“Mark Twain once said that truth is stranger than fiction,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple. “Well, last week the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Microsoft that confirms that very saying.”
“Today Fitbit is duking it out with Samsung’s Gear and there’s great anticipation regarding Apple’s possible entry into the wearables market this fall with a health-related device with advanced biosensors,” Purcher reports. “While Microsoft is considering a smartwatch as well, it now appears that they may want to take a completely different course that’s quite eccentric.”
“They’ve invented a mood changing/health device in the form of a robotic butterfly,” Purcher reports. “What’s the use of having a stress gauging app on your smartwatch or smartphone if you have no way of doing anything about it, right? So in Microsoft’s great wisdom, they think that a robotic butterfly fluttering all about you changing colors will change your mood for the better in no time flat. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Okaaayyy…
They should of made it a paper clip. Those are much more informational.
And name it Bob.
Bob. lol. The Star Rating system is gone! I give you 5 stars for that response. 😀
Yeah, it’s still available on mobile, just not on the full WordPress version?!?! I found that Character Viewer would let you enter stars, which I did for someone else.
★★★★★
Contrary to MDN’s take, color psychology is a recognized field in mental health care. More so in the Northern and Southern hemispheres in the winter months when darkness prevails for the greater part of the day.
What M$ ought to do which Apple inc. could implement very easily is to link the stress sensor to a sound file created especially for the app. So when for example a butterfly is red indicating excitement or high stress, the sound file played through the gadgets speaker would be mellow or chilled music, if the butterfly is blue, then strident rocking music is played. So M$ are on the right track in identifying moods but have no solution in place to combat or enhance moods.
Just saying………. Today and hopefully for the rest of the week will be the “Just saying” week. So bare with me and my occasional idionsyncrasies!
Really! Microsoft has no plans to actually make a robotic mood-fly. They just want to patent it so they can sue when Apple makes one. Goodbye, iFly!
I predict brown will be it’s default mood color, changing suddenly to blue after a few minutes of operation before crashing to your desk or floor.
Ah, yes: the well-known much-loved BWOD…
the Blue Wing of Death!
Great idea, not too much imagination required to see that now computers/net devices are getting small enough they no longer need to be housed in rectangular containers but can be incorporated into other devices, including motile ones.
Computers in cars are coming of age, almost to the point of computers are the cars, the car just another iWear device, no different than hooking up your home entertainment system. Heck send your car to the store to get milk. Certainly an interesting idea.
Yet once again, what is supposed to be a look ahead by Microsoft but it only shows us how far behind the game the really are. There are already devices know that go out, know the mood they wish to create, and not only change their color but the color of the environment around them.
Consider the cowardly wannabe terrorist. They are always in a bad paranoid, self justifying, boost the super mega gargantuan ego mood. They want to share the effects of that mood with others, and what better way than to send your butterfly off to a location far away from where you are (the typical modus operandi of a coward) and have them shoot and kill people. Of course with an approach like that, you would not want to use a butterfly approach, it’s too calming, but a stinging bee drone, hey that’s perfect. Load it up with the “aim for Bin Laden hit Saddam Hussein” guidance missile system for extra civilian casualties and there you go, a lovely toy for the aforementioned cowardly wannabe terrorist.
So Microsoft is just making it’s own flavor of a drone. Now if it could make everyone feel peaceful it would certainly be a stellar achievement for the free world, but hey, it would be a threat to a certain National Security that wants Pieces of Earth, not Peace on Earth. For this reason I don’t think it will fly, unless of course it could make everyone feel fearful and paranoid but they already have lots of devices that do that already.
This is what happens when marijuana is legalized.
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Tell me something new 84 Mac Guy! Like how Road Warrior has fallen off the cliff edge and is now regaling us with the many flashbacks of what he could have done!
After all it probably is a well known fact that when engaging in flashbacks one has no capacity to feel fearful or paranoid as ones life is probably about to come to an instant end.
Just saying………..
This is what happens when someone at MS goes off their meds.
Nothing would make be more nervous and stressed out than SOMEONE ELSE’s robotic flying mood insect made by Microsoft in the same space as me, indoors or outdoors, public space or private space. I would immediately take steps to destroy it. Its owner would have to do some fast talking for me not to beat the living crap out of them.
One little mistake a such a product could hit your face, eyes, ears or even get stuck in your hair.
What a foolish idea for a product.
Throw an Apple at it 😉
Still waiting for Microsoft’s mood-responsive bra to appear.
It’s rather odd that Microsoft are obsessed with people’s moods, when Microsoft has probably triggered more rage than any other company.
No longer on the drawing board. They moved in to Color Mood Changing Jock Strap for men.
It’s really for the new Xbox One Spyro the Dragon game. It is to bring a more immersive feel to the game by having a physical version of Spyro’s health icon flying over your head.
I like where Microsoft stands in the mood-sensing robot butterfly arena. I like it a lot…