too good to be true? The Portal flexible smartphone?

[tom66]

I almost welcome it, if it stops a scam like this.

Patent idea: "A Process for Extracting Monetary Funds off Unaware Individuals via Crowd-Sourcing"

Claims:
- A method wherein a "crowd-funding" site is used to fund a hardware or software Project (herein "the Project") of high complexity;
- The method in Claim 1 wherein a hardware function of a device is not practically implementable with commercially available components;
- The method in Claim 1 wherein the Developer "slags off" other products for not providing said impossible features;
- The method in Claim 1 wherein the funding goal is not sufficient to develop the Project;
- The method in Claim 1 wherein the funding is set as "Flexible Fund" (or equivalent), as an insurance to receiving the Funds;
- The method in Claim 2 wherein the hardware or software project is never delivered, in whole or in part;
- The method in Claim 2 wherein, if delivered, the result suffers from serious design flaws, lack of engineering oversight and poor engineering consideration;
- The method in Claim 5 wherein Updates are issued in decreasing frequency as the Backer stress metric (see figure 4) increases;
- The method in Claim 5 wherein the Lead Developer of the Project uses Project funds to purchase a luxury automobile, an exclusive condo, or shopping spree items.

[miguelvp]

That attempt is ludicrous, since they depict a regular smart watch on their blog:

www.ontomax.com/newsarchive/2014/july.htm
www.intellitablet.com/index.htm

There is prior art and commercial products before their claim.

[zapta]

Very strange.

I don't actually see a patent under that guy's name that has the claims he lists.  Furthermore, it's far fetched that his claims describe an actual invention rather than just an idea of how a theoretical device could work.

He sounds like some kind of wannabe patent troll / egghead inventor-wannabe.

He is a serial inventor. Probably one of these:

https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=pts&hl=en&q=inassignee:%22Christian+Stroetmann%22#q=inassignee%3A%22Christian+Stroetmann%22&hl=en&tbm=pts&start=20

[Corporate666]

Very strange.

I don't actually see a patent under that guy's name that has the claims he lists.  Furthermore, it's far fetched that his claims describe an actual invention rather than just an idea of how a theoretical device could work.

He sounds like some kind of wannabe patent troll / egghead inventor-wannabe.

He is a serial inventor. Probably one of these:

https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=pts&hl=en&q=inassignee:%22Christian+Stroetmann%22#q=inassignee%3A%22Christian+Stroetmann%22&hl=en&tbm=pts&start=20

I don't think he is an inventor, I think he is a patent troll.

Check this out:

https://www.google.com/patents/DE202013009033U1

In October of 2013 he files a patent for "Data glasses, having an embedded portable computer system, a power supply, at least a transparent, multi-directional device for the optical signaling of the variable information"

That is Google glass, which was first demo'ed in 2011, and sold as a commercial product to developers in early 2013. 

I think this guy takes advantage of the fact that the patent office (in the USA and likely elsewhere) grants patents on obvious things if there isn't already a patent for it.  This guy seems to take things that are already being made/sold and patents aspects of them (or the whole device).  His hope is probably that companies will license "his IP" or buy his patent (i.e. pay him to go away) rather than deal with a patent fight. 

[macgyver0815]

The patent system is sooooooo last century...

He has even patented multi constellation GNSS receivers plus dead reckoning as it seems ;-)
(GPS+GLONASS receivers, which are commercially available since at least 5 years or so - would have to check how long exactly)

https://www.google.com/patents/DE202013009159U1?cl=en&dq=inassignee:%22Christian+Stroetmann%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9skrVNWHFoWkygPqlYHYAg&ved=0CFsQ6AEwBzgU

Brutally obvious patent troll, but I somehow don't feel sorry for this particular project ;-)

[PointyOintment]

For example, flexible lithium polymer type batteries do exist (my university, the University of Leeds has developed ones) but as far as I'm aware, the capacity is very limited - last I'd heard was on the order of 100mAh max. The problem is to make a larger capacity cell (of cell-phone like dimensions) you need to roll the layers in a manner not unlike making an electrolytic capacitor. Bending the battery then can violate the spacing between the layers, which can lead to short circuits and Bad Things™. It's possible to fix the form factor of a LiPo (Nike+ fuelband has curved LiPos) but only during manufacture. It can't be changed while in use.

Curved OLED panels do exist but only in very large sizes (55" for TVs, etc.)  No manufacturer is selling flexible OLED panels of any form factor. Prototypes have been demonstrated at low densities. Many such displays suffer from repeated stress. The bonding on the chip-on-glass fails after many flexing operations, leading to stuck lines on the panel.

Those both exist with practical specs and have been used in production by a major manufacturer.

[miguelvp]

I thought the IPhone 6+ was the first flexible smartphone

Too soon?

[Wilksey]

I thought the IPhone 6+ was the first flexible smartphone

Too soon?

Too late!  See post #11

[tom66]

Those both exist with practical specs and have been used in production by a major manufacturer.

Perhaps I should have clarified. No technologies exist to demonstrate the flexibility of the Portal specification.
You can build some components with a little bit of flexibility (or flexibility in one axis like for G Flex), but ultimately you're limited by currently available technology.