The SCREENS.tv Blog
Signage age/sex detection technology - a revolution in the making... (12)
TruMedia's signage analysis technology (see story here) is a significant step forward for the digital signage industry.
The reason, of course, is the fact that the company's smart box is capable of working out the age and sex of the face belonging to the person who is looking at the screen.
The technology stays on the right side of privacy protection since it only stores the image for analysis for the 30 seconds or so it takes to relay the age and sex of the face owner to the company's servers in Florida.
After that, the data is deleted.
The smart box is reported to be simple to deploy, plugging into the camera attached to the screen concerned, and then across a standard ethernet connection for Internet access.
The important thing to realise is that the face data can be transferred to TruMedia's servers in real time, meaning that the signage content on the screen in the mall, or wherever, can interpret this data - also in real time - and take appropriate action on the content front.
The last time I saw this type of technology in action was in Paris last summer when a digital (outdoor) billboard was displaying a series of ads for passing motorists.
As soon as I walked past, it detected a pedestrian and the content changed to details of local attractions plus concerts.
The text and pictures were a lot more concentrated, so clearly, the content had been adapted for longer dwell times and pedestrian viewing.
Just imagine if that billboard could analyse my sex and approximate age - the content could be adapted to target me better. It might even work out whether I was a real Parisien or a tourist and further adapt the content for my consumption.
There are clearly privacy concerns here. I suspect that, as the technology develops, there will be civil libertarians getting uptight about the personalisation of the content, but I think the advertisers/sponsors will respond positively by offering discounts on products and services they promote.
That will appease and very possibly appeal to the viewer. Everyone loves a discount, especially if it's appropriate to their needs.
As I said, this technology is a significant step forward for the signage industry. It will be fascinating to see how it develops in the months ahead...
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Quividi had this technology for at least 12 months before Trumedia
Posted 02/04/08 07:04 by Adrian Cotterill
Don't make such a big thing of Trumedia's press release. Despite all their R&D funding they have been playing catch-uup to the French folks over at Quividi who have had sex and age detection in their product pretty much since day one of their launch. BTW these sort of cameras do not work (very well) either on Billboards (too wide, too large to cover via a camera). Most of the technology would struggle with anything bigger than a 6-sheet (the poster has to meet the gaze of the consumer - the camera on the poster has to see that - imagine that working with a 48 sheet billboard err no!!)