Those Minority Report style billboards – they might happen sooner than you think

The thing that most people remember from the movie Minority Report is the talking ads that are directed right at the person passing in front of them. Even though the movie is set far in the future we are beginning to see much of the technology displayed in it starting to show up today.

While the technology is still in the early stages there are companies – especially advertising companies, that are making great strides forward.

Case in point is this news out of Japan where a consortium of 11 railway companies have joined forces to bring digital billboards to subway commuter stations. The billboards have been outfitted with cameras that are able to read the gender and age of the people looking at them in order to tailor the ads to that group.

“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.

If data for different locations is analysed, companies can provide interactive advertisements “which meet the interest of people who use the station at a certain time,” the project said in a statement.

Source:AFP via Neatorama

So much for 50 or 60 years into the future eh.