CBS Seattle has a story about one of Microsoft’s latest GPS patents. Apparently, this patent is aimed at pedestrians who use GPS on their phones to find walking directions. When recommending a walking route, the software directs you around unsafe neighbourhoods (or open air areas that are subject to harsh temperatures). On the surface this seems like a great feature, but you have to wonder how Microsoft (or anyone else) defines “unsafe.”
As The Consumerist points out there is a strange sounding “reward scheme” in one of the claims for pedestrians or advertising providers. Perhaps this opens up the door to GPS systems that deliver preferred routes as deemed by advertisers that pay for pedestrian traffic – and not the GPS routes that are the most efficient. So you can avoid the ghetto and get rewarded for walking by a business: win, win.
Check out the CBS story here – or The Consumerist version here.
