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Nvidia CEO Huang jointly files patent for software tech in the metaverse

The boss isn't too busy to be named

Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang continues inventing, as if his role in the rise of GPUs wasn't enough.

A patent application published on December 2 credits Huang as one of the inventors of a system to open and share a file in the cloud without the need for a corresponding application on local devices.

Instead, the opened file is encoded and presented through a video stream, with everything happening in the cloud. To be clear, the application is a continuation of filings and patents granted dating back to 2012 related to graphics processing in the cloud and network-attached GPUs. The new patent hasn't been granted yet.

Names of company CEOs are often attached to patents as it adds legitimacy to an invention and makes it easier to defend in court. Steve Jobs' was named in over 300 patents, for example.

The patent application, called "titled method" and apparatus for execution of applications in a cloud system," was filed in August this year and published this month.

The patent, if granted, could be a key cog in Huang's vision to move computing into the metaverse, specifically in engineering and scientific computing. It's like opening a CAD/CAM file via a cloud application and presenting it to users via a headset or mobile device, who can then manipulating the file within the video stream.

Headsets can already do two-way communication with cloud servers, but Nvidia is proposing a novel technique. The patent involves a cloud server receiving a file identifier from a device, pulling that file from a server, finding the relevant application in the memory of a cloud server, and then "executing the application as a video stream destined for the client device."

The patent filing seems relevant for applications in which engineers collaborate in real-time on the design of machines and equipment via the metaverse.

The patent document takes a hack at the disadvantages of desktop engineering software, which typically require powerful computers. Many devices also still are also created via a modular approach, with engineers creating different blocks of an overall design, and patching them together.

Nvidia has shown many videos of engineers or scientists collaborating in the cloud through video streams.

CAD/CAM software already use GPUs for simulation and design. The metaverse may be great for simulation, but pushing engineers into a cartoon interface to collaborate on design may be a challenge. Either way, Nvidia's doing all it can to sell more chips. ®

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