Google Glass is getting updates and new apps every day, but it’s not often that Glass is behind a completely new way of online advertising. Last week the United States Patent Office granted that whole new way of online advertising to Google.
The patent is about an advertising method called Pay Per Gaze. Commonly internet advertising works on a PPC (Pay Per Click) system, where website owners are payed every time someone clicks on an ad on their website. Pay Per Gaze is a little different, in that it will involve an eye tracking system to see where the eye looks on the Glass display.
The system currently cannot be implemented on Glass because of the lack of eye tracking system but it is not impossible to think that it could be used in a future version of Glass. In fact, this patent could be very revealing to what the future of Google Glass might look like, and even the future of online advertising.
If this system takes off, it is possible that we could see eye tracking systems on our computers and tablets, as well as on our headsets. It could even be used on digital billboards. Digital billboard systems with eye tracking technology have already been used in cities like Paris, where they wanted to see how many people who passed would look at a new digital billboard.
The patent comes after a long wait for Google, who originally applied for the patent back in May 2011, over 2 years ago.
The system not only applies eye tracking technology, but the patent by Google also allows for viewers to see the advertisement both online and offline, while advertises would be charged in both situations. Because of this the technology would require a mechanism that would be able to track and bill advertisers while offline. According to the patent, advertisers could even be charged based on where the user looks at the ad, and how long they look at it for.
While this patent does give an insight into what Google might be looking at for the future of online advertising, there will be a number of hoops for Google to jump through before the system can be applied. The system raises some privacy concerns, as well as the fact that advertisers may not like the idea, and because of these things it will likely be a long time before the system can be used, if ever.
