Advertising seems to be everywhere. A necessary evil, perhaps, as our free time is gradually monetised in an effort to make those delicious bucks, pounds and Australian dollary-doos, and companies expect to, shock horror, make some cash from their users. However, if you thought you were safe from overt advertising while watching an ad-free streaming service or playing a game, Roku has different ideas. The company has filed a patent that would allow its TVs to detect when you're paused while using an HDMI connected device, and show you a lovely targeted advert.
The patent details several different methods of potentially detecting a "pause event" through an HDMI connected device, including using an onboard processor to identify a silent audio signal in combination with identical video frames that suggests the user is currently in an idle state (via Lowpass). However the pause or idle state is detected, multiple methods suggest that an ad could be selected based on the content of the previous frame, thereby cueing in advertising that's directly relevant to the content the user was previously viewing.
