Patents on the soles of your shoes...: January 2024

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Lori Silverman - Crystal Sole® pumps (3)

The US design patent, USD753378S1, titled Shoe with decorative sole is another US design patent awarded to Lori Silverman for her Crystal Sole® pumps. The patent was granted on April 12, 2016, to Lori Silverman and assigned to her company LSIL & Co Inc. As a reminder US design patents cover the ornamental aspects of an invention or the way it looks. In contrast, US utility patents cover the way an invention works and/or is manufactured.

Below the patent Figure 1 extracted from the US design patent, USD753378S1, shows a bottom perspective view of a shoe with the invention decorative sole in an argyle rhinestone pattern. An image of a marketed pump model with a black patent leather upper, an argyle patterned sole, and argyle piping, is also included below.

Reference

LSIL & Co Inc.

lsilandco.com

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Lori Silverman - Crystal Sole® pump (2)

The US design patent USD740006S1, titled Shoe with decorative sole is one of twelve US design patents awarded to Lori Silverman for her Crystal Sole® pumps. This patent was granted on Oct. 6, 2015 to Lori Silverman, and assigned to her company LSIL & Co Inc. As a reminder, US design patents cover the ornamental aspects of an invention, or the way the invention looks. In contrast, US utility patents cover the way an invention works, and/or how the invention is manufactured.

Below, the patent Figure 1, extracted from the US design patent, USD740006S1, depicts a bottom perspective view of a shoe with the invention decorative sole in a camouflage, rhinestone pattern. An image of a marketed, pointy-toe, pump model with nude suede upper, and more than 3000 crystals adorning the camo-patterned sole, is also included below.

Reference

LSIL & Co inc.

lsilandco.com

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Lori Silverman - Crystal Sole® pumps (1)

Lori Silverman’s Crystal Sole® invention consists in a process of decorating shoe soles, in a way that makes the design impervious to the rigors of walking on asphalt and other surfaces. The result is a shoe with signature decorated soles.

Crystal Sole® shoes are patented. Patented not only with dozens of US design patents for each of the distinctive ways the decorated soles look, but also with a core US utility patent. A US utility patent covering the manufacture of the Silverman shoes with distinctively decorated soles. Indeed, the Crystal Sole® invention was originally recited in the US utility patent application, US20160007678A1, titled Shoe with wrapped sole and transparent pod.

The invention recites a method of making a shoe with a decorated sole, comprising decorative fabric that is bonded on a blank sole, and covered with a transparent plastic pad. The extracted patent Figure 1 below shows a side perspective view of the shoe made according to an embodiment of the invention.

Specifically, the patent Figure 1 depicts the invention shoe 10, an upper 12, a sole 14 to heel 16, a decorative element 18 on at least a portion of the sole 14, and a protective pad 20, covering at least a portion of the sole 14.

The depicted shoe 10 is a woman’s pump, but the scope of the invention extends to other types of shoes for both men and women. Shoe types for women comprise, for example, boots, booties, flats, or ballet slippers. Shoes for men comprise both loafer types and boots.

The decorative element 18 is a piece of fabric 22 with a separately patented decorative design. Decorative designs for men’s shoes comprise, for example, checkerboard, camouflage, or sport’s team logo. Decorative designs for women shoes comprise, for example, checkerboard, zebra pattern, stripes, polka dots, plaid, argyle, leopard spots, tiger stripes, plus many more.

The protective pad 20 covers just the portion of the shoe contacting the floor when the shoe is high heel. When the shoe is a flat, the pad covers the entire sole, up to, or including the heel portion. The protective pad 20 is made of any polymer such as silicone or PVC. The pad 20 also includes holes 24 for stitching to the sole.

The patent further describes the methods of cutting, bonding, and putting together the invention shoe 10, comprising the fabric 22, the blank sole 14, the protective pad 20, and the upper 12. The patent also describes the extra steps required to include crystals as decorative elements beneath the protective shoe pads 20, directly on the shoe soles 14.

The patent Abstract is included below. A marketed women’s pump embodiment of the invention appears below the patent Figure 1.

