Lucent's snooze-catcher for DVRs
By Marc Perton 
posted Jan 12th 2006 1:33AM
posted Jan 12th 2006 1:33AM
Finally, there's a solution for people who pass out on the couch while watching TV. No, the answer isn't to get more sleep, or to just turn the darn set off when you're too tired to watch any more. Engineers at Lucent have filed a patent application for a device that "may comprise an electronic camera for forming images of the viewer, and pattern recognition means connected to the electronic camera to monitor the physical condition of the viewer." That's right; while you're watching TV, the TV will watch you right back. Connect this to a DVR, and when you nod off, it'll automatically pause the show, and then start it back up again when you wake up. Of course, this won't be of much use if you actually use the TV as a soporific agent; maybe they can include an option to shut the camera off if you're watching, say, C-SPAN or the Olympic curling trials.
wow first comment....
this is one of the wierdest thing in the world... does it work on MMC?
Um.... since when was the concept of a TV being able to watch us a good thing? Need I defer to Orwell?
This may not be the greatest thing for people with CRT-based televisions running their contrast at 100. Can you say "burn in?"
haha, big brother can probably allready see what your doing right now. from space. through the structure around you. technology watching us in only good for the consumer :-D
I thought Rube Goldberg was dead.
Just imagine the temporal disconnect you'd feel after passing out for a couple of hours, only to wake and still be watching the same program. In fact, you might not even have noticed that you had slept at all... Except upon finding that you've missed work... yet again!
Down with time!
My god... It's actually appropriate.
"In Soviet Russia, TV watches you!"
This is the first time I see someone use yakov smirnoff's comedy appropriately. kudos!
Way to take the low-road and bash curling. What's so boring about competition shuffleboard-on-ice-with-brooms?
I think this was designed for people with the Narcolepsy condition.
I'll have you know I watched the Canadian curling trials and the final was darned exciting! Don't knock something just because you've heard it's dull.
I wonder if this could be used in cars to keep people from falling asleep driving - the system could blast the radio or something... Probably not sophisticated enough yet, but cool possibility.
Liz is right! I love watching curling on TV.
Mark (#3), MCE is smart enough to let the screensaver setting kick-in if you pause the show.
Hmm, this wouldn't work in my house. I often fall asleep with one eye open, and my brother's eyes never completely close when he's asleep.
Strange, but true.
The question is, in Figures 4 and 5, what is #20 referencing. I think whoever drew this, had way too much fun.
"And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." -- Friedrich Nietzsche