From: Stuart Alexander Subject: Re: APPS: Patent on VR Mental Conditioning Medium Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 14:20:58 UT Message-ID: Regarding Dr. Giuseppe Riva's recent posting/concerns about a recently issued patent for a "Virtual Reality Mental Conditioning Medium": VERY interesting.......Methinks Mr. Sever has pulled off a good one. It is well known in the VR community that this technology has been used for some time (in both R&D and "real world" environments). Apparently, and understandably, no one has previously attempted to patent this. So.....we may not like it, but we can't blame him...........HOWEVER......(my opinion only.....): Upon close inspection of the wording of his patent, I feel his claim is extremely vague (and no, I am NOT an attorney). For example, notice the wording at the very beginning of the text (emphasis is mine): "An article of manufacture for use with a virtual reality device comprising a medium with a program imprinted thereon operable with the device and designed for achieving a goal....." What exactly does this mean? Such a system is generally fairly straightforward (and obviously with some variations): computer, VR program/world(s), tracker, HMD, an I/O device of some kind for navigation possibly, and maybe even some form of feedback device. Certainly Mr. Sever is not laying claim to the computer, the tracker, the HMD, or even VR worlds. Is he talking about some specific device, as yet undefined/unannounced? Is he talking about a specific application delivered via CD-ROM? The patent clearly refers to such an "article", and can obviously not lay claim to the other components listed above. So......I wouldn't worry about it. Press on. Stuart B. Alexander President Interactive Arts & Sciences, Inc. Raleigh, NC stuvr @ msn.com