Microsoft Seeks Patent On Shaming Fat Gamers

theodp writes "A newly disclosed Microsoft patent application — Avatar Individualized by Physical Characteristic — takes aim at fat people, proposing to generate fat avatars in gaming environments for individuals whose health records indicate they're overweight, limiting their game play, and even banning them. From the patent application: 'An undesirable body weight could be reflected in an overweight or underweight appearance for the avatar. Only requisite health levels are allowed to compete in a certain competition level. A dedicated gamer could exercise for a period of time until his health indicator gadget shows a sufficiently high health/health credit in order to allow reentering the avatar environment.' Linking one's gaming avatar to one's physique, explains Microsoft, will produce healthy and virtuous behaviors in individuals. Microsoft also proposes shaping gaming experiences by using 'psychological and demographic information such as education level, geographic location, age, sex, intelligence quotient, socioeconomic class, occupation, marital/relationship status, religious belief, political affiliation, etc.'"

From TFA:

[jockeys]

"The physiological data can be gleaned from a third party health data collection repository"

As someone who worked in the healthcare industry for a number of years, this seems like a HIPAA violation lawsuit waiting to happen.

Wii Fit

[chasisaac]

Does not Wii Fit already do this?

Another way to make life suck even more. I bet this is a deal with the new health care system to make more people kill themselves.

Re:Can I ?

[KarmaMB84]

high fructose corn syrup

Suppresses sensations of fullness which would normally prevent overeating. In the United States the stuff is in EVERYTHING that would normally contain natural sugar. It has also been linked to diabetese or at least the same symptoms of diabetese.

Re:*cough* HIPAA

[Mister Whirly]

I work in the medical research field, and trust me, HIPAA does much more to protect your privacy than inconvenience your relatives at the pharmacy (Which may be a store policy and not a HIPAA thing. One pharmacy I went to would not let me fill someone else's prescription, but the next one I went to did. neither mentioned HIPAA as a reason.). It was a huge deal that our division spent 2 years getting ready for, and everyone had to do training on what is legal and what isn't. There was also a lot of behind-the-scenes work done with existing medical data - de-identifying them, randomizing them, etc. Just becasue you are not directly aware of what changed under HIPAA does not mean that nothing changed. HIPAA also gives the law some teeth - if you really think that your privacy was violated by a health provider, report them. This isn't something the courts simply look the other way on anymore.

Re:Digital medical records

[Beardo the Bearded]

Well, I used Wii Fit to level up my rig -- I lost 20 pounds in the first two months while adding a significant amount of mass onto my arms and shoulders.

I'm now at about 165 pounds. My peak weight 10 years ago was about 250.

I note that Mario Kart uses your Mii info to determine what weight class you race in once you unlock yourself. That's probably enough prior art to invalidate this patent.

Re:*cough* HIPAA

[Mister Whirly]

Um, no. The slap on the wrist period is over. They had a transition period where they were not going to come down hard on you shortly after it was implemented, but the grace period is over. Screwing up now will cost you money, and more importantly guarantee you will never get any government grants for research, and no private firms will hire you because your reputation is shot. Research is huge huge money and companies are not going to risk that by being non-compliant. It will end up costing far more in the long run by having one small incident than it would to get things up to compliance levels.

Re:Digital medical records

[rtb61]

Face it the patent is disgusting, "The physiological data can be gleaned from a third party health data collection repository, a healthcare smart card, a real-time physiological sensor" it is so mind bogglingly privacy invasive that truly only M$ could have come up with it, especially for that line alone.

Why is M$ going out of it's way to make itself look stupid, clumsy and downright evil. There seems to be this major disconnect going on in Redmond between what they think is acceptable and what the rest of the planet thinks is acceptable. Ballmer driven patents, patent as much crap as you can, count the number of patents pat yourself on the back for a job well done and ignore the money you've wasted on patenting useless ideas, ignore the marketing damage done to the companies image as everyone discusses those patents.

Seriously the stupid patent goes even further "In addition, the physical characteristics can include psychological and demographic information such as education level, geographic location, age, sex, intelligence quotient, socioeconomic class, occupation, marital/relationship status, religious belief, political affiliation, etc. Such information can be useful in enhancing social interaction as well as adjusting how an avatar performs in a competitive virtual environment." you really couldn't make up a story where a company would be stupid enough to put that into a patent. So, what does that mean, if your a gay, overweight, atheist, who votes socialist, you are pretty much fucked and will not win any game ever or what ever else marketing dollars decide is the ultra consumerist lifestyle.