New Technology May Force Ad Viewing

[solypsist]

SAN JOSE, Calif. - In this era of easy ad skipping with TiVo-like video recorders, could television viewers one day be forced to watch commercials with a system that prevents channel switching?

Yes, according to Royal Philips Electronics. A patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says researchers of the Netherland-based consumer electronics company have created a technology that could let broadcasters freeze a channel during a commercial, so viewers wouldn't be able to avoid it.

The pending patent, published on March 30, says the feature would be implemented on a program-by-program basis. Devices that could carry the technology would be a television or a set-top-box.

Philips acknowledged, however, that the anti-channel changing technology might not sit well with consumers and suggested in its patent filing that consumers be allowed to avoid the feature if they paid broadcasters a fee.

On Wednesday, company officials issued a statement that noted the technology also enables the opposite: allowing viewers to watch television without advertising. The intention was never to force viewers to watch ads against their will, the company said of the technology.

"We developed a system where the viewer can choose, at the beginning of a movie, to either watch the movie without ads, or watch the movie with ads," the company stated. "It is up to the viewer to take this decision, and up to the broadcaster to offer the various services."

The company also said it had no plans to use the technology in any of its products.

Philips wanted to provide the technology and seek the patent only as part of the broader developments within the industry, Philips spokesman Andre Manning said.


i know nobody here actually watches tv anymore, but i find this farcical.

[The_Doctor]

There is always the mute button.

And the BBC.

[SwordsMaster]

I can't say it is unexpected. In the place I work and study-we were working on a thing similar to that "ads in videogames" thinghy, slightly smarter, but then it is a research project - things have gone way beyond this kind of stuff. I would tell you what the future might bring, but you might be outraged. The only thing I can tell is that the technology is already there, and all that is needed is someone wealthy and stupid enough to put it on the market...

[yesdachi]

The only thing I can tell is that the technology is already there, and all that is needed is someone wealthy and stupid enough to put it on the market...

GAH, 10 days later someone would find a tech that would allow people a way around it. It’s a vicious cycle.

[SwordsMaster]

GAH, 10 days later someone would find a tech that would allow people a way around it. It’s a vicious cycle.

There is no way around it. You can either have it or not, like a camera-phone.

[Byzantine Mercenary]

what realy annoys me is that adverts are louder then the show, surely they realise that all people do when the adverts are louder is turn the sound off which you would think would be worse for them?

[Duke Malcolm]

Thank God for the BBC...

[yesdachi]

There is no way around it.

I’m sure that has been said before. Not trying to argue with you but it just seems every time someone makes the better mouse trap the mice get smarter.

[master of the puppets]

I’m sure that has been said before. Not trying to argue with you but it just seems every time someone makes the better mouse trap the mice get smarter.

yeah...hmmm speaking of that, why can 2 or 3 generations of mice grow immune to eating a small bit of poison when humans have been injesting the poison alchohol for thousand of years and we still react the same to it, are the mice really just better or did our ancestors just get a lot more hammered than we do...mabey this should be in the drunken thread.

[A.Saturnus]

I can't say it is unexpected. In the place I work and study-we were working on a thing similar to that "ads in videogames" thinghy, slightly smarter, but then it is a research project - things have gone way beyond this kind of stuff. I would tell you what the future might bring, but you might be outraged. The only thing I can tell is that the technology is already there, and all that is needed is someone wealthy and stupid enough to put it on the market...

How about releasing psychoactive substances into the atmosphere that force you to think of certain products

[Louis VI the Fat]

How about releasing psychoactive substances into the atmosphere that force you to think of certain products

So that's what you're getting that Ph.D. in Louvain in...

[A.Saturnus]

So that's what you're getting that Ph.D. in Louvain in...

No, in Leuven.

[BDC]

It will be just like the DVD fiasco. Do I pay £200 for the official restricted one or £30 for suspicious Chinese one which plays anything?

