Microsoft Patent Envisions Individually-Targeted TV Commercials

Microsoft hopes to help advertisers provide more targeted advertising toward specific TV viewers by providing more personal information about those sitting in front of the screen. In a newly-published patent application, Microsoft describes several methods that would allow for the collection of viewer data—some a little more personal than others—that could then be transmitted to the advertiser. The data would be used to generate personalized commercials on the fly for each and every individual user. Like another recent patent from Google, one method used to collect data could be a camera of some sort mounted near the screen. It would be able to detect the presence of a person and possibly even identify him or her, according to Microsoft's patent.
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