Intel To Launch TV Service With Facial Recognition By End of the Year 175
MojoKid writes "Despite television being a rather tough nut to crack, Intel is apparently hoping that its upcoming set-top box and subscription service will be its golden ticket to delivering more Intel processors to the living room. The service would be a sort of specialized virtual cable subscription that would combine a bundle of channels with on demand content. So what's Intel's killer feature that distinguishes it from the vast and powerful competition? Granular ratings that result in targeted ads. Intel is promising technology in a set-top box that can distinguish who is watching, potentially allowing Intel to target advertising. The technology could potentially identify if the viewer is an adult or a child, male or female, and so on, through interactive features and face recognition technology."
The marketing dweeb bastards won't quit (Score:3, Interesting)
The marketing dweeb bastards won't quit until they force us all to wear burkas or Guy Faulks masks.
Re:The marketing dweeb bastards won't quit (Score:5, Insightful)
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It's worse than that. Imagine the enhanced DRM this would enable. "Sorry, We have detected more than the allotted number of audience members. Your account has been charged $9.99 per extra viewer."
Or:
"Sorry. John Q Public rented this video. You appear to be his wife, Sally V Public. If you wish to view this video John must be present or you must rent it again."
Re:The marketing dweeb bastards won't quit (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The marketing dweeb bastards won't quit (Score:4, Informative)
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> Intel Corp exists for one reason only: to make money
money (now) exists for one reason only: enforce control.
Not to mention the hacking... (Score:2)
These will in all likelihood be internet-connected, to allow people to browse YouTube and whatnot.
So, in 4 easy steps:
1: Hack TV, stream all video to your server
2: Discard any pictures not showing enough skin tone (reverse porn filter)
3: Blackmail person owning the TV, "If you don't pay us, all your Facebook friends will receive these naked pictures/pictures of you masturbating"
4: Profit
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It's worse than that. Imagine the enhanced DRM this would enable. "Sorry, We have detected more than the allotted number of audience members. Your account has been charged $9.99 per extra viewer."
There was a time when F.C.C. rules prevented cable operators from even being able to track what programs were watched. Should we track people to see what channel their watching. The wikidrips guy has a show on RT you know. Some might want to know whether you watch PBS or Fox, or those foreign news channels.
The tech should provide relief to any who find old malware problems boring. Expect that some will create websites with a bunch of video windows showing people watching tv. I bet some people would wr
1984 much? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because what we *really* need in the world is a TV that watches you...
Re:1984 much? (Score:4, Funny)
I hear in soviet Russia they've had this tech since the 80's. :P
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Telescreens, Pravda, and assorted dictators' gigantic golden statues and peculiar cults of personality(while undoubtedly dramatic) have the convenient tendency to collapse under the weight of their own inefficiency.
We, in the free world, have had our profit-motivated-innovators tirelessly striving toward a world of constant surveillance, laughably misleading information substitutes, and vapid celebrity worship that is economically self sustaining. Indeed, quite handsomely prof
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I knew it, a Conspiracy!! Could you please tell us who's behind this, Oh Insightful One? Is it the Illuminati, I'll bet it is...with their fellow travelers, the Free Masons, trying to spackle over our freedoms. Don't forget to watch out for the black helicopters now that you are on to them.
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I wonder what it thinks my cats like (Score:4, Insightful)
So, a cat food commercial will be presented whenever one of my cats enters the room?
Re:I wonder what it thinks my cats like (Score:5, Insightful)
No, your cats likely buy very little cat food.
They'll already have your grocery bills, whether they be through paying with a card or by using a "rebate" card, so they'll already know that it's you who buy cat food, so they will show the ads when you enter the room.
Oh, and that search you did for "pregnancy risk" the other day? Unencrypted through your cable modem, by the same provider as your cable TV? With a contract giving them a right to monitor all traffic? Expect to see a lot of diapers and baby food commercials for the next couple of years.
Welcome to Ayn Rand's world. Please take a seat (great couch cleaning service starting at $5.99) and relax.
