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Microsoft has applied for a Kinect patent that uses its posh webcam to count the number of people in a room, just in case there’s any confusion as to whether your entire family watching Evil Dead counts as an illegal public screening.
The code would let Microsoft and media providers set a maximum viewer threshold for films, with Kinect counting heads in the room. If it spots too many people you’d be asked to upgrade your license — presumably that’s patent talk for “pay some money” — to continue viewing.
Of course, you could just switch the stupid camera thing off, if the Microsoft of the future lets you switch it off. [Extremetech]
‘Thirty to forty group!’ yapped a piercing female voice. ‘Thirty to forty group! Take your places, please. Thirties to forties!’
Winston sprang to attention in front of the telescreen, upon which the image of a youngish woman, scrawny but muscular, dressed in tunic and gym-shoes, had already appeared.
‘Arms bending and stretching!’ she rapped out. ‘Take your time by me. One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! Come on, comrades, put a bit of life into it! One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! …’
Exactly the scene I thought of. I guarantee that the xbox will have some fitness game featuring a woman of that description as well.
Unfortunately for Winston Smith, the ongoing encroachment of Big Brother into his private life couldn’t have been stopped by a well-placed piece of duct-tape.
what a load of bollox. yeah like people are gonna let this happen. simple thing. dont buy a kinect. I got one for the mrs for crimbo one year. what a load of sh*t. Next thing your know there end up putting this technology in TVs. Some companies just take the piss.
it will be in laptops in the future and my current tv already warns me if i sit to close to it haha!
Finally, A use for my Nans old tea cosy, popping over the kinect so that it thinks nobody is watching.
If this were to come into place surely all you have to do is put a photo of one person in front of the kinect?
“ERROR: It looks as though you’re watching a movie but the device has not detected a human presence. In order to watch a Bluray Disc, your appliance must detect a human presence. Currently there are no persons detected so playback has been paused and your TV placed in to a low power state for your benefit. Once the device detects human presence, playback will resume.”
Key words there… “FOR YOUR BENEFIT” – remember that folks.
I’d love to see it actually do that when a group of women in Niqabs try to watch a film.
and what if you have loads of Toby jugs in your living room?
“you have too many ninjas watching this movie… “
How creepy would it be if you were watching a horror on your own and it suddenly stopped because it thought there was a second person watching!
“i see you are not watching the 10 mins of BS before the movie. i have now paused this as you need to know about pirates!”
arghhhhh pieces of eight.
It’s not as depressing as Apple’s new patent that allows for the mass remote disabling of camera and data functions on smartphones.
Apple has now become Big Brother’s willing accomplice.