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Yahoo Patents Smart Billboard That Would Deliver Targeted Ads To Passersby or Motorists (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Yahoo has filed a patent for advertising billboards outfitted with a wide array of sensors -- including drone-based cameras -- which would use facial and vehicle recognition, data brokers, cell-tower information and social network information to attempt to identify worthwhile advertising targets and aim personalized ads at them as they pass on foot or in cars. The scheme, which was submitted on October 6th, anticipates using the same kind of micro-auction processes that currently determine which ads users see in webpages and mobile apps. The implementation of public ad-targeting brings up some fascinating and chilling prospects, as users find that the ads which "bloom" around them betray much about their private lives. Yahoo provides an example via its patent application: "According to one example, a digital billboard adjacent a busy freeway might be instrumented with or located near traffic sensors that detect information about the context of the vehicles approaching the billboard, e.g., the number and average speed of the vehicles. Such information might be used in conjunction with information about the time of day and/or the day of the week (e.g., Monday morning rush hour) to select advertisements for display that would appeal to an expected demographic and to display the advertisements for durations that are commensurate with the level of traffic congestion." The patent application also mentions how it will gather required information from individuals: "Various types of data (e.g., cell tower data, mobile app location data, image data, etc.) can be used to identify specific individuals in an audience in position to view advertising content. Similarly, vehicle navigation/tracking data from vehicles equipped with such systems could be used to identify specific vehicles and/or vehicle owners. Demographic data (e.g., as obtained from a marketing or user database) for the audience can thus be determined for the purpose of, for example, determining whether and/or the degree to which the demographic profile of the audience corresponds to a target demographic."
Which they certainly wouldn't just pass on to federal agencies....
Between Waze and Google Maps, Google probably knows a LOT of detailed info about most of the cars passing near any particular billboard in any particular city... they could make a killing doing a much more targeted advertisement that would directly appeal to specific individuals passing by.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yahoo!, desperate to pull out of their inverted -8 G dive into the asphalt, pitches bullshit idea about advertising.
There's no place like
as she passes by the billboard. gives a new meaning to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
With a few hundred of my like minded "get to work before traffic really sucks". Which targeted ad are you gonna show? I drive this 5 days a week and know where the billboards are, how you gonna make me look at them? Geocities type flashing and blinking? Good luck with that. I'm looking to pick a lane to get me to work 2 seconds faster, not looking at billboards..
The same thing that happens when I visit youtube will invariably begin to happen when I pass this billboard. Rolling along in my 1993 Lincoln town car, with my cellphone switched off for the evening commute as its both safer and avoids targeted advertising, ill glance at the horizon. Ahead, I'll see the new Yahoo billboard, and just as I approach, it will hesitate for a second before displaying the same Kardashian/Dr Phil/clickbait/pop topic trending at the national level and sponsored accordingly to do so.
and in the midst of a 5 lane highway, im certain this billboard will get exciting.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I can only hope(though doubt) that the person responsible for this 'innovation' is appropriately ashamed of who they are and what they have done.
There are plenty of people who are useless; but this winner is actively making the world just a little bit worse. I hope that weighs on them.
*** Internet Company For Sale ****
Price with CEO: $4.8 Billion
Price without CEO: $8.8 Billion
John Anderton, you could use a Guinness right about now.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Price with CEO: 4.8 Billion Price with punching Marissa Meyers in the face: 8.8 Billion.
Or played Mass Effect 2.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
something else to distract your attention from what's in front of you...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I'm sick of ads evading our time and space with no respect for people.
When are people going to realize this excessive greed has to stop.
Could we just ban ads already for once and for all instead of allowing them to visually pollute our physical and virtual places.
Does this mean people walking near me will also be able to see that for some reason, Yahoo is targeting me with ads for Oxycontin, pornhub and pork rinds?
This makes me a little uncomfortable.
You are welcome on my lawn.
They generally are, look up 'attractive nuisance' laws in your jurisdiction. Some specifically ban signs that are not externally-illuminated (making electronic signs illegal.)
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Yahoo, get a competent CEO!!!
The World's Fourth-Largest City Outlaws Billboards, Calls It 'Visual Pollution' (2007)
Sao Paulo: The City That Said No To Advertising (2007)
Quote: '... all forms of outdoor advertising were to be prohibited, including ads on taxis, on buses -- even shopfronts were to be restricted, their signs limited to 1.5 metres for every 10 metres of frontage. "It is hard in a city of 11 million people to find enough equipment and personnel to determine what is and isn't legal," reasoned Kassab, "so we have decided to go all the way." '
Can cities kick ads? Inside the global movement to ban urban billboards (2015) Quote:
Quote: "First it was Sao Paulo, then Chennai. Then Grenoble, Tehran, Paris and now even New York have spawned movements to replace or ban outdoor advertising."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Table-ized A.I.
I thought I saw this in a movie (Minority Report). Though it was accomplished by a retina scan, but same concept. Would this be considered prior art?
a case of Coffiest?
Mostly random stuff.
How is this a patent? Advertisers have been targeting motorists for decades. Digital billboards are old news. What's wrong with this picture? How is this original? What am I missing?
I have been appointed by the entire human race to inform you that you don't know what you are talking about.
Car-insurance companies very much want people to pay their premiums like clockwork, and never get in an accident.
Life-insurance companies very much want people to pay their premiums like clockwork, and live long and happy lives.
Funeral homes? Well, they do serve the dead, but they're run by caring human beings who very much want all of us to be on this earth as long as possible, and then take care of us after our One Bad Day.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
You could use a Guiness right now..
There's probably no need to do all of that. Hackers will be changing the billboards anyway. We're talking Yahoo "security" here.
So if I drive with a Miss Piggy mask as adblocker, they'll show me frog-legs ads?
Maybe the Unibomer was right. Technology is evil
The first time I heard about this it was being used on a freeway-adjacent billboard in Sacramento CA, around 2003.
I've always assumed the idea was being used lots of places, since it would explain why
I see so many ads for Bail Bonds when travelling with my brother in law.
You can't patent something that somebody else thought of first; the trick is to prove it. --- Of course, ANYBODY who saw the movie Minority Report has seen this technology demonstrated years ago. --- So, this will stand for about 30 seconds into the first court challenge.
___ I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards, and I Never Mod them UP.
So now every time I pass by a billboard it's going to display ads for extra extra large condoms... ... how embarrassing.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I think I've read about screens that can project different images in different directions. Maybe oneday the technology will get so good that everyone looking at the screen will see something different.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Seriously. How do you patent something that's completely obvious, not really hard to implement, and publicly seen in a movie 14 years ago?
... Normally I hate these kinds of stupid patents, but if this helps prevent others from implementing this nonsense, I might be able to get behind this...
Hey, Joe Smith! Yes, You in the Blue Ford F150, This Bud's For You!
For that 16 year old kid who figures out how to hack into it and outs a dancing ass on the billboard all day.
This was obvious, it was already done in movies even. The one I remember the clearest was minority report.
I'm stealing your tagline.
I think I've read about screens that can project different images in different directions.
They exist and they're used in some cars, like the current S-Class. It has two dash displays, one of which is different from each of the front seats. But in between, there's an area where it doesn't show anything clearly.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
https://slashdot.org/comments....
Posted in 2010
It says, "... New York have spawned movements...", not actually banned ads.