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Will Microsoft Dis-Kinect Freeloading TV Viewers?
theodp writes "Just when you think the cable TV viewing experience couldn't get any worse, GeekWire reports on the Microsoft Xbox Incubation team's patent-pending Consumer Detector, which uses cameras and sensors like those in the Xbox 360 Kinect controller to monitor, count and in some cases identify the people in a room watching television, movies and other content. Should the number of viewers detected exceed the limits of a particular content license, the system would halt playback unless additional viewing rights were purchased."
Over the camera should solve the problem.
Yup.
Next!
I am enthusiastic about Microsoft's apparent desire to increase illegal copying.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
Or do it the other way around: count the number of people present and facing the screen during commercials. Refuse to show the program if the number of viewers exceed that of the break.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Well, between the ads and other crap Microsoft has been injecting into my XBox lately ... it might be time to log it out of my network and leave it disconnected. Ads in video games is starting to piss me off, and the on-line functionality isn't something I need to make use of.
And the idea of actually licensing based on how many people are in the room has been a goal of the content industry for quite a while. But I sure as hell don't plan on facilitating them.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The best way to keep this technology out of your homes is to refuse to purchase it.
stick a photo in front on the nosy thing. or cover half the view in case is motion sensitive.
Dis-kinect the Kinect and watch the movie. Reconnect when done. Cover the lens of the Kinect when watching movie, then uncover. Mod the Kinect to always see nothing. It's a useless patent. If all else fails rent the movie on DVD. If even this fails then get creative with the license with dvdjohn.
Going after your customers with a patent is expensive, counterproductive and loses you money.
I don't see why I need a kinect plugged in to watch TV... unplug the thing and problem solved. Any service that requires the use of kinect to watch their service? Don't sign up and they will find their own way out of existence.
Scott Swezey
I can see why this won't work.
I'm just surprised Sony didn't come up with it first.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Place a picture of one person on a couch in front of the kinect .
Whenever we're not using it, the Kinect will be turned around to face some porn!
Why would anyone buy a device that does this and gives no benefit to the user?
At least with steam I get the benefit of being able to download my games, and not have to deal with CD keys and discs in the disc drive.
I also don't need to worry about cracks and viruses.
With this I get no benefit over pirating.
More than just the annoyance of a device interrupting my media, I am really feeling creeped out that something we purchased is being used as a "law enforcement" tool against us. Like a sensor in our cars that automatically phones the police when excessive speed is detected. (Woohoo! First car analogy!)
...guess I'll have to move out of my hall of mirrors. "You are licensed for two viewers...we show 185 currently watching this program."
next?
auto pause when nobody is watching.
Note: advertisements can not be skipped, advertisements are mandatory.
You do not want to fight your customers!
Typical dual use technology
Multinational megacorp : 1984 is closer every year, lets monitor and track and dehumanize, all to protect us from terrorists and "Its For The Children(tm)" and we'll purchase govt legislators to legislate our profits into perpetuity and damn the peons, some citizens like corporations are more equal than other citizens like meatbags
Open source mythtv implementation : webcam detects wife entering the room, automatic hands off instant channel change from "Naughty Cheerleaders Car Wash 2012" to "CSPAN". I'm actually kinda surprised no one has implemented this yet. With all the video processing being done in VDPAU the CPU needs something to do to keep warm in the winter, and webcams are cheap, and prototype open source cam monitoring software already exists so ...
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
With the caveat that the customers are the advertisers, and the people who watch are just there to keep the seats warm and bump the Nielsen ratings.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
commercial tv packages bill by fire code capacity or per hotel room not by person.
Obligatory:
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/04/04
Dis-Kinect the Kinect.
But in all seriousness, doesn't the Kinect only ID two persons at once?
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
There is no way this could be forced onto the populace. For example, I do not have the Kinect, or any other input device other then the controllers (I did download the smart glass app so I can use my phones keyboard). This would not work on me.
