RELATED POSTS

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  Charges only where you are, 2012
  Another groundbreaking 
  innovation of the last 20 years

  Today $1,000 cheeseburgers aren’t unheard of at some luxury restaurants and hotels. And while most people wouldn’t dream of it, someone with your stolen credit card information and an expensive bovine habit might have other ideas. 
  
  Thankfully IBM US Patent no. 8,229,853 is there to stand in the way of such pricey ground beef capers. By dynamically cross-referencing your credit card with your indicated location and times, cardholders won’t get stuck with the bill for something they didn’t order. Because if you’re left holding the bill, you better be holding the napkin, too.

  

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  Are we there yet?, 2012
  Another groundbreaking 
  innovation of the last 20 years

  The kids are hungry. Your bladder’s angry. And the line to get through the toll is backed up for miles. According to the GPS, your relaxing day at the beach should have arrived 90 minutes ago.  

  Enter IBM US Patent No. 8,150,611 and the effort to make family trips and commutes a whole lot easier. By combining both real-time and predictive traffic data, we can better determine how long it takes to get from point A to point B, while navigating past traffic jams. What does this mean for you? For starters, a whole lot less time in the car. Good thing, because the kids have started pulling hair and your wife just put on the greatest soft hits of the 70s.

  Learn more about it.

  

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  Avoiding green vehicle blackouts of the future, 2012
  Another groundbreaking 
  innovation of the last 20 years

  It’s probably not the best idea to run your toaster, microwave, dishwasher, five halogens and hair-dryer at the same time. Unless you enjoy hanging out with your electrician. Soon, though, we may have something else to stick into the wall—the family car. The Prius, Volt and Leaf all point to an electric-vehicle future. And that brings up a nutty little paradox. With millions of plug-in cars on the road gulping down electrons, won’t we actually need more electricity? And won’t it cost more to run them?

  IBM’s been thinking about this for a while, and came up with US Patent No. 8,266,075. It’s a quite clever transaction system that combines energy prices, your car’s current battery level, and your own transport needs. Then it delivers up a schedule of charging times and prices. It’ll mean your little EV can grab some lightning bolts wherever there’s an outlet, without breaking the bank—or the world’s energy grid. Maybe, just maybe, it’s the foundation for the fuel network of the future. Now isn’t that an electrifying thought?

  Learn more about it.

  

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  Earthquake Detector, 2010
  Another groundbreaking 
  innovation of the last 20 years

  If you ever find yourself moved to safe ground before a tsunami strikes, remember to thank your lucky stars—and then IBM US Patent No. 7,693,663. Using micro-vibration sensors (known as MEMS accelerometers) in disk drives, we can now calculate the strength, location and depth of seismic events and send aid more quickly to places in need.

  Soon we’ll be able to measure, pinpoint and possibly predict earthquakes and tsunamis much more accurately than ever before. 

  Learn more about it

  

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  Self-kewling data centers, 2012
  Another groundbreaking 
  innovation of the last 20 years

  Should Justin Bieber decide to tweet this post into his realm of tween Beliebers—and the Beliebers all retweeted it out at the same time—the Internet’s servers would see a dramatic power spike. 

  Luckily, the rock stars behind IBM US Patent No. 8,107,234 have devised a variable-flow cooling system to help data centers better adjust to demand. A rise in eco-friendlier data centers will help save costs, reduce emissions and make the passing fancy of pop idol fame a lot easier on the energy grid. 

  Learn more about it

  

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  Shoplifters beware! 2012 
  Another groundbreaking 
  innovation of the last 20 years

  Nothing’s more annoying than getting home from a full day of shopping and discovering the sales associate left the security sensor on your cool new duds. Well, thanks to IBM US Patent No. 8,259,175, those pesky little tags might become of thing of the past.
  
  By leveraging technology that automatically sifts through video sources for redundancy while factoring in time of day and previous thefts, retail stores will be able to better detect shoplifters and their behavior—simply by using video technology. Lucky for you, that means no more beeping at the door and less trips back to the mall to remove sensors.
  
  Learn more about it. 

  

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  Massive video stream monitoring, 2009
  Another groundbreaking 
  innovation of the last 20 years

  Imagine how much great TV you could catch up on if you were able to watch more than one channel at a time. Unfortunately our minds aren’t wired to process that much visual input at once, but our computers are. Hundreds and thousands of videos in fact.
  
  Now with IBM US Patent No. 7,545,978, multiple video streams can provide us with a clear, current view of what’s going on in any given topic, at any given time. Besides being incredibly useful for tracking business and news events around the globe, it will also work wonders with real-time traffic. Something to think about next time you’re stuck in rush-hour gridlock and your favorite show is about to start.

  Learn more about it.

  

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  Massively parallel supercomputing, 2009
  Another groundbreaking 
  innovation from the last 20 years
  

  What’s more powerful than the world’s fastest supercomputer? Multiples of the world’s fastest supercomputers working together.

  That’s the technology behind IBM US Patent No. 7,555,566 and it’s how we can start tackling even the most daunting challenges, like simulating the effects of long-term climate change or reaching a level of cognitive function in artificial intelligence that can mimic the natural functions in our own brains. Yep—pretty heady stuff. 

  Learn more about it

  

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