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I pay cash for cat food, so by seeing me the system will not know that I buy cat food. But, by seeing my cats, it could infer that I buy cat food.
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You pay cash? How does that help you when RFIDs in your driver's license or face recognition scanners at the supermarket checkout line identify you as Mr. R Smith of 2341 Maple Lane?
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You pay cash? How does that help you when RFIDs in your driver's license or face recognition scanners at the supermarket checkout line identify you as Mr. R Smith of 2341 Maple Lane?
Thats why I have the same ID that expired back in 1996.
Best part is, no one ever seems to have a problem that it's expired.
Plus, if you are worried about places reading RFID in ID, then don't carry the ID in the stores when you plan on paying cash. Leave it in the car, wrap it in foil, i don't know, i don't care. My ID is over 15 years old. lol.
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Face recognition is a rapidly improving technology.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/28/hundred_percent_face_recognition_claim/ [theregister.co.uk]
Perhaps also they will scan your license plate when you get out of your car.
Or maybe you live in Florida:
http://1787network.com/2011/03/senate-sneaks-rfid-drivers-license-internet-id-into-transportation-bill/1047 [1787network.com]
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How does that help you when RFIDs in your driver's license
In the US, your driver's license only has a chip if you've paid extra for an Enhanced DL, and they even typically give you a radio-shielding sleeve for those. And facial recognition is still terrible, especially for blind matching rather than verification. Stick to the loyalty and credit cards for your conspiracies, for now.
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He is getting his dystopias mixed up.
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It's the values of laissez-faire and abhorring laws protecting the interests of individuals who are unable to protect them themselves.
When a majority of the population is apathetic and willing targets, you soon will have no choice but to buy TVs that monitor you. Just like the average DVD/BD unit these days calls the mothership and tells what movies you watch, and how you now buy cars with a black box that registers your driving.
Stop being an egotist who gloat that you are too "rational" to buy such a TV,
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Lol lol lol. This has got to be the stupidest comment I have seen today. Most libertarians are at least smarter than this. The reason why such a corporation run distopia would be laissez-faire economic policy's fault is because we KNOW that people are as a rule stupid, petty and selfish. But somehow the objectivists think that these drives will somehow transmute through the power of the market into rainbows and sunshine. The reason why commerce has to be regulated is the same reason democracies need constit
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It would count that commercial as being undelivered and try, try, try again until it succeeds in delivering it.
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Yes, but it will be more like a little light that wiggles around the screen, or a little bird in a cage, not the actual LSD-inspired cat food commercials that are usually targeted at their human owners.
The cats will also be able to miaow at the TV to trigger a credit card purchase and a delivery of cat food through the mail slot that next day. This functionality should save quite a bit of heart-hake the next time a cat owner dies and its cat has nothing to eat except for its owner's body.
No (Score:1)
thank you.
wait (Score:5, Insightful)
why would any customer want this?
Re:wait (Score:5, Insightful)
people are idiots; they will trade their privacy for a 'goodie'.
some goodie will be presented. discounts or some motivator. it will be very cheap and laughable but people will sell their souls for bullshit token items. ever see a stampede at trade shows for the give-aways that are 'cool' ? same deal, here.
go to slickdeals (site) and watch how many people sign up for emailings from companies or will fill out lengthy forms to get a token piece of junk or a $10 discount on something. they'll give lots of info away and not even care. they'll justify it with 'but I'm getting this neat thing for free! its FREE. how can that be bad?'
that is a prevalent form of modern thinking. at least in the consumer age (20's 30's).
we already accept cameras at nearly every traffic light. in the UK, its more invasive than that. people tolerate loss of privacy.
I weep for us, because we value it so little and are quickly willing to sell it out for virtually nothing. once gone, its gone, too.
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that is a prevalent form of modern thinking. at least in the consumer age (20's 30's).
If you really think that kind of idiocy is limited to the 20s and 30s age group, you need to hang out with an older crowd.