More to the point, this would increase the chances of me never purchasing such a device, which in turn means I would not purchase any games that require such a device (are there any Kinect only games other then the ones that were developed in conjunction with it to show off the capabilities?). That is a cascading loss of revenue for anything related.
Now, if say MS and the cable companies got together, and offered a significant discount (I mean like 30 to 50%, not $5 off a month) on your monthly cable bill to voluntarily use this technology and abide by its restrictions, I can see that possibly being popular. There are rarely more then 2 people watching anything at one time in my house. (3 if you count the 6 month old). Even more so, when the TV is on, many times both my wife and I are working and using our laptops so we are not even looking at the TV (provides background noise to keep the dogs from going nuts everytime they hear something outside).
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
Simple solution: Find the camera lens and duct tape over it.
Why not just simply unplug the Kinect device?
I wasn't aware of any content you buy that is limited in the number of viewers watching, unless we are talking about showing a movie or something to the public. In fact, this sort of scares me. Is this the next step? You got to pay to watch stuff with more then 1 viewer?
"This movie cost $3.50 per person watching, we noticed you have 3 people watching, your account with be charged $10.50 plus appropriate taxes for this movie."
What I see is an excuse for more price gouging.by the media companies.
Be seeing you...
First they changed from selling to "licensing", to further control what you can do with their precious content in the name of "stopping piracy" (as if copyright didn't cover that). Now they want you to pay per head, and check your living room to milk you further if you play wise and bring a few friends over: "This motion picture is licensed for up to 4 viewers.Playback will resume when you upgrade . (or tell two of your freeloading friends to go do something else)".
Also:
a separate Microsoft patent application last year described a system for using sensors to estimate age based on the proportions of their body.
What about achondroplastic dwarves? People under a blanket? Odd postures? Will you have to sit up straight in plain view for Kinect to validate you?
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
I write software patents for a living. (I didn't write this one.) Let me describe how the patent drafting process goes.
A client comes to me with a simple invention - we'd like to do (A), (B), and (C) to achieve result (X). I talk to them at length about what (ABC) is, and what critically sets (ABC) apart from every similar example. I ask questions about how each of (A), (B), and (C) could be varied; what other elements (D), (E), and/or (F) could be added; and whether (ABC) could also be used for results (Y) or (Z).
And when I write up the patent application, EVERYTHING goes in there. (ABC) is described as the base invention, but all of the other material about (D), (E), (F), (X), (Y), and (Z) is also included as optional extensions or uses of (ABC).
Now, here's the critical thing: I haven't fully considered whether (D) is a desirable feature, or whether (Y) is a desirable result. My client doesn't even know, or says, "we don't really intend to implement (D) or do (X)." None of that is relevant. All that matters is: They are all logical, valid extensions of (ABC), so, typically, they all go in. Anything that could make the basic technique more valuable, appear more useful, or might more fully distinguish (ABC) over known techniques is helpful to add to the specification.
I read this patent the same way. The basic invention is: "Use a camera to count and identify people interacting with a device." Now, you can't just stop there - you haven't said what that information might be used for, and the patent office typically rejects applications that look like, "The technique is: Generate some data." So the patent discloses several uses of that information. That doesn't mean that Microsoft has any interest in using that technique - only that it's logically achievable from the basic techniques.
Look, we all agree that technology is neutral, right? For example, DRM has been *used* for lots of obnoxious purposes (including limiting fair-use rights), but the basic technology of DRM is neither good nor bad - it just is. The same principle applies here.
Computer over. Virus = very yes.
It has become time to actually boycott all TV. Screw these greedy ass control freaks.
Up yours. Now maybe I can get some "Self Directed " thinking done.
FTFA:
"The system could also take into account the age of viewers, limiting playback of mature content to adults, for example. This patent application doesn’t explain how that would work, but a separate Microsoft patent application last year described a system for using sensors to estimate age based on the proportions of their body."
