Law Humor

New Digital Signs Target Shoulder-Surfing Stalkers

By Pseudoanonymous

Using technology from top Silicon Valley companies, advertisers are creating a new breed of digital signs that can be customized depending on a viewer’s age and gender, and on the age, gender, and intent of the person standing next to the viewer, standing behind the viewer, or looking furtively over the viewer’s shoulder.

“Anyone can microtarget advertisements to individuals,” said Norman Davidson, chief privacy officer of FaceFacts, “but our new FaceFacts API (FFAPI) allows microtargeting of groups. Not just as individuals, but by inferring their social relations and serving ads targeting the needs uppermost on their minds at that time. Let’s show some examples.

“Here we see a couple shopping for an engagement ring,” Davidson said. “First, facial recognition lets us ID both of them. Now we drill down, and there are their names and ages–that’s his real age, by the way, not what’s on his driver’s license. Back up and over to the biometric readings. Note his pupil dilation. That’s good for an extra three to ten percent markup at the jeweler’s. We get a taste of that.

“Now, look closely at this one. You’ll see one gentleman in the foreground and another in the background. The man in the background has been arrested three times for assault and robbery. We’re going to suggest pepper spray to the man in the foreground and, as he passes and the man in the background approaches, a nice set of handcuffs.”

Full post as published by Arkansawyer on May 07, 2010 (boomark / email).