Would you settle for cryptocurrency as a reward for watching adverts? How about if you happen to needed to show you had watched mentioned adverts by having your mind waves analyzed? It would sound a bit loopy, nevertheless it’s an thought Microsoft lays out in a brand new patent software titled “Cryptocurrency System Utilizing Physique Exercise Knowledge.”
Filed in September 2018, however solely recently published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and highlighted by PC Magazine, the appliance describes a way of how “mind wave or physique warmth emitted from the consumer when the consumer performs the duty supplied by an info service supplier, comparable to viewing an commercial or utilizing sure web providers, can be utilized within the mining course of.”
As is described by the patent software, as a substitute of the huge computation work that’s required by “conventional cryptocurrency systems,” Microsoft’s speculation is that knowledge generated based mostly on the physique exercise of customers can assist “clear up the computationally tough drawback unconsciously.” Apart from mind waves and physique warmth, the system might additionally probably monitor “physique fluid movement” and “organ exercise and motion.”
All of this is able to, in fact, require biometric studying of customers, probably by way of hooked up sensors. As a reward for sporting these, nevertheless, the system would then pay out cryptocurrency for finishing sure duties. As the appliance notes: “The cryptocurrency system communicatively coupled to the gadget of the consumer could confirm if the physique exercise knowledge satisfies a number of situations set by the cryptocurrency system, and award cryptocurrency to the consumer whose physique exercise knowledge is verified.”
Along with watching adverts for a set period of time, the patent software additionally notes the way it might monitor duties comparable to social media, utilizing search engines like google and yahoo, sending and receiving e mail, visiting web sites, or utilizing chatbots.
Total, it leaves a complete lot extra questions open than it poses solutions. Which cryptocurrency? Would the mining of those currencies be the primary profit for Microsoft or wouldn’t it be the flexibility to immediate customers to make use of sure providers? And, most crucially of all, will this ever transition from a proof-of-concept to a totally fledged product? As with many patents, there’s a great probability that it is a defensive patent that can by no means really be became a user-facing product. Nonetheless, it’s one other reminder that tech giants are at all times searching for new methods to maintain eyes (and mind waves, organ exercise, and so on.) on their merchandise.
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