Philips Electronics new patent .
A new patent to stop people changing chanel or fast forwarding through advertisment breaks. Sometimes I’m not sure if the Luddites didn’t have a valid point
Said Philips Electronics apparently likes said word “said”
I’m all for it, as long as we can have those great animated menus like they have on DVDs, too. Or possibly a TV executive in every living room to just tell us what to watch.
No hu-hu. It’ll never fly, Orville.
Any TV manufacturer that tries to make that device part of their system will see their sales plummet like a paralysed falcon.
Agreed, but couldn’t pressure be put on Congress to make such a device mandatory?
I would hope that Congress wouldn’t be that foolish.
I also hope to one day sprout wings and fly.
Until they make a device that will strap me to the sofa and force my eyes open, I won’t worry.
Their next invention will be a death ray that prevents people from leaving the room during advertisements. Viewers can either pay a fee to be allowed to get up or be vaporized.
What next, outlaw the power switch , a la Max Headroom?
Is it possible to just turn off the tv and turn it back on? If not, then what is to stop the tv from halting you at the first commercial you run into while channel surfing?
Well it wouldn’t be too difficult to auto pause whenever noone is watching, just require a camera and imaging software to detect if anyone is in the room. Hell the volume could go up automatically if you don’t seem to be paying enough attention to the adverts. Also you wouldn’t be able to see the rest of the actual show until you filled out a form to prove that not only did you see the adverts, but that you were really impressed by “Smiling Bob” and wanted to buy the product and get the T-Shirt. Later you wouldn’t be allowed to turn on the TV until the imaging software had detected you were waring the T-shirt and smiling… (I think I need to go off ang write a Paranoia campaign. )
5 minutes after the first one hit the market there would be 8 hacks for it on the Internet. 
I have to say, I will cancel my service and throw away my television before I’ll pay a fee to be allowed to change the damn channel.
Sheesh.
This could be the kind of issue (like the Do Not Call list) where Congress feels enough heat to worry about actually losing their jobs if they sell out to the lobbyists.
That is fucked up.
I use commerical time to channel surf and look for other shows to watch if the current one is not holding my interest.
Maybe if the ad industry actually could make commercials that aren’t annoying as shit or completely ridiculous, I wouldn’t flip when they’re on.
For a patent, that is clear writing.
Is there some kind of competition for butthead electronics company, and is Philips mad because Sony took the lead? Exactly who would consider this as a feature?
That’s sort of what I was thinking. There’s no way that Philips thinks they can market this to consumers, but I can see them pitching it to the TV networks are some sort of digital rights management scheme. For example, I can imaging them encrypting their shows such that they can only be decrypted by devices with Philips Gulag[sup]tm[/sup] technology.
That would be amusing to watch. Every single set in the nation tuning in to something other than networks. If they think they are losing market share now, just wait…
You do realise this patent was first filed in 2003 and it has only just been put online?
The rapid take up of the idea so far inclines me to think we are safe for a while yet.
Don’t worry about the patent, I don’t think they seriously intend to use it. Rather they’ll wait until some other company develops and markets the technology then sue them for stealing their idea.
Blipverts!