The Next Phase of Intelligent TVs Will Observe You

An anonymous reader writes "Japan based NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories (STRL) is testing an interface which observes TV viewers, determines their interest and provides information related to the TV program in accordance with the way they are watching it. UTAN (user technology assisted navigation) TV viewing interface, as it is called, has a camera mounted on the TV which photographs the viewer and estimates the viewer's degrees of interest, concentration, etc. The information is processed by a tablet PC and recommended information is shown to the viewer. It is possible to show individual interests as well, in case there are multiple viewers."

Comments

Nice, however..

[Anrego]

Would be brilliant if there was anything interesting on!

Seriously.. all TV related technology is kind of meh these days because ultimately you are choosing between 50 different reality TV shows, maybe one or two token sitcoms/dramas and re-runs of real shows you’ve already seen and probably already own the DVD.

It’s not like music where there is enough variety that you can be taken aback by some band you didn’t even know existed. There is a limited amount of TV programming, and if you had any interest in it, you’ve probably already seen it or are at least aware of it.

Re:Nice, however..

[spire3661]

A ton of tech progress is being stifled by the desire to capitalize on digital distribution. Almost EVERY piece of tech is now sold with a built in store. My wife has a Bodybugg. Its a device that measures your daily activity etc. TO be able to USE the device at all, you have to subscribe to their webservice. There is no way to upload the contents to your local machine or use it at all without paying a subscription. They have inserted themselves between the device and the user for no REAL reason other then monetization.

"From Bodybugg support
Posted By: bodybugg Support Team
Posted Date: 6-3-08 1:01PM
We are sorry if you were misled in any way, but bodybugg does require that you maintain an active subscription to the web application. This is comparable to a cell phone company wherein you pay for the phone as well as the calling plan."

Its amazing that they compare operating and maintaining a cellular network to collecting and visualizing personal data on a website. Really?

I mention all this becasue the REASON TV tech is 'meh' is because everyone is jockeying to lock up the digital frontier and ignoring actual technological progress. I would LOVE to have a simple 1 hour TV buffer. No record, no storage, just a 1 hour TV buffer to pause, FF, rewind. It cannot be that hard to make a simple inline buffer like that. But the likelyhood of seeing it in the next decade is slim partly because of patents and partly because there is no ongoing revenue stream from it.

Re:Nice, however..

[BluBrick]

You mean, like when I was watching some show over at my friend's the other day and all of the cans on the table were turned so the labels were facing the camera and they kept mentioning the brand of their cell phone like ten times while sitting on the sofa in front of the camera?

Fortunately, I think content like that is going to be shortly lived, because people are smart enough to know when they're being directly marketed to like that and find it distasteful.

A wise man with no name to speak of once said "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals, and you know it!".

It's called "product placement", and it's not at all short lived - it's been happening for decades. The current form in which a character mentions a product ad nauseam is, surprisingly, a little subtler than the original form. Radio plays from as early as the 1920's were sponsored by companies as an advertising vehicle for their product, a strategy first successfully employed a brand of laundry soap (hence the term "soap opera"). You can bet the characters in those shows asked each other how they got their whites so fresh and clean with rather unnatural frequency.

It's not going to go away, because people are dumb enough to fall for it. Advertising works, sad to say.

Re:Nice, however..

[Anonymous Coward]

When I finally called Comcast and told them to cancel my subscription they were mystified. "Are you switching to dish?" No. "Are you moving?" No. "Then why do you want to cancel?" Because I pay you $140 a month. You charge me for stuff I don't want. Every single broadcast is in HD but unless I pay for for HD you go to the extra trouble to reduce the quality of the signal before delivering it. I pay you for service but I still have to watch you paste pop-up ads over the top of the programming in addition to the ads that are already there. I have over 200 channels and there is NOTHING to watch that isn't a bunch of insipid BS or reruns. If I want to record programming you require me to use your DVR that you charge me for every month, deliver a used one to my house and refuse to fix when it doesn't work. I can stream every single thing I want to see in the same resolution for free. I want to cancel because you provide nothing of value.

Long silence followed by "we can give you a 6 months discount to keep you as a customer". You really weren't listening were you?

Re:Nice, however..

[stms]

I would LOVE to have a simple 1 hour TV buffer. No record, no storage, just a 1 hour TV buffer to pause, FF, rewind. It cannot be that hard to make a simple inline buffer like that. But the likelyhood of seeing it in the next decade is slim partly because of patents and partly because there is no ongoing revenue stream from it.

What are you talking about I use one of those it's called ThePiratebay.

1984

[Anonymous Coward]

No thanks.

Re:1984

[cforciea]

Realistically, if the data gets sent upstream, then no one would ever buy this. If it is only used locally, then there will likely be quite a lot of buyers.

Realistically, they will use this the same way they do any other tracking: they will tell you about the benefits and just not bother mentioning that they are storing your data "anonymously" someplace when it retrieves information for you. Then people will buy it without even thinking about the privacy connotations.

Why would any data have to be sent upstream?

"Have to be" and "will be" are not the same thing.

Electrical Tape

[chazchaz101]

I see you've covered the camera with electrical tape. Would you be interested in these other privacy related products?

In Soviet Tokyo...

[leftie]

TV watches you. ;)

New poll?

[Barbara, not Barbie]

POLL TIME!

[_] This is nothing new. I know someone who has claimed for more than a DECADE that their TV is spying on them.
[_] Like men will ever give up control of the remote!
[_] "Excuse me, but why is it every time YOU walk into the room the TV ask if we want to switch to pay-per-view porn?"
[_] I'd rather have a TV that lets me keep an eye on the scum who think that watching me is a good idea.
[_] That scream you heard was all those "In Soviet Russia TV watches YOU" jokes dying.
[_] It doesn't matter - he'll still spend the evening clicking from one channel to the next every commercial.
[_] Just when you thought you couldn't come up with another reason not to watch TV ...
[_] Duct Tape Lesson # 2,389,042 - Did you know that you can use duct tape to cover the sensors to keep your TV from spying on you?
[_] You know that they'll soon be charging extra for a TV that doesn't watch you.
[_] Mess with them - stick a computer monitor with The Sims having awesome double-back-monkey sex for hours at a time in front of the sensor. Bonus points is you screen "Faces of Death" with the monkey-brain-eating scene instead.
[_] Sue them for "producing and distributing under-age porn" because your under-18 daughter walked in front of the TV while running from the shower to her bedroom.
[_] mumble mumble remote when you pry it from my cold dead hands.