Microsoft Patents TV That Watches Back, Counts Heads, Charges Admission

Microsoft Patents TV That Watches Back, Counts Heads, Charges Admission

Here's a scenario for you: at some point in the the near future, you
sit down in front of your Xbox 720/960/1080 and queue up a little
video-on-demand from the Live Arcade selection of movies. You select a
film from the menu and, before you can press the "Play" button, you are
greeted with another menu giving you several price points, depending on
how many people will be watching.

It sounds ridiculous, but Microsoft has applied for a patent covering a method that could make this a reality. Geekwire (via Slashdot) has the details on a patent application utilizing the Kinect (or its successor) to count noses for content providers.

<blockquote>
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.</blockquote>
While it's a little early in the process to decide whether this is
actually a pursuit Microsoft deems worthy of implementing or just some
brainstorming put on paper, there's no denying that media companies and
content providers would certainly not mind at all if an enterprising group could create something that would allow them to monetize every eyeball in the house.



While Kinect hackers have managed to crank out some very interesting uses
of the body-tracking technology, it looks as though the in-house team
has something a bit more devious up its collective sleeve. With this in
place, PPV events could move to the Xbox to get the most bang for their
buck during prize fights and MMA bouts. Movies rented through XBLA (Xbox
Live Arcade) could rake in even more money by charging for each
additional set of eyeballs, leading to Xbox owners treating their own
living rooms like drive-ins and sneaking in additional viewers through
piles of coats lying strategically on the floor.

Every use may not be as mercenary as the above scenario, however. The
Kinect "Consumer Detector" could also prevent younger (or at least, shorter) eyeballs from being sullied by R-rated movies or, god forbid, porn.

<blockquote>
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.</blockquote>
Unfortunately, this will prevent pornstar midgets from viewing porn, but
please, let's think of the children, each of whom represents a
potential income stream.

The intro paragraph of the application lends itself to use for many
different royalty collecting entities. In addition to the mentioned Pay
Per View/Video-on-Demand possibilities, there's also performance rights
organizations to be considered, because once you start talking licenses,
they're never far behind.
<blockquote>
A method of distributing content to a user, comprising: providing a
selection of content available to the user; for each content, presenting
a licensing option comprising associating a performance of the content
with an individual user's consumption of the content at a display
device; receiving a selection of one of the content and a license
display option for said content; presenting the content to the display
device if a number of user performances allowed for the content is equal
to or less than the license option for which the selection is received;
and monitoring the presentation of the content at the device to
determine the number of users consuming the content during the
performance.</blockquote>
This description, along with the methods listed below it in the filing,
seem to indicate that your fully-paid and relatively peaceful viewing of
a movie or prize fight could come to an instant halt and ask you to
feed the meter any time someone new walks into the room. Or better yet,
the new system could push already-strained friendships to the limit.
"Oh, hey. I'd invite you in but I'm only got enough money for five
people. Sorry, man. Maybe next time." AWKWARD.

But beyond the fact that this patent, if granted and implemented, will
create a whole new level of rent-seeking across a wide swath of the
"creative industries," there's also privacy issues that need to be
addressed. Does any company, whether it's Microsoft or any of the
upstream content providers, have the right to basically scan your living
room for signs of life simply because they're the one licensing the
content? For that matter, is it any of their business how many people
you have watching a movie or listening to music in your private
residence? It certainly never has been before, but with the advent of
digital distribution (and its accompanying "licenses"), the attempts to
wring every last dollar out of every bit of content will continue.

Will "buying for five but watching for ten" become the new "piracy?"
Pursuing this angle isn't going to make Microsoft any friends, at least
not in terms of customers. Consumers' first reaction would probably be
to toss the "Consumer Detector," in which case it's not difficult to
imagine it becoming a mandatory piece of equipment for certain
applications. After that, for consumers concerned about this, their only
option would be to toss the Xbox. I don't think Microsoft has enough
confidence in the future of its console line to take that chance.

Or maybe it's got nothing to do with the console. Maybe it's some groundwork for the new "Cloud TV" service Microsoft inadvertently announced via a job posting.
<blockquote>
Microsoft is known for revealing additional product details in job
postings, but a new round of listings has unveiled a brand new TV
service. Described as a "Cloud-based TV platform," Microsoft is looking
to hire engineers to build client applications for the service. LiveSide
spotted several job postings related to Cloud TV recently that tempt
job candidates to "get in on the ground floor of an ambitious new
project."</blockquote>
Combining this with the above patent opens up the possibility that
Microsoft could be crafting the content delivery system that watches you
back, delivering headcounts to media companies and cutting off
customers who violate the license terms by exceeding the limits declared
by the copyright holder. At this point, the whole setup is full of
easily exploitable holes. The odds of this coming to market are
extremely low, if for no other reason than the potential backlash
against any company involved. But it's not impossible, either. There are
many rent-seekers in the content market and many of them have never
shied away from a new source of income just because it might be
unpopular. (At least, not at first. Many have walked back ideas due to
public outcry, but they rarely seem to discard bad ideas before trying
to implement them first.) Microsoft doesn't seem to share the same
enthusiasm for angering the public to make incremental gains, but its
design team has crafted a handy backdoor for a whole new level of IP
enforcement—one that will only widen the gap between what consumers feel
are acceptable limitations and what the content industries believe they
should be.


Source:-
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121105/21564420943/microsoft-patents-tv-that-watches-back-counts-heads-charges-admission.shtml