Xbox team’s ‘consumer detector’ would dis-Kinect freeloading TV viewers
November 3, 2012 at 5:35 pm by Todd Bishop
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/microsoft-diskinect-freeloading-tv-viewers/
A newly surfaced patent filing from Microsoft’s Xbox Incubation team
details one of the new innovations they’ve been thinking about. This one
could be very popular among major movie and television studios. But it
probably wouldn’t generate much excitement among Xbox users.
The patent application, filed under the heading “Content Distribution
Regulation by Viewing User,” proposes to use cameras and sensors like
those in the Xbox 360 Kinect controller to monitor, count and in some
cases identify the people in a room watching television, movies and
other content. The filing refers to the technology as a “consumer detector.”
In one scenario, the system would then charge for the television show or
movie based on the number of viewers in the room. Or, if the number of
viewers exceeds the limits laid out by a particular content license, the
system would halt playback unless additional viewing rights were purchased.
The system could also take into account the age of viewers, limiting
playback of mature content to adults, for example. This patent
application doesn’t explain how that would work, but a separate
Microsoft patent application last year described a system for using
sensors to estimate age based on the proportions of their body.
Inventors listed on the latest application include Xbox Incubation GM
Alex Kipman, who led the development of Kinect. The others are Andrew
Fuller, Xbox director of incubation; and Kathryn Stone Perez, executive
producer of Xbox Incubation.
Also notable are references in the application to a glasses-style
head-mounted display as one of the viewing options — another possible
clue to the types of things the Xbox Incubation team is working on.
The patent application, made public this week, was originally submitted
in April 2011. Filings such as these provide a sense for what a
company’s engineers and researchers have been contemplating, but it’s
not clear if Microsoft actually plans to roll out the “consumer
detector” as part of the next generation of Xbox or Kinect or anything else.
Even if the technology were introduced, it seems like there would be
endless ways of avoiding it, unless a broad base of technology and
content providers were on board.
But who knows, maybe someday you’ll need to be extra careful how many
people you invite to your big Super Bowl party … unless you’re willing
to pony up a few more bucks.
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