Lucent's snooze-catcher for DVRs

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.

[Roy @ Jan 12th 2006 1:46AM]

wow first comment....

this is one of the wierdest thing in the world... does it work on MMC?

[Web Begole @ Jan 12th 2006 1:54AM]

Um.... since when was the concept of a TV being able to watch us a good thing? Need I defer to Orwell?

[Mark MacLeod @ Jan 12th 2006 2:05AM]

This may not be the greatest thing for people with CRT-based televisions running their contrast at 100. Can you say "burn in?"

[norebonomis @ Jan 12th 2006 2:12AM]

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

[jnik @ Jan 12th 2006 2:13AM]

I thought Rube Goldberg was dead.

[Anne Onymoose @ Jan 12th 2006 2:56AM]

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!

[Carthis @ Jan 12th 2006 3:08AM]

My god... It's actually appropriate.



"In Soviet Russia, TV watches you!"

[Cloud @ Jan 12th 2006 3:31AM]

This is the first time I see someone use yakov smirnoff's comedy appropriately. kudos!

[MTigerV @ Jan 12th 2006 3:45AM]

Way to take the low-road and bash curling. What's so boring about competition shuffleboard-on-ice-with-brooms?

[Fantaz @ Jan 12th 2006 3:50AM]

I think this was designed for people with the Narcolepsy condition.

[Liz Newcomb @ Jan 12th 2006 8:48AM]

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.

[chris @ Jan 12th 2006 10:00AM]

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.

[Guse @ Jan 12th 2006 10:08AM]

Liz is right! I love watching curling on TV.

[theSAWzall @ Jan 12th 2006 10:30AM]

Mark (#3), MCE is smart enough to let the screensaver setting kick-in if you pause the show.

[Buy-Proxy @ Jan 12th 2006 12:48PM]

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.

[Anonymous Coward @ Jan 12th 2006 12:51PM]

The question is, in Figures 4 and 5, what is #20 referencing. I think whoever drew this, had way too much fun.

[Der Herr @ Jan 12th 2006 3:51PM]

"And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." -- Friedrich Nietzsche