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Roku patent invents a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV

arstechnica.com

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Re: Roku patent invents a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV

#9
Been theorizing something similar (but in reverse), the purpose being to mute the TV when ad breaks occur (I watched too much football (American) last season and the ads are just the worst). The system would be trained to recognize the bumpers, score graphics, and lack of announcer voices to enable mute, then reverse the same to unmute. Obviously this is all much easier said than done, but every time I see that "I got you a puppy and you got me a truck!" ad it gets fleshed out further.

Re: Roku patent invents a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV

#10
post #2

[flagged]

Patents are useful for warning people in advance that they should divest of the Roku platform.

Why? Presumably Roku will now be able to subsidize the cost of the TV hardware with ad revenue. The TVs should be cheaper. They might even start giving them away. A lot of people won't care about the ads and will like paying less for a TV. Those who don't, can buy another brand.
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