OK...call me crazy but...
Is Google getting a little carried away or is it just me (ok, it MAY be me)? Ever read the Google Research Blog (http://googleresearch.blogspot.com). It’s a blog that basically lets you keep up with the things that they’re working on. Just came across it and was scanning archives, and this one caught my eye:
http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2006/06/interactive-tv-conference-and-best.html
Now, you may be saying what’s the big deal with Interactive TV? Here’s the part that is a little scary:
We also presented our work at the conference. Our paper [pdf] (which received the best paper award :) focused on using broadcast viewing to automatically present relevant information on a web browser. We showed how to sample the ambient sound emitted from a TV and automatically determine what is being watched from a small signature of the sound -- all with complete privacy and minuscule effort. The system could keep up with users while they channel surf, presenting them with a real-time forum about a live political debate one minute and an ad-hoc chat room for a sporting event in the next. And, all of this would be done without users ever having to type or to even know the name of the program or channel being viewed. Taking this further, we could collect snippets from the web describing the actors appearing in a movie or present maps of locales within the movie as it takes place (no matter if users are watching it as a live broadcast or as a recoded broadcast).
Did you catch it? If not, read it again. “We showed how to sample ambient sound emitted from a TV and automatically determine what is being watched…”. Now how in the world did a company like Google demonstrate how to sample ambient sound from a TV? All with complete privacy? Again, how? Could it be they are figuring out ways to tap computer microphones to “listen” to the rooms noise? Have they figured out ways to eavesdrop for those of us who leave their computers on all the time? Are they also taping in to webcams? What’s the deal here? I haven’t read the pdf file yet but the fact that they “demonstrated” how to do this, hmmm. All with complete privacy? Complete privacy for who? Beware if your computer is in your bedroom…