Watching What You Do While You Watch TV

Verizon recently filed a patent application that would target television ads using real time information collected by infrared cameras and microphones in you DVR. This is wild stuff - here's some examples of how this system would work right out of the filed document:

• if detection facility 104 determines that a user is exercising (e.g., running on a treadmill, doing aerobics, lifting weights, etc.), advertising facility 106 may select an advertisement associated with exercise in general, a specific exercise being performed by the user, and/or any other advertisement (e.g., an advertisement for health food) that may be intended for people who exercise. 

• if detection facility 104 detects that a user is playing with a dog, advertising facility 106 may select an advertisement associated with dogs (e.g., a dog food commercial, a flea treatment commercial, etc.). 

• if detection facility 104 detects one or more words spoken by a user (e.g., while talking to another user within the same room or on the telephone), advertising facility 106 may utilize the one or more words spoken by the user to search for and/or select an advertisement associated with the one or more words. 

• if detection facility 104 detects that a couple is arguing/fighting with each other, advertising facility 106 may select an advertisement associated marriage/relationship counseling. 

• if detection facility 104 detects a particular object (e.g., a Budweiser can) within a user's surroundings, advertising facility 106 may select an advertisement associated with the detected object (e.g., a Budweiser commercial). 

•  if detection facility 104 detects a mood of a user (e.g., that the user is stressed), advertising facility 106 may select an advertisement associated with the detected mood (e.g., a commercial for a stress-relief product such as aromatherapy candles, a vacation resort, etc.).

The image posted is also from the patent application and shows the detection zone. 

Pets, people, conversations, moods, beer cans?? I don't think this is something I'd want in my home.

Google TV Minisite Launches

Google has launched their Google TV minisite and it looks pretty slick - especially when you take a look at (and think about) the apps potential. Matt Burns has an excellent post over at CrunchGear on the launch. Here's a nice list of what he's found so far:

• Apps are going to be a key feature and will include Pandora, Chrome, Twitter, Amazon, Android Gallery, and “starting early next year,” apps from the Android Market.
• Major TV networks such as HBO, TNT, TBS, CNN will have some sort of swanky video portal. This could possible be the device’s killer function.
• Fling, play audio or video on your phone on Google TV “with the press of the button.”
• YouTube is properly formated for a larger screen. Possibly a version of Leanback.
• You’ll be able to browse the web — or use apps — while watching TV. Think picture-in-picture.
• Google TV doesn’t launch to live content, but rather a customizable homepage with shortcuts.
• Google Queue: A DVR for the web. Build a list of websites, video podcasts, YouTube videos and watch them later — okay….
• “Over-the-air updates” Really? As opposed to updates via the constant Internet connection?

Here's a short Apps for Google TV video.

Love the Google TV line Your smartphone has apps. Now your TV does too.

NBC's New Comedy - Community (College)

There's a new half-hour comedy about higher education...and lower expectations coming from Emmy Award-winning directors Joe and Anthony Russo to NBC this fall titled Community. The comedy is centered around the fictitious Greendale Community College. Here's an interesting quote from the NBC website describing the show:

It's been said that community college is a "halfway school" for losers, a self esteem workshop for newly divorced housewives, and a place where old people go to keep their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity. Well, at Greendale Community College...that's all true. Community focuses on a band of misfits, at the center of which is a fast-talkin' lawyer whose degree has been revoked (Joel McHale, The Soup). They form a study group and, in "Breakfast Club" fashion, end up learning a lot more about themselves than they do about their course work.

NBC is going all out with this show - they're even going to put together a Greendale Community College website that will introduce the show characters including: the student body, Dean Pelton, the faculty, etc. Here's a 4 minute promo you may find interesting.

What's the real story? Here's some current stats from the American Association of Community Colleges website (I've quoted these in the past).