Experience does not equal intelligence.
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I disagree; I do think that the older crowd has grown up with the *expectation* of privacy. the difference in attitude of 50's and 40's vs the younger crowd is immediate and obvious.
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Expectation of privacy has nothing to do with it.
The younger crowd finds no value in it, or much worse, finds value in not having it.
It's youthful idealism and naivety that leads them to these conclusions. One simply needs some exposure to history to see the risks, and exposure to fields of study like game theory to understand why even a little loss in privacy can have dramatic detrimental affects for society as a whole.
The loss of privacy at this scale is quite unprecedented though. It is not all that sur
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cant we just shoot them instead?
No, no, no.
You cannot use lethal measures to get them off your lawn. Not to mention it usually results in a body on your lawn, which defeats the purpose.
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This is a social conservatives dream. Now they will be able to monitor what goes on in everyone's bedroom.
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Well since it's advertising subsidized, Intel will supplying each consumer with a 70" LED tv FOR FREE!
Oh wait...
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That's not the right question. The right question is how will anyone be able to avoid it?
With IPV6 now here, I can see the future now. Rupert Murdoch will appear on the screen of your alarm clock demanding that you must pay him 10% of your income or he's going to deflate the your tires on your car or shut off your refrigerator.
What? You didn't listen to the 7th straight hour of the Sean Hannity Inanity Program? We will be sending you a small jolt of electricity to your remote to cure you of your conditio
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Since the late Steve Jobs announced how he had 'cracked' the 'television problem' every major electronics manufacturer is panicking, afraid to get behind or miss out on a lot of patents. These horrible systems are a direct result of Apple disrupting the TV market. Reality distortion is still very much alive.
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Yep, there's nothing Steve didn't cause. Yesterday, my cat rose on its hind legs and lectured me about the etiquette of keeping the litter box free. I know she got this idea from Steve.
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I can imagine a family wanting the TV to, for example, only allow itself to be turned on (and only to certain channels) at certain times if an adult is not in the room. It might also be nice if when you sat down it showed the shows that you want that it's recorded, rather than the ones your partner might want to watch, or if you're both in the room for it to default to showing the intersection of your two sets of favourites. It would be nice if it could automatically pause itself if I stood up and resume
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I'm sure that'll happen, just like paying for cable means TV is ad free.
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True. Yet another reason not to tolerate a set-top box. The only reason they really exist is to allow pay-per-view; there's probably no technical reason a descrambler couldn't be installed at the incoming source rather than on a per-set basis, except that the set-top setup makes you use their (usually awful) remote, allows pay-per-view, forces you to accept their ad-laden on-screen channel guide, runs about the shoddiest DVR interface you can think of, and conveniently costs you an extra $10 per month per d
wear a mask (Score:2, Insightful)
Congratulations, Intel! (Score:2, Interesting)
For zeroing in on what would instantly become the television industry's most hated product. Considering the industry as a whole, that is no small feat!
Two words (Score:4, Insightful)
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So what does a hand with the middle finger only pointed straight up do, remote wise?
A) Skip to the next ad
B) Vote the ad down to improve ratings
C) Report you to the nearest business plan and marketing compliance association of america? (BPMCAA, formed by a merger of RIAA and MPAA?)
D) All of the above.
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Obviously, it won't be option A. B and C are possibilities.
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" what's to stop them from simply taping over the camera lens?"
You can be sure that industry lobbyists will insist that those blocking the camera are probably busy pirating video and subject to a lawsuit and prosecution.
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Don't worry there will be a law like in the UK that if you are caught blocking a camera you face jail time.
TV is dead (Score:5, Interesting)
I am 44 years old and I grew up with TV. None of my kids watch TV. I do not watch TV. Nobody I know watches TV. The TV is now just a screen in which content which is chosen by the person, at a time specified by the user, is displayed. Yeah, there are still people out there but that whole model of forced advertising is going away. The writing is on the wall.
strike
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I still watch TV. I admit I don't pay much attention to it. I just turn on some random channel (usually the antennaTV channel), but focus my attention on the internet screen. Only time I pay attention is if a classic Twilight Zone or Hitchcock episode appears.