So i'm a small guy.... 5'5 145 lbs. Its bad enough I am 27 and still get carded for beer and tobacco. It looks like soon I will have Microsoft telling me I can't watch porn because the camera thinks I am 15.
"Hey guys, I think I found yet another way we can be annoying dicks and make a lot of money from other annoying dicks from licensing fees!"
"Just when you think the cable TV viewing experience couldn't get any worse..."
I have DirectTV which could be considered cable I suppose. I also have Netflix, Hulu Plus, and a Roku box with some other stuff. My DirectTV box supports Youtube for that occasional time I want to watch Gangam style on the big screen.
I have a DVR and I love my cable "experience". My box has a basic search, but it's good enough. It records fine. I get all the shows just fine. I rarely get weather issues and never get "buffering..." messages. Add in ondemand.
Lets not confuse experience with price. We have also become a super cheap bunch. The same person that lays down 2k for an Apple laptop will complain about 100 dollar cable bill. I've spent more on dinner for a few friends then my cable bill. To bad we can't pipe our cable in from China huh?
At the same time people love their fast Internet cable modem...at this point about the best we got. Fiber at the kind of scales we need it is just not practical...and honestly coax could rival it as we move more and more spectrum to the cable modem.
What I don't understand is why Netflix doesn't offer a premium service. Offer me a 50 dollar a month plan and get the good stuff and get it faster. The real question, are our cheap asses willing to pay for what we want or not?
All that said this Kinnect thing is stupid and would never fly...and probably just someone trying to get on slashdot.
Here's an idea--STOP BUYING MICROSOFT PRODUCTS. These people are terrible, and their products are terrible. Let them rot.
next?
auto pause when nobody is watching.
Note: advertisements can not be skipped, advertisements are mandatory.
You do not want to fight your customers!
At last! A legitimate use for my RealDoll.
She can watch the ads while I take a bathroom break.
Hasn't anyone noticed that the patent doesn't mention the XBox. Geekwire has added that to make the story more exciting.
for now.....
It's always no.
In other words, Betteridge's law of headlines describes trolling by the writer or publisher rather than a commenter.
Take a HD photo of you in the room from the point of view of the camera they use, then develop a device that holds the photo in front of the camera.
If it works in the movies, why not in real life eh?
Sounds like a patent deserving the 'Philip K. Dick Award' in the paranoid invention category.
I can guess a remedial approach... it's always been each person's choice to stop passively watching spoon-fed prime time entertainment programs.
There's so much high-quality content out there that more of it arguably makes little difference, especially since this quantity keeps increasing at such an exponential rate that we don't even have the time to watch a sliver of it anyway... I really don't see much of a down side to refusing to kowtow to any systems featuring 'safeguards' such as this, and that would include similar features.
Once new a guy who looked so young he had to provide ID to buy lotto tickets.
Let's start with the most basics of the horribleness, making things more complicated also makes them more error-prone. It doesn't matter how good you think you've made it, complications greatly increase the chance of critical errors. Next, let's add a system that is designed to turn things off, which just compounds the errors. Next, all of this extra complication is going a lot of money, and you can bet your ass it's going to be the end user who will be paying for it, (literally). Next, this further removes the concept of sale into licensing, which means people are going to be paying for the same movie possibly many, many times. Next the idea that illegal copying is causing enough problem to warrant the insane protection laws that are being passed. Next the idea that illegal copying is doing anything at all, except making it harder for companies to produce utter crap and expect to get paid for it. Next, we're going completely against what the internet should be providing us, EASIER ACCESS TO INFORMATION.
It's so many levels of immorality it's amazing fireballs aren't raining from the sky. Let's hope the sun rises today.
Just point the kinect to the left where a dummy torso is standing. Single license: approved!
Have your kids sit in front off it while the monitor and the speakers are in the other room with you and your softball team watching the show.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Those, so called, inventors probably never been to a kids birthday party. The idea is doomed to be rejected by every parent.