[SwordsMaster]

How about releasing psychoactive substances into the atmosphere that force you to think of certain products

You would be surprised if I told you you are not all that far off... Its CRAAAAAAZY

[Blodrast]

tell us, tell us !!

[Catiline]

It won't happen, it's too reactionist a technology.

What will happen is ther way we pay for 'TV' will change. Currently we take the ads becuase it pays for the TV, and a huge majority of TV is still not watched on TIVO/PVRs. When you watch live TV you're stuck with ads. You cxan be clever and start watching stuff late, but the miajority won't. They'll settle down in front of LOST and while away the extra 10 minutes because they want to talk about it tomorrow at work. As long as that ethos exists, advertising revenues will flow.


Technologically however. htat's unsustainable. All of us here are to some extent of a generation where by TV is not naturally an on demand medium. We have bred and nurturedtolerance to advertising. Next decades generation won't have that tolerance., They'll grow up on IPTV and Video on Demand. The concept of a channel in our sense will be alien to them. At that point hte Foxs and ITVs of htis world are screwed. And htey're shitting themselves over it ( this is a good hting, since it makes me rich writing conferences ).

To be conspiratorial about it, even the govt are in on the act, hence the loosening, in the UK at least of the product placement laws. We'll still be pitched to. It'll just be subtler

[doc_bean]

You would be surprised if I told you you are not all that far off... Its CRAAAAAAZY

cool, we'd be like ants !

Ahem..I've argued before that we should make share owners morally responsible for what 'their' company does. We're doing all this to ourselves !

[A.Saturnus]

You would be surprised if I told you you are not all that far off... Its CRAAAAAAZY

Is it Priming? I love Priming! You can read minds with it. Oops... said too much

Or in 20 years time, maybe directly into your brain. (Ok, this last one is just speculation, but don't tell me it doesn't sound impressive).

Yeah! Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). In 20 years, maybe we can stimulate specific brain regions to make you think certain things.

Imagine yourself on a bus on the way to work thinking:
"Now, if that bus driver doesn't drive like a granny, I even may get in time ###COCA COLA### ...argh, were was I? Oh yes, can't afford to be late again. The boss is already pissed because of the ###NIKE###."

[yesdachi]

All this talk is reminding me of the subliminal messages that were banned from movies back in the day.

There are also subliminal visuals. In fact years ago, laws were passed banning subliminal visuals suggestions. They were used in drive-in movies. Within regular film were imbedded frames that showed a soft drink. These imbedded frames couldn't be seen by the naked eye (conscious mind), however, the subconscious mind was unduly influenced by them to cause the person to want and purchase the soft drink or whatever was being shown. The visual subliminal messaging was banned as an ethic consideration, i.e., you should have the right to know what someone is trying to sell you.

With the right liberal interpretation one could consider subliminal advertising more ethical because then the viewer isn’t forced to suffer thru a commercial.

[doc_bean]

Is it Priming? I love Priming! You can read minds with it. Oops... said too much



Yeah! Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). In 20 years, maybe we can stimulate specific brain regions to make you think certain things.

Imagine yourself on a bus on the way to work thinking:
"Now, if that bus driver doesn't drive like a granny, I even may get in time ###COCA COLA### ...argh, were was I? Oh yes, can't afford to be late again. The boss is already pissed because of the ###NIKE###."

And you do research to advance these things ????


O well, the sooner we can join the Hive Mind, the better I guess...

...

Anyone know anything about Belgian gun laws ?

[Papewaio]

Imagine yourself on a bus on the way to work thinking:
"Now, if that bus driver doesn't drive like a granny, I even may get in time ###COCA COLA### ...argh, were was I? Oh yes, can't afford to be late again. The boss is already pissed because of the ###NIKE###."

If that came true I would shove everyone who was a part of its creation into an oven and whistle while doing it. For once mass murder would be a boon to humanity.

[Viking]

I watch the state channel anyway...