inventor. We discussed the trials and tribulations of inventing, looked at some infringement issues and brainstormed on the use of inertial mass as a battery... he was dead set on water/ hydro as a solution but I was pushing for a magneto/ geared system... it was genuinely an interesting exchange that I really want to follow up on... wow this was a pretty normal week but looking back it was fascinating... I really would love to see all these great ideas and people have success...
Friday 12th October was the first Inventor Masterclass with me and 15 other fellow inventors. First thing to say was how much I underestimated the value of class members being able to hear each others questions and problems... its was fascinating and made me ensure that my answers were well understood... The only thing I underestimated was the amount of time that the class needed for one on one time... every 3/4 hour or so I would stop and take a member out to talk about their problems and also went on for another hour or so after the class trying to help ones who stayed later...
I think the idea of having the class at Byron @ Byron was a good idea... it cost a bit but the food and tea service was excellent and the quality of the location made it a special event for everyone...
Also I was intrigued by the breadth of the inventors there. There was a very experienced plastic bottle closure inventor ranging right through to a young fellow exploring mind stimulation to improve capabilities at different sports and activities using external skull stimulation... real bleeding edge stuff.
I am getting ready to do another Class and will inform everyone soon... congratulations to the First Masterclass members... you did great.
Its pretty unanimous, the next book that is nearing completion is called "Headhunting" and shows how I find CEOs to partner with and gives a couple of examples of how to do it...
This book will be very practical, but will require a disciplined Internet research capability...
There will be a bit of overlap with a book about business plans but its really important to know the foundation upon which you build your headhunting work.
Feedback about book one is all good and strong... its great to know people think the ideas are worthwhile.
Video conferencing... cool... and hangouts are really underutilized for this but i think my team and I have discovered a killer app for Hangouts...
Ever since I saw the movie "Inside Man" there was a scene in which the character played by Jodie Foster interacts with her secretary by full time full screen video even though she is only in the next room... Jodie can talk face to face with her secretary whenever she wants because the secretaries video chat auto answers and shows on her desktop without having to answer the call...
I've tried to emulate this with Skype by having an account that is only known to close friends, workmates and family and setting Skype to auto answering whenever they call in... this way they can see when I'm on the phone or just say hello whenever they want...
Now with hangouts all I need to do is run a webcam on one of my servers as a constant Video hangout and then allow my family and work mates to drop in and out whenever they want... it works like this..
Hangout starts on Rics server - Ric shares hangout with circle that includes close family and coworkers
Camera shows R2Labs logo
Ric joins hangout - since I share the hangout with myself
Video of me working at my desk is shared with hangout
My mum joins hangout - sees me working.. says hello
My Brother in the US joins hangout see me and my Mum
But the hangout never ends because the initiating machine is my server...
Pretty cool eh.
UPDATED: Wed 10th Oct - 1 day to go.
Hi there everyone, just an update regarding the Masterclass on October 12th in Byron Bay at the Byron@ Byron resort. Everything is moving ahead as planned.
Address: Byron at Byron resort 77/79 Broken Head Road, Byron Bay NSW 2481 1300 554 362
Here is the current list:
Peter Thompson? - 1 Mark Don Goodall - 2 Rachel Clark - 1 Star Young - 1 Salome Borg - 1 MWeb Solutions - 1 (postponed to next masterclass) Earl Russell - 2 seats New world Machines - Marshal - 1 Wayne Earl - 1 Richard Chi - 1 Mark Anson and Isha - 2 Michael Conner - 1 Jess Lelievre - 1
Updated 10th October - Total 15 for this week - we have our number... 2 booked for the next one in 4-6 weeks if all goes well. Mary Bremner - asked to be inc not paid yet.
Ideal class size is 15-20 so if you want to come please send your request to ricricho at gmail.com I will save you a slot and send an email with payment instructions.
The $140 for the day covers morning and afternoon teas, a $50 lunch budget and the cost of the class room. I will be going over my Invention development process in more detail over the time which runs from 10.30-2.30 including a break for lunch. I will also be making little one on one sessions available to each class member to go for a bit of private time to go over something a bit more specific... a walk in the rainforest may be in order too...
Finally, the Inventor Workshop series is finished. Well, at least the 1st of 5 workbooks is done. I wrote this first eBook at the urging of the guys at R2 Labs to produce a book that people could use as a guide if they can't get to have personal time with me or as a follow up for people that have received my help since I get to explain in details all the main points I cover in my probono sessions.
Unfortunately by the time I get the editing, transcription and layout guys paid this turns out to be a bit more expensive than I wanted so please accept my apologies for the higher price than I wanted. I spread the cost over 100 sets so I really don't expect this to be a big seller. But to people that have needed my help it may be really important.
If you would like to read the first chapter Ive got a download for you to have a look at FREE.
In the first book entitled "THE BIG PICTURE", I give an overview of the system I use in trying to get my inventions going commercially. The big message from this book is "Find yourself a business master to drive the company from when your strengths start to peter out".
I am busily getting feedback from the readers to refine what the next books cover as I want this effort to be about my fellow inventors... not me... so I'm looking to get feedback over the next few weeks to make sure the complete series is as relevant as possible.
The burning issue seems to be how to find the right business partner so the book about head hunting seems to be the next most important book. I have a lot of notes already in this area and want to give some examples of how to find market entry CEO's so you can see step by step how it works.
If you would like a copy click on the button below and I'll send you a copy.