The invention provides a method for making a shoe having a decorated sole, which comprises: providing a sole blank for a desired shoe; providing a fabric having desired decoration, design, or insignia on a bottom side thereof cutting the fabric to a size which will cover the sole and wrap on a portion of an inside edge of the sole; adhering the fabric to the sole blank with bonding agent or adhesive and wrapping the fabric around the edge of the sole; adhering the fabric to the upper edge of the sole blank; affixing a clear plastic pad to at least a portion of the sole to protect against wear of the fabric by floor or street surfaces; and adhering the sole to a shoe upper to form a complete shoe. The invention further provides shoes having decorative soles made in accordance with the foregoing method. [Abstract US20160007678A1]

References
Lori Silverman Shoes (website)

https://www.lorisilvermanshoes.com/

Monday, January 22, 2024

CES 2024 - Invoxia Minitailz Pet tracker

Invoxia unveiled the Minitailz pet tracker at the largest Computer Electronics Show (CES) in the USA, meeting in Las Vegas, Jan 9-12, 2024, since 1995. The Minitailz pet tracker not only informs you of your pet’s whereabouts, using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, the Minitailz is also a biometrics pet tracker that supplies information 24/7 about your pet’s health. Health information such as respiratory and heart rates, movement, sleep and barking. Indeed, it is the first combination GPS-Health tracker for dogs, and soon for cats also.

The Minitailz tracker is sold together with a collar, or separately for easy attachment to an existing collar. The Minitailz tracker comes with a monthly (8$) subscription-based app for monitoring and interpreting all the collected data.

The Minitailz pet tracker is a patented invention recited in the US utility patent application, US20230210091A1, titled Dog collar. The patent recites a non-invasive, intelligent collar with a neural network (NN), trained to continuously monitor the physiological parameters of a dog, such as heart rate (HR) and breathing rate (BR) and to separate the BR and HR signals. The collar further comprises a movement sensor comprising an accelerometer and/or gyrometer to capture movement data, and a storage unit comprising the trained neural network. A memory is configured to store physiological information. The tracker also has an interface to communicate all the collected physiological information, to a remote device.

Below the patent Figures 1 and 2 of the dog collar (1). Figure 1 shows a band (2) fitted around the dog’s neck and a set of electronic parts (3) adapted to the band (2), for monitoring the physiological parameters of a dog. The patent Figure 2 represents a detailed view of the Figure 1 set of electronic parts (3).

The electronic parts (3) comprise a processing unit (5) and memory (6). The electronic parts further comprise a radar (7) unit with a sensor, comprising a receiving antenna, adapted to detect a signal on the dog’s skin (8), preferably above the dog’s throat, in particular above the dog’s jugular and/ or carotid veins (9). The raw radio frequency (RF) signal (10) detected by the radar is measured by a single antenna. In other embodiments, three antennas might capture the RF signal, resulting in a three-dimensional signal. The dog collar also comprises a ballast (11) with a power source (4) for positioning the radar unit on the jugular vein.

The electronic parts also comprise a movement sensor unit (12), comprising an accelerometer and/or a gyrometer. The movement sensor (12) is designed to capture the raw movement signal (13) of the dog’s collar (1). The dog collar also comprises a clock (14), designed to synchronize segments of raw movement signals with raw radiofrequency (RF) signals. The neural network unit (16), comprising artificial intelligence software, is stored in its own storage unit (15). The dog collar also comprises an input/output unit (17), for short-range radio communication, designed to transfer stored physiological data to a remote device via BlueTooth®.

The abstract of the invention is included below.

An intelligent dog collar for monitoring physiological parameters of a dog, comprising:
- a movement sensor unit comprising an accelerometer and/or a gyrometer, wherein the movement sensor unit is configured to detect raw movement signals of the dog collar,
- a storage module storing a trained neural network, the neural network being configured to determine a physiologic information into raw movement signals detected by the movement sensor unit,
- a processing unit connected to the movement sensor unit and configured to operate the trained neural network,
- a memory configured to store the identified physiologic information,
- an interface for transmitting to a communication device the identified physiologic information. [Abstract US20230210091A1]

References

CES 2024

https://www.ces.tech/

Invoxia

https://invoxia.com/en-US

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Terminology - The other ADS 2023 WOTTIES and candidates.

In fact, the distinguished, 134-year-old, American Dialect Society (ADS) selects the Word of the Year (WOTY) in eight (no-less-interesting) additional categories. Words of the year (WOTTIES) selected in categories, such as the Most creative WOTY, the Acronym/Initialism of the year, the Euphemism of the year, the Most useful/Most likely to succeed WOTY, or the Digital WOTY.

Below, a copy of the list of each of the ADS Word of the Year (WOTY) categories, released to the press. The categories appear with indexed category winners (marked with an asterisk), together with the category candidates, including candidates in the Word of the year 2023 category, the winner of ‘em all.

The terms are listed with their definitions, or expansions in cases of abbreviation. The numbers appearing at the end of lines indicate the number of votes, or runoff votes, when competition was tight.

WARNING: Some of the terms are not for the faint of heart.

