Microsoft patents ‘avoid ghetto’ feature for GPS devices

91 Comments

“Microsoft has been granted a patent for its ‘avoid ghetto’ feature for GPS devices,” CBS Seattle reports.

“A GPS device is used to find shortcuts and avoid traffic, but Microsoft’s patent states that a route can be plotted for pedestrians to avoid an ‘unsafe neighborhood or being in an open area that is subject to harsh temperatures,'” CBS Seattle reports. “Created for mobile phones, the technology uses the latest crime statistics and weather data and includes them when calculating a route.”

Read more in the full article here.

91 Comments

    3. Hardly a new idea. All kinds of traffic info has been integrated into the Maps app for ages now. I am sure other side info is already being used, starting with location info derived from domestic and public WiFi hot spots (e.g., gathered while collecting Street View info). What’s so different about including demographic info, weather info (precipitation, wind gusts, twisters…) .

      I think this patent should be challenged.

      Reply

        1. The Little Red Hen called all of her Democrat neighbors together and said, ‘If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?’

          ‘Not I,’ said the cow.

          ‘Not I,’ said the duck.

          ‘Not I,’ said the pig.

          ‘Not I,’ said the goose.

          ‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.

          ‘Who will help me reap my wheat?’ asked the little red hen.

          ‘Not I,’ said the duck..

          ‘Out of my classification,’ said the pig.

          ‘I’d lose my seniority,’ said the cow.

          ‘I’d lose my unemployment compensation,’ said the goose.

          ‘Then I will do it by myself,’ s aid the little red hen, and so she did.

          At last it came time to bake the bread.

          ‘Who will help me bake the bread?’ asked the little red hen.

          ‘That would be overtime for me,’ said the cow.

          ‘I’d lose my welfare benefits,’ said the duck.

          ‘I’m a dropout and never learned how,’ said the pig.

          ‘If I’m to be the only helper, that’s discrimination,’ said the goose.

          ‘Then I will do it by myself,’ said the little red hen.

          She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, ‘No, I shall eat all five loaves.’

          ‘Excess profits!’ cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)

          ‘Capitalist leech!’ screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)

          ‘I demand equal rights!’ yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)

          The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)

          And they all painted ‘Unfair!’ picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.

          Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen,
          ‘You mustnot be so greedy.’

          ‘But I earned the bread,’ said the little red hen.

          ‘Exactly,’ said Barack the farmer. ‘That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.’

          And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, ‘I am grateful, for now I truly understand.’

          But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the ‘party’ and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled. ‘Fairness’ had been established.

          Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared…so long as there was free bread that ‘the rich’ were paying for.

          EPILOGUE

          Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.

          Hillary got $8 million for hers.

          That’s $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years, repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn’t remember anything.

          IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?

        3. Bush and Cheney are light years better than the criminals in charge now. These people are trying their hardest to bring down the US. Can’t wait to vote them all out in November, Ann-the commie-Teve.

        4. Bush got about $7 million and Cheney got about $2 million. Generally, plus 15% royalties if the initial payment is a bonus rather than an advance. As I recall neither of hem could remember anything about the CIA agent or who outed her.

        5. No Maobama has Solyndra, Tony Resko, Fannie and Freddie Fiasco, not to mention a hidden past, phony social security number and most likely birth certificate. Yeah Bush is such a bad guy. F you. PUKE Sky Mac below, anyone of the so called 99% has a fair shot at bettering themselves. It’s no one’s fault but their own if they choose to be one of the sheep, like you.

        1. Interesting that a follower of the party of war profiteers, bigots and science deniers would call others drones.

          It’s kinda like the Romney commercial I heard today, where he proudly proclaims: “I will never apologize for America”.

          WOW, just WOW. Bet that really stirred up you republicons didn’t it. Speaks to your delusional party, America is always right, always better, always more full of crap. Talk about delusional drones that can’t see the truth. You fools are nationalistic to the hitler extreme and cannot even see it. I cannot believe what a nation of mouth breathing sociopaths we have become…

        2. What kind of truth is it that you think you’re telling????? You think Republicans are bigots????? What makes you think that? Liberals are the ones always stirring up class warfare and jealousy. Always bringing up race and dividing America up along all kinds of issues. Liberals want everyone at each others throats so they won’t notice the liberals destroying the US and taking away everyone’s private property and rights. You are full of crap. And by the way Jack ASS, Hitler was a liberal. The Nazis come from socialists. Go F yourself.

