ZunaVision Simplifies Insertion of Ads Into Videos

Pre-roll. Post-roll. Overlays. As YouTube and other video services attempt to further monetize their offerings, each iteration is jusy as annoying as the previous one. Well, here's another. It might not be quite as annoying (if done right) as some of the other forms as long as you are fine with advertisements appearing in videos where, otherwise, a picture might be hung or a blank wall stands.

Inserting graphical element into video is nothing new. It's been done with product placement on television, with games and just about every movie you watch. The difference with this new technology from Stanford researchers, graduate students Ashutosh Saxena and Siddharth Batra, and Assistant Professor Andrew Ng, is that it's been made consumer (and advertiser) friendly. Called ZunaVision, the service makes it very easy to insert an image into a video with a few clicks.

While it appears the process of adding an image to a video is manual, the researchers envision the offering working similarly to Google AdSense but with money changing hands based on number of views. It's early stages now but it's not hard to envision this becoming semi-automated and an integral part of video services' offerings.

A descriptive video of the service is here.