Well, not exactly. (Disclaimer: I actually work for a cable company..) But, a venue's foot traffic and business type does factor in to what they are charged.
In the case of a hotel, they are typically paying a fairly low rate for the programming compared to a normal "residential" subscriber. Also, there are sometimes extra perks the cable company throws in to the hotel's package: for example, the cable company may maintain the on-site infrastructure for the hotel, even providing the hotel with their own barker channel. Similarly, many apartment complexes (the ones that advertise "free cable!") have a similar arrangement.. we're not charging the property the $40 per subscriber that the basic cable package normally costs. We might charge a 50-unit property $500-1000, throw in a free cable modem or two (or some phone services) for the manager and/or the office, and call it even. We may even give the property a "kickback" or commission if they upsell the resident to a higher package.
However, if you are a restaurant or a bar, get ready to open your checkbook. Especially if you want the extended sports tiers.
It's also worth noting that some premium services aren't available to "commercial" (hotels are often considered "residential" for these purposes) customers for any price. I believe one of the movie channels (I don't recall which one) has a prohibition against commercial subs.
Make sure that you show the appropriate level of enthusiasm during the Two Minutes Hate friend citizen.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
Imagine all the cool and USEFUL things that could be made for the effort being put into this crap because of media lobbying groups.
if it were not literally true, in this case.
Sounds exactly like something Microsoft would do.
What did you, idiots, think, Microsoft will ever stop being a bunch of evil, abusive assholes?
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Come on guys I'm disappointed nobody has done that yet.
If all else fails rent the movie on DVD.
When is the film Ishtar coming to DVD?
You have a RealDoll and watch TV with it? Hmm, I think I'd do something different.
You don't want a "Blu-ray player"; you want a "movie player". Blu-ray is a means, not an end; a step, not a goal. You can always choose to watch independent films instead of major studio films that are exclusive to high-DRM environments.
we'll all just have room cutouts put in front of the camera.
a picture of a single lonely dude. You know a slashdot reader.
+1, Genteelism of the day.
I have to say, bravo MS, for helping make me feel more sure about my decisions on how to handle computers in my life.
I cut the cable cord going on 2 years ago (when I can get a superior product for near free....), I've already decided this is going to be the last generation of consoles I own (Steam has more than proven they're more customer-friendly than any console-maker), and I installed linux on a spare laptop for the first time ever (thus beginning the slow move away from Windows as much as possible).
Combine this with their patent to have basically, the holodeck (where I'd need a full, presumably darkish room to play their games) shows me that I'm making the right decision and can happily move forward.
I've already crossed Xbox off my list a long time ago since you need to pay monthly to play multiplayer games.
I thought the whole draw of Xbox compared to PC gaming was that you didn't need to go online to play multiplayer. Instead, if you have friends who live in the same city and can arrange their schedules for a visit, you can play against them by plugging up to four controllers into one console. You need only pay for Xbox Live Gold to play with strangers or to play with friends living out of public transit range.
Let's just stop watching altogether! We are already subject to endless commercial leaders on the internet, overbearing radio commercials and now this. We cn take back the power by exercising our right/choice not to watch. Ass soon ad the ad revenue dries up, so will this crap. And another thing, get the hell out of my house!
Like a sorta-interactive exercise TV show where trainers try to motivate real world viewers to do stupid exercises
Are you talking something casual, like Wii Fit, or something hardcore, like Insanity?
I remember that some years ago, somebody came up with another brilliant idea: Have the TV sets locked on to a particular channel when the ads are shown, and ignore anything the user does with the remote control. Return control to the user only after the ads are finished.
And to top it off, the new "feature" included an "upgraded" service, where the user will pay extra to have the channel lock removed. Patented ransomware.
What they did not take into account, is that people who were unknowingly buying such a thing were going to return them to the store in droves, declaring the units defective.
