Microsoft Patents ‘Avoid Ghetto’ Feature For GPS Devices

[Robert&Karen 264]

Already built in is "Avoid Apple store locations."

[Darnell 8,479]

I sometimes walk to nearby restaurants, bars and the supermarket. My boyfriend walks home from work (6 miles) twice or three times a week. I have friends without cars here.

We DO exist!

Labels is cool. A new demographic! Yay !

Nice to hear of you being green. I too, am green over here.

[SMR 368]

I doubt this patent could hold up in court. The avoid Ghetto feature has been a standing joke on the internet for months. You can't patent a widely held idea.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I doubt this patent could hold up in court. The avoid Ghetto feature has been a standing joke on the internet for months. You can't patent a widely held idea.

You can patent technological innovations, however.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

seems no different than "avoid unpaved roads"

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Its all GIS data in the end.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

there's only two types of pedestrians in la - the quick and the dead.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

REDMOND, Wash. (CBS Seattle) – Microsoft has been granted a patent for its "avoid ghetto" feature for GPS devices.

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."

Created for mobile phones, the technology uses the latest crime statistics and weather data and includes them when calculating a route.

http://seattle.cbslo...or-gps-devices/

Good. All neighborhoods are not equal.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

It took me five minutes to cross the street today to go to Starbucks in Brentwood.

Yay First World Problems!

We do not have those problems in the first world, maybe you should move here.

[Danno 1,228]

I bet I have gotten more citations in LA while walking than anywhere else driving.

They take Jay walking and not paying the rail fare seriously.

However, apparently they have a lousy means of collection enforcement.