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

submitted 7 months ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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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[–] Teon@kbin.social 50 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Sounds like a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.
Imagine that you pay for an ad free streaming service through your roku, like HBO for example. And now you have ads streaming over it?
People will sue for a way to disable it over ad free paid content.
Also, this will lead to way more pirating. People are sick of advertisements.

[–] whodatdair@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 7 months ago

That’ll be why they just pushed a “agree to our new license with arbitrage or your tv is a brick” update

[–] melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

People who don't pirate already are fools.

[–] CrowAirbrush@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago

Let 'm pirate. Teach them how to do it better even.