This move simply smacks of desperation from M$ after their blah launch of Win8 and the Surface tablet (plus the obligatory Apple and Google tablet launches around the same time)
Somebody patent couches with periscopes so people can watch from behind them. And mannequins with webcams in their eyes which re-broadcast the program over the local wifi. This will be a goldmine!
Meh... on the other hand, screw it. Just take a picture of one dude on a couch, print it on a card, and then sell it with a little bracket which dangles it right in front of the Kinect's eye.
Dis-Kinect the Kinect.
And become unable to rent films and pay-per-view events marked "Kinect exclusive". And watch most premium rentals, such as anythig unavailable on Netflix, become "Kinect exclusive".
Let me guess: no sports fan in your household. Monday Night Football is cable-only, as were some games of the NHL finals in 2012. How many people do you think would subscribe to cable if all the major cable channels chipped in to buy ESPN the rights to the Super Bowl (NFL finals) for one year as an effort to discourage people from cutting the cord?
I'm Naked. No camera-enabled DVR for me.
On the list of people who could possibly get that patent, Microsoft is definitely among the more benign. Can you imagine that as a Sony patent? Within the week, you'd be paying extra to watch your kid play video games. There'd be a "Family Viewing Pack" subscription that would "permit" more than just the player to view the screen at any given time, marketed as a convenience for busy households. On the other hand, I see Microsoft doing absolutely nothing along those lines, and now they own the legal right to tell everyone else not to do it.
I think my non-Microsoft-fanboy cred is pretty well established here, but I'd still rather see them with the patent than pretty much anyone else.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Isn't this basically the premise of Max Headroom, minus the head explosions?
Incredible nobody watched that...
The more I like books. Paper books.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
A big cardboard left , right and above the main viewer, face mask which are vertical plane, and the kinect detect only a single person, from the other guys in the room.
That said I have a much easier solution: do not buy such a system. When it is out commercially, tell everybody why it is bad.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
If Microsoft doesn't have a working demonstration of this there should be no patent. The patent office needs to stop issuing patents for whatever shit someone decides to pull out of his ass.
And the RIAA would love something like this too. NFL, everyone else that wants to restrict your ablity to do things.
( forget reading over your childs shoulders some day too, if the camera in your ebook reader sees a 2nd face, it goes dark. )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Keep it simple... Just don't connect the system to the internet. If there is no connection to your home network it can't send anything anywhere. If you have a service that forces you to connect a phone line or network cable, don't use that service.
Nah, then they would be unable to conume content later and lose revenue.
Now, mandatory contacts that they can control, and cause them to go dark, they would eat that up. ( sort of like the no camreas in a theater stuff being worked on.. but at an eye level )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
does it work when the room is filled with bong smoke.
and stop giving Microsoft money for their crap.
All these companies ever cared about is money. Why do we keep paying them for the little scraps that they toss us, let them sell information about us to each other, while they still gouge us for every penny they can?
(Oh yeah- because we were all raised to be good little consumer whores...)
Uhhh unplug the Kinnect?
If this implimented then take your xbox360 to the nearest dump where it will rightfully belong.
This would see the ultimate vision of Walt Disney come true! Every person individually pays each time they view a Disney property.
OrwellSoft... taking rights away since 1984.
Really. 1984 was a warning about dystopian madness, not an operator' manual.
Mother fucker like this it us who is the problem.
Perhaps during the coming food riots they will burn these companies down to the ground.
I hope these corps are the targets of armys it all been earned.
Technology is making Hitler look like a nice guy.
Indeed. If you do not own a car, you don't need to buy car insurance. For the most part, leasing counts as 'owning'. Renting(IE the registration isn't in your name) is generally handled as a rider on the rental agreement - for like $10 they give you insurance.
It gets even more complicated - you can own a car, and as long as it never touches a public street you can leave it unregistered and uninsured, and drive it without a license; while drunk. I just wouldn't suggest getting into an accident with it, because the liability would remain.
