Skipping adverts and missing the tedious bits in TV programmes is about to get a whole lot easier if a bunch of recent US patent applications are anything to go by.
It is already possible to buy a VCR that doesn’t record the ad breaks in a TV show. Now Japanese company Orion is planning to do the same for live TV with a TV set that detects the telltale signs of a commercial break and offers you something else to watch while the ads are playing (US 2004/0155986).
Orion’s set identifies the beginning of an ad break by sensing when the video and audio…