Number and Type of Community Colleges: Total: 1,195 Public: 987 Independent: 177 Tribal: 31	Enrollment: Total: 11.5 million Enrolled full time: 41% Enrolled part time: 59%
Selected Demographics: Average age: 29 Women: 60% Men: 40% Minorities: 35% First generation to attend college: 39% Single parents: 17%	Percentages of Undergraduates: All U.S. undergraduates: 46% First-time freshmen: 41% Native American: 55% Asian/Pacific Islander: 46% Black: 46% Hispanic: 55%
Employment Status: Full-time students employed full time: 27% Full-time students employed part time: 50% Part-time students employed full time: 50% Part-time students employed part time: 33%

Sound familiar? Maybe your neighbor, your friend, your grandchild, maybe even you. Community colleges are wonderful, inexpensive places to get the first two years of a four year degree or learn a specific skilled technology.

I just don't get where this show is coming from. Is it tongue in cheek humor? We'll see and we'll see how long it lasts..... The series premieres Thursday, September 17th 9:30/8:30c.

Digital TV - Maybe Not Next Month?

I've been writing about the transition from analog to digital television, referred to as DTV, for the last year and a half or so. Here's a refresher.....

Way back in 2005 Congress decided to move to all digital over-air broadcasting to free up spectrum for public safety and make some money by auctioning off the space. Auctions for the spectrum held last year brought in $19.6 billion to the federal government. Congress allocated a little less than $2 billion to provide $40 coupons for digital to analog converter boxes and get the word out to consumers about the change - if you have an analog television and watch over the air your television will not work after February 17 without a converter box.

So far so good - better public safety, some money for the federal government, higher quality digital television and a coupon program for the converter boxes, all with good up front planning.......

Fast forward to last week - on Monday the organization handling the conversion, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said the program had no money left and a waiting list of 1.1 million converter box coupon requests. They also said approximately 13 million of the 41 million coupons mailed out to consumers had expired after 90 days.

Want more? Here's a quote from a piece in the Los Angeles Times:

In a letter Thursday to key members of Congress, John Podesta, co-chairman of Obama's presidential transition team, said the Feb. 17 conversion should be delayed, though he did not specify for how long. But with the incoming administration facing economic and foreign policy crises, it does not want to add a major problem with TV viewing in its first weeks in office.

Podesta cited troubles with the converter box coupon program as well as inadequate efforts to educate the public about the switch, and the need to help elderly, poor and rural Americans prepare for it.

"With coupons unavailable, support and education insufficient and the most vulnerable Americans exposed, I urge you to consider a change to the legislatively mandated analog cutoff date," Podesta wrote.

Podesta said the waiting list for coupons could climb to more than 5 million by early February.

Also..... Obama's economic stimulus package is rumored to include some money for the analog to digital transition.....

Will the February 17 deadline end up being extended? Right now it sure looks like it.

Digital TV: Goodbye Analog Snow, Hello Digital Losses

We don't have long to go until over-the-air analog television bites the dust, replaced with digital signaling on February 18. Watching televison the "old-fashioned" way (without cable) brings back fond memories of the aerial antenna on top of my parents house. I remember my Dad climbing up on the roof to move the antenna so we could watch Boston Bruins hockey games more clearly. It only took a few trips to the roof before we had one of those fancy motorized antennas with a controller on top of the set - no more roof climbing to redirect an antenna with one of those - just a twist of a dial......

Most of us have come a long way since those antenna days but there are still many in this country who watch television over-the-air. Realizing this, Congress did get out in front of the digital conversion a year and a half or so ago and starting offering $40 coupons (see www.dtv2009.gov ) consumers can use towards the purchase of a digital set top conversion box. Basically these boxes take the digital signal from the air and convert it to an analog signal that an analog TV can use.

Moving to digital has a lot of advantages including a 3:1 channel ratio - you'll have three digital channels for the equivalent of one single analog channel. It also frees up spectrum for new wireless communications services.

There are also some disadvantages though - most analog sets have 4:3 ratio screens while most digital programming is broadcast in wide screen format. This means analog set owners are going to see letterboxing - black bands at the top and bottom of screens. I think the biggest complaint though will be from those who live in areas where broadcast signals are weak.

Let's take a close look. Back when we were watching those Bruins hockey games we expected a snowy picture - if you're not sure what a snowy picture is - here's an 18 second analog transmission video I just shot:



A fuzzy/snowy picture with good audio - it's watchable and it is also listenable. Analog signals fade gracefully (as someone much smarter that me once said whose name I cannot remember). As signals get weaker the picture snows up but is still watchable. The audio is commonly good with weak audio signals - in fact you typically lose the picture before you lose the audio.

