5 ms·

Considering how technology develops, I could very well see a future where we are forced to watch/acknowledge ads before the actual content continues. I think t

Considering how technology develops, I could very well see a future where we are forced to watch/acknowledge ads before the actual content continues. I think there was a movie with something like that, if the guy closed his eyes, the ad would pause and wait until he looked again. I hope I am too cynical...

Un1corn 5y ago
It was in Black Mirror. IIRC he was surrounded with screens in his room and was forced to watch ads
robert_dipaolo 5y ago
There was a Black Mirror episode 15 Million Merits [1] where you either had to watch the ads (actually look at the screen) or pay to skip them! 1 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Million_Merits https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Million_Merits
albert_e 5y ago
under-screen selfie cameras on phones will eventually take us there put 4 or 6 cameras and analyze your gaze to figure out what part of screen you are paying attention to and if your pupils dilate when you see a product/model picture I wonder if some UI and navigation can become interactive based on gaze too obviously it will be ruined just like pop-ups and modals
danuker 5y ago
If that happens, I'll stop watching said content.
- ghaff 5y ago
  People seem to forget that if you make watching content too painful, opting out is always an option.
freeflight 5y ago
> I could very well see a future where we are forced to watch/acknowledge ads before the actual content continues. I wonder if skipping YouTube ads is already used in a similar way? Pressing that small "skip" button is a user interaction that acknowledges the users attention to the ad, and there is usually a minimum time the ad has to run before it can even be triggered. So having an ad run for 5-10 seconds, with a manual skip, might possibly be a more impactful "impression" then the ads just running trough, without a skip, as most likely nobody is paying attention to them in the very first place.
- dec0dedab0de 5y ago
  I have suspected this for a while now. It's also a chance to advertise subliminally to sleeping people, sometimes if you don't skip the ad it will play what we used to call an infomercial. In practice it just punishes people that lost the remote, or are unable to easily move.
grishka 5y ago
People will then find a way to hack it. You can't enforce this kind of thing on a general-purpose device like a computer or a phone. Remember: on general-purpose devices, all code is mutable.
- perryizgr8 5y ago
  > general-purpose device like a computer or a phone. Most smartphones sold today wouldn't qualify as a general purpose computer.
  - grishka 5y ago
    Android ones would. Even without root, you're able to use apps like Termux, AIDE, and various emulators.
    - DarylZero 5y ago
      Termux has whatever permissions Android gives it. No direct access to audio, video, etc.
      - grishka 5y ago
        What do you mean by direct access? You'll need to build a separate app to access these things because they are only accessible via APIs that are only exposed in the java land. But you can build an Android app right on your Android phone. AIDE allows you to do just that, and I believe you can install the raw SDK in Termux and use it as well. In other words, you can use an Android phone on its own, unmodified, to program it to do arbitrary things. Yes it's awkward and yes you have to jump through some hoops to get it set up. Nevertheless, this fits my definition of a general-purpose computing device. You could technically do the same on iOS. The only problem here is that Apple would never approve an app that gives a user this much control over their own device. It's not a technical issue, but rather an organizational one.
        DarylZero 5y ago
tempodox 5y ago
> I hope I am too cynical... Nope, this will definitely come to pass. As long as there's munition left to be fired, or new one invented, the arms race will continue.
swalls 5y ago
Good news, Sony already patented it. [0] [0] https://fortune.com/2013/04/30/sony-patent-is-hilarious-terrifying/ https://fortune.com/2013/04/30/sony-patent-is-hilarious-terr...
- alexb_ 5y ago
  Everyone always brings this patent up while forgetting that large companies will literally patent every single idea that comes up just in case. Doesn't mean it's ever going to actually happen. See also: Amazon's Wage Cage (though, looking at Amazon, they might actually do that one)
Macha 5y ago
We've got anti-AdBlock tech, mandatory tracking consent for site usage, and even mobile games with mandatory ads that don't progress if the device volume is too low. Many people on HN would even support the first two. I think the lack of existence of this tech is not due to ethics concerns, but due to it being noticeable in the TV return window, rather than patched in years later like many smart TV's most obnoxious ad slots.
izzydata 5y ago
I'd never watch digital content ever again. I would only ever read books from that point forward.

