Microsoft Patents Licenses Through Visual Surveillance

[KingVamp]

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Do you feel like someone watching you? It could be Sony testing their biometric sensors or maybe it is tests from Microsoft and their new patent. With this patent,​

Microsoft can see and control everything that you are doing with your devices. Not just games, but every device with a camera.​

The patent lists a number of options for determining the validity of the possible viewers, including counting their number (as in, making sure only three people were able to see a movie), or actually identifying specific users (to make sure Julie isn't watching a movie that Mark was only licensed to see). The patent itself doesn't specifically mention Kinect, but it does mention the idea of a "gaming and media system" as well as "mobile devices" with the same capability.

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[notmeanymore]

The consumers won't support it. This is just like DRM in MP3s. The users fought against it and won. Deal with it.

 

[Gahars]

I could only sit through 30 seconds of that video; Youtube is filled with obnoxious personalities, but he found a way to crack the top echelon.

As for the news, keep in mind that it is just a patent; just because a company is making sure no one can steal an idea of theirs does not mean they actually intend to follow through on that idea. It's not exactly new; remember Sony's in game advertising patent?.

So yeah, for now, nothing to see here.

 

[Hop2089]

I loled at his zombie and necro porn comments

Patent or not, it shouldn't have never been thought of in the first place, it's immoral, unjust, and most likely illegal. Now excuse me while I disable every camera that isn't on a standalone camera.

 

[porkiewpyne]

Hey we never know. It could prove to be useful. After all nowadays people can even patent rectangles with rounded corners and win a legal dispute so...... LOLOLLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL jk jk no offense intended

Back on topic, I do think that it will never actually be rolled out. They are probably gonna get sued left, right and centre. Inside out. For years. Cos we will never forgive and forget. Ever.

 

[FluffyLunamoth]

So Microsoft wants to watch me fap? Why would they want to do that?

 

[Alexrose]

I managed to watch 3 minutes of that video and it was some of the most inane drivel I've ever heard.

You could read about the device and imagine all the implications of it in mere seconds, but he managed to make a 12 minute video on this. Only 3 minutes in he's making the most ridiculous slippery slope fallacy.

Yes, locking you out of your housemate's account is totally equivalent to scanning a room in a party to make sure everyone has registered on your console and purchased a specific song, otherwise it will call psychic policemen who can materialise from the ground and appear in your house without a warrant.

A patent on advanced DRM that isn't guaranteed to end up in any real product (and if so would more likely be used for something like locking young children out of 18 rated games rather than as drm) is totally the same as 1984.

I don't like this patent, but talk about chatting shit. If you don't like it unplug your fucking Kinect. Why do you even have a Kinect? Who buys mp3s on an xbox?

What an absolute drilldo.

 

[Sheimi]

Even though it's a patent, but they should back away from this. Watching people do some "stuff" behind the computer screen is a bit odd.

Spoiler

Problem solved

 

[Alexrose]

Even though it's a patent, but they should back away from this. Watching people do some "stuff" behind the computer screen is a bit odd.

Again, it's not the nicest of concepts, but don't overreact. It's not filming you or streaming your activity to Microsoft, it's just a visual recogniser. Your xbox won't be sending Bill Gates videos of you playing with yourself, it'll just use facial and silhouette recognition, it doesn't give a flying fuck what you're doing with the bottom half of your body.

Why would you be wanking in front of an xbox anyway?

 

[KingVamp]

If you don't like it unplug your fucking Kinect. Why do you even have a Kinect? Who buys mp3s on an xbox?
What an absolute drilldo.

You do realize it goes beyond Kinect, right?

 

[Gahars]

You do realize it goes beyond Kinect, right?

I'd say the point still stands.

The patent may not be nice, but people are all too eager to jump on the knee jerk bandwagon.

 

[Sheimi]

Why would you be wanking in front of an xbox anyway?

I don't have a Xbox. But I should the patent with a grain of salt for now.

 

[Alexrose]

You do realize it goes beyond Kinect, right?

No, actually, I don't.

I have a very high spec PC. It doesn't have a webcam. Let's imagine I had a laptop, though, with a built in webcam that I can't simply disable. Microsoft don't produce their own hardware, so they can't have anything built into it.

They can activate it with software if I use their OS, sure. But it's a PC. On PCs you have control. You can just disable that stuff. And if they try a Windows 98 situation where they forced you to have IE, there'll be user made patches that you can remove the software. If not, Windows 8 is pissing off game devs anywhere, maybe Linux will turn out to be the future of gaming if MS try to monitor us.

Smartphones: They have no control over Google or Apple, and if the patent is granted, this is a feature only windows phones and tablets could have. Who the fuck wants a windows phone over an android?

And it means that other companies can't do the same thing, so the PS4, the Wii U, the OUYA (if it holds its ground) will not have this forced feature. Nor will the 720, because you can disconnect your kinect. If you actually have one.

If Microsoft wanted to monitor your behaviour, it's not looking at you through a camera for DRM you should care about, it's that you're using their operating system on your PC. If they wanted to monitor you they could just send data about every single thing you do to themselves. It's their right as the OS maker; you're just the end user.

There is literally nothing to worry about here.

 

[Bladexdsl]

microsoft wants to be MoM

 

[AlanJohn]

This again proves that if you support Microsoft and its products then you must be a complete retard and be Apple-sheep level.

 

[FAST6191]

I did not bother to even track down a patent so I could be wrong as far as time goes, but wouldn't http://gbatemp.net/threads/comcast-testing-dvrs-with-built-in-cameras.79422/ count as prior art?

 

[redact]

I could only sit through 30 seconds of that video; Youtube is filled with obnoxious personalities, but he found a way to crack the top echelon.

You did well... I got to 18 seconds before i had to stop

 

[ferofax]

The consumers won't support it. This is just like DRM in MP3s. The users fought against it and won. Deal with it.

Just like backdoors, the consumers will NEVER know about it.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I do love how people go out of their way to be scared.

 

[porkiewpyne]

Tried watching it again. I can't help but see him as a hipster version of John Connor XD