Digital transmissions are another story. Weaker signals will cause the picture to randomly lose pixels along with random pieces of audio. Here's a 20 second digital transmission video I just shot showing pixel and audio loss.



Pixel lose is scattered and occurs throughout the video and, if you missed it, audio is momentarily lost at around 5 seconds. Annoying and just about impossible for me to watch for more than a few minutes..... I'm changing the channel!

Over the air digital television is being pitched by many as a go-no-go service, with people saying you will either get the channel or you won't. From what I've seen this is not the case - there is an in between that is not very pleasant - those digital signals do not fade gracefully!

10 Random Thoughts On 12-17-08

There's a Springfield, MA newspaper sports reporter by the name of Gary Brown who writes a weekly column titled "Hitting To All Fields". In the column he lists his random thoughts for the past week. I've always enjoyed Gary's writing and they say imitation is the best form of flattery..... If this format works - it may become a regular Wednesday thing for me:

Wondering who Obama will select as Kevin Martin's FCC chair replacement.

WHAT.... no Steve Jobs at MacWorld 2009 ?

And double WHAT.... no more Apple at MacWorld after 2009 ?

Wondering how those Walmart iPhones will sell.

Some are saying (myself included) broadband access is a human right. Others disagree.

Been hearing the term "social shopping" used this holiday season as if it is something new. Isn't it what we've always referred to as "word of mouth"?

Can the Patriots pull the playoffs off in the next couple of weeks?

It's been a disgusting political and financial week in our country - the rest of the world must be laughing pretty hard at us.

The Feb 18 Analog to Digital Mandated TV Conversion is looking like it might get messy for people who are still watching over-the-air. I'll be writing more on this soon.

Early this morning my blog passed the 100,000 visitor mark for 2008!!!

Happy Holidays and thanks for reading!

Alloy Media 2008 College Student Study

Alloy Media just published their 8th annual College Explorer study with some interesting results. The study was conducted online for Alloy within the United States by Harris Interactive. This September 13.6 million college students (ages 18-30) are predicted to arrive on campuses and bring $237 billion in spending (a 20% increase from last year) with them. Here's some detail on some of the mobility gadgets students will be bringing back to school with them next month:

7 in 10 students now own a laptop (a 67% increase in three years), with desktop ownership dropping 34% over the last three years.

Ownership of MP3 players has increased, with 67% of students now owning one and using it for more than just music. 23% are now watching downloadable videos on the “small” screen.

The cell phone, once a utility for getting in touch with friends and family, is now favored by a growing number of students who use it as their all-in-one device for communication, entertainment and web access.

The way television is viewed on campus is changing too:

62% of students report watching TV online.

26% are choosing to visit the various major networks websites 34% are opting for YouTube.

Others emerging platforms on campuses include Veoh, Hulu, and Joost.

I also found the politics portion of the study interesting:

90% are planning to cast their presidential vote in November. 43% state that they’re “Pro-Obama.”

Candidates’ presence on social networking sites became just as vital as a campus town hall with 88% of students (up from 73% just last year) reporting engagement with social media, including visiting social networking websites, video websites like YouTube, and blogs.

Also with regards to social networking - 81% of students have created a social networking profile - popular activities reported include posting web applications, with 39% doing so, and almost one-third posting videos.

You can read more about the study here.

Fiber Deployment Status in the U.S.

The FTTH Council has released an interesting report detailing broadband and fiber to the home deployment in the U.S. Here's some key information points from the report:

Current Status of U.S. Internet Use:

22% No Internet
17% Dial-up Only
61% Broadband (based on the 200 Kbps FCC broadband definition)

Fiber to the Home is being used for services such as television, Internet, telephone, security, and meter reading. Here's March 2008 U.S. data from the report:

11,763,000 FTTH Homes Passed
10,082,065 FTTH Homes Marketed
2,912,500 Homes Connected

Even though coverage is expanding, it is not evenly distributed:

In the U.S. in areas covered by Verizon or Tier 3 ILECS (representing about 1/3 of homes) 5.8% of homes are directly connected with fiber.
In the U.S. in areas covered by AT&T, Qwest or Tier 2 ILECS (representing about 2/3 of homes) 0.6% of homes are directly connected with fiber.
In North America Outside of the U.S., only 0.1% of homes are connected with fiber.