WORD OF THE YEAR (2023)
* enshittification: worsening of a digital platform through reduction in quality of service 68/92/158
babygirl: older male fictional character or celebrity seen as emotionally damaged, helpless, or vulnerable 10
ceasefire: rallying cry for those seeking a stoppage of hostilities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 29
context: word invoked by presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn to questions at a House hearing about prohibiting speech on campus 45/63
(derogatory): parenthetical comment humorously appended after a word that might not be expected to be derogatory 43/73/121
girlie: lighthearted and affectionate term of address for young women (also used in a broader more gender-inclusive way) 20
Kenaissance: renaissance in the wake of the Barbie movie’s depiction of Ken (also Kenergy, Kenough) 14
let (someone) cook: allow a person to do something that they are good at without interference 14
stochastic parrot: large language model that can generate plausible synthetic text without having any understanding 37/52

MOST USEFUL/MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED

* (derogatory): parenthetical comment humorously appended after a word that might not be expected to be derogatory 116

cunty: having an audaciously exceptional appearance or displaying fierce femininity (from LGBTQ ballroom culture) 26

enshittification: worsening of a digital platform through reduction in quality of service 37

era: a personal period defined by a noteworthy style or behavior (esp. in in my X era) 30

girl/boy X: way of doing something associated with a gender, as in girl dinner, girl math, boy math 55

mother: (adj.) admirable (as a term of endearment); (v.) to perform something admirably (from LGBTQ ballroom culture) 16

POLITICAL WORD OF THE YEAR
* 🍉 (watermelon emoji): symbol of Palestinian solidarity used on social media 103/143
context: word invoked by presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn to questions at a House hearing about prohibiting speech on campus 61
hot labor summer/hot union summer: summer of 2023, when a number of unions went on strike 106/133
I/P: shorthand for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict 1

DIGITAL WORD OF THE YEAR
* enshittification: worsening of a digital platform through reduction in quality of service 111
chat: collective term of address for those participating in a streamer’s chat 59
gamers: second-person plural term of address, as on a gaming livestream 11
ice cream so good: response by TikTok streamer Pinkydoll to receiving an ice cream emoji 11
millennial pause: pause by a millennial at the beginning of a recorded video, as opposed to the Gen Z shake (shaky video at the start of recording) 45
skibidi: nonsense word popularized by the YouTube animated series Skibidi Toilet 46

INFORMAL WORD OF THE YEAR
* let (someone) cook: allow a person to do something that they are good at without interference 90/142
babygirl: older male fictional character or celebrity seen as emotionally damaged, helpless, or vulnerable 39
(derogatory): parenthetical comment humorously appended after a word that might not be expected to be derogatory 75 /127
gyat, gyatt: exclamation expressing surprise, excitement, or admiration (esp. on seeing someone with a large butt) 12
rizz: charm or attractiveness, now used as a combining form or blend component (rizzler, pre-rizz-toric) 60

ACRONYM/INITIALISM OF THE YEAR (ad-hoc category)

* FAFO (fuck around and find out): warning that foolish actions will result in unwanted consequences 177

AITA (am I the asshole?): question asked to an online audience (as on Reddit) to determine if the person is at fault in a situation 47

IYKYK (if you know, you know): indication that something is a reference understood by a select group 14

LFG (let’s fucking go): exhortation to action 26

MOOP (matter out of place): waste material left behind at an event (esp. Burning Man) 12

AI-RELATED WORD THE YEAR (ad-hoc category)

* stochastic parrot: large language model that can generate plausible synthetic text without having any understanding 106/147

ChatGPT: name for OpenAI’s chatbot, now becoming generic for generative AI systems 111/130

hallucination: AI-generated response containing false information presented as factual 10

LLM (large language model): machine-learning model trained on a vast text corpus 6

prompt engineer: expert in developing text prompts for generative AI models 40

MOST CREATIVE WORD OF THE YEAR

* Kenaissance: renaissance in the wake of the Barbie movie’s depiction of Ken (also Kenergy, Kenough) 100/161

assholocene: the current era of human history, defined by the ubiquity of assholes 42

delulu: delusion, as in delulu is the solulu (delusion is the solution) 72/109

tush push: quarterback sneak for short yardage perfected by the Philadelphia Eagles (also called the brotherly shove) 64

EUPHEMISM OF THE YEAR

* structurally restrictive housing: solitary confinement (rebranded by the New York City Department of Correction) 101

artificial intelligence: computerized simulation of human intelligence that is not actually intelligent 60

effective altruism: movement ostensibly to benefit humanity, used as an excuse for spending other people’s money 57

free bird: alternative to “empty-nester” promoted by Gwyneth Paltrow 17

stenographer: journalist seen as uncritically reporting statements made by officials and others in power 22

References
American Dialect Society (ADS)
https://americandialect.org/
Zimmer, B. and L. Sutton. (Jan. 5, 2024). American Dialect Society selects “enshittification” as 2023 Word of the Year. Press Release American Dialect Society.
https://americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2023-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Terminology - The ADS 2023 WOTY.

