System would detect paused content on external devices and show ads on top.

A patent application from the company spotted by Lowpass describes a system for displaying ads over any device connected over HDMI, a list that could include cable boxes, game consoles, DVD or Blu-ray players, PCs, or even other video streaming devices. Roku filed for the patent in August 2023 and it was published in November 2023, though it hasn’t yet been granted.

The technology described would detect whether content was paused in multiple ways—if the video being displayed is static, if there’s no audio being played, if a pause symbol is shown anywhere on screen, or if (on a TV with HDMI-CEC enabled) a pause signal has been received from some passthrough remote control. The system would analyze the paused image and use metadata “to identify one or more objects” in the video frame, transmit that identification information to a network, and receive and display a “relevant ad” over top of whatever the paused content is.

  • tarius@lemmy.mlEnglish
    71·
    9 months ago

    Just a thought: What if I were to buy a TV with a port other than HDMI and use a converter from Roku device to that port? For example, hdmi to display port or whatever.

    • garretble@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      9 months ago

      Is there a consumer tv out there that has display port as an option?

      Monitors for sure, but I’m talking 70” OLEDs and whatnot.

    • brian@programming.devEnglish
      3·
      9 months ago

      that gets rid of cec but everything else would still work. you really just have to plug your other devices into the TV directly instead of into the roku. the problem will be the tvs with roku integrated directly