The recent Intel Development Forum brought up some interesting ideas of where the tech giants see the future of television. Big cheese Eric Kim spoke about Intel’s desire to make TV more interactive and demonstrated how their new CE4100 media chip was going to start breaking down the barriers and preconceptions of what TV actually is. And the results look set for a new approach for advertisers to get their products even further burned into the consciousness of the buying public.

Using an episode of Big Bang Theory as an example and in particular, a shot of one of the characters holding a laptop, Kim demonstrated some of the opportunities available by hitting a button on a controller, which instantly brought up detailed product information over-layered on the screen. Great for advertisers and a good money spinner for TV companies, particularly as the UK ban on product placement in TV shows has recently been lifted.

Intel also showed off some pretty cool image recognition technology in footage of a Swedish soccer match – as each player was highlighted by the user by drawing a box around them, the computer was able to recognize them before providing the viewer with detailed career stats, match facts and archived footage clips. Never again will we have to say “Where have I seen him before?” as we see a familiar face on a Hollywood movie – a quick click will tell you he used to play Gonch Gardner in Grange Hill, for example.

Of course, this was all pretty raw stuff, but the potential for these kind of tools is huge. It will be a while yet before we get the benefit of this technology in our homes but Intel are certainly putting in some heavy duty foundations for the future.

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