Google Secures Pay-Per-Gaze Patent

Google recently secured a patent for pay-per-gaze technology that may influence the cost of advertising for products like Google Glass. The patent notes that eye tracking systems already exist but have been limited to mostly research applications. They have never been leveraged for practical applications used in everyday life and this patent may make it possible to bill based on how many times a user looks at an advertisement, both online and off.

The pay-per-gaze tech is designed to be used with any "head mounted gaze tracking device," though it is obvious the intent is for use with Google Glass. The tracking device would determine how many of the items the user views are ads in order to charge the advertisers per gaze. Realistically, this could track info from several users in order to create batch analyses.

Pupil dilation may also factor into determining user emotional response. It does sound a bit like something out of science fiction but it's actually just an updated version of pay-per-click advertising. Google does indicate that personal information is likely to be removed from the data collected before it's given to advertisers. An opt-out option is also likely to be made available.

This isn't the first pay-per-gaze advertising model patented. Microsoft patented tech that would reward users for watching ads as well in May. Though not every patent comes to fruition, this one seems likely, especially if augmented reality becomes more popular. In this case, a pay-per-gaze monetization model makes sense.

VIA The Telegraph