14 DAY TRIAL // As part of its efforts to extend its business reach, Intel has been designing a web TV set-top box that would, presumably, compete with those sold through actual carriers and TV broadcast providers.
Unfortunately, not all the dreams that Intel had about the web TV STB will come true, because of a nasty bit of controversy.
Then again, as with all controversy, both sides have a solid point, so we can't really blame the public for being worried.
Which, we suppose, is our cue to say exactly what the controversy is about.
The short and simple answer is that Intel has been forced to drop plans for the face-recognition camera that would have shipped with its web TV.
The longer version of that is a story of picking up personal information and not giving people much choice as to how it is used.
Basically, Intel intended for a camera to use facial recognition software to detect the age, gender and other identification features of a person.
That information would then be used to track viewers and customize advertising to suit them.
Thus, content owners would have far more comprehensive viewer interest measuring posts to work with, and on which to base their promotional campaigns.
In other words, it was a way for Intel to win content owners over, content owners that already have deals with various TV broadcast carriers and would need a significant incentive to give Intel a try.
Tailored playlists of commercials would have been possible to produce as well, based on who was watching the TV at the time.
Nevertheless, privacy questions were raised, and with how rampant hackers have been running on the web, we can't blame people for doing that.
The other reason for dropping the idea is the fact that the camera wouldn't work well in dark conditions. Not awesome when the evening and night are the times when people are most likely to sit in front of the TV set.