Boondocks

No, no, not that Mr. Potter—I’m referring to the real, unequivocably pro-freedom Mr. Potter.

Some disturbing, but also slightly familiar news from Australia: Adverts that watch you watching them. From the story:

Electronic advertising boards could soon sense how you react to them and change their display to grab your attention, researchers say.

The developers are negotiating to trial the new advertising technology in shops.

"We have a concept called 'agile retail'," says Mike Wu, who is in charge of the project at government-funded National ICT Australia.

"The message will respond to the body of the customer."

The new system is called TABANAR (Targeted Advertising Based on Audience Natural Response) and is aimed at advertisers that want a competitive edge in a world already filled with advertising 'noise'.

It consists of an LCD screen and a small camera, both attached to a supermarket shelf stocked with competing brands.

The system senses someone approaching and plays an advert, say about a particular brand of shampoo on the shelf.

Then its camera 'watches' to see how that person responds in real time, with special software analysing the footage.

"The camera keeps monitoring the behaviour of this consumer to see if he or she is interested in this message," says Wu.

If someone's face is front-on to the display, the system assumes they are interested and continues advertising that brand.

But if their face is side-on, the display goes blank or changes brand until it attracts the person's attention.

Wasn’t it WalMart that teamed up with Gillette to watch customers browsing their razors? That didn’t work out so well ... but maybe the Australian marketers didn’t hear about that, or maybe they think Aussies don’t care much about privacy.

Here’s a hint, chaps: just because a scifi author or two mentions some idea, it doesn't mean it has to become reality. (Story spotted at The Boondocks.)