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USPTO grants Amazon seamless white background photography patent
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MacNN Staff
Join Date: Jul 2012
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The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted a questionable patent to Amazon in March, which gives the online retailer a hold on a common photography practice. Called "studio arrangement," the practice awarded the patent is an instruction set that outlines specific light and object placement to achieve photos of a subject on a white background, as well as steps for the process -- which has used by retailers for catalogs since the beginning of commercial photography.
The patent targets specifically photos of items taken against a white cyclorama with the use of lights and a table to create "endless" backdrops, as they are referred to in the photography world. The steps show how Amazon is able to produce the clean look on product photos that the online retailer -- along with every other retailer -- is known for showing on their pages.
In describing the process, the filing claims that the idea of this specific process came from the need to use digital means to achieve the same effect. By using software, green screens and other manipulation approaches, the same result could be achieved as the images "set against a true white background."
The filing is specific in the steps that it uses. In addition to placing items on top of a table or "elevated platform," specific distances, light placements, the use of 40KW light bulbs and camera settings are outlined. According to the filing, "a front light source positioned in a longitudinal axis intersecting the background, the longitudinal axis further being substantially perpendicular to a surface of the white cyclorama; an image capture position located between the background and the front light source in the longitudinal axis, the image capture position comprising at least one image capture device equipped with an eighty-five millimeter lens, the at least one image capture device further configured with an ISO setting of about three hundred twenty and an f-stop value of about 5.6."
Amazon even outlined the order of operations which contains four steps that would seem automatic for any photographer standing in a studio. In order, the steps are: activate rear light source, activate front light source, position subject on elevated platform and initiate capture.
What makes this award curious is the fact that this precise photography technique has been in existence well before 2011, and adds nothing unique or differentiating to the process -- save perhaps the audacity in filing for a patent on it in the first place. This means that there is substantial prior art, and millions of stock photos that could be used as evidence against the award. Not only that, but it has long been considered a known method, used since the advent of studio photography. No statement has been issued by Amazon in regard to the patent, but it seems unlikely that the retailer will use the award to pursue photographers globally.
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Last edited by NewsPoster; May 12, 2014 at 06:03 AM.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Aug 2009
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April 1st? No.
USPTO SNAFU? Check.
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Junior Member
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Wow. Now thats pretty stupid.
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Mac Elite
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Laugh now, but when my patent for a method of exchanging air for carbon dioxide utilizing a lung-based filtering system ("breathing") is granted, you'll all owe me a penny every time you infringe on my invention.
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Charles Martin
MacNN Editor
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Dedicated MacNNer
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Good thing they didn't patent shooting against a black background too. We should file for that one right away.
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Forum Regular
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Originally Posted by NewsPoster
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted a questionable patent to Amazon in March which gives the online retailer a hold on a common photography practice.
Curious. If Apple were granted this patent, would the editor writing this story describe this patent as "questionable"?
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Mac Enthusiast
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Those idiots need to be sprayed with AK47 and AR15 for 24 hours.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
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Wrenchy seems to hold the patent on knee-jerk Apple bashing.
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Managing Editor
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Originally Posted by wrenchy
Curious. If Apple were granted this patent, would the editor writing this story describe this patent as "questionable"?
Yeah, I would.
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Forum Regular
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Originally Posted by trenchcoat77
Wrenchy seems to hold the patent on knee-jerk Apple bashing.
No, I bash poorly written, fanboi-laden, biased journalism; all of which are prevalent on this site.
If I want Grade 5 reading material, I could choose macnn or Fox News. macnn is more fun.
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