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Sony hopes to beam messages into your brain

The stuff ad execs' dreams are made of. Magazine Publishers of America recently published this spoof Business Week cover, set in the future, as an inducement to advertisers.

Now that marketers studying the neuroscience behind preferences for Coke or Pepsi are old hat, Sony delivers the money shot; the company has secured a patent for beaming ultrasonic pulses into consumers' brains. Seriously. The invention is designed to induce "sensory experiences" such as smells, sounds and images, without the hassle and mess of brain surgery.

The technology doesn't actually exist, and may not even be feasible. A spokesperson from Sony told the New Scientist that the work is speculative said that no experiments have been done, calling the patent a mere "inspiration." Even so, I see no reason to postpone the worrying. (After all, it's nice to be an early adopter of something, even panic.) Reuters and New Scientist may play up the beneficent "help the blind" angle, but we've heard that kind of thing before. Any time marketers develop a new, controversial way to advertise, they promote the method by playing up its potential for public service. Remember when subliminal advertising was used to promote safe driving?

(Via Adverlab)