I don't read AC A human right
Bonus: If the picture is sitting on top of the subwoofer, it might fool any "lack of motion" detector algorithm as well.
As the old joke goes...
In soviet Russia, TV watches you.
This isn't the first time Microsoft has added a patent with no intentions to use it to their portfolio. Wasn't there another zany patent for some kind of TV content control which Microsoft obtained a few months back.
It almost seems like a battle chest to troll the content companies.
is the reason I will never stop pirating.
I started pirating and "cut the cable" back in 1996 mainly through newsgroups and ftp sites with an old laptop connected to television.
which evolved now to torrents with rss feed downloaders, external usb hard drives and a Western Digital WD TV Live set top box.
Course I still use newsgroups since my VDSL provider still offers free newsgroup access.
I use adblocking software for blocking ads, popups, commercials on the net, I have spam blockers on my email, but when people want spam blocking for television people get all in an uproar.
Well spam is spam is spam, regardless which form it takes (email, web, television) and I got fed up with it.
I'll never go back to paid television, I'll pirate till they lock me up. I'm not even worried since my town is very pirate friendly so to speak
not only do we have vdsl in town, there is cable internet but most people here refuse to use it due to caps and price, but we also have free wifi internet thanks to city utilities, it's an extra 3.99 on our utility bill that covers power, trash, water and wifi internet all on 1 bill and the town placed wifi hotspots all over town on the local power poles and such, (Tiny town btw only 2 red lights)
So in fact it's pretty much anonymous free wifi but the town wifi is only speeds around 2 to 3 megabit down, 384k up.
my personal VDSL service is 20 megabit down, 1 megabit up.
So usually when I'm pirating a ton of shit I usually hop on the city free wifi which there are no usernames anyone driving through town can just hop on it. And yea it's a time bomb of legality waiting to go off probably, but it's worked nice as a free back up around town for last 4 years.
It's also the reason I only bought an Ipod Touch. Since I use skype on the town's free wifi so anywhere in town I have skype on my ipod tough for making calls :)
as long as they keep doing shit like this it will only keep pushing folks to pirate, as for sports there are already live streaming sites that stream sports events at 720p and disappear as soon as the event is over.
the sporting event ip streams popup on the certain forums when the events are live, and television shows popup on kat.ph, h33t.com, thepiratebay.se usually 10 to 20 mins after they air anyhow and are automatically downloaded via RSS downloader.
more like $5mo to rent the kinetic just like there plan to rent you a web cam
Comcast was working on this approximately 10 years ago; I knew an insider who was describing it. They had an audio experiment too which he said their cable boxes all had mics and were capable already but they hadn't got anything practical working for it. The other project was more promising and that was a video camera but the purpose was two fold)
a) know demographics of viewers for advertizing stats (are they watching the ad?)
b) no TV remote - consumers will OK being watched because gestures are cool.
I suspect the project involved contractors and went bust because I've not heard anything about it --- but somebody involved must have patented a bunch of it... Many such things fall apart and when projects die companies should put out enough information so prior art can prevent the concepts from winning a patent lawsuit (that is if the fight ever goes that far.)
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
There was an urban legend a long while back that if you got cable television the powers that be (whomever people thought they were) could watch you through the cable. I remember explaining over and over again (thinking "I really need to find a new batch of friends") that this could not happen; that (a) cable TV was one way communication, (b) there existed no mechanism in the gear to capture your voice or image, and (c) even were there, there is no agency so well manned that they could reasonably expect to spy on hundreds of millions of people.
So, now Internet-connected entertainment appliances have given us (a), it appears Microsoft has given us (b), (yay...) and computer facial recognition and the like has given us most of (c).
Parenthetically, I think it ingenious that the industry has maneuvered us into accepting TV-mounted, Internet-connected cameras into our home, and even got us to pay for them. That was an exquisite bit of social engineering.
Anyway, the only thing that we appear to be missing is (d), every household is required by law to have one. It's too bad Orwell didn't live to see the technology he predicted a year before his death.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
time to wear your camouflage pajamas.