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I know a lot of people who still use TV, even old CRTs like my grandparents, my parents, and even myself. We prefer dumb screens and not those fancy ones out there.
Advertising is dying (Score:3)
...that whole model of forced advertising is going away. The writing is on the wall.
Yes as we get more affluent and rational we'll be less willing to trade our time watching ads for free or subsidised content, preferring instead to get relevant ads on-demand from search engines, or eschewing ads altogether and learning about things being sold from editorial content that unlike ads doesn't push an agenda by giving you less than the whole truth.
As it runs low on the fuel of poverty and irrationality that sustains it, advertising's currently passing through its bloated red giant stage. The
A telescreen? (Score:5, Informative)
"The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely. [...] The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.[...] It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live--did live, from habit that became instinct--in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.
Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer; though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing. "
Via http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt [gutenberg.net.au]
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Obviously he had a crude older set that was overdue for an upgrade. The modern ones can not only clearly hear you whisper in the next room, but also see around corners [nature.com] in the pitch dark thanks to the built-in IR laser illumination.
And thanks to the automated computer vision, voice recognition, and behavioral analysis systems that detect any potentially ungood tendencies, it takes only a handful of Party members to continuously protect everyone from their own destructive deviation from orthodoxy. Rejoice c
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The whole point of that passage was to prove that paranoia drove the world in 1984. In fact that was the whole message of the book. Winston gave up because the system was self perpetuating. This is a loosely-similar idea that would be demolished the first time some horny IT guy figured out how to turn on little susie's camera in her bedroom. The inevitable outcome is set just like the charter school laptops from about a year ago. I know slashdot is obsessed with dystopian paranoia but history has told
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I think I'm supposed to come back all frothing-at-the-mouth, but you make a solid point; we're not quite there yet. However, we are increasingly willingly allowing absolutely insane levels of our personal information to be tracked, collated, and traded around. It gets to be a slippery slope if the advertising data ever connects with the credit industry (Gee, Tommy, your credit score is pretty good right now. Here's an ad for a huge package-deal vacation you can finance with your very own credit card!).
Th
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And we all know how it worked out for Winston.
Tears of joy, IIRC. Sign me up!
Taped over the camera lens ... (Score:2)
Every once in a while, we switch it with the opening shot of The Simpsons.
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... a photo of the Cleavers.
I think that's just axing too much of us, at that, uhm, point.
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MST3K (Score:2)
I want one that will connect with my friends online and overlay everyone's silhouettes on the screen and send their voices through the speakers.
Repair technique (Score:2)
So Nielson homes can stop using those damn boxes? (Score:3)
A question (Score:2)
How well does it work with tape over the camera?
Buy a second TV (Score:5, Funny)
... and let them watch each other. And enjoy the hilarity of seeing them both trying to serve ads to each other. And then implode.
The cable box market sucks (Score:2)
This is emblematic of what's wrong with the set-top box market. Except for the handful of CableCard third-party devices (e.g. Tivo), most set-top boxes are sold not to end users, but to cable companies. That means average quality is low, and the only "features" they care about are the ones that pad the cable company's profits. Cable boxes guzzle power like crazy (even when turned "off") and offer a poorer UI than almost any other modern electronic device, and now they're planning to invade your privacy as w
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Just jealous (Score:2)
They're trailing microsoft... they feel the need to catch up
I got a better idea (Score:2)
make a tv box that comes with a robot that takes up residence in your house, prying around your living room, watching you sleep, watching you shower and take a crap to find out as much about you as possible so bombard you with constant ads targeted entirely to you.
buy our crap! Buy Our Crap! BUY OUR CRAP! B_U_Y _ O_U_R _ C_R_A_P!
Warning! You haven't been paying attention to the ads! Further ad avoidance will result in cancelling your TV subscription!
