In a hardware superstore in La Défense, on the western fringe of Paris, a well-heeled 40-something couple push a trolley along an aisle. Around them, strategically placed digital advertising display screens flash and babble.
They're selling vacuum cleaners and power tools, telling you how to waterproof your decking and make your home more eco-friendly. For ten seconds or so, the couple lingers in front of a commercial for soft furnishings. As they watch the images flicker on the screen, what they almost certainly haven't noticed is that they, too, are being watched. As soon as they glanced in its direction, a screen-top camera - sleek as a crocodile's eye - was activated and "locked" on to their faces, extracting a treasure trove of data to be analysed by marketers. "Face-tracking" systems like this can tell in real time how many people wander past a commercial, how many view it and for how long, and basic demographics, according to the designer, Quividi. Such breakdowns - particularly when gathered from multiple locations - are a silver bullet for advertisers seeking to know who their customers are, which messages are most effective, and whether they are getting bang for their advertising buck. "Most audience-measurement systems rely on the co-operation of the viewer," explains Paolo Prandini, Quividi's chief scientific officer, as he demonstrates the latest software in his office in east Paris. "We've just switched it around so that now it is the object that's aware of its audience. At the core of the system is a face-detection algorithm that can tell whether a human face is actually looking towards the camera. Once we have locked on to that face, we can extract some extra features from it, such as its gender and, which we do less well, its age [group]."
Prandini, a 40-year-old Italian, is adept at demystifying his technology and at pains to stress that Quividi neither records the images gathered nor identifies individuals. However, as the systems become cheaper to install and more sophisticated, privacy advocates fear that surveillance-for- profit will boost demand from corporations wanting to harvest ever-increasing volumes of consumer data.
The software will soon be capable of capturing far more about shoppers than gender and age range. "I think it will be feasible
[for cameras] to read if someone's happy or angry, according to their facial expressions," says Dr Vicki Rabenou, chief measurement officer at Florida and Israel-based Tru-Media, another leader in developing the technology. "We are going towards a world in which advertisers want better analysis of who their customers are, what mood they're in, and what they can offer them in that mood, at that moment, in that place."
The industry can also categorise consumers by ethnicity and skin colour. "If you'd looked at our website a year ago, you'd have found out that we can distinguish ethnicity by African-Americans, Caucasians and Asians," Rabenou says. "Then some of our clients became a bit cautious, saying that they didn't want to be perceived as racist, so we decided to put it on hold. But it's possible. It's just a matter of demand in the market."
But digital signage isn't simply about data-gathering. Marketers are also using the technology to sell to people directly, beaming targeted messages as shoppers pass by. "If we detect anybody looking at our screen we assume there's some sort of interest," explains Mike Wu, senior engineer at Nicta, a technology research centre funded by the Australian government. It is developing a digital monitoring system called Tabanar (Targeted Advertising Based on Natural Response). "We will then trigger a motion in the image to engage the viewer. "If it's a young lady, we might show a perfume product and start a dialogue with her," he adds. "We constantly monitor reactions. If they show interest, we can give more detail about the product, like a virtual salesperson. Our vision is to try to engage people without them knowing it."
Such comments are causing alarm among privacy watchdogs, particularly in the US. As the technology evolves and the industry booms - and Tru-Media's Rabenou claims it is set for "double-digit growth this year, despite the downturn" - activists fear a dramatic erosion of personal privacy. "While I applaud those companies which publish privacy policies, many of the companies that do this don't say what information they collect and what they do with it," says Harley Geiger, staff counsel at the Washington DC-based Center for Democracy &
Technology. "Also, the companies using this technology typically don't give consumers any signal that a sophisticated camera is picking up their demographics."
As a first step, Geiger advocates an industry-wide privacy policy, with warnings flashed on screens when cameras are active. In the long-term, as the technology allows people to be identified individually - perhaps via integration of cameras with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, smartphones and Bluetooth - comprehensive consumer-privacy legislation will become necessary, he says. "Digital signage is unique as an advertising medium. You can always turn off your computer or stop watching TV. But if you're in a waiting-room or an airport, some of the many enclosed spaces where digital signage appears, and you can't leave - then, really, you're just at its mercy."
This is just one element within Wired UK's special report on the new hidden persuaders. You can read the introduction to the special report here and a selection of the other articles here: - Data that define your retail options
How the TV watches you
When advertising gets in your face
Mining your mobile phone logs
Your unconscious mind has already voted
Now marketing gets sniffy
Neuromarketing is a go
Eye-tracking adverts
Your secret shopping personality
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
