Most Americans have experienced targeted advertising at some point in their lives, even if they were unaware of it while it was happening. The digital age has brought with it a mass influx of personalized information. All of that data can be used to deliver more personalized, and in turn more effective, advertisements. DISH Network understands this and wants to stay on the leading edge of this technology. In fact, the company recently announced a plan to analyze viewers emotions and use that data to improve their advertising.
While the specifics of how this technology will work have not yet been revealed, the basics make sense. DISH would have a camera facing the people viewing the TV. That camera would focus on the faces of anyone watching the television. Those images would then be analyzed for emotional reactions: think a laugh, frown or far off stare.
The camera would turn on whenever the television is on and would constantly amass data, data that DISH would then sell back to advertisers. Advertisers could then use that data to adjust their advertisements until they resonate with their target audiences.
DISH has been planning this for a long time. The original patent was filed in October 2017 and was finally approved at the beginning of 2019. According to that patent “The plan … is to generate a strong buying or acting response from the viewers of the supplemental content, which they may identify or link to an expected emotion or expected change in emotion for a particular type of supplemental content,”.
At first glance, technology like this feels intrusive. However, when you think it through, technology like this will really just make sure you are seeing ads that resonate with you instead of having to sit through commercials that you have no interest in. If this technology works like it’s supposed to, this would be a win for DISH, advertisers and viewers alike.
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