New DVR Will Target Advertisements Based on Recordings of Users
December 5th, 2012USPTO: 20120304206
Via: Fierce Cable:
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has filed a patent application for targeting ads to viewers based on information collected from infrared cameras and microphones that would be able to detect conversations, people, objects and even animals that are near a TV.
If the detection system determines that a couple is arguing, a service provider would be able to send an ad for marriage counseling to a TV or mobile device in the room. If the couple utters words that indicate they are cuddling, they would receive ads for “a romantic getaway vacation, a commercial for a contraceptive, a commercial for flowers,” or commercials for romantic movies, Verizon states in the patent application.
Related: Microsoft Wants to Know How Many Friends You’ve Got in Your Living Room
Past the Plimsol line for creepy … in a decade of increasingly creepy tech, this just hit the top of the levee. Who in their right mind would own a brand new 60″ flat screen that also ran cameras and mikes which cannot be disabled….. this is a PVR, soon it will be the fricken microwave that calls in when you wave a can of baked beans at it. ‘Rise of the machines’ has become a frightening and iminent reality.
I mean, didn’t we all read Orwell, wasn’t there a two-way TV in every apartment ? A TV that you could not turn off ? Didn’t that device summon Police if ‘dissident activity’ was reported by the software filters. How dumb does the public have to get in order to allow this to develop into reality now ?