Thread

US jury says Apple owes record $5.7B in haptic technology patent case

77 points · 67 comments · onemoresoop

smalltorch · 1790442053 · focus · HN ↗
Wow, that's a lot of money for a little buzz. I mean what could possibly be such sacred knowledge that a vibration could even be patentable.
You spin a unbalanced thing in a circle and it creates a vibration. Make it less unbalanced and you get a smoother vibration.
1. pdpi · 1790445085 · focus · HN ↗
  The thing that is patentable isn't "a vibration". It's the exact, specific means through which you produce that vibration.
  We've gone from completely dumb eccentric rotating mass vibration to trackpads that you'd swear are actually physically clicking, or the Ice Cubes demo in in Nintendo's 1-2-Switch[0], both of which use linear resonant actuators. Those actuators are themselves a complex enough piece of technology to warrant a patent, and the techniques to simulate the feel or real physical objects using those actuators are pretty damn non-trivial as well.
  As a general rule, I find that the patent system is problematic but, within the scope of the system as it exists today, these are perfectly reasonable things to patent.
  [0]: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtlqvVfk1-Q" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtlqvVfk1-Q
  1. euroderf · 1790446745 · focus · HN ↗
    > trackpads that you'd swear are actually physically clicking
    Like my Mac's trackpad ? Can someone ELI5 how it works ? It's gotta be magic-adjacent cos when the machine locks up, the trackpad is deader than a doornail.
    rogerrogerr · 1790447959 · focus · HN ↗
    Fun fact, the other thing that can cause this is a Bluetooth mouse in a backpack that is being clicked continuously. Confused me to no end for fifteen minutes.

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