WEEK 3: ASSIGNMENT 4

LECTURE TOP 5:
I thought it was really interesting to read the reasons for why the inventions mentioned in lecture were part of the top 25 predicted inventions that were wrong. I chose these 5 inventions not only because of their impact, the reasons people gave as to why they were wrong.

i. Beatles: don't like style 
ii. Telephone: too many shortcomings
iii. Smoking & lung cancer: not enough evidence
iv. X-ray: too much skepticism 
v. Computers: not a large enough world market

MY TOP 5:

i. Stem cell research:
As a student who works and is heavily involved in stem cell research, I am certain of the great potential that this science has for medicine and therapy. Due to ethical and basic scientific skepticism, however, the realm of stem cell research has not been able to get the full support and funding needed for ultimate success. As more funding (especially prevalent in California) leads to more scientific discoveries and clinical trials, the full power of stem cell research is being revealed.  In the next 10 years, I hope to see the rise of what 2012 Nobel-laureate winner Shinya Yamanaka defined as “personalized medicine” with the advent of reliable and efficient stem cell therapies. I envision there to be banks of stem cell cultures that will pertain to specific diseases and types of patients. Thus, a drug therapy especially made and tested on these banks will be given to patients with far greater confidence due to stem cell research.

ii. Artificial intelligence:
For good reasons, artificial intelligence research and advancements are being taken with a lot of regulation and skepticism. As science fiction movies have warned us, it may not take much to have artificial intelligence too advanced for humans to control (going back to the exponential rise of technology). Still artificial intelligence can be a huge tool, with both help for the daily consumer and in research. For the daily consumer, robots can help make daily life easier by doing practical chores which may otherwise take more time. For a researcher, machine learning and computational modeling can help us figure ourselves out by modeling our brain and learning in the realm of cognitive science. 

Plus, they make for some really cool pictures -->
Reference: http://www.rethinkrobotics.com/artificial-intelligence-tool-threat/

iii. Self-driving vehicle:

This invention has the stigma that it's for the elite and rich who can do work rather than waste their time driving. This invention, however, is rooted in helping with several social and moral issues that are affected by the driving situation we have right now in the world. Thus, the self-driving vehicle has a much larger world market that it can serve and with greater social implications than the ones initially realized.

+ 45% of disabled people the in U.S. work.

+ 95% of a car's lifetime is spent parked. 

This technology could transform the lives of the elderly or remove the need for parking lots (cars could just go back to their rider's homes!) Google's self driving car is not based off of how the average person may drive: which is with millions of thoughts in their mind and an urge to multi-task. Rather these cars promote safety by understanding driving rules as a robot would but still smart enough to mimic humans in skills like merging onto a freeway.
Reference: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/google_self_driving_car

iv. Yoga:
Yoga has a stigma of being a practice that either very religious and calm people in faraway places like Bihar, India (where Gautama Buddha found Enlightenment) or hippies in Lululemon leggings follow. There's no middle ground. As a yoga student who hopes to get her certification this year, I find this profoundly aching. Since awareness for mindfulness and mental health is finally (kind of) catching on in the States, I hope to see that yoga becomes more influential in the right way. What I mean by this is that I hope people start doing yoga for the right reasons - that is, for centering focus and relaxation from our otherwise hectic and stress-inducing lives - and not just to get better gluts. 

v. Snapchat:
We've all heard the story, and it's an inspirational one for early app-developers who don't seem to get funding. 23 year old (at the time) Snapchat CEO rejected Facebook's $3 billion offer to buy the application for Facebook. This must have been a very difficult decision for the company to make and quite a surprising one for Americans following tech and social media to hear. The reason I chose Snapchat is not just for the company itself (though I do think it will get even bigger with its addition of stories from special events and news in its 'Discovery' section), it just goes out to say that apps/start-ups are coming everyday to the Silicon Valley in California. What keeps young entrepreneurs going is the fact that some of them do make it big.

PATENT US8046721:

Title Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image
Author Chaudhri et. al.
Date October 25, 2011
Assignee Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Claim 1 Unlocking a hand-held electronic device using its touch-sensitive display
Method Having a predefined location on the touch-sensitive display that corresponds to an unlock state; moving this unlock image continuously in accordance with movement of the contact (slide to unlock); unlocking the device if the predefined movement is the same as the movement made. 
--> The moving can be along any desired path
--> Must be predefined. 
--> Visual cues may be given

some background... 
THE SMART PHONE PATENT WAR:

· 2011, Apr 15: Apple sues Samsung for patent and trademark infringement (7 utility patents, 3 design patents, 3 registered trade dresses, 6 trademarked icons) with its Galaxy line of mobile products, including the Galaxy S smartphone and the Galaxy Tab.
· 2011, Apr 22: Samsung sues Apple in South Korea (5 patents), Japan (2 patents), and Germany (3 patents).
· 2011, Apr 28: Samsung countersues Apple over 10 patents.
· 2011, Apr 29: Apple drops 1 more patent from their ITC complaint against HTC.
· 2011, May 18: Samsung ordered to provide Apple samples of the announced Galaxy S2, Infuse 4G, and Infuse 4G LTE smartphones, as well as the Galaxy Tab 8.0 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets as part of Apple's lawsuit against the company.
· 2011, May 18: Samsung files a court motion for Apple to provide samples of the unannounced iPhone 5 and iPad 3 prototypes.
· 2011, Jun 14: Nokia and Apple settle their litigation with Apple agreeing to pay Nokia an undisclosed one-time payment as well as continuing royalties.
· 2011, Jun 16: Apple amends its lawsuit against Samsung, dropping 2 utility patents and 1 design patent, and adding 3 new utility patents plus 4 trade dress applications, now covering the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
· 2011, Jun 22: Apple countersues Samsung in South Korea over an unknown number of patents.
· 2011, Jun 22: Samsung's motion to be provided samples of Apple's unannounced iPhone 5 and iPad 3 prototypes is denied. 
2011, Jun 28: Samsung files an ITC complaint and a lawsuit against Apple over 5 patents.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone_patent_wars

... and it continues to go on for more bullets to come!

Apple/Samsung agreed to drop lawsuits against each other after three years of suing in August 2014.  

In particular adherence with Patent US8046721, Apple thought Samsung stole their idea of having a "slide to unlock image." Apple won in the courts for this case and Samsun was required to pay billions of dollars to Apple for doing so. 

But this opens up the floor for a lot of questions regarding patents in general::

Should a company be given exclusive rights on using a slide gesture to unlock an electronic device?