Apple granted patent for ad skipper

[CK SatGuy]

LOS ANGELES - Another front has opened in the attack on commercials.

Apple received a patent Tuesday for technology that would allow users to switch seamlessly to their own audio or video files once ads started playing on their TV or radio.

Unlike Dish Network’s Auto Hop feature that allows users to bypass ads, with the Apple device, a user’s iTunes library would kick in and play music, video or a podcast.
As for Apple’s plan, according to the patent approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: “When an electronic device determines that an upcoming media item in a media broadcast is not of interest to a user, the electronic device can switch playback from the media stream to a media item from the electronic device local library,” the patent said.

Read more: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/Business/2012/08/22/20127596.html

 

[rjruby]

Doesn't really skip the ad but substitutes it.

Maybe they'll insert an Apple ad as it's playing your iTunes library

 

[John Kotches]

They got a patent for the equivalent of changing the channel?

I hope there's more to this patent than this.

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Foxbat]

They got a patent for the equivalent of changing the channel?

I hope there's more to this patent than this.

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

It's one thing to say, "I don't want to watch this ad; I'm changing the channel" to documenting a method of analyzing the audio and video levels to determine that an ad has started and take an action such as substituting your own media instead. Easy for people, hard for hardware.

I wonder how the patent determines when the ad is over?

 

[Tampa8]

As many of us said with the Hoppah, the cat is out of the bag.

 

[dangue]

I'm thinking broadcasters will hate this even more than auto skip. Sounds like apple can insert its own ads if it so chooses.

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[Hall]

I think it's interesting how they phrased it with "when ... an upcoming media item in a media broadcast is not of interest to a user".