Prior art?
That looks like either a Nintendo or xBox avatar, and the interface is almost identical to the once used in The Sime 2 & 3 to create your Sims.
Only an idiot would think that this was in any way enforceable.
Apple is preparing to launch a 3D avatar app which could be a sign the Cupertino giant is ready to push its own gaming service. The company applied to patent the technology behind the app back in 2010, but the software is now in the final stages of development, according to Patently Apple, which dug up some images of the Apple …
The Wii one for making Miis is 3D and practically identical, even down to the icons used!
The only discernable difference is that the Wii one puts the user interface elements above and to the sides of the screen rather than below.
If this actually got approved then it really should be the final nail in the USPTO office. It's way past time for it to be totally closed down for being utterly incapable of doing their job.
I assume that Friday booze is the only excuse for a lot of pillocking on about prior art from people who clearly have not read the patent application details.
I've no idea if anyone else is using colour indexing to all for maintaining smooth colour gradients when the colour attribute of a single part is altered - they may well be in which case there may be prior art but I did this on my cell wall using my own faeces" doesn't count.
I remember a game on the Amiga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_(video_game)
The Amiga version also had customisable content, this could be gained by sending a request to Core with details of the player and a passport photograph
i.e - you sent the company a passport photo and they mailed (by post...) a disk back with your avatar (in 3D)
p.s this game pre-dates Wolfenstien and the graphics knocked the hell out of that (because the Amiga was so far ahead..)
p.p.s the Atari ST version didn't have this feature.....
3D????? When I saw "Apple pushes patents for 3D avatar authoring" I thought I was going to be some 3D ground breaking 3D holographic image.
Instead..... ITS A FUCKING 2D IMAGE from the Wii with different POVs, lets see… THQ/Dawn of War had a very good implementation of this... in 2004... FFS how many games have implemented this in the past 10 years, I suppose they will all owe crApple royalties now..
I think the patent love fairy has been through down voting anyone that points out the USPTO is a piece of shit and all its members are prime candidates for the B ark
I have a better example, REAL FUCKING LIFE, I'm pretty sure the world is full of 3 dimensional objects that represent us. We can put clothes on them, cut their hair, have surgery to change them, cut bits off of them, all sorts.
It's obvious that we'd want to duplicate the experiance in alternate environments (and have been doing for millenia with story telling)
Now, if Apple have made an amazing new camera that uses never before thought of technology that defies all common sense in "how to make a 3d image" then they should get a patent on their wonderful new technology, other wise they and the USPTO should fuck off and die.
TBH I don't blame apple, they do what they do to maximise profits, it's the USA as a whole that allows such a worthless system to exist that I blaime. Of course companies will bs a patent system if they're allowed. The solution is simple, Patent offices should have to stand side by side with who evers patent is being tried and must pay 50% of all the costs for trying or upholding a patent, there should also be a very large fine for issuing patents that are later revoked.
All the fines should go to encouraging science teaching at schools.
On patent Trolls. A technically superior race comes to earth, n allows all its technology to be used under license. You find out that they're all a bunch of dullards who cant think for themselves, and are attracted by the latest shiny shiny, and the best thing they can aim for is to win big and get a small lot of land an retire (i.e. die n get buried). The evil genius in control, never came up with a new idea, they just patent all processes to death, make species dependant upon their technology and slowly strangle them with licenses, until they're just dumb comsumers.
Yet another Apple patent that fails on the tests of prior art and obviousness and yet the patent will be granted and will remain valid right up until the point where Apple try to enforce it. Or more likely it will remain valid right up until the point where somebody successfully appeals against a case upholding the patent.
One more time, the patent system has been broken since the days of Marconi (or if you prefer Lego) and since it wasn't fixed then it won't be fixed now.