BBC ‘spyplayer’ could create an eye in every living room
THE BBC is developing a new version of the iPlayer that harnesses artificial intelligence, with the potential for your television to “spy” on the household and track the family’s movements.
As part of the corporation’s quest to “personalise” its services, it has joined forces with Microsoft to build an experimental version of iPlayer.
The prototype has voice recognition so users can talk to the television. When a user says, “Show me something funny,” it presents a list of comedy programmes. It responds to the question, “What’s going on in the world?” by playing the BBC News channel.
Cyrus Saihan, the BBC’s head of digi-
‘When your children leave the room to go to bed, BBC iPlayer might then suggest a different selection of content’
tal partnerships, distribution and business development, outlined his vision of the service’s future when the technology has caught up.
“There could be interesting scenarios in a typical family setting,” he said.
“Just by listening to the voices in the room, your TV could automatically detect when there are multiple people, and serve up a personalised mix of content relevant to all of you.
“When your children leave the room to go to bed, BBC iPlayer might hear that they are no longer there and then suggest a different selection of content.”
Writing on the BBC’s website, Mr Saihan said viewers in future could have conversations with their television. He said: “Whether watching a football match or a quiz show, most of us have at some point shouted at our TV, perhaps half expecting it to hear us and respond – in future, we might find it does!”
The service would be in the mould of Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, both voice-controlled “digital assistants”. Fears have been raised that Alexa and Siri could be vulnerable to hackers.
But Richard Benson, of cyber security firm Xanadata, said: “As long as it is well designed, it is not inherently less secure than using a password.”
A BBC spokesman described the project as “an internal experiment” at present, adding: “No user data was collected and this isn’t a new service.”