Bezos Patenting 'Dumb' Tablets, Glasses, Windshields

theodp writes "GeekWire reports on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' pending patent on remote displays that communicate with base stations and operate on wireless power. Reducing devices to mere screens with minimal storage that receive pre-rendered content (e.g., bitmap images), the patent application explains, eliminates the need for bulky batteries or processors, and employing techniques like electromagnetic or electrostatic induction allows one to cut the cord completely. Such remote displays, Amazon suggests, could find a home on college campuses (tablets), in your car (windshield displays or DVD players), and even on your face (eyeglasses)." There's already a (not wirelessly powered) device similar to the one described in the patent.

Re:Great, he's re-invented the X station of yore

[Mkx]

Neither the X station nor the dumb terminal "receive pre-rendered content".

You're not entirely right. They both receive partly pre-rendered content. Dumb terminals receive data about which character they need to display at certain (relative) screen location, however the shape of characters is done by terminals. X terminals receive parts of display content pre-rendered as bitmaps, they don't invent any of contents. Indeed they don't receive exact display contents in full and every time (eg. acording to refresh rate), they need to re-assemble full display content from incremental updates received from the mainframe/X client ...