Volkswagen App Stops Video When You Turn Away

 By 
Todd Wasserman
 on 
Volkswagen App Stops Video When You Turn Away

In a neat gimmick to illustrate its stop-start technology, which turns the car off when stopped, Volkswagen launched a Chrome plugin that pauses a video when you look away from the screen.

The app uses your computer's camera and some facial recognition technology to achieve the feat. In a quick test, it worked well enough, but seemed to require exaggerated movement properly -- like turning your head all the way to the side. It's also hard to think of a practical use for the app, unless you're training yourself to be less distractible. It performs well as a marketing tool, though.

VW Brazil has dabbled before in such technology-as-marketing. Last month, it introduced a YouTube preroll ad that skipped itself.

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