Sony owns a patent for an interactive industrial system that enables viewers to skip commercials by yelling the model title of the advertiser at their tv or monitor.
Yelling “McDonalds!” to finish a tv industrial for the fast-food restaurant is only one instance of many “interactive commercials” contained inside this patent.
On Jan. 9, 2023, a Twitter person tweeted that “Sony owns a patent that might drive viewers to exclaim the model title throughout commercials [in order] to finish them.” The tweet, which went viral, was accompanied by a “meme-worthy” patent illustration:
Snopes readers requested us if this was a real patent really owned by Sony and if its function is precisely described within the viral tweet. Briefly, the reply to each questions is sure.
Extra broadly, the patent — tracked down by TechRadar editor Lance Ulanoff — describes a “system for changing tv commercials into interactive networked video video games.” The verbal commercial-ender is only one of a number of promoting options outlined within the patent. The patent is, certainly, owned by Sony.
The viral picture comes from Determine 9 on this patent. The interpretation of the comedian matches the technical notes for this determine:
In [the] first seize of the sequence, a person is watching [a] film. Progress pointer in progress bar reveals that [the] content material show corresponds to a film and that [a] break is approaching.
On second seize, progress pointer reveals that the film has progressed to interrupt for putting the IC [Interactive Commercial]. IC is interactive and directions from the show ask the person to ‘Say “McDonalds” to finish [the] industrial.’
On third seize, the person is saying “McDonalds!” The shopper gadget features a microphone that captures the person’s phrases and voice recognition on the gadget [that] determines that the person has responded.
The system then proceeds to skip the remainder of the industrial, as proven on fourth seize, the place the person goes again to look at the film.
What is the level? The patent offers one instance of a motivation for each advertiser and viewer:
In a single embodiment, the person will get rewarded with some factors or a coupon from the sponsor [for shouting out the brand]. The rewards may be collected by the person in quite a lot of methods, comparable to receiving a coupon within the mail or through e-mail, getting a textual content message in a cell phone with the coupon, amassing factors towards amassing [prizes] in a site, and so forth.
This, it bears highlighting, just isn’t the one McDonald’s-based interactive industrial know-how described within the Sony patent. Determine 8 describes a state of affairs by which a viewer might “pace up” a industrial by “throwing a pickle” right into a burger:
Within the embodiment of FIG. 8, the directions are “Throw the pickle to hurry up industrial.” The person, which is holding a one-handed controller with movement detection, swings his arm to simulate the act of throwing a pickle. Consequently, the flying interactive pickle is positioned within the burger, and the industrial message “Make it your approach” is displayed briefly earlier than the industrial ends and the person returns to watching the streaming media.
As a result of this can be a real patent owned by Sony that describes a system for skipping commercials that entails yelling model names out loud, the declare is “True.”
Sources:
Lance Ulanoff. “Sony Patent Would Have You Yell at Your TV to Skip Commercials.” TechRadar, 11 Jan. 2023, https://www.techradar.com/information/sony-patent-would-have-you-yell-at-your-tv-to-skip-commercials.
Zalewski, Gary M. System for Changing Tv Commercials into Interactive Networked Video Video games. US8246454B2, 21 Aug. 2012, https://patents.google.com/patent/US8246454B2/en.