NEC gives a taste of outdoor targeted ads

JAPAN-- We've already had billboards that look back – but now a Tokyo company has gone one step further with a digital signage board that can deliver advertising targeted to the person looking at it.

NEC put its Eye Flavour technology on public display for 21 days last year to test both its data collection capabilities and its effectiveness in matching the right ads to the right sorts of people.

Like the TruMedia technology referenced in the linked article above, NEC's kit uses a camera to see and count who is looking at the advertising display and for how long. It can also analyse facial features to determine age and gender, but where it goes beyond TruMedia is in actually serving up marketing materials based on that information.

NEC claims that Eye Flavour can deliver more timely and detailed data on the effectiveness of outdoor advertising than traditional survey methods.

The signage boards are on sale now for ¥2m ($22,000), but currently only recognise Japanese faces.

Author: Brian Tarran