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

On January 5, 2024, the venerable American Dialect Society (ADS) selected the term enshittification as the Word Of The Year (WOTY) 2023. The neologism was coined by Cory Doctorow, an award-winning, Canadian-British, science fiction author, and blogger, who uses the term quite liberally. According to Dictionary.com:

“Enshitification means the gradual degradation of an online platform or service's functionality, as part of a cycle in which the platform or service first offers benefits to users to attract them, then pursues more and more profits at the expense of users.”

However, the scope of the term is far greater, considering all of its derivations found on Doctorow’s blog, such as enshittocene, enshittifified, The Great Enshittening, and occasionally a more positive twist, such as to disenshittify.”

Three hundred members of the ADS voted for enshiffication. All of them experts in matters of language, language change and language variation, they are linguists, lexicographers, etymologists, grammarians, historians, researchers, writers, editors, students, and independent scholars. Members of the 134 year-old ADS institution, all voting in the 34^th year of the Word of the Year (WOTY) event.

Ben Zimmer, Word on the Street columnist at The Wall Street Journal and Chair of the ADS New Words Committee, presided over the WOTY session, on the occasion of the Society’s Annual Meeting. A session that he co-chaired, this year in conjunction with Dr. Kelly Elizabeth Wright, the Committee’s official Data Czarina and experimental sociolinguistic activist.

Zimmer notes, in regard to the selection, that: “Enshittification is a sadly apt term for how our online lives have become gradually degraded. From the time that it first appeared in Doctorow’s posts and articles, the word had all the markings of a successful neologism, being instantly memorable and adaptable to a variety of contexts.”

A sad word indeed, now the beacon of a whole year.

References

American Dialect Society (ADS)
https://americandialect.org/

ADS - 2023 Word of the Year is enshittification.
https://americandialect.org/2023-word-of-the-year-is-enshittification/

ADS – All the Words of the Year, 1990 to present.
https://americandialect.org/woty/all-of-the-words-of-the-year-1990-to-present/

Cory Doctorow: An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Enshittification and Throw It Into Reverse. YouTube video [01:08:42]
https://youtu.be/VT1ud0rAT7w

Dictionary.com (website)

www.dictionary.com

Doctorow, C. (Jan 13, 2024). Tech workers and gig workers need each other. Each disenshittifies the other.
https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/13/solidarity-forever/#tech-unions

Wright, K. E. (Jan 14, 2024). Disabling Linguistic Oppression with Experimental Sociolinguistics
https://kellywright5.wixsite.com/raciolinguistics

Zimmer, B. and L. Sutton (Jan. 5, 2024). American Dialect Society selects enshittification as 2023 Word of the Year. Press Release American Dialects Society.

https://americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2023-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf

Zimmer, B. (Jan 14, 2024). Word on the Street columnist at The Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/news/author/ben-zimmer

Saturday, January 6, 2024

Oh, patents! Oh, Polly!

Polly is part of a fairly recent winning streak in breakthrough inventions for the blind. A winning streak that includes the Dot Pad, the Dot SmartWatch, and Dot Translate, using refreshable braille, and most recently Lego® Braille Bricks.

Recipient of a Time Magazine Best 200 Inventions Award in 2022, Polly is a braille learning system developed by the American Printing House (APH) for the Blind, in collaboration with a firm in India called Thinkerbell Labs. The APH is the largest braille publishing house in the United States. Braille is a tactile language, enabling the blind and visually impaired to read and write.

Braille was named after Louis Braille, who became blind as a young boy in France, and went on to develop this eponymous tactile language, at the beginning of the 19th century. Braille consists of a certain number of cells, each containing different combinations of 3x2 raised dots, corresponding to the letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks, and contractions. Early braille reading and writing materials were embossed on thick cardboard sheets, using manual or automated braillers. A means of producing braille reading and writing mterials that limited both the variety and quantity of materials available, and by the same token access to literacy and employment for the blind.

