Some say it's creepy and invasive, others say it's the way of the future… and they're both right. British supermarket chain Tesco is installing face-scanning cameras at its 450 gas stations across the UK to target customers with customized ads. How? Well, the cameras can determine a shopper's gender and age range by analyzing facial features in an anonymous fashion, and then bring up ads that have been programmed for that scanned demographic. The technology has reminded many of the movie Minority Report, in which ads in stores address commuters by name after scanning their eyes.
The screens will also be able to customize ads based on the time of day, volume of customers, and also recommend things based on customers' purchases that link with other collected demographic data. The system is 95% accurate in spotting men and 87% accurate in spotting women.
The Green Room Verdict: Facial recognition technology for commercial purposes is still relatively new; we can expect to see a lot more of this controversial practice in future. For example, supermarket giant Mondelez International is developing "smart shelves" to be in store by 2015. Similarly, these smart shelves identify consumers' age and gender while tracking their shopping habits.
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