Engineer creates ad block for the real world with augmented reality glasses

https://www.tomshardware.com/maker-stem/engineer-creates-ad-block-for-the-real-world-with-augmented-reality-glasses-no-more-products-or-branding-in-your-everyday-life

131•LorenDB•6d ago

Comments

bell-cot•6d ago

I'm seeing a very lucrative bidding war here:

- How much are AR owners willing to pay for blocking?

- How much are AdTech firms willing to pay to be unblockable?

bambax•5h ago

Nobody will buy glasses that block some of the ads; but I would pay for something that blocks all ads everywhere, including when I'm at a friend's house watching TV or YT and they don't have an ad blocker.

bell-cot•3h ago

> Nobody will buy glasses that block some of the ads...

Aren't lots of people currently buying glasses that block none of the ads?

And "naturally", the adtech folks learn and adapt, so any all-blocking AR glasses you buy today will get worse over time.

bambax•3h ago

Glasses that block none of the ads have other purposes and are light to wear; I'm guessing ad-blocking glasses would be bulkier and pricier so they would have to have something to show for it.

Also, on the web (on non-Google browsers) uBlock Origin is still undefeated so the adtech folks adaptability is debatable.

hsbauauvhabzb•3h ago

That’s like saying people used to use browsers without an Adblock before adblocks were invented, therefore nobody would pay for an Adblock.

bambax•2h ago

What? No, that's not the same at all (and on the web, the best adblock is free).

hsbauauvhabzb•3h ago

That’s already happened with browser plugins. The one who accepts no bribes won.

bell-cot•2h ago

Nice if that was how it turned out. But AR glasses are hardware. And a few companies (say, Apple) have demonstrated that draconian control over the gates to walled-garden hardware can be very profitable.

PaulHoule•6d ago

I imagine something that is half They Live and half Shockwave Rider. What if billboards were replaced or supplemented with negative information at the advertiser?

raffael_de•5h ago

https://i.redd.it/ak5ejwle2li01.jpg

I really wanted to like They Live especially after having watched The Pervert's Guide to Cinema. Similar with The Thing which is also directed by John Carpenter. Both movies start really strong and then just descend into pointless violence. Anyway, I digress ...

aspenmayer•5h ago

That's the point of the movie. Nada got played, and he played himself. It was sound and fury, but it signified something, because it's a movie, not a documentary or fable. Sometimes there's not a sensible ending. Nada didn't get a good guy ending because good guys don't exist the way Nada thought they did.

Nada is not smart. He's a useful idiot. I think that like The Thing, They Live is pretty ideological and subversive, but it's also just a weird campy movie. It's a genre flick, but there's a reason it's a cult classic. Just like Zizek and his guide to cinema, Carpenter knows how to make iconic quotable expressions involving a camera.

> start really strong and then just descend into pointless violence

So it goes.

Artists tell the truth by first telling a lie.

temp0826•1h ago

Hah glad someone mentioned it, whenever I hear about AR glasses I just think CONSUME

politelemon•5h ago

The outcome seems more invasive or harsher to the eye than the actual adverts. I think you'd want something that does some kind of generative fill that's low key not noticeable.

_Algernon_•4h ago

Desaturating and removing movement would go a long way. That's what make them eye-catching.

kybernetikos•1h ago

The Steve Mann Version from a while ago replaced the ads with useful information, like maps of the local area or your latest messages, shopping list, to do list items etc.

cpcallen•5h ago

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.

aspenmayer•3h ago

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 already 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•3h ago

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.

dusanh•3h ago

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

bee_rider•2h ago

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

makeitdouble•1h ago

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.

givinguflac•4h ago

Very cool, but wake me when it ships in a real product.

Also, not for nothing, I find it hilarious that such a thing uses the world’s largest advertising company’s product to block ads.

I will be the first to buy this, but not based on Google’s AI. No thanks.

aspenmayer•4h ago

Soon we'll need ad block for augmented reality, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs

> Hyper-Reality presents a provocative and kaleidoscopic new vision of the future, where physical and virtual realities have merged, and the city is saturated in media. If you are interested in supporting the project, sponsoring the next work or would like to find out more, please send a hello to info@km.cx.

> by Keiichi Matsuda | http://km.cx

> more at http://hyper-reality.co

xnx•4h ago

This is a fun demo implementation of a common idea.

Why isn't this a real thing for Android that would block out ads across all apps (e.g with overlay permissions)?

oniony•4h ago

It should replace the advertisements with art.

CTOSian•3h ago

or pr0n

brikym•4h ago

It would be great if some of the anti-Telsa crowd could turn anti-billboard. Some of the billboards are so bright and obnoxious. Electronic billboards in public spaces should be as illegal as shitting on the street.

Never mind billboards. Once people realize they can replace their girlfriend's face with Margot Robbie augmented reality is going to become very popular.

