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- Newsgroups: sci.electronics
- Path: sparky!uunet!decwrl!csus.edu!netcom.com!kbk
- From: kbk@netcom.com (Ken Krovchuck)
- Subject: Re: Filtering TV Commercials
- Message-ID: <r!nn0-#.kbk@netcom.com>
- Date: Sat, 05 Sep 92 02:32:53 GMT
- Organization: Netcom
- References: <1992Sep03.042045.5095@ecst.csuchico.edu>
- Lines: 33
-
- In article <1992Sep03.042045.5095@ecst.csuchico.edu> rmintz@ecst.csuchico.edu (Rich Mintz) writes:
- >I'm interested in building a device (or making my 386sx
- >act like one) that will be able to distinguish television
- >commercials from television programs. I've talked to a
- >few people and have heard of a couple of ways it is said
- >that this can be done.
- > Rich -> rmintz@cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu
-
- Sounds like a gadget in Carl Sagen's novel "Contact", if memory
- serves correctly.
- It was called Adnix, and the man who made it became very rich, then the
- advertisers figured a way around it, then the man came up with a new
- Adnix... until TV finally went bankrupt.
-
- If it is possible for you to tell the difference, then it should be
- possible (not cheap) for a machine to tell the difference. You would
- probably need to make some sort of neural-network device, which could
- learn on its own what type of signal is characteristic of a change
- from program to commercial. The current state of this technology
- would make this way too expensive, however.
-
- Anything simpler based on a volume level or Closed Captioned signal
- would probably be obsolete the day the advertisers heard about it.
- And if you do find something that works, you will just end up with
- everything being pay-per-view.
-
- I do know of one way that will work, can be built in about an hour,
- and will probably be cheaper than any other method:
- Hire someone to push the mute button for you.
- Sorry, I just had to say that ;-)
-
- --Ken
- --kbk@netcom.com
-