I like to flip channels and watch about 5 programs at once. I'd like a large screen TV that shows all channels at once, most as small thumbnails. A camera on top watches the people watching TV. The more people look at a picture the bigger it gets. A very intense focus would make a window grow fast. The dominant viewer could blink twice to switch the sound and quickly enlarge the window. The 5 or so channels I watch would tend to be large. As new interesting shows come one they would automatically grow. People who like to watch just 1 show at a time would tend to have just that one window large. Conflicts between people would be resolved fairly except for sound - the ones who are most focused would get the real estate. If alone I'd set it to switch the sound to the last channel I watched for 2 seconds.
-- tolly3, Mar 03 2002

Couple of days ago... http://www.halfbake...ebcam_20TV_20Remote
[Danzarak, Mar 04 2002]

Won't this just generate a mass of confusing noise? How does the screen resolve which image anyone is watching? What happens if a viewer has a twitch in their eye? How do you maintain a concentrated focus on one screen when there is so much distraction? Why watch more then one show at once?

Basically, how does it work, and why would you want it?
-- mcscotland, Mar 03 2002


You've got too much time on your hands.
-- [ sctld ], Mar 03 2002


As for the "how does it work", that's well known. You shine an infrared light into people's eyes and watch the reflection on the retina; that lets you figure out quite accurately where they're looking. (The phrase to search for is "gaze detection.")

Would it make a good remote control interface? Not if you still can move your fingers; my deliberate switches would be much faster than the autodetected ones. (So, all _I_ want is a fast control connection and a tuner that actually keeps track of five channels at once and doesn't need to wait for the image to reassemble.)

With five channels on one screen, real estate management is a problem. If you just line up all the windows next to each other, you're wasting a lot of screen space; so you tile instead. But if you want to grow just one window in a tiling without obscuring the others, you need to retile, and everything jumps around, which is distracting. Somewhere in between is probably an interesting algorithm that could be used for window managers.

I would like to have a TV that shows me every program that anyone in my area (nation, county, whatever) watches, sized in proportion to the number of people watching it.
-- jutta, Mar 03 2002


'Picture in Picture'. They'd have to be made smaller to have more than one and still have the main picture be watchable...
-- StarChaser, Mar 03 2002


What are you people talking about?! This is an idea worth marketing.
-- Abstruse, Mar 04 2002


I don't think it should be too hard to calculate interest based on how long and how often the gaze is on each window. This would only work on a really large screen. There would need to be enough slack that the windows don't jump around - just slowly grow and shrink, the small ones squeezed out of the way as the big ones push them. This would be faster than flipping - the pictures would already be showing. A small delay before they reach full size would not matter much. The point is that this would not even require conscious thought. Deliberate switching requires searching for programs not shown. I often miss something good because I don't know it is on. This would fix that. (I'm not really that much of a TV addict, just like to do things right.)
-- tolly3, Mar 04 2002


You can already get tvs that have the option to show every channel at once, or you can set it to show your main choice enlarged in the middle with the other channels in little squares around the outside of the screen. All you need to fight over is the remote, why complicate it with the eye stuff?
-- Helium, Mar 04 2002


1.) Go to thrift store, buy several used TV sets. 2.) take them home, plug them in, tune each to a different channel. 3.) set the sound at a medium setting on all the sets. 4.) more than 1 person watching at a time won't be a problem, your housemates have moved out, because they realize you've gone 'round the bend.
-- whlanteigne, Jul 27 2003


On another track, use the "eye gaze" technology mentioned by jutta to switch the room lights on and off.
-- Ling, Jan 19 2004



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