Loss of Privacy

Japanese researchers are testing new television set in which the TV will be able to watch you and detect future shows and advertisements that you might want to see.

TAN (user technology assisted navigation) TV viewing interface as it is called, has a camera mounted on the TV which photographs the viewer and estimates the viewer’s degrees of interest, concentration, etc from circumstances such as who is watching the TV with how much interest. The information is processed by a tablet PC and recommended information is shown to the viewer, it is possible to show individual interests as well in case there are multiple viewers.

The viewer’s interest is determined by observing his face, facial expression and motion.

Maybe in the near future television will have a front facing camera and actually identify individual viewers by their faces and serve advertisements and give recommendation accordingly.

Maybe in the near future I won’t have a telescreen at all.

According to y00h00180 from reddit, this photo is quickly disappearing online as no one wants to show it.  I think it’s a particularly powerful image and one that needs to be seen.

It’s important that we remember this.

The military says it wants to use the flying robot to monitor volcanoes and landslides as well as any other potential disaster area.

The cylindrical robot is about 20 inches across. It houses a high-speed propeller system for propulsion, while four small wings allow it to move up and down and in every direction. The drone is equipped with high-power cameras and GPS tracking. It can fly for about 30 minutes at a time.

This was also seen at SIGGRAPH 2009.