Commercial-Free is a dream come true, unless you're an advertiser. This nifty new technology detects and eliminates commercials from programs recorded on VCRs. And it's built right in - just set the VCR to record Star Trek, and - poof! - when you watch it later the commercials have been beamed away. You see a plain blue field for several seconds as the VCR scans ahead to the next segment of the program.
"Commercials are a problem," says Jerry Iggulden, inventor of Commercial-Free, "and inventors try to solve problems." Though Iggulden is not the first to tackle the commercial problem, he is the first to use post-processing technology. Past attempts have simply programmed the VCR to pause for a preset time period. Commercial-Free records the entire program and then analyzes the audio and video features of the broadcast - specifically the appearance of black frames - to identify the commercials.
Black frames are the punctuation of commerical broadcasts, and while advertisers can change the punctuation, they cannot omit it. If black frames were replaced with, say, white frames, Commercial-Free technology could be easily modified, and VCR owners would receive the free software update on videocassette.
The Commercial-Free licensers at Arthur D. Little Enterprises, Inc. (ADL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hope to kickstart the sluggish VCR market and brighten a future clouded by interactive television and video-on-demand. Though Commercial-Free probably isn't the life preserver that ADL is hoping for, it might preserve some of your sanity.
Commercial-Free will up the price of a VCR by US$50-$70. ADL is negotiating with manufacturers, but VCRs with the Commercial-Free feature should be on the shelves by 1995. If you are one of the 73 million North Americans who already own a VCR, look into Arista Technology's Commercial Brake ($199), an add-on device that works with any VCR. In either case, kiss four out of five dentists good-bye. Arista Technologies: (800) 274 7824, +1 (516) 435 0200.
ELECTRIC WORD
So Long, Bunny
