Another Stupid Patent: Emerson SmartSet (R)

[Editor's note: this was originally posted to the Dillfrog Forums by Plat a few years back; re-posted here by request]

Wow, unless I’m missing something, this seems like a pretty lame “invention” to come out of “Emerson Research”.

I recently bought a SmartSet clock radio, thinking it would use the radio waves to calibrate the clock (so if the power went out and the battery went out, the clock would automatically set itself properly). The clock set itself just dandily after plugging it in, but then I became curious about how to force it to re-calibrate the time.

I couldn’t find anything in the manual on how to do this (if the battery dies, the manual instructs you to manually set the clock’s time)! So I googled around without much luck, then I visited their (“Under Construction”) Web site at www.emersonradio.com with no leads.

So I figured, since they were bragging about the SmartSet (R) technology (“…Someday all clocks and clock radios may be this smart. But today the technology is only available from Emerson Research.”), I could look up the patent number (6,567,344) to see exactly what it was about.

Remembering that Google is my hero, I searched for “patent 6567344″ and Google lead me directly to:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?TERM1=6567344(…)

After a light read of this patent, it seems to me that they are patenting the process of setting a clock’s time prior to finally selling it to the customer, sometimes setting the time specific to the target market’s region.

In case you’re too lazy to read the link, here’s their commentary on Related Art:

“Clocks, and in particular clocks that have date and time displays, are known. Specifically, clock radios which, after being started by a buyer, set themselves automatically to the actual time are known. In some cases, such clocks set themselves to display the actual date. However, automatic time setting, as well as automatic date setting only occurs when a time data signal transmitted by radio (e.g., the DCF77 time mark signal transmitted in Germany) at the location of the clock can be received by the clock with a sufficient level of quality. The receipt of such a time mark signal is not always guaranteed.”

“It is therefore apparent that there is a need for a clock that sets its time independently from the reception of a time data signal that is transmitted via radio waves.”

What the heck? Sure, the patent also talks about how the clock stores calendar information (so it recognizes Feb 29th on leap years, as well as daylight saving time), but aren’t most popular operating systems prior art for that?

Aren’t some computer systems preconfigured to have the proper time out of the box?

This doesn’t seem like any special technology worthy of a registered trademark, much less a patent.

What do you think? Am I missing something? Sounds like I’m taking this beast back to Wal-Mart.

[Editor's note: Q & A section follows]

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Branflake: So let me get this straight, you open the box and the clock is set? They are trying to get an exclusive patent on that? I thought that the so called “radioactive” or “atomic” clocks (that are based from a signal in Colorado where there is an atomic clock) also recieve the time setting data via radio waves? WTF.

One thing I really dont get is how when my laptop’s batteries die, the clock is always right when i boot it back up. Hell, my other laptop was DEAD broken for a year and when i booted it back up after getting it all plugged in and proper ram in it…. the time and dates were correct. That is one smart computer if you ask me.

I say take the clock back Plat. I highly recommend Bridgestone clocks though, they are kickin’.

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Plat: Bran, my guess is that there’s another (smaller) battery in your laptop, like what you might find on a computer’s motherboard, which stores your clock and other basic setup information. But yeah.. you’re right.. I don’t get what’s so special about this.

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Rhorn: That’s actually exactly right and it’s on the motherboard. I know this because on one of my own computers, it died on me, and I was confused to no end as to why the time was always incorrect every time it was cold-booted. The battery should, theoretically, be recharged whenever the computer is on.

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Lquiwn: Pretty worthless patent… But what about other clocks? Is there a clock that recieves a radio signal with the time like you initially thought?

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Plat: Lquiwn, I’m not sure anymore. There has to be something out there, since the patent lists these clocks as prior art. There weren’t any obvious choices at Wal-Mart, so I guess I’ll have to look a little better. I’d be happy with something that had an Ethernet jack on the back and synched with NTP, but I’m guessing that wouldn’t come cheap.

Oh, and just as an update, here’s nearly the end of my story.

Since the original post, I set the clock time way off, unplugged it, and went to sleep. Yesterday morning, I plugged the clock in again, and it automagically reset itself (you should see it! It rolls through numbers like a slot machine – too bad the emperor has no clothes). Ooh, ahh.

Then later, I unplugged it, took the backup battery out, let it sit a while, and plugged it back in.

Finally.. the clock had no idea what time it was, so I’m guessing it’s solely relying on this battery to determine the new time for me (as suspected). I’m not a huge fan of clock drift, moreso a fan of revenge, so I’ll be taking this improperly-calibrated clock back to Wal-Mart shortly.

One more fun fact: this SmartSet clock doesn’t offer any options to those who live in states that do not recognize Daylight Saving Time.. so when those people use this clock, they actually have to adjust the time on these dates (whereas before they could have just left the clock alone).

Now that’s smart!

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Enstrim: Sounds like the clock sucks. When I read the little clip from the patent you had above, it sounded a lot to me like they were saying the following: “There are a lot of clocks that can set themselves against atomic clocks. But what if you can’t get a good signal from one of the atomic clocks? Then this clock is for you! We have programmed an initial time into the clock that is maintained by a batter! This initial time MIGHT EVEN BE CORRECT!”

Though, as has been already noted, you’re screwed without the battery.

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Ovid: What you almost should do is get one of those VIA C3′s (the tiny ones) and set up some kind of LED on there with ntp and just set your own cool little clock from a central time server (e.g. time.nist.gov), especially since most modern BIOSes have an option to restart after a power outage…but maybe that’s a little spendy for an alarm clock…plus you know the alarm wouldn’t go off in the case of a power outage…maybe it’s not a good idea

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Plat: Yeah, I don’t know.. it sounds like fun, but I’m a little too lazy to build my own. Still haven’t found one that does what I want, not that I’ve looked much. I *did* find another clock radio (by RCA? I forget) which was preset like the SmartSet ™ radio, but they actually admitted how it worked upfront, AND let you enable/disable daylight savings time. Ooh, ahh. Wonder if they’ll get sued .