Google patent application describes ways computers can read people’s body language to measure their interest in media.
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Google desires to know the way you reply to the media content you view. It will probably ask you, but you could possibly not like to answer, and, even though you probably did, you may not accurately convey the way you feel.
To obtain a more accurate measurement, the company’s engineers has been exploring methods to read your body language. A patent application published on Thursday describes the way to assess enthusiasm for media content using information captured by a videocamera, the one who will soon be watching you at your residence, through your TV, computer, or mobile device, if it is not there already.
“Determining User Interest Through Detected Physical Indicia” outlines what may well be called either an enthusiasm meter or a boredom meter, reckoning on whether you are a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty type of person.
“Providers of the media content find great value in determining the user’s attentiveness to the displayed media content, as knowing the user’s interest in media content may help media providers tailor future content or recommendations more closely to the user’s interests,” the patent application lyrically explains. “Accordingly, in some implementations, a user’s interest in displayed media is dependent upon analyzing visual data of the user (comparable to visual data from photographs or video) for physical indicia of user interest. A bonus of such an implementation is that the user would not actively indicate their [sic] interest to the system.”
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Amazon, Netflix, and other companies augment media transaction data by soliciting user input. Fandango, the web movie ticketing service, will pester you after you’ve seen a film to rate it. Social interaction represents free labor for online companies, in any case. You’re expected to chip in together with your opinion to maintain the information scientists from starving.
Google does the similar thing, however also sees a chance to collect information regarding what you favor without inquiring for it (beyond a presumed initial grant of permission).
Such ostensibly benign surveillance is probably not limited to video. Google’s patent application contemplates not just video image analysis, but audio analysis, eye tracking, head position, body inclination, and physical expression as how to measure interest.
“As an instance, a user who physically reacts to a shocking visual or startling loud sound in a film (e.g. by jumping or screaming) is probably going more all in favour of the movie they’re watching than a user who doesn’t react to a noisy sound in a film,” the patent application said.
In space, no person can hear you scream. On your front room, Google’s got your back.
An alternative implementation proposes paying attention to the music you’re playing and comparing the selection of beats per minute within the song for your movements. In the event that they match, Google can infer that you are dancing, an action that “indicates positive user engagement.”
The patent application doesn’t specifically mention advertising, but it’s clear that the flexibility to evaluate user interest will be not less than as useful for delivering ads because it will be for delivering content. And very, Google doesn’t ought to specifically describe this research within the context of ads: Social tech companies’ tendency is to regard ads and content because the same thing. (It isn’t an ad, it is a sponsored story!)
There is naturally no guarantee Google will ever deploy one of these system. Much of its research doesn’t make it to market. But in case Google goes ahead with its attention measurement scheme, rest assured that the corporate is thinking the best way to preserve your privacy while it watches you dance.
“In some implementations, the customer system removes personally identifiable information before sending the interest information to the server system,” the patent application stated.
In other implementations, just be sure to activate “Incognito mode” once you get home.
Thomas Claburn is editor-at-large for InformationWeek. He have been writing about business and technology since 1996, for publications comparable to New Architect, PC Computing, InformationWeek, Salon, Wired, and Ziff Davis Smart Business. Before that, he worked in film and tv. He’s the writer of a science fiction novel, Reflecting Fires, and his mobile game Blocfall Free is obtainable for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire.
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