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DailyDirt: Big Brother Ads

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wed, Mar 7th 2012 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The year 1984 didn't quite turn out the way the book did, but we're already living in a world where there are ubiquitous cameras tracking our every move. But it's not necessarily the government behind the cameras -- a lot of cameras are for private security and... possibly advertisers. Here are a few stories that might make you want to dress up like the Unabomber when you go out.

A billboard at a London bus stop determines (or tries to) people's gender and present ads accordingly. The system apparently is about 90% accurate, and it doesn't apologize for its mistakes. [url]
Eyetracking billboards haven't exactly caught on, but the technology exists with cameras that can tell when your retinas are aligned for optimal ad delivery. If these eye-trackers do catch on, there might be a new market of ad-blocking sunglasses... [url]
Immersive Labs has a prototype ad system that tries to personalize and target its promotions using a collection of software tools that include face recognition and machine learning to figure out the demographics of its audience. The creators of this system say their product will only deliver the ads that people want to see. [Ahem.] [url]
To discover more interesting advertising-related content, check out what's floating around on StumbleUpon. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Filed Under: 1984, ads, algorithms, billboards, eyetracking, face recognition
Companies: immersive labs

12 Comments

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fogbugzd (profile), 7 Mar 2012 @ 6:23pm

>>The creators of this system say their product will only deliver the ads that people want to see.

Does this mean that teenage boys will only see ads involving breasts?
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Mar 2012 @ 6:36pm

I have something more awesome.

Youtube: How to pee in front of the cops and not get busted original title "Cops Get Owned!!! - Epic Pee Prank"
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Mar 2012 @ 6:41pm

Re:
Oops forgot to mention why I'm posting a prank video on a thread about big brother ads.

Because somewhere a bored someone is probably right now imagining a way to game that system so it shows the wrong ads to the wrong people.

Like I dunno wearing a t-shirt with a photo of someone different and hopefully expecting that the ads are delivered by a Microsoft system that will show us the blue screen of death.
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Pixelation, 7 Mar 2012 @ 10:11pm

"The system apparently is about 90% accurate, and it doesn't apologize for its mistakes."

Made me think of "Dude looks like a lady" by Aerosmith.
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Pixelation, 7 Mar 2012 @ 10:12pm

Why wait?
I'm wondering when Ad companies will skip visual/ aural and go straight for implanted electrodes.
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grumpy (profile), 8 Mar 2012 @ 4:50am

Data protection?
A serious question: could face recognition and *very* personalized ads run afoul of data protection acts here, there and everywhere? I have a suspicion that here in .dk all it would take to be exempted was a single letter to the Ministry of the Interior and noone could legally ID me (as in "Oh, this is grumpy, serve up some Snow White") in public to serve ads, but we have pretty strict protections in place. How will the Union react?
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Michael, 8 Mar 2012 @ 6:47am

Doesn't matter to me one way or another. I don't care one bit about ads/billboards.
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Magicl1, 8 Mar 2012 @ 8:01am

Ads and Advertisers
Has anyone else gotten the impression, that the ad business is now bigger than the products they promote? What is more important the product or the ads?

Just asking.
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Mck Donals Berger the King, 8 Mar 2012 @ 8:23am

I have never been sold on gimicky, cheesy advertisements. We are not all mindless beef cattle.
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Michael Ho (profile), 8 Mar 2012 @ 3:02pm

Re: Ads and Advertisers
It would be somewhat surprising if that were really true... marketing/advertising is a part of nearly every company's budget, but it shouldn't add up to be more than the overall budgets across all industries. It wouldn't be surprising, though, if ad companies were more profitable than the companies they work for -- which could lead to the impression that the ad business is bigger/better....
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Michael Ho (profile), 8 Mar 2012 @ 3:05pm

Re: Data protection?
Grumpy, it seems doubtful that an advertiser would use a *billboard* to advertise to a single individual. So while one of these fancy face recognition billboards could tell that you're standing in front of it, the ad inventory would only be able to display ads targeted at your demographic (not you personally).

just my two cents on that question.
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darryl, 8 Mar 2012 @ 3:36pm

Toll ways and RFID
At least in Australia, we have tollways, (roads you have to pay to travel on), to save having to stop and pay money you can get an RFID chip for your car, so you are 'scanned' every time you pass a specific point, to get the chip you have to provide your name, age, and address (your ID), so the system knows when you are on the tollway, it would be easy to calculate where you are on the freeway and focus ads specific for you.

what is different in this to what google does ?

or what masnick does ?
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