I blogged about Microsoft’s research into new interactive advertisement possibilities last year – something they are calling NUads – or Natural User Interface advertisement. Check out the video in the old post.
Well, according to CNET, Microsoft is getting ready to launch this in late spring. There are definitely going to be some privacy issues that will be raised.
Some of the wild potential is that with the Kinect’s ability to react to biometric information, there is the possibility of it working in reverse – for example, the advertiser may be able to detect how many people are in the room and which of those people are watching the screen, and perhaps be able to capture audio with Kinect’s microphones to get a sense of how people are reacting to an ad. With the type of information, the advertiser can react to the reaction. This kind of activity is going to bring up a lot of questions around how interactive data is going to be used and who owns this type of data.
The CNET article does have a link to Kinect’s Privacy information.
Are you ready for a new world with NUads?