IBM Files For New Blockchain Patent

By Rishma Banerjee

IBM, the American multinational tech giant, has recently applied for a brand new blockchain-related patent which is has to do with stoping augmented reality game players from “intruding on undesirable locations”

The patent filing states that these “locations include “culturally sensitive” places, “high risk” areas, and properties “marked” by their owners. The document then goes to to talks about the

“method includes obtaining a location of a mobile device using a first sensor of the mobile device and accessing a first locational database responsive to the location of the mobile device.” the augmented reality object is them extricated from the locational database and them the blockchain based system figures out if the the mobile device which has been associated with the AR object is in “an undesirable location.” It also stated that this system will include ” displaying the modified augmented reality object at a display of the mobile device.”

This patent which was released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on the 1st of November, aims to clearly separate and maintain the boundaries with regards to sensitive physical locations and the device operating the AR object. The system will be based on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) which is generally used to keep track of information to facilitate transparency, forgery or alterations of records.

Augmented reality has been elaborated on by the document as a type of gaming that’s deals with a location “sometimes overlaid with an image of one or more game items” like in-game locations, characters, and “resources” but on the players’ mobile devices. This enables them to “interact with the virtual game items that are ‘present’ at the player’s real world location … [so,] the player transits between real world locations and spends time in particular locations interacting with the game…”

Using a blockchain enables system will enable IBM to provide a guarantee of “trust” between location-dependent AR objects and real-world physical locations which is otherwise lacking.

Importantly, the document stated that a key “aspect of a location-based augmented reality game” is “’trust’ about real world locations.” By using the blockchain-enabled system described in its patent filing, IBM aims to provide a guarantee of “trust.”

IBM till date has filed for 89 blockchain patents coming a very close second to China based Alibaba, who currently stand at 90.