News Engineer creates ad-block for the real world with augmented reality glasses — no more products or branding in your everyday life

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Cool tech, to be sure. I'm struggling to think of why this would be so beneficial though. It's easy to ignore a billboard or sign on the side of a bus, it's harder to ignore a video ad that takes over on YouTube. So, while I'm an avid ad-blocker online, it's not something that comes to mind when I'm out and about. I would find the red translucent squares more annoying than the actual ad. I could see it being useful for someone with an addiction though, like porn, alcohol, or gambling... being able to filter out potential triggers could be helpful possibly?
 
Some places ban billboards because they're unsightly. If everyone blocked advertisements from their vision, such eye sores wouldn't be worth their cost. As someone who detests advertisements, I'm a fan.
 
umeng2002_2 said:
Companies will complain that this theft.
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Depends. For instance, if you're in a sporting venue, then yes. The advertiser paid to get on the signs, and it could be argued that ad revenue helps subsidize ticket prices (but, if we're being real, they will always charge as much as they can get away with).

However, if you're just in a public space which someone happens to have polluted with a privately-owned billboard, then you're not somewhere that's ad-sponsored and therefore no "theft" is occurring.
 
ezst036 said:
Can't use these with Android or while sitting in front of a Windows computer, or watching YouTube.
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that is what router filters / browser add blockers are for.

of course, it is cat and mouse.

Fundamental truth: if it costs something to produce, and you consume it without paying, then you are the product and not the customer. in one way or another. No degree of wishful thinking will change that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch
 
Everyone wants something from everyone else, and no one wants to pay for anything for anyone else. It is like moral leukemia. @mods, YES it is OT, you can delete it.

...But it IS true, and you could leave it on for a little bit.
 
ezst036 said:
Can't use these with Android or while sitting in front of a Windows computer, or watching YouTube.
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I think it was done as more of a proof-of-concept than something the developer expected people to regard as a practical everyday solution. At least, in this iteration and form. Maybe, some far-future derivative could be useful, if/when AR becomes more commonplace.
 
This is cool, but i feel like it's just going to highlight or make every single ad more noticeable even if you cant see the actual ad.
 
I think people misunderstand why most people block ads online. We have much less of an issue with companies paying to promote themselves and much more of an issue with the space and/or time such ads take up. If you blocked ads on YouTube but videos didn't load instantly and instead showed a grey screen for the duration the ads would have taken, nobody would block ads. In the same way, while this is a cool project from a technical standpoint, it simply replaces an intrusive ad with an intrusive red block, which doesn't allow us to see more of what we're looking at and as such provides very little real benefit.
 
IRL ads aren't really issue.
You can choose to look or not & in 99% of time they arent in your face and not stopping you form enjoying whatever you are doing & these red boxes are going to be MUCH more annoying as they draw attention more.
 
passivecool said:
that is what router filters / browser add blockers are for.

of course, it is cat and mouse.

Fundamental truth: if it costs something to produce, and you consume it without paying, then you are the product and not the customer. in one way or another. No degree of wishful thinking will change that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch
Click to expand...

Saying that not paying for it makes me the product does not even make any sense. To say there is no such thing as a free lunch is false. I walk into a grocery store, steal food, no one notices. I make lunch with it. I just got a free lunch. I ate lunch, I didn't compensate anyone who had a hand in making said lunch available. Therefore, I got it for free. That's pretty straight forward. Not paying for it makes me neither the customer nor the product.
 
hotaru251 said:
IRL ads aren't really issue.
You can choose to look or not & in 99% of time they arent in your face and not stopping you form enjoying whatever you are doing
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I tend to agree, for the most part. Around me, outdoor advertising isn't very common or aggressive. However, that's not true of everywhere.

Also, sometimes ads can be annoying and/or gross. And no, you can't always choose not to see them.

hotaru251 said:
these red boxes are going to be MUCH more annoying as they draw attention more.
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They don't have to be red! I think that was done mainly for effect. If this were something real people actually used, I'm sure there'd be a range of options for replacement images. Maybe they could be flowers or leaves? Maybe interesting wallpaper patterns? Maybe you could use AI in-painting to predict what the object looked like underneath where the ad is shown? The sky's the limit!

Use your imagination!
 
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hotaru251 said:
IRL ads aren't really issue.
You can choose to look or not & in 99% of time they arent in your face and not stopping you form enjoying whatever you are doing & these red boxes are going to be MUCH more annoying as they draw attention more.
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Thing with ads, they don’t have to grab your attention. You see them often enough and they embed themselves in your psyche. You don’t notice it.
It would be interesting to use a pair of these and be made aware of the amount of advertising that is worming its way into our brains.
The red filter could be enlightening.
 
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stuff and nonesense said:
Thing with ads, they don’t have to grab your attention. You see them often enough and they embed themselves in your psyche. You don’t notice it.
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Yeah, like sometimes I'll hear a company or product name and it'll sound familiar, but I'm not sure from where or why.

I have to say, though, some ads are distracting (it is sort of the point that they're meant to catch your attention). I'm lucky that I don't see much outdoor advertising in my day-to-day, but I have lived in more urban settings and seem to recall being annoyed by certain ads. And those are sometimes ones that seemed to be everywhere.
 
bit_user said:
Yeah, like sometimes I'll hear a company name and it'll sound familiar, but I'm not sure from where or why.
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I get you.

Oh I wish I was an Oscar Mayer Wiener.

Please don't squeeze the Charmin Mr. Whipple.

Hey Mikey he likes it!

Tony the tiger says there great.

Mentos the fresh maker.

I'm a pepper your a pepper wouldn't you want to be a pepper to

Most of these ads are well over 50 years ago and still rattle in my head.

When I was young it felt like being connected to the it thing.

Now I just do my best to tune out ads that pop up here or there with our modern bombardment of devices we use daily. 😉
 
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stonecarver said:
Now I just do my best to tune out ads that pop up here or there with our modern bombardment of devices we use daily. 😉
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There are a few ads in some of my podcasts that really bug me. Fortunately, I can just skip them (well, I can jump in time, which is an imprecise way of skipping them).

I will usually listen to an ad at least once, the first time I hear it. Partly, that's because I get so many repeats that it's almost novel to hear a new ad in my podcasts!
: D
 
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