Adidas and Kraft are two of the latest major brands to experiment with incorporating facial recognition technology with digital ad strategies.
Currently Adidas has partnered with Intel to install and test digital walls in the U.S. and U.K., reports the Los Angeles Times. The paper gives the example of a woman in her 50s stopping in front of the display. The wall will recognize her gender and approximate age and the majority of shoes displayed will be in those categories.
Kraft is also in talks with a supermarket chain to deploy similar kiosks, the LA Times said. In this case, one scenario would be a woman in her 20s or 30s who can be assumed to have young children at home.
Set Top Boxes
Other mediums are also using this controversial technology. This holiday season some set-top boxes will include facial-recognition cameras, the Wall Street Journal reports. The scenarios envisioned for this technology are programming-based: for instance, parents can program these set-tops to only show certain shows for their children. But the scenarios are also ripe for advertisers as well. The technology is being developed by Viewdle, the Journal says.
Building Blocks
While this tech is still in niche territory it is clearly branching out from the earlier iterations, such as gender-aware billboards or shopping carts equipped with digital scanners that offer personalized discounts. These technologies are being continually tweaked with a goal of developing ever more astute and real-time insight into what a person is thinking, feeling - and likely to do — or buy.
Reading Facial Expressions
Forbes tells of new technology developed at MIT that can read facial expressions over a webcam, which has proven difficult for computers to achieve. The researchers embarked on the task to help people with autism read others' emotions more easily; now, Forbes reports, it is becoming commercialized to help businesses read their customers.
Another example is Omnicom Digital, which is experimenting with technology that allows billboards to tell if a passerby is paying attention and then send messages accordingly. The technology "actually recognizes faces.If you raise your eyebrow, it can track that," says Jonathan Nelson, CEO (via the Wall Street Journal). "We're exploring the applications, and they are endless."
