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Leaning on a window? Hey, here's an ad pumped into your brain

Broadcaster Sky Deutschland claims that it may soon pump ads directly into the brain of passengers who lean their heads on train windows.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read
Yes, the window really is talking to you. Noris100/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

I prefer to think of this as a joke.

Because even if it's real, it remains a joke.

Here is the latest concept in advertising to you when you least want to be advertised to. Yes, when you're tired out of your brains and the person next to you smells of four-day-old digested Iowa corn.

The brainchild of German broadcaster Sky Deutschland, this idea is very simple. You lean your head on a train window, we tell you (and only you) to wake up and download our app.

As the BBC reports, its sponsor is breathless with excitement: "Tired commuters often rest their heads against windows. Suddenly a voice inside their head is talking to them. No one else can hear this message."

Some might think that it is Sky Deutschland not hearing the message. When you're tired, you want to be left alone. You don't want to be disturbed by a fatuous broadcaster trying to make a little money on the side (of your head).

The technology behind this wheeze is bone conduction.

It is similar to that used in hearing aids and, quite naturally, Google Glass.

Its backers believe that it could be used to pump not only ads into the brains of the unwilling but also music or news updates. Or perhaps details of the nearest Sky Deutschland offices, where you can express yourself personally without the need of any technology at all.

Some bright minds may choose, in an act of revenge (or elucidation), to work on technology that will wake Sky Deutschland executives at 5 in the morning with a Rick Astley song or a speech from Chairman Mao.

I fancy, though, that those who might unaccountably be against this form of deeply thought-out progress, should be clever in their objections.

They should surely issue an injunction claiming discrimination.

Why should those who have nabbed a window seat be privy to so much fun, when those away from the windows get no ads at all?

That should work in a court or two, shouldn't it?