TiVo has patented the idea of a Personal Video Recorders that will recognise one of several individual users, and respond to their personal preferences.

Every member of a household would have a personal RFID tag – embedded in clothing or a piece of jewellery – and the PVR’s remote control would recognise the closest tag. It would then send a corresponding ID signal to the recorder which would use the personal preferences it has built up for the tag-wearer only.

TiVo hopes to extend the system to hotels that have in-room PVRs. When booking a room online, a guest could upload the preferences stored on their home recorder. The PVR in their hotel room would then record a few favourite programmes ahead of their arrival.

Via MIT advertising lab and New Scientist.