Thank you, Orwell. (Score:2)
In general, I think that Orwell did the mankind a great disservice when his own fear of Communists made his work focused on oppressive societies with Communist attributes. It created an impression that Communists are the only ones who oppress and brainwash people, and allowed Capitalist societies to safely develop far more powerful propaganda machines than Communists could ever think of, all the while proclaiming that they are paragons of free thought and action.
However this time, I have to thank him. He in
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s/instinctive/almost instinctive/
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In general, I think that Orwell did the mankind a great disservice when his own fear of Communists made his work focused on oppressive societies with Communist attributes.
It wasn't unmotivated "fear". It was based on what Stalin was doing when Orwell wrote it. In any case, the word "communist" isn't in the book. It was just "The Party'. Orwell had recognised that dictatorships end up the same, whatever the philosophy they start with.
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It wasn't unmotivated "fear". It was based on what Stalin was doing when Orwell wrote it.
It was not "unmotivated", it was "misdirected". In the same way how fear of black people is misdirected, even though there are plenty of violent criminals among black people.
In any case, the word "communist" isn't in the book. It was just "The Party'. Orwell had recognised that dictatorships end up the same, whatever the philosophy they start with.
Just like there is also not a single mentioning of the word "mafia" in The Godfather.
Not only it's absolutely definitely was intended to refer to the society under Communist, or specifically Stalin rule, most Americans' idea of USSR is actually closer to Orwell's fiction than to reality.
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It was not "unmotivated", it was "misdirected". In the same way how fear of black people is misdirected, even though there are plenty of violent criminals among black people.
Yeah, right. Thinking Stalinism was evil is the same as being a bigoted racist. Because most communist states were actually so nice and benevolent. Its only the exceptional ones, like USSR, Maoist China, North Korea, Romania, Albania, that gave all the the others a bad name.
My own politics are very liberal, in American terms, even socialist. But real communism is to be feared. They probably never were a threat to the US in the "Red Menace" way, but they certainly were to their own citizens.
Not only it's absolutely definitely was intended to refer to the society under Communist, or specifically Stalin rule, most Americans' idea of USSR is actually closer to Orwell's fiction than to reality.
Americans' igno
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Yeah, right. Thinking Stalinism was evil is the same as being a bigoted racist.
Stalin is one politician, harshly denounced by his successors. While he achieved iconic status, he is no more relevant to Communism than your local friendly bicycle thief to the rest of Black people.
Because most communist states were actually so nice and benevolent.
Actually, yes. Even among USSR leaders, Lenin (and most of his government) and Khruschev were definitely in the "benevolent" category, Brezhnev was more incompetent than evil, Andropov mostly deserves criticism for his actions outside USSR, and Gorbachev's worst action of his whole political career was causing d
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Stalin is one politician, harshly denounced by his successors. While he achieved iconic status, he is no more relevant to Communism than your local friendly bicycle thief to the rest of Black people.
Stop this invocation of racism. It's insulting.
Stalin wasn't exceptional. Mao. Kim Il Sung. Pol Pot. Its hard to name a communist leader in power for a decade or more, who wasn't a paranoid tyrant who sent millions to labor camps, or just had them killed. Only after the leader is dead, the system has collapsed economically, do his successors dare to change his policies.
Orwell's works were kept unchallenged in European and American cultures, and were widely promoted for anti-Communist propaganda value.
Of course they were.But again, "1984" doesn't ONLY apply to communism. This article shows that it is still invoked, correctly, to point ou
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Mao. Kim Il Sung. Pol Pot.
Only Mao of them was actually Communist -- the rest at most paid lip service to some Communist ideas.
Its hard to name a communist leader in power for a decade or more, who wasn't a paranoid tyrant who sent millions to labor camps, or just had them killed. Only after the leader is dead, the system has collapsed economically, do his successors dare to change his policies.
This is completely baseless, and I have spent a significant amount of my time here debunking "USSR was all-Stalin for all its history" and "USSR collapsed economically" myths.