All these edge use-cases are interesting, but if this were to materialize, I'm quite sure it would impact a very small number of people. The technology will be meant to prevent you buying a copy of Skyfall at Wal-Mart and showing it to a community center full of people, not to prevent a family from watching it. Like DVD encryption, there will be little no effect on Joe Average. He'll put the disk in his player in the rumpus room and watch the movie, same as always.
Being that XBox is the only console that requires an additional paid subscription (XBox live) to use Netflix etc, I'd say you're better off with one of the other consoles anyways.
-Step 1 : mount Kinect away from primary TV
-Step 2: Poster showing "authorized" viewers
-Step 3: Enjoy content - Profit.
Doesn't the law say you can't record people in their homes without a warrant? This is such an invasion of privacy I can't imagine anyone putting up with it. Microsoft, bringing you the worst the world has to offer for 35 years!
If they continue to make it difficult for me to enjoy video at home without advertising or other ridiculous restrictions, I'll read a book instead. Besides, a lot of the movies / TV shows today aren't really worth watching anyways. I can read some of the classics, and many of those are in the public domain. :)
Just put a one way mirror in front of the TV so that YOU can see the TV and the Kinect only sees a reflection, problem solved
Really? There are still people who watch TV?
"Found money!" is the right answer, because there are so many people in my psychographic that don't buy movies, pay for cable, or go to theaters. When I want to watch something, I rent it or use a streaming service (Netflix or Amazon). Will studios ever understand that? No, because the people at the top of every major media company are people that don't know anything about the industry, they just know how to say the right things to the right people.
Why spend $50+/month for something that will net me a lower entertainment/dollar than going to see a film 5 times in a month?
Don't get your panties in a bunch. It ain't going to happen.
need to be killed.
Just disconnect the kinect thing. Cant do much without power can it? Or go one better and use a HTPC instead.
Wonderous. See, this is exactly where technology resources should be spent. Why focus on truly ground-breaking technologies like VR immersion, a cure for cancer, or putting a man / woman on Neptune, when we can find a new way to restrict content according to the number of viewers present, terrorize air travellers, or help old men get boners! I want to shake the hands of the people who decided that in this universe of infinite possibilities, these technologies needed top billing. Truly they are gods among men.
If anyone needs me, I'll be in my bed, closing my eyes, and making believe this is a terrible nightmare.
I am John Hurt.
Microsoft has always been happy to throw customers under the train to appease the publishers.
This is MS Conspiracy against Romney and his beliefs! It will be expensive to be a Mormon, or a Catholic or a .. never mind.
I don't use my Kinect often. I love the gesture/voice recognition features it brings, but I simply don't feel comfortable having an Internet connected camera in my living room. This reinforces my reasons.
Yes MS would absolutely be that dickish. Then the superbowl happens, MS disconnects them all, and all of these pissed off people swear they will never use Microsoft again. But will MS learn anything? No. They will go to congress and cry. "we're just trying to make the world a better place and people don't buy our stuff, boo hoo." Then congress will cry too, and will pass new legislation requiring all content distributors to license MS technology in order to stop people from breaking the (brand new never before heard of) law. And this will be called "free market capitalism".
Topic says it all, just block rad.msn.com using dnsmasq settings (if on dd-wrt) or whatever and no more xbox ads.
-- thou shalt not fast-forward
-- thou shalt not skip ahead
-- thou shalt not be able to press menu to escape (in some foreign discs)
-- thy remote shall be as useless as a dodo's wings until the FBI message, the trailer teasers, the forced ads for other discs to buy and when to go to the mouse's house or cruiseship have all passed onto your screen
This might also work akin to how if you've got a laptop hooked up to an HDMI-cable for a presentation using MS software, then sometimes if a presentation has a video embedded in it, it shows up on the projector as a blank-black spot if you're using a projector that is not HDCP-enabled (proving that you can't COPY the digital signal leaving your computer via HDMI-with-HDCP to the authenticated-and-not-allowing-copying-HDMI-output-display device. At least that's what's been surmised. If you go through the vga cable hookups, the MS video player works fine, though. Could have been something else, wasn't the av kid on the block.
