[cpcallen]

Not to disparage Stijn's efforts, but he's about a quarter century late to the AR ad-blocking game: when Steve Mann came give a talk at the University of Waterloo whilst I was an undergrad there (circa 1997–2000), one of the applications of his wearable computer that he demonstrated was the ability to recognise and block ads on posters and billboards.

Of course at the time the computing power needed just to do the image tracking was far in excess of what could be carried on his person, so it involved a (possibly pre-WiFi) radio link to a lab network of graphics workstations, and as far as I know the software wasn't doing any kind of AI ad identification, but only matching pre-tagged ad images (or maybe just tracking the physical locations of the user vs the known location of the ads, via GPS + INS + video tracking).

It was nevertheless an exceedingly impressive demo that it has taken quite some time to make a significant improvement on.

[dusanh]

Came into this thread looking for a mention of Steve Mann! Man was ahead of his time. More on his 'Visual Filter' and more here http://www.wearcam.org/ieeecomputer/r2025.htm

[makeitdouble]

I read your comment as praise for Stijn for having made a somewhat practical and working prototype for a concept that could only be demoed in the most resource intensive and clunkiest ways 25 years ago.

Steve Mann's demo was I'm sure impressive, still the idea in itself is absolutely trivial (looking for ways to hide ads started the very day ads were born) and it all comes down to the execution.

[bee_rider]

If the processing was too much to the on device before, then Stijn might be just on time, rather than late.

[aspenmayer]

Awesome that you got to meet him, I remember reading about EyeTap on Slashdot around that time and thought he was onto something.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mann_(inventor)

Steve Mann explains the EyeTap (2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiFtmrpuwNY

43 Years of Wearable Computing and AR | Steve Mann | AR in Action (2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI9obFrfZ4Q

From 1996: Meet the man who invented a wearable computer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCco6FMCRmk

DEF CON 7 - Steve Mann: The Inventor of the So Called Wearable Computer (1999)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVquUd-MFtU

At around 5:05 in this video, someone is asking:

"What type of irresponsible uses do you see for this technology, professor?"

"Uh, I think, like, advertising. Like that, that type of thing. One of the things that I'm trying to do is, is design filters to filter out advertising, so that when you're walking around, you could filter out real world spam. You know, already we have spam in the real world such as billboards, and things like that. So, what I envision is that the mediated reality could be used to filter out the spam."

[VladVladikoff]

He was my prof in undergrad. He was pretty much half insane; sometimes he would stop talking mid sentence and just stare at the class for a bit. He would do this even on days where he wasn’t wearing the glasses. Such a strange course. Did learn some cool things though.

[dylan604]

> One of the things that I'm trying to do is, is design filters to filter out advertising, so that when you're walking around, you could filter out real world spam.

Instead, I totally expect Meta and the Quest X to not block ads, but replace any IRL ads with targeted ads. You will not be able to turn this off. Instead, they could Black Mirror it and highlight each ad found and force you to stare at it for at least 5 seconds so the impression will count. If you don't, it'll just blank out everything else except the ad.

[sebastiennight]

Whenever the tell-all memoir of the next Meta AR ad executive comes out in a few years, I hope they credit your comment for giving them the inspiration of how to implement the Torment Nexus

[dylan604]

please, as if I've ever had an original idea.

[aspenmayer]

A man after my own heart.

[Ed.⁰ This is a colloquialism¹; 1 Samuel 13:14,Acts 13:22:

Colloquialisms were the original shibboleths, tbh, but no sexism or other -*isms intended or defended by the aforementioned, admittedly sexist, canonical quotation]

⁰ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editor%27s_note

¹ https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/1_Samuel#C...

[dingnuts]

What's the incentive to keep using the headset in your dystopia? if Meta sold the product you're describing, why would anyone buy it? Are you imagining a world with government mandated AR goggles? Why wouldn't I just take them off?

[hombre_fatal]

I think real world ad blocking is one of the least imaginative scenarios of the future.

Where we're going, you'd kill for a world where you just had ads on billboards and screens that you only saw when you were looking at them.

Just imagine the real problems we're going to deal with in a few decades with next-gen always-on AR that doesn't require a bulky headset anymore.

[dylan604]

What's the incentive to keep using any Meta product, yet people continue to do it regardless of the proven harm that their products do?

[dpc050505]

Same one that keeps my google pixel 5 in my pocket in spite of getting spammy ad notifications a few times a day.

[spullara]

i think the gator ruling might cover this:

https://moglen.law.columbia.edu/CPC/archive/eyeball/16GATO.h...