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Netflix socks detect when you've dozed off and pause your TV show

makeit.netflix.com

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Re: Netflix socks detect when you've dozed off and pause your TV show

#41
post #31
post #22

Most of the people I know who watch Netflix at night want it to keep playing after they fall asleep.

I'm one of those people. Falling asleep on the couch under a big blanket, and waking up every hour or so to catch a few seconds of some Star Trek TNG is a pretty profound sort of comfort for me. It reminds me of watching old James Bond marathons with my dad when I was a little kid, and falling asleep during them.

I think you may have sleep apnea.

Re: Netflix socks detect when you've dozed off and pause your TV show

#42
I RTFA, I know this an arduino-based DIY hobby project. But if something like this ever comes out for real, the ability to doze off and pause your TV show will be a trojan horse...

You've seen those charts where people use their smart watch to record their heart rate during the game of thrones finale? (No? Here you go: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/08/13/what-game-of-thrones-... )

Sure, downloading the Netflix pause-your-stream-when-you-fall-asleep app is comfortable, but it also provides a treasure trove of audience response data. Forget focus groups, now you have the real-time emotional response of many thousands of people A/B testing your original content in real environments.

And this ain't old-media Nielson, this is biggest-user-of-AWS technology-first Netflix.

Re: Netflix socks detect when you've dozed off and pause your TV show

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What interests me is how inconsistent it is. For example, I can go a whole afternoon some days without it auto-pausing, while others as you said, you can go two episodes and it will pause on you. I suspect Netflix tracks window focus via JavaScript at minimal, and maybe other metrics too to try and guesstimate user idle-ness. Interestingly when I am in a full screen game (and Netflix on another screen) it "never" pau…

My theory (based on 0 facts) is that they will ask you if you're still streaming on shows that experience a high load and want to save the servers streaming that particular episode.

As someone who works for a CDN who does streaming, I don't think this is the case. Popular videos would be streamed from multiple servers, and it is actually easier to stream the same video to lots of users vs a lot of videos to only a few users each.

Re: Netflix socks detect when you've dozed off and pause your TV show

#44
post #34

What about socks for truck drivers to detect if they are dozing? Have them set off a phone alarm, etc. Better yet, can FitBit, etc. detect dozing and use the vibrating alarm to alert?

Too useful. The innovation drivers are now purely concerned with the consumption of media.

Re: Netflix socks detect when you've dozed off and pause your TV show

#45
post #8

I'm mostly sad that Netflix detects nothing and pauses my show anyway after a couple episodes. : (

That really only became possible when they decided to auto-play new episodes, which is a bad feature in general. There are quite a few shows with really nice music videos in their ending credits. Shrinking the video to the size of a postage stamp and kicking me into a new episode is a rather annoying.

They also have a terrible habit of skipping the opening credits. The credits are often funny or beautiful. Every time I watch Futurama, I need to start the show and then rewind back to the beginning to see the opening joke. It's like VHS all over again.

Opps. I'm ranting. You know, I never noticed how much the interface annoyed me until I stopped to think about it.

Re: Netflix socks detect when you've dozed off and pause your TV show

#46
post #8

I'm mostly sad that Netflix detects nothing and pauses my show anyway after a couple episodes. : (

What interests me is how inconsistent it is. For example, I can go a whole afternoon some days without it auto-pausing, while others as you said, you can go two episodes and it will pause on you. I suspect Netflix tracks window focus via JavaScript at minimal, and maybe other metrics too to try and guesstimate user idle-ness. Interestingly when I am in a full screen game (and Netflix on another screen) it "never" pau…

Perhaps they don't want Netflix to be used for public screens (laundry, hairdresser) and randomization is necessary to check for the presence of a human.

Re: Netflix socks detect when you've dozed off and pause your TV show

#47
post #34

What about socks for truck drivers to detect if they are dozing? Have them set off a phone alarm, etc. Better yet, can FitBit, etc. detect dozing and use the vibrating alarm to alert?

If it doesn't have a market of 100 million people or more, it's not worth doing. /s

Re: Netflix socks detect when you've dozed off and pause your TV show

#48
post #8

I'm mostly sad that Netflix detects nothing and pauses my show anyway after a couple episodes. : (

That really only became possible when they decided to auto-play new episodes, which is a bad feature in general. There are quite a few shows with really nice music videos in their ending credits. Shrinking the video to the size of a postage stamp and kicking me into a new episode is a rather annoying. They also have a terrible habit of skipping the opening credits. The credits are often funny or beautiful. Every time…

Auto-whatever interfaces in general need to hit an incredibly high "success" rate in terms of doing what the user wants to avoid feeling frustrating. I don't remember the study, but the number was in the high 90s, percent wise.

Re: Netflix socks detect when you've dozed off and pause your TV show

#49
post #20
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the hardest part would be making sure it isn't a fire hazard. That being said I don't like my feet being warm while I sleep, so this project misses for me by being a sock. So close.

I'm sure the same benefit could be gained through a leg band. For me, I tend to move around in my sleep, so I wonder if it would work.

Pretty much no one moves around during deep enough sleep, it is just when your sleep cycle lightens up that you move around in your sleep. The same tech still works, it just might not be able to detect all the stages of your sleep as effectively.
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