Scrolling fast forward, Polly was developed not only to incorporate the latest digital combination of audio and refreshable braille technology into braille learning systems, but also to develop a state-of-the-art digitized curriculum for the blind. A digitized curriculum for the blind and visually impaired that fills the void for on-demand learning content and collaborative classroom activity, and that includes instant feedback or live monitoring, step-wise progression, and analytics on learning outcomes. A curriculum for the blind and visually impaired that also includes games and fun learning materials. Especially, materials that might be used without the assistance of a teacher, considering the shortage of special education teachers, and the increased need for assisting blind or visually impaired students on their path to braille literacy.

The Polly invention thus responds to two apsects of a problematic situation in braille education. First, the invention responds to shortcomings in the application of the latest electronic dot and audio technologies for the blind. Secondly, the invention responds to the need for catching up on the development of digitized methodologies for teaching and learning braille literacy, on a par with digital learning and teaching methodlogies for the sighted.

Polly is a patented invention. The following family of five patents protect the invention. The patents were granted by the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Intellectual Property Australia (IP Australia), the European Patent Office (EPO), and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) :

WO2019162848A1 - A smart interactive system for Braille learning.
US11514817B2 - A smart interactive system for Braille learning.
AU2022218635A1 - A smart interactive system for learning braille.
EP3756179A4 - A smart interactive system for learning braille.
CA3091579A1- A smart interactive system for learning braille.

The US utility patent US11514817B2 discloses a smart interactive electronic braille learning device, for audio-tactile inputting and outputting of braille content. The invention is further designed to make braille learning easy, fun, and possible, even without the help of a teacher. The braille device is a connected device. The device is part of a system that includes a digitized braille pedagogy, followed across the globe via cloud servers, which users can access via the audio-tactile input and output interface.

The input interface includes a 6-key Perkins braille keyboard and a digitized version of the traditional “braille slate” for use with a stylus. The 6-key braille Perkins keyboard is for learning how to type in braille. The digitized “slate” for use with a stylus facilitates learning how to write in braille, eliminating the need for thick cardboard paper where students used to emboss dots using a stylus. The output interface includes enlarged braille cells for beginning braille readers, and standard-size braille cells for learners who have already mastered braille reading with the enlarged cells.

Below, the patent Figures 2a, 2b and 2c, showing top (2a), left side (2b) and right side (2c) views of an embodiment of the Polly invention device for learning braille. The top view 2a of the device depicts a large twin-cell refreshable braille display 110 for beginning readers, and a standard 6-cell refreshable braille display 108 for more advanced braille readers. Between the large twin-cell 110 and standard 108 6-cell refreshable braille displays, a speaker system 113, intended to assist with reading and to provide instructions. Below the refreshable braille reading cells (110 and 108) and speaker system 113, a standard Perkins 6-key keyboard 117 for typing braille, plus a backspace key, a new line key, and a space bar. Beneath the Perkins keyboard 117, a digital braille slate 116, for practicing “stylus & slate” braille writing skills. Beneath the digital slate 116, there are navigation keys (left and right arrows, plus a spacebar) used to navigate across stored content and the different operational modes of the system.

The left side 2b of the device depicts the power supply input plug 102, the on/off rocker switch 103, and a touch sensor 120. The touch sensor vibrates upon a single tap, to indicate that the device is ON to a visually impaired person. A double tap controls the repetition of the last audio instruction. Vibration is otherwise also used to provide feedback, such as for an incorrect answer or to acknowledge input. The left side 2b of the device also displays two un-indexed USB ports, and a LAN port for modem connection. The device is otherwise WIFI and Bluetooth-enabled. The right side of the device 2c depicts the audio jack 114, and the volume control knob 115.

The Polly braille learning system is connected to the Helios Educational Platform for storage of, and access to, a wide variety of multilingual content, structured into lessons of increasing difficulty. To sign up, and set up an account, go to: https://polly-helios.thinkerbelllabs.com/

Below, an indexed image of the marketed Polly braille learning device. Below the image, the abstract of the invention, extracted from the US utility patent US11514817B2.

The present invention discloses completely digitized, smart, interactive and connected system (100) for braille learning. The invention also provides platform for consuming coupled audio-braille tactile lessons that include voice and braille data input or output serving as educational tool for visually challenged. The smart interactive system comprises a braille keyboard (117), a digital braille 10 slate (116), a proximity touch sensor (120) for input, a large braille display (110) and standard braille display (108), a vibration motor (119) and a speaker (113) for haptic and audio data output. The digital braille slate (116) gives both mechanical tactile feedback and audio feedback via speaker (115) as each braille dots are pressed using the stylus (306). The system (100) is connected to the internet 15 allowing for remote software and content updates and upload of data on usage metrics. [Abstract US11514817B2]