Of course they were.But again, "1984" doesn't ONLY apply to communism.
No, 1984 is specifically about Communists because it was specifically written about Communists.
This article shows that it is still invoked, correctly, to point out the implications of things in our own society.
Actually, no. While some things apply legitimately, the idea of being watched by a TV has nothing objectively frightening about it, not any m
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Only Mao of them was actually Communist -- the rest at most paid lip service to some Communist ideas.
If you're going to redefine communism to leave out the ones you don't like, you're on the way to Newspeak yourself.
No, 1984 is specifically about Communists because it was specifically written about Communists.
Despite the word never appearing in it.
Orwell wasn't an idiot. He was writing about totalitarianism, not just communism. He probably felt sentimental about "real" communism, as you seem to. But he had seen where it goes in practice. Communism isn't the only route to totalitarianism. Nazi Germany, Czarist Russia, both did pretty well in that regard. East Germany seemed to switch over from one
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If you're going to redefine communism to leave out the ones you don't like, you're on the way to Newspeak yourself.
Communism was defined by Marx, and I use his definition. Stalin was a Communist (though a rather crappy one), Pol Pot was not a Communist at all.
Orwell wasn't an idiot. He was writing about totalitarianism, not just communism.
"Totalitarianism" does not exist. It's a label people from one society give to another one because they can not believe, that other society can exist without someone constantly threatening to kill people if they will not obey that other society's rules. In reality, such a situation is impossible -- if anyone tried to do that, society would be completely dysfunction
Inward-looking facial recognition? (Score:2)
Cognovision (Score:3, Informative)
I wonder if this has come out of Intel's acquision of Cognovision, and I hope it's better than what they gave developers in 2011. I worked with this product for about a year, attempting to integrate it into our digital signage systems. Not only did it take a dedicated i5 with 2gb of RAM to safely run in the background, it often (as much as 40% of the time) produced the wrong information about a person. Gender was correct about 80% of the time, age was correct in only about 30% of samples, and race was almost never correct (except for very dark skinned folks were alwas called determined to be of African origin).
The result was that we had to write an algorythm to essentially average out samples over a given duration. When we took 500 samples over 5 seconds, dropped the extremes, and averaged the rest we improved the accuracy to nearly 85%, but that is still pretty bad when you consider that automated actions will be taken based on those results (i.e. to play content for YOUR demographic).
I don't really want my TV watching me.
-MoG
No Thanks (Score:2)
Any product like this will never be willingly or knowingly allowed in my house.
Targetted ads? Don't make me laugh (Score:2)
I splash my personal browsing habits and general information all over the web (I don't even log out of FB most of the time) yet I have never been aware of anything other than random, pathetically irrelevant ads. Right now, for instance, I have my Gmail open in another tab and I'm looking at a automated mail from Spotify that says "Anna just joined Spotify" - Anna is a friend of mine. Now, what Adsense do you think the mighty Google might be selecting, given that it knows lots and lots about me, and reads al
This is bound to end badly. (Score:2)
Or Wifie is watching TV (with ads for feminine products). In walks Hubby, and the next commercial is for divorce lawyers. Screaming commences.
There's just so many ways for this camera concept to go badly...
Because it's a video phone (Score:2)
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If you want privacy, visit our accredited psychologists and buy the set of masks most suitable with you and your family members' personality, we'd be happy to quickly recognize your character with less computational effort.
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Well, that solves the problem of the tought police not being able to watch everybody all the time...
George Orwell meets AI. Is the Big Brother human?
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You probably won't have a choice. The advertisers and corporations and republicans will demand that all sets be equipped with them to be sure that you are not paling around with terrorists. Turn off the TV and the Hillsborough Baptist Church will picket your house and place you on a pervert list.
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You obviously haven't read the republican party platform written for them by the advertising industry.
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correction, was already protected by privacy laws
IIRC that was one of those annoying legal bugs corrected by the PATRIOT act.