They Can Hear You Now:
Verizon Patent Could Listen In On Customers
December 4, 2012 11:43 AM
Verizon Communications
filed a patent for technology that could listen in on conversations and detect
the amount of people in customers’ living rooms.
WASHINGTON (CBS DC) –
Verizon has filed a patent for targeting ads that collect information from
infrared cameras and microphones that can detect the amount of people and types
of conversations happening in customers’ living rooms.
The set-top box technology
is not the first of its kind – Comcast patented similar monitoring technology
in 2008 that recommended content to users based on people it recognized in the
room. Google TV also proposed a patent that would use video and audio recorders
to figure out exactly how many people in a room were watching its broadcast.
Verizon filed for the
application in May 2011, but the report was published last week due to laws
stating that all patent applications be published after 18 months.
FierceCable first
publicized the Verizon patent that gives examples of the DVR’s acute
sensitivity in customers’ living rooms: argument sounds prompt ads for marriage
counseling, and sounds of “cuddling” prompt ads for contraceptives.
“If detection facility
detects one or more words spoken by a user (e.g., while talking to another user
within the same room or on the telephone), advertising facility may utilize the
one or more words spoken by the user to search for and/or select an
advertisement associated with the one or more words,” Verizon states in the
patent application.
The patent goes on to say
that the sensors would also be able to determine if a viewer is exercising,
eating, laughing, singing, or playing a musical instrument, and target ads to
viewers based on their mood. It also could use sensors to determine what type
of pets or inanimate objects are in the room. The system can also “dynamically
adjust parental control features” if it detects that young children are present
in the room.
There are several types of
sensors can be linked to the targeted advertising system. These include 3D
imaging devices, thermographic cameras and microphones.
Users are also given the
option to link their smartphones and tablets to the detection system to
directly increase its sensitivity.
“If detection facility
detects that the user is holding a mobile device, advertising facility may be
configured to communicate with the mobile device to direct the mobile device to
present the selected advertisement. Accordingly, not only may the selected
advertisement be specifically targeted to the user, but it may also be
delivered right to the user’s hands,” the Verizon application states.
Verizon officials declined
to comment to FierceCable about the patent application.
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