Fried Chicken posted:

A patent does not mean it is a deployed feature reliably used. These groups have patented a number of ideas and goals as a way of staking out end user goals and also setting it so the developer then can't turn around and sell it to a competing agency.

I know for a fact there is a patent for a passive terahertz scanning system to allow scanning what people are carrying without going through the X-ray line at the airport, I also know that we don't have terahertz generators capable of doing that.


Edit: for years Sony has held a patent for using ultrasonics to remotely stimulate desire centers in the brain, the idea being that when a Pepsi commercial comes on they make you start craving it. Scientifically, it is grounded in theory. Realistically, it's total vapor ware and if they tried it you'd see the executives get hammered