Hello Mr. Yukkamoto and welcome back to the GAP!
– Minority Report
Digital advertising billboards being trialled in Japan are fitted with cameras that read the gender and age group of people looking at them to tailor their commercial messages.
A consortium of 11 railway companies launched the one-year pilot project last month, and has set up 27 of the high-tech advertising displays in subway commuter stations around Tokyo. Two 52-inch digital displays have been set up within JR Shinjuku Station.
The technology — reminiscent of the personalised advertisements in “Minority Report” — forms part of the Digital Signage Promotion Project, which is currently in a test phase.
“The camera can distinguish a person’s sex and approximate age, even if the person only walks by in front of the display, at least if he or she looks at the screen for a second,” said a spokesman for the project.
The technology uses face recognition software to glean the gender and age group of passers-by, but operators have promised they will save no recorded images, only the collated data about groups of people.