Recently I came across this very interesting article:
Content is not king by mathematician Andrew Odlyzko.
You may want to read it, however since it is long, I'll summarize it for you:
1- the entertainment industry is small compared with the telecommunications industry;
2- people are more interested in communication than entertainment;
3- therefore entertainment "content" is not the killer app for the Internet.
As content company continue to shoot themselves in the foot by abusing consumers, they will need to learn this lesson soon enough or die.
Just wait until not having one of these, with full access for law enforcement, tax departments, DEA etc. in every room will result in a jail sentence...
And sabotaging the unit equally so...
And to the people still laughing, it is not so long ago, in my life time, that people were in uproar that airport security was allowed to look inside your bags. And see where we are with that now...
This "prilliant idea" of a patent is not a big deal. If anything I think it is good news that it is now an idea legally encumbered by litigious American patent law--it provides some degree of protection to us all from the temptation to widely adopt the technology!
As a whole the vast majority of patented inventions never become implemented. Sometimes it is because they are defensive patents (more and more these days companies patent any wing-nut idea they have if there is the remotest chance the invention could be implemented in a hit product and be targteted by trolls). Even more commonly however is because the invention is impractical or unworkable in reality or because it is just a stupid idea.
And "Microsoft DISKinect" is a colossally stupid idea, so I would expect any attempt to implement it, at least in consumer-targeter products, to be a bigger fail than BOB. Nobody will buy this--it is repulsive and there is no way to describe it that wouldn't offend someone. Can you imagine going to Best Buy and the sales guy tries to describe this? "It has this cool feature where the TV watches you when you are watching it, so if you all leave it turns off by itself, or if sees more people than are allowed to watch it pauses the show! Isn't that cool? Now you don't have to worry about violating copyright law or forgetting to turn off the TV!"
People would hear "the TV watches you when you are watching it.....wa wa wah wah wahhh....." and think "WTF...my TV is watching me? that is too creepy! Who sees me? I don't want people spying on me! This is exactly big brother! Is this demo unit watching me now? I gotta get out of here!" and maybe even "well that is crappy forget about enjoying my porn with this TV".
Besides the creepiness factor of being watched by unseen people or machines, the whole point of this invention is to make something stop working. To no less than 100% of consumers this is offensive and unwanted. That is why there has literally, with exactly no exceptions, been a copy protection/activation enforcement scheme in history that has not been compromised partially or fully EVER (name any one, and I or someone here can point you to a way to break it--"analogue loophole" being the most common method for multimedia). It must be awful depressing to be a developer responsible for creating dongles and activation apps and such because their purpose in life is to make something that deliberately makes things stop working, and everybody hates your creations and many even go to great efforts to remove or disable your code and/or devices.
Microsoft DISKinect is worthy of scorn and ridicule because it is an instant epic failure like DIVX media. It is"DIVX for the cloud". Remeber DIVX, invented by the folks who watched one too many episodes of Mission Impossible? "This movie disc will self destruct in one week". Wow, just what I always wanted, to buy a little plastic disc with a movie on it that, once I watch it once, starts to physically degrade into a coaster or frisbee fit for the landfill within days. What a waste..and so is DISKinect. And, coming from Microsoft you can bet until V3.0 that it would be cumbersome and unreliable, counting pictures or your kids doll as people and locking the movie, or letting viewers of African extraction watch "for free" (or refusing to turn on in th first place) becasue their complexion is too dark, or software bugs or faulty camera hardware making things stop.
This is a joke people, you should laugh at how stupid MSFT is to think making Big Brother a literal reality would be a good, well received idea.
FUCK YOU!