RSSKeystream tech puts TV ads in 'empty' spaces of moving images
By Angela Gunn | Published October 1, 2008, 5:37 PM
Technology from a California company could insert interactive ads and other content into the clear blue sky, or right field, or any other area on your TV or movie screens where the action isn't.
The technology, in the works since 2003 at privately held Keystream, analyzes video on the fly, detects where moving objects are going, and places its overlays somewhere unobtrusive -- for instance, upfield as a running back heads downfield. An overlay might be a simple logo, or it could be an interactive element, such as an offer to buy that running back's team jersey.
Early media reports that Britain's ITV commercial service is testing Keystream's "automatically placed overlay advertising" met with consternation from online commenters, some claiming they'd never watch television again if the rollout went more broadly than current tests on the ITV Local Web site. In the US, USswitch.com and Freesat are both experimenting with using the technology to place company logos in the background of ads on the site.
Like the "seam carving" functionality unveiledin Adobe's CS4 last week, Keystream's object-tracking technology focuses on spaces where the action is not. But Schuyler Cullen, the CEO of Keystream, says that behind the scenes the two products are operating rather differently -- Adobe doing statistical analysis to determine flat areas and sharp edges, Keystream calculating change and motion. Having just emerged from stealth mode in August, Keystream holds a number of patents on the algorithms involved.
Cullen says that some type of video are more likely candidates for overlay than others; news and sports, for instance, might find uses for the tech before high-production-value works such as feature films. Still, says the Stanford Ph.D, "we're not going to put ourselves in the position of saying what this goes with," leaving those decisions up to publishers and advertisers.
As for the viewer experience, one of Keystream's board members is also CEO of DiMAS Group and director of its AdLab program. Cullen says that in his company's own testing, as long as the content was injected in such a way that it didn't interfere with the main action, focus groups were fine with it.
The firm is talking to a number of American companies, Cullen told BetaNews, and that future developments should make the insertions more seamless and more interactive. Future developments should also increase the competition; both Microsoft and Google are leading the rush for new video-monetization technologies, of which this is most certainly one.
You can add me to the growing list of people who will absolutely STOP watching Television if this technology comes to pass.
When it makes it's ways onto the big screen I will stop going to the movies. I am allready upset that I pay a premium for a ticket to get in the theater and then have to sit through commercials at the beginning of the movie.
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|Angela, you think that only a "handful" of people will stop watching tv, I don't agree. Almost ALL of the people I talk to have drastically cut their tv viewing over the past 7 years specifically because of the "bugs", "crawls" and "popup ads" that infest all the programming these days. My viewing has dropped 90% for this reason. I am an early adopter when it comes to technology, yet I have not gone HD or widescreen, and I'm not planning to. The reason: there is no longer any enjoyment out of television because of the constant interruptions. I don't want to see little animated cartoons dancing around on top of the program I am TRYING to watch. It is extremely annoying. We are already talking about canceling our Tivo and satellite services, this would be the nail in the coffin. I would NEVER watch tv again if this happened, and I will likely never watch again anyway. It seems the broadcasters are desperately looking for ways to alienate their viewers. I just don't get it. Oh, and for the record, I have not seen a tv commercial since 1998 (the classic kind I mean). We are paying over $60 a month for service that is basically unwatchable garbage.
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|I don't wish to see this trashy invention being used on my TV screen, in the UK we suffer enough already from on screen interference during our programmes, this will just finish me with any channel that carries advertising. I see the BBC making massive inroads into viewing figures as many people will feel as I do.
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|Probably worth pointing out that "Britain's ITV commercial service" is on it's last legs, and that the UK regulations would not allow such technology to be used.
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|Less bloody advertising thank you!
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|They should use this for Closed Captioning.. which always seems to get in the way of something important.
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|Darkfire, that's an interesting idea; I actually rely quite a bit on closed captioning and I'm finding a lot of conflict between that text and the "speed bumps" (the ads you see for other shows in the middle of *your* show, along the bottom of the screen). The hopping from spot to spot onscreen, though -- that would be deeply unpleasant.
I dread seeing something like this spread to, say, film broadcasts -- I can see it now, I'm watching Return Of The King, we get a load of Sauron, and some joker sticks a Visine ad off to the side -- but after realizing how much I now rely on the bright-yellow first down lines for football, I'm open to seeing clever deployment of tech like this in sports and the like.
This was an interesting piece to report; I talked to show-business folk who were very strongly reminded of that horrible film-colorization technology Ted Turner put us through a while back. But hearing what Keystream has in mind, I see it now as something like skywriting or the Goodyear blimp -- a distraction under some circumstances (you don't want any stuff like that the background of your wedding photos, or of Citizen Kane), but harmless and even a little fun in its place.
The folks who say they'll Never Watch TV Again, though -- I'm more likely to believe that Citizen Kane himself sent the skywriters overhead than I am to believe more than a handful of the folks who say they'll kick the habit. I keep swearing off Pringles, and yet I can guarantee you that sooner or later I will get a craving at the grocery store and end up with a can of the silly things...
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|RE-TAR-DED
Enough Said.
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|So as if breaking up shows to have commercials wasn't bad enough, now we will have to see them throughout the entire time were trying to watch tv.
I'll just watch less than I do already and spend even more time on the computer, which is 80% of the time there, and 20% tv show viewing.
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