Smart TVs Know When You Look Away
from the energy-saving dept
There's been a lot of talk these days about how the big flat-screen TVs that have become quite popular are also energy hogs (or, as some say, "the SUVs of the TV world"). One interesting concept to deal with this is to use facial recognition software to fade out the picture when the viewer is not watching. So, if you just have the TV on in the background, it doesn't suck up all that energy on the picture, but (in theory) the second you look up at the screen, the picture comes back. Of course, in the past, when we've talked about experiments to put cameras or monitoring equipment into TVs, it tends to freak people out a bit, and you could easily see the same technology being used for monitoring purposes. Still, it is a creative idea, if it actually works.
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Filed Under: energy, television
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even though they are still energy Hogs I think the LED TVs are "greener" than the LCDs so its one step in the right direction
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It may only be the viewing angle :p
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"I just invent the bomb, I don't drop it"
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Really, for the good of the earth?
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Re: Really, for the good of the earth?
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Re: Re: Really, for the good of the earth?
Yeah, it would probably just be easier to put a cell phone transmitter into the TV.
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@Japanese TV: you can have this gameshow concept for free
I can imagine TV viewers gurning clownishly at the screen, to reactivate it, because it has just gone blank at a crucial moment.
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It will be used to force ads on people
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Re: It will be used to force ads on people
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Re: Re: It will be used to force ads on people
Yes, they will be dumb enough. That's how they work. They are not interested in maximizing revenue or profits, let alone any cultural value or enhancement of the free market. They are interested only in maximizing control.
They WILL do everything they can to gain every bit of control that can be engineered and codified, and this will be no exception. The only question is how soon will they start on this one. Perhaps it will take no longer than it did for them to go from the Broadcast Flag to Selectable Output Control.
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I don't see how you could have a facial recognition program with current technology that could tell the difference between my face at that distance and a photo or poster closer to the TV that included a person's face.
And that's without even getting into the issues of what would happen when someone is watching TV with the lights switched off. Are they going to put IR lamps around the camera and try to pick faces at the lower frequency?
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Wait a second...
For the record, TVs have always been power hungry despite all attempts at making them "greener".
I don't need a TV telling me I'm not watching it. That's just too interactive for my tastes.
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Re: Wait a second...
Whereas, when I'm not watching mine it's because I'm using it to play a radio channel. If there was a separate off-switch for the picture I would use it, but failing that, this is a reasonable compromise so long as it doesn't kill the sound.
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Re: Re: Wait a second...
I'm assuming you are talking about digital music channels provided by your cable/satellite/etc company.
In that case, why not hook up an audio output to your stereo, and you won't have to wear out your TVs display?
My cable box has several outputs on the back, or you could always just split the audio cables.
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Imagine whats next...
It would be impossible to control, advertising companies would get their hands on it
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Monitor this
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Why not have a low-power setting
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Be Right With You Let Me Just
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Re Stupidity Slapper
...yet.
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For now...
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Advertising
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Let's be practical here
It would have to be opt-in, so you have to turn it on in order to use it and be able to freely toggle the feature whenever you want. Also, infared light means that it won't bother the human eye, since we don't have any cells in the eye that are capable of sensing that type of light. The only privacy concern with such a setup is the potential to transmit how many people (actually pets too, since this would have the same effect on them) are watching at a given time.
Though to be honest I think that TVs and displays in general will cover the energy efficiency gap before a majority of people buy into this particular technology.
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What about people who aren't sitting directly in front of the screen? (of course the LCD folks are working hard to ensure that this is no longer possible...)
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