This is a very interesting story for me... not only am I quasi interested in the whole patent industry, but I recall back to pre-MSN days where I had a friend who was coding a chat program where you would pick panels and write in your script to have a conversation with your friends. At the time it was pretty 'mind blowing' stuff, seeing your online chats look like your favourite comics.
Well, Google is apparently looking at doing something very similar. In a recent patent filing we see a potential for a much more enriching emoticon style feel for our chats... almost comic-like.
In the filing the abstract describes it as:
To me that sounds like a perfect addition to Google+... although it's missing from one of the drawings:
Discussion later on definitely shows it being used on the computer, but I can't doubt for one minute that we wouldn't see a mobile version soon thereafter. Now I didn't read through the entire document and all the legalese, but it looks like the user would initiate a comic chat style with someone and then after each has put in their parts of the conversation the strip can be shared as either a static image or an embeddable one. My guess is that if it's embeddable, then that could mean it could also be left as 'live' (so someone could set it up and then have viewers watch the exchange online).
What do you think? Think your online chats need some 'sprucing up'?
Source: http://www.pat2pdf.org/patents/pat8621366.pdf
In the filing the abstract describes it as:
"Communications to be shared on social networks and other electronic modes of communication are presented in comic strip form. The comic strips are created with a simplified user interface and are formatted to be well-suited for display on a selected social network or other electronic facility. The comic strips are displayed in an embedded form directly in the social network or other facility, without the need for a user to go to a separate site to view the comic strip."
To me that sounds like a perfect addition to Google+... although it's missing from one of the drawings:
Discussion later on definitely shows it being used on the computer, but I can't doubt for one minute that we wouldn't see a mobile version soon thereafter. Now I didn't read through the entire document and all the legalese, but it looks like the user would initiate a comic chat style with someone and then after each has put in their parts of the conversation the strip can be shared as either a static image or an embeddable one. My guess is that if it's embeddable, then that could mean it could also be left as 'live' (so someone could set it up and then have viewers watch the exchange online).
What do you think? Think your online chats need some 'sprucing up'?
Source: http://www.pat2pdf.org/patents/pat8621366.pdf
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