{"id":17571,"date":"2021-07-29T15:31:47","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T20:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/?p=17571"},"modified":"2021-07-29T15:31:47","modified_gmt":"2021-07-29T20:31:47","slug":"zillow-video-patent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/corporate\/zillow-video-patent\/","title":{"rendered":"This Zillow patent application is WILD, threatens entire real estate industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zillow has added yet another crippling entry to their long list of patent grabs<\/a>, this time focusing on a computation model<\/a> that emphasizes 360-degree videos\u2019 role in creating floor maps. <\/p>\n

The patent, if granted, would give Zillow domain over the process of recording, analyzing, and presenting such videos in conjunction with real estate services.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The official title of the patent is \u201cGenerating Floor Maps For Buildings From Automated Analysis Of Visual Data Of The Buildings’ Interiors,\u201d leaving little to the imagination: The respective processes of creating, analyzing, and sharing those floor maps all fall under the heading of the patent.<\/p>\n

The patent also specifies \u201cautomated operations\u201d in the abstract, implying that the method of capture all the way through analysis and sharing could be performed automatically via the aforementioned \u201ccomputing devices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zillow clearly intends to use the results of this process for both further development of their automation (\u201ccontrolling navigation of devices\u201d) and for customer use while viewing properties virtually (\u201cdisplay on client devices in corresponding GUIs\u201d).<\/p>\n

The videos themselves can be \u201ccontinuous\u201d in that they are recorded by a camera moving seamlessly through the house from room to room; similarly, the videos may be \u201cacquired without obtaining any other information about a depth from the path to any surfaces in the house,\u201d resulting in what one might identify as the modern equivalent of a virtual tour. <\/p>\n

The end result of such a video, at least for clients, is the ability to view and control an uninterrupted sequence of movement through a property. At any given time, the client could theoretically pause and \u201clook around\u201d using the 360-degree controls; this process would, ultimately, simulate actual movement through the home.<\/p>\n

Naturally, this patent is worrying for the same reason Zillow\u2019s past patents have been problematic: It\u2019s too broad. <\/strong><\/p>\n

360-degree video is an obvious choice for real estate services looking to create a virtual experience that is interchangeable with an in-person tour, and–between accessibility issues and social distancing protocols of the last year–it\u2019s an increasingly necessary option for real estate providers who want to stay afloat.<\/p>\n

If Zillow is able to secure this patent, competitors will have to find another way to create their virtual tours–one that, in the ever-tightening web of options not proprietary to Zillow, is sure to drive even the most loyal clients into Zillow\u2019s patent-snatching arms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(NEWS) Zillow has applied for another patent on their mission to outgun the entire real estate industry – will the government grant them yet another win?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337375,"featured_media":16138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[2016,1234,102],"class_list":["post-17571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporate","tag-patent-trolling","tag-real-estate-news","tag-zillow"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/07\/zillow.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17571"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17574,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17571\/revisions\/17574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}