With 5G, You Won't Just Be Watching Video. It'll Be Watching You, Too (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: When most people think of 5G, they're envisioning an ultra-fast, high-bandwidth connection that lets you download seasons of your favorite shows in minutes. But 5G's possibilities go way beyond that, potentially reinventing how we watch video, and opening up a mess of privacy uncertainties. "Right now you make a video much the same way you did for TV," Dan Garraway, co-founder of interactive video company Wirewax, said in an interview this month. "The dramatic thing is when you turn video into a two-way conversation. Your audience is touching and interacting inside the experience and making things happen as a result."

The personalized horror flick or tailored rom-com? They would hinge on interactive video layers that use emotional analysis based on your phone's front-facing camera to adjust what you're watching in real time. You may think it's far-fetched, but one of key traits of 5G is an ultra-responsive connection with virtually no lag, meaning the network and systems would be fast enough to react to your physical responses. 5G is on the cusp of reality, with the first compatible smartphones set to debut next year.

Comments

Don't worry Americans, you're safe.

[Puls4r]

Our data plans won't allow the amount of data transfer that this requires.

Most people will already blow through their phone's data allocations if they stream over it. The hotspot data? One sizeable file and you're done. Stream a couple movies? Done.

So if you are some huge data plan where you can actually USE that neat feature, cool. But how will these companies justify suddenly give people 5 or 10x the data they current do? They already say that the infrastructure is too expensive to provide what we already get.

So don't worry. We're safe....

Re:yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

"Good" is entirely subjective.

Movie producers consider a movie "good" if it makes a lot of money. And they should, given how much they spend to make them.

Movies like that must cater to the greatest possible audience. Obviously, your tastes differ from those of the greatest possible audience.

Re: This is already feasible with 4G, right?

[Pros_n_Cons]

How is this different than spy apps?

A thief may steal property but a liar may steal reality.

Pair two technologies we know already exist. They have shown us video that has been altered that most people didn't catch like Obama making statements he didn't make just used his millions of audio data to make a false statement and edit lip movement to match.
Now pair it with Google's assistant which can book appointments and interact in a way undetectable by most people. Good thing they don't have 15 years of you speaking, enunciating, divulging personal information over the wire...what you've been using Google voice for a decade? Google fiber too? OMG and your Gmail? Well heck mixed with customized video, your voice and knowledge of virtually everything you've said for two decades they could literally call your mama on Skype and tell her you'll be there for dinner.

So what's the big deal? Reality has effectively has been stolen from you. Your choices, opinions, and personality are based on lies and that makes you what they want to make you.

Or you may choose to still call us paranoid

Re:yawn

[UnknownSoldier]

If we look at highest grossing movies of all time as any indicator:

* Avatar
* Titantic
* Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Sadly, I think I have to agree with you. :-/

Re: This is already feasible with 4G, right?

[Anonymous Coward]

They don't have to send _video_ of you back. They only have to send back the results of the analysis of the video.

Did scenes with fancy sports cars cause your eyes to dilate? Were you less likely to look away from the screen for a scene set in a coffee shop, or one set in a pizza parlor?

Don't fool yourself that upload speeds will ever get in the way of spying.