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Sky Deutschland Considering Using Bone Conduction To Force Ads On Train Riders

Posted by Soulskill on from the because-rail-transportation-has-been-too-good-for-too-long dept.

KindMind writes "Sky Deutschland is considering a proposal to use bone conduction to broadcast ads to train riders. The idea is that the riders rest their heads against a part of the train, like the train window, and then bone conduction would broadcast ads directly into their ears."

16 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Using bone conduction, what a coincidence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was thinking of using bone fragmentation to help my local railway planners understand how I feel about their ossified asininity.

  2. ...and in others news... by raydobbs · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...the incident of violent vandalism aboard trams and trains rose exponentially after the introduction of technology that, to paraphrase a gibbering offender led away in a straight jacket, '...puts goddamn voices in your head..." Advertisers are calling it a new age in advertising and psychotropic drug manufacturers report a boom in sales. More at 11...

  3. We need a new right... by DigitalSorceress · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We need a new right - the right NOT to be advertised to.

    I'm sick of being a product.. I mean, ok the old model of Television and Radio where you the viewer gets something of value (the programming/entertainment) without directly paying for it, then it's a reasonable tradeoff that it's paid for by advertising

    However, when you're paying for a train fare, you've paid for the transit... it's not like you're given the option of "pay full price to not be subjected to adversising, or get a discount for being advertised to"

    I know I'm unrealistic, but damnit I'm sick of being monetized against my will.

    --

    The Digital Sorceress
    1. Re:We need a new right... by ArcadeMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You mean the television that you have to pay a monthly fee to watch? THAT television?

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    2. Re:We need a new right... by calzones · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I like this idea.

      Advertising is becoming increasingly intrusive in our day-to-day activities. Billboards are bad enough, then it became the sides of busses and tops of taxis, and then gigantic LED displays that blind you at night. Now it's while you're sitting in the theater, broadcast in public areas, it's at the gas pump and the urinal stall, they come up when you press pause on a blu-ray... enough.

      Specifically, advertising needs to be prohibited from all situations where a person has paid for access or entrance to something. More ideally, it would also be prohibited from any context where the person hasn't explicitly agreed to be subjected to ads in exchange to some product or service.

      --
      Asking people to think is like asking them to buy you a new car
    3. Re:We need a new right... by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm radically anti-advertising, I firmly believe that advertising is actually economically damaging to society, since it represents a deviation from what a person would believe their own best interests were without the advertising present. The degree to which mentally unhealthy con-games and brainwashing are used also potentially represents a mass damage to the human psyche.

      I understand that free-speech is valuable and not to be trod on lightly, but if you're paying for it, it's not really free speech anyways. I'd like to see what a paid-ad free post industrial society is like.

    4. Re:We need a new right... by chihowa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's not just economically damaging, it damages our trust in the intrinsic human properties that hold our society together. Advertising increasingly co-opts the signals that humans use to indicate familiarity and trustworthiness and uses them to deceive people for profit.

      A smile from someone you don't know now puts you on your guard. I almost threw out a handwritten letter the other day because so much junk mail uses fake "handwritten" fonts to try to trick people into opening them. There are countless examples of this and our society suffers as a result of this trusted interpersonal interaction breakdown.

      --
      If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
    5. Re:We need a new right... by Flammon · · Score: 4, Informative

      We can't really let this thread go on without mentioning São Paulo. Looks like the experiment is going well too.

      Five years later, São Paulo continues to exist without advertisements. But instead of causing economic ruin and deteriorating aesthetics, 70 percent of city residents find the ban beneficial, according to a 2011 survey. Unexpectedly, the removal of logos and slogans exposed previously overlooked architecture, revealing a rich urban beauty that had been long hidden.

      http://www.newdream.org/resources/sao-paolo-ad-ban

      --
      ayottesoftware.com
    6. Re:We need a new right... by camperdave · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Free speech is about being allowed to speak out against the government. It has nothing to do with advertising whatsoever.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  4. Get all the ladies with a strai(gh)t jacket by tepples · · Score: 4, Funny

    to paraphrase a gibbering offender led away in a straight jacket

    As opposed to a gay jacket?

  5. Look at the positive side of this.. by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    once someone figures out how to hack into the ad server all kinds of chaos and hilarity can ensue, Ja?

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  6. Re:I'm holding out for by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Funny

    treppaning.

    If anyone ever figures out how telepathy can work, I predict WW III will be between advertisers and a very angry public.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  7. Re:lolwut by Jetra · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seems that the world is turning into Futurama. Where are our hypnotoads and drunken robots burping fire?

  8. Why stop there by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not just go full Clockwork Orange and strap us down and pry our eyes open and force us to watch ads?

    Ironically any product forced on me using this bone conduction method will just piss me off so much that it will leave me deliberately avoiding that product.

    --
    It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  9. Re:This is why I take a pillow on trains by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not unlike the damn TVs they stuck on the back seats of some cabs in Boston. I just want a moment of peace in a cab (even chatting with the driver would be better) not be forced to watch news about the latest disaster or murder. News is like finding pennies, it is available everywhere and you'll get it eventually. I don't need it shoved at me in every venue. Fortunately I was able to turn it off. I'm sure someday they will remove that option.

    --
    It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  10. Better idea: Cancel engine noise by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know what would be great, is if leaning my head against a window in a plane (or train) would, the fullest extent possible, emit a nose canceling signal that would cancel out engine noise from whatever I was traveling in.

    Just throwing the idea out there in case some company would like positive, instead of negative, PR.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley