Is a search engine that highlights the searched-for terms in the pages it brings up a new idea? Google thinks so and has just been granted a patent for this seemingly obvious idea.
Google's patent (US 6839702) covers a search engine that highlights the searched-for words in pages retrieved as a result of a search on the internet, a network, a PC or a mobile device. So a search for the keyword "invent" finds a web page entitled "How to invent" and then underlines each occurrence of the word "invent" in that page.
The patent is long in the tooth. Google first filed it in December 1999, so the US Patent and Trademark Office should have been trying to find out if the idea was publicly known before then. But the USPTO has a history of only checking prior patents, and not the full gamut of relevant magazines, websites, academic journals and conference papers.
A frequent critic of the USPTO's tendency to ignore "non-patent prior art" is Greg Aharonian, a "patent-buster" hired by companies to find reasons to invalidate patents on obvious ideas. "This patent proves the USPTO has made zero progress in improving patent quality," he says. "I get nauseous just thinking about this patent."
A robotic "insect-cam" that spies on Homer Simpson in the video game Simpsons Hit and Run could become a reality. The University of California, Berkeley, is developing a camera mounted in a micromechanical flying robot (WO 2004/103889).
The size of a locust, the robot's body is made from a lightweight carbon-fibre-based honeycomb. The wings consist of two hinged flaps connected to piezo-electric crystal strips by a train of cranks made from carbon-fibre rods.
A current from the battery makes the crystals flex, and the cranks amplify the motion to flap the wings up and down 150 times a second - fast enough to fly. Altering the wing angle controls the flight direction.
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