Un1corn 5y ago

It was in Black Mirror. IIRC he was surrounded with screens in his room and was forced to watch ads

robert_dipaolo 5y ago

There was a Black Mirror episode 15 Million Merits [1] where you either had to watch the ads (actually look at the screen) or pay to skip them! 1 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Million_Merits https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Million_Merits

albert_e 5y ago

under-screen selfie cameras on phones will eventually take us there put 4 or 6 cameras and analyze your gaze to figure out what part of screen you are paying attention to and if your pupils dilate when you see a product/model picture I wonder if some UI and navigation can become interactive based on gaze too obviously it will be ruined just like pop-ups and modals

danuker 5y ago

If that happens, I'll stop watching said content.

ghaff 5y ago
People seem to forget that if you make watching content too painful, opting out is always an option.

freeflight 5y ago

> I could very well see a future where we are forced to watch/acknowledge ads before the actual content continues. I wonder if skipping YouTube ads is already used in a similar way? Pressing that small "skip" button is a user interaction that acknowledges the users attention to the ad, and there is usually a minimum time the ad has to run before it can even be triggered. So having an ad run for 5-10 seconds, with a manual skip, might possibly be a more impactful "impression" then the ads just running trough, without a skip, as most likely nobody is paying attention to them in the very first place.

dec0dedab0de 5y ago
I have suspected this for a while now. It's also a chance to advertise subliminally to sleeping people, sometimes if you don't skip the ad it will play what we used to call an infomercial. In practice it just punishes people that lost the remote, or are unable to easily move.

grishka 5y ago

People will then find a way to hack it. You can't enforce this kind of thing on a general-purpose device like a computer or a phone. Remember: on general-purpose devices, all code is mutable.

perryizgr8 5y ago
> general-purpose device like a computer or a phone. Most smartphones sold today wouldn't qualify as a general purpose computer.
- grishka 5y ago
  Android ones would. Even without root, you're able to use apps like Termux, AIDE, and various emulators.
  - DarylZero 5y ago
    Termux has whatever permissions Android gives it. No direct access to audio, video, etc.
    - grishka 5y ago
      What do you mean by direct access? You'll need to build a separate app to access these things because they are only accessible via APIs that are only exposed in the java land. But you can build an Android app right on your Android phone. AIDE allows you to do just that, and I believe you can install the raw SDK in Termux and use it as well. In other words, you can use an Android phone on its own, unmodified, to program it to do arbitrary things. Yes it's awkward and yes you have to jump through some hoops to get it set up. Nevertheless, this fits my definition of a general-purpose computing device. You could technically do the same on iOS. The only problem here is that Apple would never approve an app that gives a user this much control over their own device. It's not a technical issue, but rather an organizational one.
      - DarylZero 5y ago

tempodox 5y ago

> I hope I am too cynical... Nope, this will definitely come to pass. As long as there's munition left to be fired, or new one invented, the arms race will continue.

swalls 5y ago

Good news, Sony already patented it. [0] [0] https://fortune.com/2013/04/30/sony-patent-is-hilarious-terrifying/ https://fortune.com/2013/04/30/sony-patent-is-hilarious-terr...

alexb_ 5y ago
Everyone always brings this patent up while forgetting that large companies will literally patent every single idea that comes up just in case. Doesn't mean it's ever going to actually happen. See also: Amazon's Wage Cage (though, looking at Amazon, they might actually do that one)

Macha 5y ago

We've got anti-AdBlock tech, mandatory tracking consent for site usage, and even mobile games with mandatory ads that don't progress if the device volume is too low. Many people on HN would even support the first two. I think the lack of existence of this tech is not due to ethics concerns, but due to it being noticeable in the TV return window, rather than patched in years later like many smart TV's most obnoxious ad slots.

izzydata 5y ago

I'd never watch digital content ever again. I would only ever read books from that point forward.