        4. Thanks for making my point mouth breather. Please footnote your vast liberal conspiracy, on second thought, just shut up. We all know you believe it because Rush told you so. How dare progressives bring up racial issues, you’re right we should just ignore them, sweep them under the rug. Everyone knows if you ignore something it will go away. Your repugnicant candidates right now have a Racist candidate (RP), a chicken hawk,philandering corrupt ex speaker who has been run out of washington once already (NG), a bigoted, anti-science, anti-woman, war-mongering, psuedo-christian bafoon. (RS) and an establishment, rich, pandering to corporations, used car salesman type, who was run outta MA btw (MR). They illustrate clearly what a joke your party has become, and I didn’t even have to get in to the other trainwrecks. (perry & bachman)

        5. The only point Truthless made is what a clueless, Marxist, drone it is. You liberals are really the bottom of the of the barrel of character, intelligence, work ethic, and dignity. Nothing but a group of easily herded by the Democrat elite, useful idiots. You deserve what Maobama and friends dish out to you. We true Patriots will never stand for that kind of BS lifestyle, ever. Go to hell.

  3. Now, if only that feature could be installed on food stamps, cheap wine, bad weaves, fried chicken, waffles, crack cocaine, $100+ sneakers, hot sauce, grape soda, dominoes, ebonics, baby powder, Jerhi curl, watermelons, stolen handguns, promiscuity, Cadillac Escalades, cocoa butter, Newport cigarettes, broken homes, career criminals, Hennesy, and welfare checks, we’d really be cooking with gas.

    Reply

        5. Yes, it was clear you have no problem laughing at yourself when you admitted you were a black conservative.

          You probably yuck it up with your white friends telling black jokes.

        6. Democrats have kept my people in slavery for decades.

          Democrats have destroyed the black family in the U.S.A.

          If you can’t see it clearly, you’re clearly blind.

        7. What’s wrong with telling Black jokes?
          Are they protected by some law that says you can laugh at anyone except Blacks?

          My girlfriend and I both have friends an co-workers that are Black, and they tell hilarious jokes. What’s even funnier is watching them laugh at the redneck jokes we tell them.
          It’s kind of a competition.

          I’ll tell you what’s offensive, though.
          The thought that minorities are only allowed around Republicans as long as they are putting down their own kind.

          Now, you tell me R2, which outlook is closer to being racist?
          Accepting differences and laughing at them,
          or telling someone they are too stupid to know their place?

        11. Michael…
          Yes, the republicans ended slavery… So the southern whites became democrats. … Who then ditched the democratic party when LBJ signed the civil rights act. Don’t be so attached to party… They’re not.

        12. Wrong, Marko.
          A huge misconception about the South is that it turned Republican after 1964. It didn’t. On the national level, mainly in the Presidential races, many voted Republican, but most Southern states took decades to change parties.

          In the area of Texas that I am from, Democrats still rule the local elections. We couldn’t even get a Republican elected to Congress who had name recognition in a special election against a no-name Democrat (who was a good guy, too).
          And that was 1985!

          Yes, the Republican Party has been growing in rural areas since Reagan, but it also has more to do with the distance in time since Hoover more than any Civil Rights acts (which, by the way, had a higher percent of Republican votes than Democrat, which enabled it to become law, and kills your theory of why people jumped parties, since the Republicans could have thwarted that legislation)

          Again, many people, and mainly foreigners, have a Hollywood perception of our history, especially about the South.

        13. Awesome! Because your Republican friends are certainly laughing at you!

          LOL, j/k Everyone here knows you’re as black as a Wonder Bread and mayo sandwich.

