1w ago

Amazon develops methods for inserting ads onto any flat surface in an existing video

www.amazon.science Zero-shot virtual product placement in videos

Virtual Product Placement (VPP) is an advertising technique that digitally places branded objects into movie or TV show scenes. Despite being a billion-dollar industry, current ad rendering techniques are time-consuming, costly, and executed manually with the help of visual effects (VFX) artists.…

Can't wait for ads to be grotesquely injected into any video on big streaming sites. If you don't want reruns of Cheers to have distracting ads for Rings of Power you better spring for Prime Platinum. Even the heroes at uBlock Origin are going to have a hard time filtering out injected ads on some YouTuber's bedroom wall.

Late Stage Capitalism @lemmygrad.ml

Amazon develops methods for inserting ads onto any flat surface in an existing video

www.amazon.science /publications/zero-shot-virtual-product-placement-in-videos

34 1

You're viewing a single thread.

84 comments

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me! (Has been for years now)
- There's lots of YouTube stuff that isn't popular enough for anyone to post
  
  You do have plenty of options for downloading youtube videos directly without viewing them using tools like yt-dlp either in terminal or using one of its many GUI front ends. Apps like GrayJay and YT Revanced also have downloading youtube videos integrated, so no setup needed.
  I have my own personal collection from my favorite creators :)
  
  That's still not a solution, because this sounds like they could embed it in the video file if they pursue it. And the basic issue is that you have tons of short videos you only watch once and all around it's not really a good fit for torrents.
  
  Regarding the short form content, that is a valid concern, but I would argue that's more of an issue with the medium rather than with the tools available. However, regarding the embedded advertising, yt-dlp already has sponsorblock trimming integrated into the program (you can set a flag to remove detected segments from the finished video file), and extending this to encompass a databank of known circulating advertisements could go a long way.
  Also, curated lists for certain categories could be maintained by groups. Hardware tutorials, for instance, rarely need constant updates and therefore a known good library could be downloaded once and circulated.
  
  I think you're missing what this is. They're not adding sponsor segments.
  They're scanning the video, establishing where "free visual space" is, and then embedding advertising into that space. It becomes part of the video, not an intermission. You don't cut a "time segment" to remove it, you have to cut a "space segment" to remove it. And then what do you fill it with?
  There are certainly ways to mitigate it, but they're not great.
  
  You don't cut it, that is the answer. Although I suspect that a foss or community scanning tool could also be created with that same advertising databank to try and redraw that portion of scene without the embedded ad (although that likely would have to be a generated guess).
  It is not perfect. That is for sure, but why throw in the towel? If anything, start ripping now and prepare for the future.
  
  Ok

84 comments