Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Microsoft has taken out a patent titled "Content Distribution Regulation by Viewing User" which purports to limit video consumption to those who've licensed the video in question by actually monitoring what's going on in your living room.
"The technology, briefly described, is a content presentation system and method allowing content providers to regulate the presentation of content on a per-user-view basis," reads the blurb, filed April 2011, published 1st November and picked up by both Geekwire and EG.
"Consumers are presented with a content selection and a choice of licenses allowing consumption of the content ... The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken."
Fail to take "remedial action", and the device you're watching the movie, TV programme or whatever on will simply halt playback. The patent makes no mention of Kinect in particular, but there are paragraphs about a gaming console and telly-top camera. The two sensors included with one picture (apologies, we're having a hell of a time downloading them) bear a strong resemblance to those pictured in leaked Xbox 720 design materials. Xbox 720, incidentally, is rumoured to feature a new, built-in version of Kinect.
"Environment 612, with capture device 620, may be used to recognise, analyse, and/or track human (and other types of) targets," the patent explains elsewhere. "For example, a user within the display area of the display 616 [the television] may be tracked using the capture device 620 such that the gestures and/or movements of the user may be captured to determine the number of people present, whether users are viewing content and/or may be interpreted as controls that may be used to affect the application being executed by computing environment 612.
"Such information may also be used to determine whether the tracked user is viewing content presented by a content provider."
I was bang up for the idea of built-in Kinect till shortly before writing this. Somehow, the idea isn't quite as appealing any more. Of course, you could always just put something in front of Kinect but there's nothing to stop the device detecting this and turning itself off in protest.
21 comments so far...
Bonescrubs on 6 Nov '12 said:
If this was used purely as a parental control measure then I could fully understand, but it seems way too far-reaching. So if I say rented a movie on my Xbox, then invited some friends round to watch it, the Kinect programming would detect that there were too many people in the room in respect of the license and refuse to play it? Now that is going too far.
OXM ETboy on 6 Nov '12 said:
Indeed, let's hope it's one of their more speculative patents.
richwk on 6 Nov '12 said:
So is there another patent in there somewhere that makes the kinect actually work? Assuming you're watching the film further than two feet away and not in direct, blazing light, how will the kinect even know who's watching?
FishyGinger on 6 Nov '12 said:
I knew having a spare room and a dummy of me sat in it would come in handy. This is really daft, much like radio licences.
I'm guessing the On button will look something like this?
http://tobescifitakeover.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/hal9000.jpg
richwk on 6 Nov '12 said:
Heh. " Just what do you think you are doing, Dave?"
"I'm watching 1984."
The irony!
Clanger67 on 6 Nov '12 said:
Weirdly my mate mentioned something like this before Kinect first came out.Plus how can they stop you and a load of mates watching a film they can only do that if you are charging people to watch it.
Wheely13 on 6 Nov '12 said:
"Environment 612, with capture device 620, may be used to recognise, analyse, and/or track human (and other types of) targets,"
So if i'm watching a movie with my girlfriend and her 3 cats come into the room, it will stop? Because the way that is worded seems to me that it might track every living thing.
Also, generally when we watch a "movie" things get heated, i'm not sure i'm comfortable with microsoft watching me get frisky...
delmariachi on 6 Nov '12 said:
I'd have thought the more logical idea behind it is to stop say, sky sports football being viewed in pubs or other such more public venues but the reality I feel could be pretty much whats been referred too previous....
Plamsa wing on 6 Nov '12 said:
It's entirely possible that this is one of those things that gets patented, but never really gets developed further for many a reason.
If it's not, then it's a pretty worrying idea either way.
I'd be more worried about the bloke spying through the window, the same bloke that's there right now! Quick go get him!
CunningSmile on 6 Nov '12 said:
Surely this patent will never go ahead, purely because any police state style observation that can be defeated by just unplugging the peripheral is deeply flawed.
FishyGinger on 6 Nov '12 said:
Now yes, when kinect is integrated? Not so easy then. Although there will be ways to fool this obviously.
At my last place of work we kept getting calls about the radio. You aren't allowed to have it on in the work place where something like 3 or more workers, or any customers, can hear it. But if you have a workshop with a van in, you can turn that radio on as loud as you like and not have to pay a fee of something like 150 quid a year. Completely stupid but don't rule out companies being quite so petty.
Still can't imagine they would implement this though, it would be a desperately unpopular move. Move...get it, the PS peripheral...oh never mind.
msbhvn on 6 Nov '12 said:
This is one of the most disturbing things I've ever heard of. It probably breaks the law in most countries, too. I'm sure big business could get it through in the US, especially if Baseball Glove Romney wins the election today. If he does, I think the rest of the world should pass a UN resolution to take the vote away from the public in the US, as they are too stupid to use it properly.
trapezium on 6 Nov '12 said:
And we voted in the tories...
Clanger67 on 6 Nov '12 said:
msbhvn on 6 Nov '12 said:
I didn't either, but at least the Tories pretended to be nice to try and get votes. The Republican Party pander to the nastiest, most evil views in American society and the dumbass they picked as candidate is actually giving Obama a run for his money! There just isn't a facepalm big enough.
Clanger67 on 6 Nov '12 said:
AllusiveTurtle on 7 Nov '12 said:
Whilst this patent may exist, it will never come to pass. If your xbox would refuse to play a film because there were too many people present, or the film was inappropriate for the age of those present, people would not use the device to play the film, they would use a normal DVD player and watch it as they please. This would result in lost revenue for Microsoft, and there is no way that they would accept that! And what if you were an adult smaller than your average 8 year old (my friend ToxicFlint for example!) walked into the room, would the device turn off because you were obviously too young?
My understanding is that the device would also decide whether the content was age appropriate, were this to be implemented, then all those kids who play Call of Duty (probably accounting for half all sales!) would suddenly find themselves unable to play it and I’m sure that if Microsoft suddenly found that their user base dropped by half as all the kids switched to the Playstation (taking many parents with them) in order to play the games deemed inappropriate, that any decision to actually implement the patent would soon be reversed.
It will never happen!
mulieman on 7 Nov '12 said:
Oh pope on a rope! There goes my Kinect based porno that I was going to shoot with the Austrialian womens hockey team and an overwieght midget called Tony.
CunningSmile on 7 Nov '12 said:
On other thing that confuses me is the age appropriate thing, how will they judge it? No one I know of under 18 has ever set the date of birth on their profile correctly in case CoD suddenly decides to block 90% of their players for not being old enough and if they set it by any other criteria I'm afraid I'll never again be able to watch an 18 rated film with my 4 foot 11 girlfriend in case it thinks she too short to be an adult.
FishyGinger on 7 Nov '12 said:
Ha, she's pocket sized, did you find her in hobbiton?
Agreed though, too many inconsistencies means this really couldn't work. Wouldn't really affect me for films anyhow, ironically still using the original xbox as a dvd player.
CunningSmile on 7 Nov '12 said:
Neverland. And be careful, she too is pretty handy with the wooden swords