          ——RM

        14. I’m part Italian and part Polish and I love jokes about them.
          Agree with Michael.
          I work in a rather small, extremely Liberal city and there’s a reason there is no Comedy Club. They can’t laugh at hardly anything.
          Most comedy humor on TV is about sex, and full of sexual innuendo. That’s the only thing not off limits in these times. Influencing why we have so many kids born to unwed mothers that we pay for.

      1. I have no idea where you get the ‘god-fearing’ part, but I should hope more Whites receive them since Whites make up a majority of our population and Blacks are only 10%.

        Here is some info to ponder. Check the distribution of all people, then Whites, then Blacks. Keep in mind that Native Americans and Hispanics are counted as White.

        http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/28/us/20091128-foodstamps.html

        What is up with Oregon? Maine? Michigan? Missouri?

        Reply

        1. Now, for even more lessons in welfare distribution….
          Everyone knows that it is poor Southern Whites Republicans that take the most in government handouts, right?

          Well, check this districting map, select ‘House’, and then compare the party affiliations of districts to the last map of food stamp recipients.

          http://maps.google.com/intl/en_us/2010election/ratings.html

          When I mentioned Native Americans and Hispanics are counted as White, you can see than in the South Texas and Southeast Oklahoma maps.

          Now check those districts, along with other high rate food stamp areas. What do you find?

          I find that most liberal Democrats don’t know that they are talking about in social welfare discussions.

  7. Avoid the Ghetto on a Windows phone is an unfortunate feature because people dumb enough to buy a Windows phone really need to have the shit and stupidity beat out of them.

    Reply

      1. Mine is a big fat ZERO, since I pay cash for everything, and stay out of the “American Dream,” public school- taught good-little-consumer, impress-people-I-hate/envy/give me nothing in return bullshit that others live. Hey… great for you, if that’s your gig.

        Reply

        1. Credit ratings are used for more than just buying BMWs and McMansions. Your credit rating really may be “0”.

          I guess you self-insure? I hope you don’t need to look for a job, yep, they check credit ratings. If you don’t need a job and are starting a business and need funding for it, you’ll need a credit rating.

          I guess the BS you say could work if you were “living off the grid” and were a survivalist, but then you wouldn’t be posting on MDN…

  15. Of course Microsoft isn’t going to comment about their ” rel=”nofollow”>‘Avoid negro’ patent. They just couch their patent application in terms of “safety”, which is indisputably good and nice sounding.

    Reply

  18. I’ve seen an app in the iTunes Store (can’t recall the name of it) that calculates one’s risk of crime, attack by wild animals, weather, etc. based on location. It was sold as a joke.

    Reply

  19. Just a big company money dump to patent something unpatentable –>> a concept, in an attempt to try and force out smaller company innovation and grab some headlines – but then again typical Microsoft!

    My company Street Smart USA has developed a much more complete and valuable data model which has been available for years on TomTom and Garmin GPS units as well as on Smartphones.

    Targeting area such as ghettos offers little to no value to the traveler, nor do simple crime statistics. The use of crime statistics is very limiting as their reporting and availability it often outdated and absent, especially in smaller city or towns.

    I call what Microsoft is presenting the “spider-web perception”. The inaccurate assumption that criminals sit in their neighborhoods – their ‘webs’ if you will, waiting to prey on infrequent unsuspecting victims that may stumble into it. That’s simply not how it works. Criminals are opportunists and that doesn’t afford a lot of opportunity.

    Violent crimes are not concentrated or limited within ghettos or low income areas. In fact, a large part of violent crimes occur in bordering neighborhoods, areas with high gain potential for criminals or areas where volumes of unsuspecting targets traffic.

    High risk and unsafe area identification is far more complex then that. Our product identifies and alerts users of potentially unsafe areas which have been identified using a number of key data elements and proprietary algorithms that accurately mark areas as unsafe to personal or property safety.

    If you want a product that is proven with years of development, analysis, expertise and a track record that reflects true personal safety – then please visit http://www.streetsmart-USA.com.

    Reply

  21. Sorry, but the app simply helps to avoid high crime areas. If that happens to be a minority neighborhood, too bad. Stop committing so much crime and you won’t need to be avoided.

    Reply

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