SPY TV’s
The new generation of cable receivers as well as HDTVs being sold to public includes several features such as cameras, sensors, and mics which are not being told by the tech companies.
These features in the TVs have the facility of recording everything happening in a living room where most families and viewers watch TV and would also be clever enough to look and evaluate everyone available in the TVs’ vicinity.
Verizon- the cable company- recently filed a copyright for system that includes profile recognition software and audio as well as video sensors. This would let Verizon get hold of information like number people sitting in a room, their race, gender, what activities they are performing, and what they are eating and drinking while watching television.
The main objective behind this system is to show “targeted advertising” by clearly spying on the viewers. Here’s the story on Verizon’s patent:
Verizon submits a patent published last week for weird gadget to watch viewers while they are watching TV.
What would you say if you were having a dispute with your spouse while watching TV and unexpectedly, one advertisement about marriage counseling shows up?
Or what if you are doing weightlifting when suddenly an advertisement for healthy snacks comes up on your TV screen?
It could have been just a chance in the earlier times. In future, it would be a reality because of “gesture recognition technology” from Verizon.
With the help of facial and profile recognition, these sensors would extract the vital information about physical attributes such as facial features, skin color, hair length, etc.
It also observes the voice characteristics to know about your accent, voice tone, and even the language that you are conversing in. Not only this- even non-living objects such as a wall art or a can of beer could also be spotted.
This would really signify that your set-top box or TV might be able to watch and listen to you while the viewers sit cozily on the couch watching the latest sit-coms and detect your voice and see your activities to play appropriate advertisement on, as summarized in the patent.
Its patent also cites that if the tool detects that a user is “tense”; it “may choose an ad connected with the ‘sensed’ mood (example- an ad for a tension-relief product like aromatherapy candles, etc. can be shown immediately). And if the sensors notice that a viewer is a kid, it will set off “more advertisements targeted to young ones.”
