Via Broadband Reports comes this link to tech blogger Chris Albrecht’s interview with Comcast Senior VP Gerard Kunkel, wherein Kunkel says that Comcast is experimenting with putting cameras in their set-top boxes and using some sort of software to recognize specific individuals (though he specifically disclaims using facial recognition software) to “tailor” the viewing experience to whomever is in the room (in other words, make sure that the ads that are shown are customized to your purchasing history).
Everyone who thinks this is a GOOD idea, raise your hands……thought so.
This isn’t the first time the idea of using set-top boxes as detection devices has come around, by the way. Years ago, A.C. Nielsen and Arbitron, the two biggest television ratings services, worked very hard to develop a system that would detect when people were in the room and also try to match their physical profiles to their identities. The idea was that the traditional written diary system of recording who was watching what was quite easily cheated by people who would either forget to note what they watched and try to fill out the diaries later on or would deliberately misrepresent what they were watching to make themselves “look better”. If there was a set-top box that could tell when people entered and left the room and made an instant note of what/when/how long they watched, it would be more accurate. The idea was a little ahead of the technology in the 1980s, and in one case it was discovered that every time one family’s dog sat on the couch it set off the meter.
