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Roku has patented a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV (arstechnica.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

231 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A patent application from the company spotted by Lowpass describes a system for displaying ads over any device connected over HDMI, a list that could include cable boxes, game consoles, DVD or Blu-ray players, PCs, or even other video streaming devices. Roku filed for the patent in August 2023 and it was published in November 2023, though it hasn't yet been granted.

The technology described would detect whether content was paused in multiple ways—if the video being displayed is static, if there's no audio being played, if a pause symbol is shown anywhere on screen, or if (on a TV with HDMI-CEC enabled) a pause signal has been received from some passthrough remote control. The system would analyze the paused image and use metadata "to identify one or more objects" in the video frame, transmit that identification information to a network, and receive and display a "relevant ad" over top of whatever the paused content is.

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Not what laws are for.

Is what guillotines are for.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Give me freedom from advertising or give me death.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Roku would gladly do the latter if they thought it profitable

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Roku somehow thinking that the Ferengi rules of acquisition was a how-to guide book.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Bread and circuses. They're gouging us on the bread and making the circuses inaccessible, these dipshits are practically begging for a red terror, by making the worst outcome still better than the ongoing white.

If I were making their decisions for them; I'm not sure I could do much better at priming the populace for revolution.