Regarding television (March 2008 data):

8,061,620 homes have been offered television over fiber 1,641,000 homes are currently subscribed to television over fiber

Higher speed data service have yet to be offered widely by providers (March 2008 data):

Only 17,021 homes offered 100Mbps Internet

The FTTH Council has been a strong advocate for 100 Mbps services, urging legislators and regulators to adopt a “100 Megabit Nation” policy and reduce barriers to next-generation broadband deployment.

The overall customer take rates are increasing in areas where FTTH services are being offered and providers are offering a variety of delivery technologies.

The biggest concern of some, including myself, is uneven distribution and the potential creation of a "broadband divide" with broadband "haves" and "have nots" in the U.S.

There is an excellent 32 page presentation from the FTTH Council titled North American FTTH/FTTP Deployment Status in PDF format linked here.

Verizon FiOS Progress Update

Following my post a couple days ago on AT&T's Project Lightspeed progress update, let's take a look at what Verizon is doing with FiOS. FiOS is Verizon's Fiber to the Home (FTTH), also know as Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) product offerring. The service provides high-bandwdtih data, voice and video services. The company has posted some interesting data on their policy blog for the third quarter of 2007. Here's a summary:

Fiber Implementation: http://www.verizon.com/fiberoptics

FiOS is currently available in parts of 16 states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

At the end of September 2007, Verizon had passed about 8.5 million homes and businesses – installing more than 457 million feet of fiber in parts of 16 states.

Verizon expects to continue passing some 3 million premises annually through 2010,

when the company expects to have passed about 18 million homes, or over half the homes

it serves.

Verizon will begin boosting speeds and capabilities on its all-fiber network when it begins

deploying advanced G-PON electronics in 2007. This technology can increase

downstream broadband speeds by up to four times, and upstream speeds by eight times.

Verizon is investing nearly $23 billion in the FiOS project, between 2004 and 2010.

Broadband Products: http://www22.verizon.com/Content/ConsumerFiOS/

At the end of September 2007, Verizon was marketing its industry-leading, high-speed FiOS Internet service – with downstream speeds of up to 50 Mbps and upstream speeds of up to 20 Mbps – in over 2,000 communities in all 16 states where the company is building its fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network.

As of September 30, 2007, Verizon has more than 1.3 million FiOS Internet customers, an

increase of 202,000 during the third quarter of 2007 – or about 3,600 new FiOS Internet

customers every business day.

Verizon expects to attract up to 7 million FiOS Internet customers by year-end 2010 – a

penetration rate of 35 percent to 40 percent.

Video: http://www.verizonfios.com/tv

At the end of September 2007, Verizon’s all-digital FiOS TV service was available to over

4.7 million premises in 12 of the states where the company is building FTTP: California,

Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia.

As of September 30, 2007, Verizon has over 717,000 FiOS TV customers. During just the

third quarter of 2007, Verizon added a net of 202,000 new FiOS TV customers -- or about

3,200 new customers every business day.

Verizon's FiOS TV delivers hundreds of digital video and music channels, high-definition

programming, video-on-demand content, a robust interactive media guide and other

customer-friendly features.

Verizon expects to attract from 3 million to 4 million FiOS TV customers by 2010, which

would be a market penetration of 20 percent to 25 percent.

As of September 2007, Verizon had 862 local video franchises covering about 11.2 million households.

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Analog Televisions Still For Sale

I've written in the past about the FCC digital television mandate set for February 18, 2009. As part of the mandate, the FCC set some preliminary rules that appear to have been broken by some major retailers.

According to the FCC rules - as of May 25, 2007 - retailers that were selling televisions without built in digital tuners had to be clearly marked as such either on the set itself or in close proximity. The warning is required to say that the television will not be able to receive over-air broadcasts after February 18, 2009 unless a separate set top digital-to-analog converter box is used. Warnings were given out to several retailers back in June and this past week several fines were issued to some very larger U.S. retailers.

At this time I would not buy a TV without a built in digital tuner.