On Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:25:21 +0000 (UTC),
(Larry W) wrote:

In article ,
Dave wrote:
On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:01:58 -0500, "
It couldn't be any sort of electronic proximity sensing, or really any active
technology, or it would infringe on SawStop's patent. That patent is pretty
damned air-tight.

Maybe not, but the drive to save money is pretty universal. I imagine
most saw builders are working on the safety issue as we speak. I agree
it's difficult to find a competing technology or we'd have seen it by
now. Doesn't matter, I believe it's just a matter of time.

I can imagine some type of beam of light that recognizes tissue and
disengages the saw when that beam is broken. Something will appear, I
have no doubt.

You know, I'm reading this right now on a laptop with a touchpad. I put
my finger on the touchpad, move it around, and of course the mouse cursor
on the screen reacts normally. I try using a piece of wood in the touchpad,
a few different types of plastic, and even a piece of metal, and nothing
happens. I wonder if there's something useable there as an alternative
to whatever Gass has patented?

That *IS* the essence of Gass' patent. Using that (capacitive) information to
trigger the stop event (well, the other half is what happens after - both ends
are covered).