Billboards That Know Your Gender And Age

Talk about targeted advertising! What was possible only online is now possible offline.

Digital billboards with cameras fitted to read the gender and age group of passerbys are being tested in Japan. Billboards that can differentiate male faces from female faces are already running in Tokyo subway stations.

“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,” a spokesman for the Digital Signage Promotion Project told the Agence France-Presse.

This not only helps advertisers tailor their messages to cater to the demographic of individuals, it helps collect data on what sorts of people look at which ads at what times of day. This way, advertisers can schedule their ads strategically.

I like how old media is moving with the times, thanks to technology. I guess the Facebook advertising model can soon be implemented on billboards too; whereby advertisers can choose to display their ads only to people they target by demographics.

What are your thoughts?

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Source: CNET