Mountain_Skies•3h ago

Some states in the US have laws regulating the brightness of billboards and how frequently they are allowed to change the image on them if they're visible from a highway. Of course, that requires someone to enforce the law, and the billboard lobby is one of the most effective at getting their way.

spqr0a1•3h ago

Beyond regulating brightness, 4 US states ban billboards entirely. (Hawaii, Alaska, Vermont, & Maine)

CoastalCoder•2h ago

I wonder if that's related to them having nature / vista tourism as a major source of revenue.

conductr•1h ago

Sure but also citizens that value those aspects of their locale are probably the driving force.

jrvarela56•3h ago

I lived in Sao Paulo when billboards were banned (2010). It was amazing.

danielbln•3h ago

Billboards in the US are wild to me. The craziest, flashiest shit, straight into your eyeballs while you're trying to focus on the road.

jrvarela56•3h ago

It’s a great example of how ‘the market’ sucks at externalities. We just accepted that you can pay to spam people’s visual field.

whamlastxmas•2h ago

A million people a year die from fossil fuel pollution

navane•2h ago

Can't look at your phone, but look at this!

goosejuice•1h ago

They have moving ones on cars too.

bradfitz•38m ago

Pollution, advertising, and extra traffic all in one! Puke.

Retr0id•1h ago

> Once people realize they can replace their girlfriend's face with Margot Robbie augmented reality is going to become very popular.

I assume this was said in jest because I can't imagine anyone seriously wanting that.

quaintdev•3h ago

So we are just going to pretend things are not wrong? If this continues, there will come a time when people will have to buy glasses just to look at clean sky because there will be 100s of 1000s of satellites launched into space.

How long are we going to believe in the fantasy world where things just look okay but in reality they aren't

bee_rider•2h ago

Satellites, I don’t really mind them. They are far enough away that they look like shooting stars or something. Actually, they can look quite nice sometimes. The main risk is that some people might make false wishes upon them, I think.

However if we get orbital advertisements… that would be very annoying.

conductr•1h ago

Several companies working on satellite projected sky ads

whamlastxmas•2h ago

Satellite clutter is a really tired Elon bashing talking point and it’s exhausting to shoe horn it into an article about AR

ArekDymalski•1h ago

Some people already do. They just hold the screen in their hand.

justmarc•3h ago

Said ads should be replaced with useful, educational content

williamdclt•2h ago

I’d rather we just get rid of them and stop shoving stuff in peoples faces. Thankfully most country have nowhere near the amount of billboards that seem to plague the USA

roschdal•3h ago

specproc•2h ago

Yes

unangst•3h ago

Wearable ad-blockers should mask ads with AI generated, scene correct dynamic autofill.

literalAardvark•48m ago

I think doing that dynamically and in real time is still too computationally expensive, but we might be getting close

drivers99•14m ago

Might be able to pregenerate something for known ad locations commonly encountered by the user.

rNULLED•3h ago

red queen race

honeybadger1•2h ago

If his execution is right he can set himself up for leading the next tech counter culture. I'm against everyone knowing everything about me to the point they show me everything I want but don't need.

nashashmi•2h ago

I just realized AR is dead as it always has been outside of work-world and entertainment purposes. Unless we become deeply unsocial, no one is wearing AR gear everywhere they go.

bee_rider•2h ago

It is sort of funny that he’s using Google’s AI to do it. Sorta like “I used the ad company product to block the ads.”

CoastalCoder•2h ago

Or even more horrifying. Pay $X / month to avoid us unblocking these ads.

Or even worse, ads are just green screens, and Google will run auctions on why get filled in on your VR glasses based on AdChoices.

bee_rider•2h ago

Hopefully if AR glasses become a big thing we’ll get conventional Linux window manager for them, and not have to deal with Android or Apple stuff.

ceejayoz•2h ago

There was a Black Mirror episode along these lines, where people could block you from seeing them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Christmas_(Black_Mirror)...

mrbluecoat•2h ago

I've wondered for some time about the privacy impact of AR glasses and how people could opt out in the real world from being captured and analyzed by other's use of AR glasses in a public setting. Similar to how Google StreetView would blur the faces of people it inadvertently captured. In a more extreme example, high school locker rooms and Japanese sentō come to mind. Even the wearer could be vulnerable as they use a restroom throughout their day.

fanatic2pope•1h ago

Reminds me of Steve Mann's "mediated reality" stuff.

http://wearcam.org/

zhyder•1h ago

All current AR glasses are fundamentally designed to see the real world with existing light, as opposed to XR (mixed reality) glasses that block out all existing light from reaching your eyes and create a real-time "passthrough" video feed. So AR glasses can't really block any real world ads, can only place an annoying overlay on them. It'd work with XR glasses but no one wants to walk around in the real world with those on.

Maybe someone will invent an electrochromic layer on AR glasses that can selectively block light at individual pixels (rather than darken the whole lens, as current electrochromic layers on some AR glasses do)... that's when RealWorldAdBlock would actually be viable.

Bjartr•52m ago

Unfortunately there are some real problems with that. Imagine a pair of regular glasses with a small dark rectangle on the lens. Do your eyes see the nice sharp edges of the rectangle? Nope, they just see a dark blob because it's too close to focus on.

In the same way, even pixel perfect darkening has the same problem. You don't see a nice cutout, you see a blurry blob.

MichaelZuo•2m ago

Why not?

If there’s a future vision pro that’s half the weight and bulk… I could easily see people walking around with one. They would be unusually oversized sunglasses by then.

Onavo•35m ago

He should be doing dynamic inpainting instead. A red box is low effort in 2025.

wrp•16m ago

This reminds me of Douglas Adams' The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses have been specially designed to help people develop a relaxed attitude to danger. At the first hint of trouble, they turn totally black and thus prevent you from seeing anything that might alarm you.

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