Roku wants to patent the ability to display ads when consoles connected to its TVs are paused

[John Elden Ring]

A patent application by streaming TV company Roku suggests it wants to be able to display ads on its branded smart TVs when HDMI devices such as consoles are paused.​

Roku’s patent, which was spotted by Lowpass and is still pending, would address this by showing ads on the TV screen any time the HDMI device is in a pause state.

According to the patent’s description, the TV would study the signal coming in from the HDMI cable and would attempt to determine when the picture and audio have been the same for a period (i.e. when a game is paused). The patent also explores the idea of studying the HDMI image to determine what sort of content has been paused, so it can provide ads that fit its context.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Yes, patent the hell out of this idea and charge insane amount of money so that nobody else can do this!

 

[PlacidusaX]

Either skip all roku tv's or keep them offline.

I do both already.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Either skip all roku tv's or keep them offline.

I do both already.

I even go to the stores to sabbottage them!

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Either skip all roku tv's or keep them offline.

I do both already.

Seriously, I recall buying a Samsung TV back in 2016 or so because LG had adverts on its dashboard.

Samsung added them a bit later via a firmware update.

Android TV has video ads for cars and other garbage on the dashboard, but it has apps others don't so it's still the best TV front end.

 

[Would_you_kindly]

Sounds like something Xbox would do , 'hey we see you've paused your game , would you be interested in buying our toaster or mini fridge ? , how about another controller in a different colour?'