Thursday, February 25, 2010

taking the blog private

I have begun discussions with Ted Sabety, our patent attorney, about commencing the process of applying for a US patent for some of the ideas in WiiCane. Ted feels that our use of an overhead array of computer-addressable lights for motion tracking may be both novel and non-obvious, requirements for patent protection. Since the blog discloses details of this, it is no longer appropriate to allow for public access, and therefore I have reset the permissions on the blog so that only contributors may read it. needless to say, I wish we didn't have to do this, because I like the idea that other researchers can find out about our work here, but apparently this could interfere with the patent process. Of course, we could also decide not to patent, but Ted feels that this is an important step from a business perspective, and the commercial viability of the product might require that we protect the intellectual property embodied in the WiiCane system. I am certainly open to discussion about this.

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